Let's talk elections! Iranian elections, of course.

It's going to be held in 12th of June, and here are the main candidates and my comments.

Note: I have mentioned THE RIGHT and THE LEFT for an easier understanding, but I suppose it is more complicated than that, since candidates run against each other from the same side in the election PLUS some claim to be centralist, etc, but I put it there for people to get the picture better. In the western media, the sides are called "Reformists" (left) and "Conservatives" (right)

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from THE RIGHT - I don't want Ahmadinejad to win but not for the reasons talk about. Most of the attacks on Ahmadinejad are false and he has some positive attributes. He is not corrupt in a region (or in a world?) that has mainly corrupt politicians. He is not as conservative as people claimed him to be, he is not stupid, and he is not a dictator. He also says a lot of true things, but unfortunately, the media and the small mindness of people always turn it into something it is not. The hot topic that the west always point out (wiping out Israel, gays don't exist in Iran, etc) are silly and simplify the complexities of the issues involved. He's also a great speaker! I love hearing him talk, he is a funny guy. So why don't I want him to win? Because he is INEFFECTIVE. He didn't do much to move the country forward. I don't care if I agree with what he says and I don't care if he's a non-corrupt guy. I care about a politician that can do something for the country. I'd rather have a corrupt, lying, manipulative leader that is able to do a lot for the country. Ahmadinejad has been the kind of leader that a lot of people miss the old corrupt ex-president, Rafsanjani. They say, well, if he stole millions, at least he made a few millions for the country too.



Mir-Hossein Mousavi from THE LEFT - Mousavi is turning out to be Ahmadinejad's biggest opponent and the darling of the liberals, intellectuals, and the middle class. He used to be the Prime Minister of Iran in the Iran-Iraq war back in the 80s, and had some kind of conflict with the President, Khameini (he's now Big Boss Ayatollah now), and the post of Prime Minister was abolished. He was more or less out of the politics up to now and has always rejected pressure to be a candidate. This is the first time it seems he has become a candidate for President. Ex-President Khatami (THE Iranian face for the left) fully endorses him and pulled out of the race, once Mousavi entered it, so that votes would not get split, and Khatami prefers Mousavi to run rather than himself. He's also a painter, so he you can see him as an opposite to Ahmadinejad. It's almost American in its style. Ahmadinejad the down-to-earth, working class hero, the kind of guy you want to have a drink with (or in Ahmadinejad's case, the guy you want to join a prayer with) to the classy, maybe even a little snobby intellectual. His campaign slogan is "A progressive Iran with law, justice and freedom."
Mehdi Karroubi from THE LEFT - Probably the biggest waste of time as a candidate. The reformists were like, dude, get out of the run, lets all back Mousavi so that votes don't get split which be an advantage for Ahmadinejad, but he was like, no, the more the merrier. I mean, that shows that he is not willing to think of the greater good but only his position, and also he lost in the 2005 elections and I don't think he is going to get more love this time. But I do like that he is outspoken and ballsy, he's been lashing out against the President and government for the past four years. But unfortunately, he has also been lashing out at everyone else too, which frankly, makes him a bit paranoid and petty. His campaign slogan is "Change" which is endlessly amusing to me given Obama's focus...


Mohsen Rezai from THE RIGHT - Poor Ahmadinejad, even the right has been attacking him. Rezai seems to want a stronger Iran and he has been blaming Ahmadinejad for placing Iran in a weak international position. He might be able to push Iran for a more prominent regional power and I bet he will have a tough internal stance which will help organize Iran a bit better, but he kind of scares me. The guy was Chief Commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards for one and a half decade, and those Revolutionary Gaurds are fucking scary guys. You don't fuck with these guys.




My vote will go to Mousavi. He's the change we need at the moment, he is a smart and educated man, and he'll bring some class to Iran in the International scene. I just watched a live TV debate between Mousavi and Ahmedinejad and while Ahmedinejad is charming and amusing as ever, Mousavi was calm, organized, and well-mannered. Iran needs to get away from populist, attention-grabbing, slogan shouting for a while and just work on fixing things. In the current global recession, I think everyone in the world just wants to stay home and quietly mend internal matters.
Although, a quick look in the internet shows that interest in Mousavi has some similiarities with Obama's. Green is the campaign colour, so you see lots of people taking pictures with green tone, green ribbons, and green tshirts. He even has a Facebook group! Oh yeah, that famous Obama picture with "Hope" on it? Well...I guess even Iranian elections have been Americanized.


I've included pictures related to Mousavi under he cut.

