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Really looking forward to the Jimmy Carter piece, he's the only high profile Westerner doing any good in the region and will probably go down in history for what he has done already. A founder member of Hamas wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post:
"A "peace process" with Palestinians cannot take even its first tiny step until Israel first withdraws to the borders of 1967; dismantles all settlements; removes all soldiers from Gaza and the West Bank; repudiates its illegal annexation of Jerusalem; releases all prisoners; and ends its blockade of our international borders, our coastline and our airspace permanently. This would provide the starting point for just negotiations and would lay the groundwork for the return of millions of refugees. Given what we have lost, it is the only basis by which we can start to be whole again." (

All of which makes sense. For some reason it comes across as if it's the Israelis who don't want peace...

The Hamas conditions as set out at (1) from
M_Rock sound all so reasonable and enlightened.
Except what has it got to do with Hamas.? All the Palestineans seem to have done is swop one set of gangsters for another set.
Palestine was last an independent country about 200O years ago., and they messed it up that time as well.
A far better way of living in peace would be for the ordinary citizen in Gaza to get rid of his bosses.
Sadly there is no chance of that.

Jimmy Carter was the one responsible for installing The Ayatollah in Iran......wonder what he'll be doing with the terrorist organisation Hamas. Look forward to Jeremy's interview with him.

The Jimmy Carter situation is interesting because it cuts to the heart of this whole issue ie. the stranglehold that the Israeli lobby has on US and British Foreign policy and that of "the international community"(see message 2.) I'm sure that Carter's attempts will be steamrollered aside by the Establishment. But the next challenge may come if Obama were to contest and win the presidential election. I believe he is committed to a dialogue with Iran and Syria, and it would be interesting to see whether he would or could resist the pressure that he would undoubtedly come under. I remember that Geo W said, when he came into office, that he wanted to steer a more even-handed course in the middle east; and of course he came under pressure at the time of the Israeli 'incursion' into Ramallah. How bitterly he must now regret buckling under that pressure. Does this mean that Sen Obama won't be allowed to win the presidency, in the land of the hanging chad?

Have a look at this - [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]. It's the Newsnight London Mayor's Debate hosted by Rainbow. Hilarious!

Carter's continuing commitment to sorting out the Israel-Palestine situation remains
deeply impressive and he has also played
a very important role as 'monitor' in Nepal.

Another member of 'The Elders' Desmond
Tutu is also playing a very strong game in
respect of Zimbabwe and Kofi Annan who
is also part of this 'team' is sorting Kenya.

The criterion for membership, however, is wisdom and experience rather than age -
these guys remain as young as they feel
and they are all beyond caring about spin.

All power to former President Jimmy Carter's elbow. Looking forward to this interview too.

Regarding the 拢50bn bailout of the banks, I would really like to know why, on the one hand, the government bangs on about the merits of affordable housing, while on the other, goes to great lengths to try to prevent house prices from falling naturally to affordable levels. I am sure that ultimately they will be powerless to stop the market from correcting itself but am I alone in thinking there is a contradiction here?

TIDYNESS v JUSTICE

Justice is very hard work and very expensive. I have only been in court three times; in all three, I observed a tidying-up operation. No one in 'authority' showed interest in justice - only law. If the controlling classes were interested in justice, I suggest they would pay more attention to the CAUSES of 'crime'.

As the author of the comments at (2) and in reply to "grumpy jon"@(4).
I am not a "member of the international community"
Nor do I have any connections whatsoever with the "Zionist lobbY"
Neither am I Jewish. I am not even sure that I know any "Jews"
What I am, however, is someone with an interest in the truth as it exists inside the facts available.
Added too which I lived in the Middle East for 18 months or so and regard the Arabs with nothing but affection.
The sad truth is that the poor Arabs of Gaza and the West Bank have been exploited by
corrupt politicans and well meaning but totally misguided western liberals.
The Israelis left perfectley servicable orange groves in Gaza. Hamas uses them as bases to launch thier rockets
I could go on;

VISCERAL V CEREBRAL (Middle East)

Over half a century ago, my English master roared, with great aplomb (can one do that?) 'A tragedy, is a clash of right with right!' Where Israel/Palestine is concerned, he could not have been more right.
When a visceral territorial sense confronts a cerebral certainty regarding the same land, both are 'right'; in both claim and sense of certainty.
Neither scholars not saints can solve such a tragedy; it requires the contestants themselves to - literally - (literally literally) 'grow up'. But this is a tall order as the rest of the world shows adult-function in decline, and world leaders, poignantly, leading that charge. Now that we of the 'high moral ground' have declared the premptive invasion 'good' (in the biblical sense) we have rather shot ourselves in the foot; previously reserved for putting in our mouths.

10p OR NOT 10p?

Did I hear correctly (some Scottish bloke - on 'Daily Politics' - member of a select committee)
'the committee were not at all sure that ANYBODY had lost out' so they have set up an enquiry?

"Palestine was last an independent country about 200O years ago., and they messed it up that time as well."
Typical lobby type nonsense, I won't even merit an answer.

"A far better way of living in peace would be for the ordinary citizen in Gaza to get rid of his bosses."
Yes, the bosses are the Israelis who have a stranglehold on Gaza. I agree with you there.

Also, I wonder if Newsnight will ever do a report on the Israel Lobby in the USA and the UK, and the 'alternate' lobby's which have been set-up in retaliation. (

So 10p tax thief Darling is going to give the stock market parasites 50 Bn quid in exchange for their false money junk mortgage assets. I suspect that the banks will give it all to the hedge funds in order that they can speculate further in commodities like oil.

The corporate multinational cartel ( CMC ) will probably ensure that the price of essential commodities will spiral, hard luck for those who need to survive on a dollar a day. However I suspect that corporate fascist leaning western governments will simply increase their aid budgets to compensate instead of introducing much needed regulation.

Its obvious that the stock market parasites knew the details of the " liquidity package " well in advance as it was priced into the FTSE last week. Its perhaps no surprise that the price of oil has touched almost 120 dollars a barrel.

I look forward to the Google Cookie story, I would guess this will be in reference to the potential privacy issues that have been thrown into the spotlight by the Phorm system.

10p Tax -A Regressive Tax gives which new meaning to New Labour and Socialism. Mr Brown and Mr Darling have scaled new heights in their inability to understand the law of unintended consequences.

Middle East

Chomsky constantly reminds us of the bias in reporting.

A recent example is the complicity of the Quartet in a secret deal by the US (under Rice) to provide lethal weapons to Fatah for use against Hamas via Egypt which is second only to Israel as an aid recipient.A power sharing deal was also brokered by Saudi for Hamas and Fatah. This was not acceptable to the US.

All this was known to the people of Gaza and was reported in Vanity Fair by a British journo but unreported in the corporate owned media.

The deal was blown open and the weapons shipment discovered.

Oh to be a banker.


Is`nt it interesting that when the govt. has taken the banks to task to protect consumer interests on matters such as unfair bank charges and slow cheque clearance they find themselves wading through glue and nothing changes.

But when the banks need a govt. bailout swopping bad paper for tax payer backed bonds which will provide collateral for them to continue their business then they are eager to co operate.

The tax payers who are the bedrock of the sovereign debt structure are also account holders who are so shabbily treated by their bankers.

So just who is in charge here?

Obama and Israel

To JG No.4.

Unlikely! Obama needs the Florida vote and has already ruled out talking to the elected leadership of Gaza-though we can only hope he might have simply " misspoken" on this.

There are T shirts available at pro Zionist web sites bearing slogans such as "who killed obama".

Bring on the passion.