ISR Weekly

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Prohibition & Humanism

Tuesday, March 05, 2013 No comments

“Pot’s Legal!” declared the Seattle Times in large print on November 7, 2012, while that same day the Denver Post ran the headline: “FIRED UP.” As two states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, an ancient debate is slowly rekindling. The term prohibition seems to be a remnant of an age long past, when mobsters wearing slick suits and fedoras sipped moonshine in speakeasies. However, as marijuana legalization enters onto the national stage, the word is quickly becoming associated with a new intoxicant. The religious and non-religious alike find themselves once again faced with a moral question that has haunted humanity since the first caveman stumbled across fermenting fruit: Should drugs be allowed?

For as long as drugs and alcohol have existed, society and religion have weighed judgment on their consumption. In ancient Egypt beer was a gift from Osiris, while in ancient Greece many praises were sung to Dionysus, god of the grape harvest and life of the party. However, many of the world’s younger religions have not been so friendly toward intoxicants. Buddhists, Muslims, and Mormons generally condemn drugs and alcohol as a form of evil, while Christians can’t seem to agree on whether intoxicants are a gift from God or a tool of Satan.

Christianity’s indecision on drug and alcohol policy is directly related to a number of contradictions in the Bible. In the beginning, it seems as if God tacitly accepts the consumption of booze. In Genesis, God’s right-hand man on earth, Noah, loves the stuff. Following the flood, he immediately plants a vineyard and lolls about naked and drunk once his wine has fermented (Genesis 9:20-25). As humanity repopulates, God’s people continue to sing praises for this apparent gift to man. The Song of Solomon contains beautiful poetry comparing the joys of love to the intoxication of wine (Song of Solomon 1:2, 7:9). Later, when the wine runs out at a wedding, God’s own son goes on a celestial booze-run, reinvigorating the party (John 2:1-11). Given that precedent, one would think that Christians would host keggers every Sunday. However, as Alcoholics Anonymous will tell you, there are many other Bible verses that simultaneously condemn the consumption of intoxicating beverages.

Egypt’s Morsi ‘mulling’ army takeover of restive Port Said

Tuesday, March 05, 2013 No comments

Clashes continue in Port Said as security forces fired shots into the air and deployed teargas to disperse hundreds of protesters. Egypt’s president ordered police to withdraw from the streets, leaving the army to restore order in the city.

Hundreds of protesters massed near the Port Said Security Directorate and lobbed stones and firebombs at security forces, who responded by firing teargas and warning shots into the air.

Earlier in the day, a group of protesters fell on the port city’s branch of the National Security Agency, setting the building’s garage on fire with Molotov cocktails. Armed Forces vehicles were deployed to the scene, which proceeded to fire live shots to disperse the demonstrators.

A tank was later stationed outside the building, while armored vehicles patrolled the surrounding neighborhood.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi ordered police forces to withdraw following three weeks of strikes and protests in the city which boiled over on Sunday.

Uhuru Kenyatta leading rival Raila Odinga in early results but tight race could lead to runoff vote and rerun of 2007 clashes

Tuesday, March 05, 2013 No comments

Despite multiple attacks on security forces that left a dozen people dead on the coast and reports of gunmen seizing control of two polling stations in Garissa, near the Somali border, the prevailing mood was one of relief as millions waited peacefully and patiently to cast their vote. For most, epic queues and computer glitches were a bigger headache than the much-predicted tribal conflagration.

Provisional results, based on more than a quarter of polling stations reporting, showed Uhuru Kenyatta – who is due to stand trial at the international criminal court – leading with 55% of the vote, well ahead of his main rival, Raila Odinga, on 40%.

Throughout most of the country millions of Kenyans waited in long lines and cast their ballots in peace. Monday's election was Kenya's first since more than 1,000 people were killed in violence following its December 2007 presidential election.

But this was the easy part. There are still many hurdles to come, as a tight contest for the presidency could lead to a run-off vote and ugly disputes both in the courts and on the streets.

East Africa's biggest economy is desperate to avoid a repeat of 2007's ethnic violence that left more than 1,100 people dead and 600,000 displaced.

Turkey’s ambassador to Chad: al-Qaeda is not a terrorist organization

Tuesday, March 05, 2013 No comments

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has fired salvos at the government with questions regarding their view of al-Qaeda.