( Green Future )

So what is everyone's opinion on this? I know the media has been throwing Darfur around like its the Paris Hilton of politics, and every person who did not want to follow their bigger siblings cause (Tibet) but insteadwanted to rock out to something new tailor made for their own generation got interested in Darfur.

Sure, Darfur isn't the most luxurious place to hang out in, but is handing out arrests warrants the right way to go?

The international court is a farce. You can only take something like this seriously if you think it applies justice fairly. So far, the only thing the Court system has been good for is to spend millions on high profile cases to try to convict leaders from countries that are already defeated. Just line them up and shoot them, and use the money saved to buy CK boxers for the victims. Its no less justice-y and on the positive side, at least thousands of victims will have comfy balls.

Whats the point of the ICC? Who are we fooling? That you have highly paid bureaucrats chasing their own tails for years so they come to a decision, all the while the guy they are supposed to be prosecuting has passed away? I'll take it seriously when they try to issue warrants for leaders from super power countries. As cliche as it might sound, why not go after Bush. I mean, attacking other countries should be fairly bad by whatever international law the court goes by, but of course, you can't do that.

I'm not defending Sudan, but frankly, I don't think such tactics have ever worked in anyone's favor. There should be, like always, joint efforts with opening lines of communications in resolving a country's inner conflicts. There should be talks, talks, and more talks, and pressure from friends. Isolating a country and issuing an arrest warrant for the leader of it will help how?

It might be symbolic, but lets leave symbolism to literally classes and indie movies.

This is a normal and serious news article, but I was really amused by this part,

"The tension on the high seas took an odd turn at one point when the Americans sprayed water at the Chinese boats and the crew responded by stripping to their underwear."

For some reason, I imagined the US Navy guys hosing the Chinese guys, and its all in slow motion, and the Chinese guys are naked and dancing, and the US guys are smiling and happy, and in the background is the song, "Wake me up, before you go-go"

In Davos, the Turkish PM was debating with Israeli PM, and didn't get the same allocated time to respond, and just stormed off, making him probably Middle East's hero of the day.

BBC Article & Video

Not surprisingly, he got a hero's welcome when he goes back to Turkey.

News articles claims that Peres and Erdogan have now made up. "I am very sorry for what happened and friends could sometimes have an argument between themselves," Peres told Erdogan during the telephone conversation, according to Ha'aretz. "I have always had a great respect for the Republic of Turkey and you as the prime minister. I consider myself as a friend of Turkey and Premier Erdogan.

Israeli official claims this might affect relations, not between the nations, but with the Prime Minister.

This is a transcript which of the phone conversation between the two, but I am not sure how accurate it is. If it is, sounds like Peres is apologizing.

Last of all, and almost cliche, someone has to bring up anti-semitism. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is encouraging expressions of anti-Semitism in his country by espousing biased views and wholeheartedly accepting the Hamas narrative of the recent Gaza fighting, a senior Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

1) In The Other Side of the Story! we have a shit load of pictures of Gaza being attacked by Israeli rockets and then after those, pictures of Hamas rockets on Israel. Page has gazillion (hehe) pictures!

The point is to compare this:

to

The media keeps saying "rocket" as if it is a $10 million rocket. Poeple should also stop saying Iran supplies Hamas with weapons, because its a bit of an insult to Iran. We have better shit than the home made crap Hamas makes.

2) This one is old news but I came across it today. It is in 2006 when Israel decides to completely block off Gaza.

The team, headed by the prime minister's advisor Dov Weissglas and including the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, the director of the Shin Bet and senior generals and officials, convened for a discussion with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on ways to respond to the Hamas election victory. Everyone agreed on the need to impose an economic siege on the Palestinian Authority, and Weissglas, as usual, provided the punch line: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die," the advisor joked, and the participants reportedly rolled with laughter.

Great joke! And 2 years on, I bet the Israeli diet has worked wonders for the Gaza folks. 

3) Finally, another old stuff I came across. This is Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech. It does not have anything to do with Israel, and it has to do with US. The beginning part of the speech is a bit boring, but eventually gets interesting to anyone that likes a bit of US bashing,

The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

I wanted to post about this but I forgot.

In another incident, the commander said, his men spotted a suicide bomber on a bicycle.

"He ran off to take cover in a building, presumably to draw us in," Yehuda said. "We demolished the building on top of him with a bulldozer."

Source: Israeli leader warns Hamas of `iron fist'

I found that statement to bad tragically comic. I can picture some guy on a bicycle, seeing the army, panicking and pedaling really fast. He quickly goes inside a building and hides, hoping they didn't see him. Some army guy sees him, and thinks that he MIGHT be a suicide bomber and trying to lure them in. So they bulldoze a building on top of him. I mean, not shoot him or arrest him, but bulldoze the WHOLE BUILDING.

I am sick of people posting in their journal or commenting on the Israel-Gaza situation by saying things like, "They are both like children, they should just stop" or "Why can't they just be friends and stop acting so childish". You know what I'm talking about.

I am pro-Gaza here, but I like pro-Israelis who debate their points more than the above group of fucking morons. They assume they are being nice and fair to both sides and impartial but they only show a lack of understanding for the complexities of the situation and their comments sound patronizing.

The situation is not a simple situation, it is not due to both sides being childish, or continuing a tribal war, or only religious conflict, or greed. It is a complicated situation with many different parts. If you want to weigh in, put in some effort to understand the situation. If you don't want to, then keep out of it. Saying things like, "I don't support either sides, I think both are two blame, and they should just stop it." is the perfect, lazy PC comment. See, you aren't taking sides, you are placing blame on both sides, and you also wish for peace! How sweet of you! Except I find it immensely disrespectful to both sides and their casualties and the situation. It is like Ba Ki Moon's complete useless statements on the crisis. A couple of days back he said, "To both sides, I say: Just stop, now" Okay. Then what, Mr UN? Let them stop so that we all continue with our lives and not to have to be bothered by the crisis? Let them stop without either side's grievances being taken into consideration?

 A person that takes a side might be wrong some of the time, but a person that takes no sides is wrong all of the time.

Excellent article.

Israel's war of deceit, lies and propaganda
By Uri Avnery

Nearly 70 years ago, in the course of the Second World War, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called "the Red Army" held the millions of the town's inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centres.

The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands.

Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz.

This is the description that would now appear in the history books - if the Germans had won the war.

Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in Israeli media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas "terrorists" use the inhabitants of Gaza as "hostages" and exploit the women and children as "human shields", they leave Israel no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to Israel's deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured.

( Rest of the article under the cut )

To a lot of Pro-Israelis, there seems to be no way in pointing out the horrors of Gaza. Any incident or statistic you point out is quickly blamed on Hamas. No matter how many buildings or how many people are killed, the IDF and the Pro-Israelis have ready excuses, such as "Hamas uses children as human shields" or "Militants were hiding in the building". It is the perfect excuse for them, absolving them of taking ANY responsibility.

But as the days pass by, I hope people have grow to be less tolerant for that excuse. You can't bomb a mosque during prayer time and claim missles were being stored there (if true, why not bomb it AFTER prayer time?). Or kill 33 people at a UN school, and claim rockets were fired from that area, and have the incident suddenly be okay.

Or how about this? What is the excuse here?

In of the one gravest incidents since the beginning of operations, according to several testimonies, on 4 January Israeli foot-soldiers evacuated approximately 110 Palestinians into a single-residence house in Zeitun (half of whom were children), warning them to stay indoors. Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately thirty. Those who survived and were able, walked two kilometres to Salah Ed Din road before being transported to the hospital in civilian vehicles. Three children, the youngest of whom was five months old, died upon arrival at the hospital.

This is from the UN Report. Here is the PDF link:
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_2009_01_08_english.pdf

 

Here some other information from the report.

• Until 8th of Jan, 758 Palestinians were killed. 42% were women and children. 257 children have been killed so far.
• On 5 January, Israeli shelling directly hit two UNRWA schools where hundreds of displaced people had sought for shelter, killing at least 33 Palestinian civilians.
• There is no safe space in the Gaza Strip—no safe haven, no bomb shelters, and the borders are closed and civilians have no place to flee. UNRWA facilities being used as shelters are not constructed to withstand bombardments as they are mostly schools and office buildings.
• From 3 to 7 January, the IDF prevented medical teams from entering the area to evacuate the wounded...After several days of requesting safe passage to the area, on 7 January during a three-hour lull in hostilities, an ICRC/PRCS medical team was finally allowed on foot (without ambulances) into the closed military area to evacuate any remaining survivors. Due to the limited time allowed, the ICRC/PRCS team was not able to reach all houses in the area. In all, ICRC/PRCS evacuated 30 Palestinians including 18 wounded.

Read the rest of the report for information on electricity, fuel, medical supplies, and food.

It is pathetic how awful western media can be.

Look at this news article from foxnews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,476884,00.html

The article tries to make Hamas more scary and threatening that it actually is, as if it can be a possible serious threat to the IDF.

But just typing in "Israel" or "Gaza" in google news just gives you an idea of the reality. Any random time I do that search, it fucks up my mood.

At a Gaza hospital, doctors tried to revive a 12-year-old victim of the violence, but their efforts were in vain. Mahmoud died.