Recalling that Turkey’s ambassador to Chad, who said “al-Qaeda is not a terrorist organization,” in a tweet is still on duty, CHP Deputy Chair Faruk Loğoğlu yesterday called on the government to make clear whether or not it considered al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization.

Loğoğlu also said al-Qaeda’s former spokesperson, Abu Ghaith, who entered the country without a passport, was released by Turkish security forces following his detention and that Turkey had not extradited him despite a U.S. request to do so. “What is this person still doing in Turkey?” he asked, speaking at a press conference at the Parliament. Unconfirmed news reports in February said the United States asked Turkey to extradite Ghaith after his detention in Ankara earlier this year. Ghaith was seized at a luxury hotel in Ankara after a tip-off from the CIA, and was being held there by police, the reports said.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Argentina’s Deal with Iran Could Carry Political Price

Monday, March 04, 2013 No comments

Despite the government’s insistence that the purpose of the agreement struck with Iran is merely to investigate the 1994 bombing of the Jewish institution AMIA, as the Argentine parliament voted its ratification, discussions focused on geopolitics and the country’s position in the changing international scenario.

Following the Senate’s approval last week, Argentina’s House of Representatives voted early Thursday to adopt a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Iran to unblock the judicial inquiry into the terrorist attack against the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Aid Association (AMIA), which left 85 people dead and more than 300 injured.

After much debate, the agreement was finally ratified without the support of any legislators from the opposition.

The Iranian parliament still has to ratify the agreement, which will allow Argentine federal judges to travel to Tehran to question five Iranian nationals accused of planning the bombing, for whom at Argentina’s request Interpol had issued red notices (arrest warrants) in 2007.

The opposition’s greatest objection to the agreement is the establishment of a truth commission that will be formed by five independent legal experts, none of them from Argentina or Iran, to examine the legal proceedings conducted in Argentina and issue a non-binding opinion to the parties.

Among victims and relatives of the victims, positions are divided between those who see the agreement as a step back and those who view it as an opportunity, however uncertain, to move forward in a case that is at a standstill due to lack of cooperation from Iran.

Tehran has challenged the evidence allegedly found by Argentine prosecutors against the Iranian nationals and refuses to extradite the suspects.

One of the suspects is Iran’s current Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who, despite the Interpol red notices against him, travelled to Bolivia in 2010 to meet with President Evo Morales.

As she announced the MoU, Argentina’s central-left president, Cristina Fernández — who in the past had taken a firm stand before the United Nations General Assembly demanding that Iran comply with the extraditions– vowed she “would never allow the AMIA tragedy to be used as a pawn in a geopolitical game of chess played out by foreign interests.”

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Will Iraq be next to have an Arab Spring?

Sunday, March 03, 2013 No comments

It has all the outward trappings of another Arab Spring: tens of thousands of demonstrators, a permanent protesters' "camp", and megaphoned demands for the removal of another "dictator".

Yet the slogans that now ring out on the streets of Iraq each Friday are the voice of a community not best known for championing civil rights - be it for themselves or anyone else.

Instead, they are the disenfranchised members of Saddam Hussein's Sunni minority - the Muslim sect that enjoyed three decades of privileged status under his rule, and which spearheaded the long and bloody insurgency against British and American troops.

Led by grizzled ex-members of Saddam's Ba'ath Party and former insurgents rather than Facebook-surfing students, they now hold huge demonstrations across Baghdad and the so-called Sunni Triangle, once notorious as a battleground for US forces.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Kerry to 'express concerns' to Turkish PM over Zionism remarks: US official

Friday, March 01, 2013 No comments

Secretary of State John Kerry will on Friday express concerns to Turkey's prime minister over his remarks branding Zionism a "crime against humanity," comments that Washington considers offensive and wrong, a US official said, Agence France-Presse reported.

"The secretary will have the chance to express his concerns about the remarks" made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a UN forum on Wednesday, a US State Department official traveling with Kerry said on condition of anonymity.

"We put out a statement from Washington making clear that the statement was both offensive and wrong and I am sure the secretary will be able to convey that to the prime minister directly this afternoon," the official said.

Netanyahu slams Erdoğan’s comments on anti-Semitism as 'dark and libelous'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s comments on Zionism and anti-Semitism on Feb. 28, describing them as a “crime against humanity.”

“I strongly condemn the comparison that the Turkish prime minister drew between Zionism and Nazism. I had thought that such dark and libelous comments were a thing of the past,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, according to daily Haaretz.