Recording the tragedy at the hospital was his brother, freelance cameraman Ashraf Mashharawi.

Just a short time earlier, Mashharawi had been filming other, less personal images of the war-- scenes like incoming missiles and the damage they do. Then, he got a phone call. Mashharawi was told the family home had been hit by a rocket.
Don't Miss

His brother, Mahmoud and his 14-year-old cousin Ahmad, had been allowed to play on the roof after days of being cooped up inside as Israel continued its assault on Gaza.

Both boys died after the rocket hit.
Source

Muhammad Shaheen, a volunteer with the Red Crescent, said the team found a scene of devastation. They discovered another 10 corpses inside the house and "dozens" more dead lying in the rubble in the area around.

"It was an unbelievable sight," he said. "There was a huge number of dead bodies, houses were completely destroyed and many others partially destroyed." The team found around 10 injured people in the house and another 15 who were unhurt, but still sheltering from the fighting.
...
At least 28 Palestinians were killed yesterday in attacks across the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical officials. The overall Palestinian death toll was at more than 660, with nearly 3,000 injured. Journalists are still banned from entering Gaza to report on the killings. On the Israeli side, seven soldiers and three civilians have been killed in the past 12 days.

In a separate incident, the aid agency Care International said one of its staff on a food distribution project was killed on Tuesday night when his home was hit by an Israeli air strike. Muhammad Samouni died in the attack and his son was critically injured, the agency said.
...
Although lorries carrying medical supplies and food were allowed into Gaza yesterday, along with deliveries of industrial diesel, concern about the crisis is still growing. The World Bank warned there was a threat of a severe public health crisis because of a shortage of drinking water and the failure of the sewage system. Nearly all sewage and water pumps were out of operation because of a lack of electricity and limited fuel, it said.
Source

Red Cross officials said rescue crews had received specific reports of casualties in the houses and had been trying since Saturday to send ambulances to Zaytoun, a neighborhood south of Gaza City. They said the Israeli military did not grant permission until today.

In an unusual public statement by its Geneva headquarters, the Red Cross called the episode "unacceptable" and said the Israeli military had "failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded."

"This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, the Red Cross' head of delegation for Israel and the Palestinian territories. "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."

When rescue workers from the Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent arrived at the site, they found 12 corpses lying on mattresses in one home, along with four young children lying next to their dead mothers, the Red Cross said. The children were too weak too stand and were rushed to a hospital, the agency said. It said its workers evacuated 18 wounded survivors from the houses in donkey carts.
Source

A Palestinian health official says the bodies of 35 people have been found in the rubble of a Gaza Strip battle zone.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry says the bodies were discovered Thursday during a three-hour pause in fighting. Israel agreed to the lull to allow aid shipments into Gaza.

Hassanain says some of the bodies were discovered in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. The area has seen some of the heaviest fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants in recent days.

He says it's not clear how many militants were killed because the remains were in poor condition. But he says women and children were among the dead.
Source

Dr Hassanin said that 50% of the Palestinian ambulances in the Gaza Strip are out of service now either from being hit by Israeli fire or through lack of spare parts.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza issued a statement on Thursday saying that Gaza hospitals are empty of 105 kinds of medicine, in addition they are missing 225 types of medical supplies used in ER rooms
Source

Facts remained murky Wednesday on the Israeli tank shelling of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip that U.N. relief officials said left 43 Palestinians dead and almost 150 injured.
...
Meanwhile, John Ging, Gaza director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said he visited the school, where he was "reassured by my own staff [there] that there were no militants in the schools."
...
Ging said the school was clearly marked as a U.N. building and that GPS coordinates for the site had been provided to Israeli forces.

Since the attack, 200 more Palestinians have come to the school seeking refuge. When he talked to the witnesses, Ging said, "I was humbled by their dignity. They were so stoic in the face of such a stressful circumstance, and they still believe in the U.N."
Source

Meanwhile the UN said it was suspending aid operations in Gaza because of the danger to staff from Israeli attacks.

"We have suspended our operations in Gaza until the Israeli authorities can guarantee our safety and security," said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations relief agency Unwra.

"Our installations have been hit, our workers have been killed in spite of the fact that the Israeli authorities have the co-ordinates of our facilities and that all our movements are co-ordinated with the Israeli army.

"It is with great regret that Unwra has been forced to make this difficult decision."
Source

What a terrible way to start 2009. And Obama's refusal to talk about this has killed my slight optimism of having some sort of world change due to a different US government. I shouldn't be surprised .Rationally I didn't expect anything, but I did allow a bit of hope push through my wall of cynicism.