20/03/2015
By Uri Avnery*
21 March 2015
Uri Avnery
THE MESSIAH HASN’T COME and Bibi hasn’t gone.
That’s the sad outcome.
Sad, but not the end of the world.
As the American saying goes: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
I would say: “Today is the first day of the battle for the next elections!”
The battle for the salvation of Israel must start right now.
SOME PEOPLE say that the best course now is a so-called National Unity Government.
Looks like a nice idea. Unity always sounds nice.
I can muster some good arguments for it. The combination of the two major parties creates a bloc of 54 seats (of 120). Such a coalition needs only one other party to form a majority. There are several possibilities, headed by Moshe Kahlon’s 10 seats.
The advocates of this choice have one good argument: it’s the Lesser Evil. The only other possibility is an extreme right-wing-religious government, which will not only stop any step towards peace, but also expand settlements, enact more laws to choke democracy and impose reactionary religious laws.
It’s a good argument, but it has to be rejected outright.
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20/03/2015
By Roberto Savio*
Rome, 21 March 2015 – For a long time, citizens of the United States have firmly believed that their country has an exceptional destiny, and continue to do so today even though their political system has become totally dysfunctional.
Roberto Savio
The three pillars of U.S. democracy – legislative, executive and judicial – are no longer on speaking terms, so dialogue or the possibility of bipartisan policy has virtually disappeared.
In this context, to please his opponents, and with a view to the U.S. presidential elections in 2016, President Barack Obama is increasingly being pushed to act as strong guy.
This is the only reasonable explanation on why he has suddenly declared Venezuela a security threat to the United States, just months after starting the process of normalisation of relations with Cuba, a long-time U.S. enemy in Latin America and ally of Venezuela.
The country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, is extremely happy because his denunciations of a U.S. plot with Venezuela’s opposition to have him removed have now been officially justified – by no less than the United States itself. Even the New York Times, in an editorial on 12 March 2015, wondered about the wisdom of such move.
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20/03/2015
Numerous sources of income, from oil sales to human trafficking, mean that IS’s reported annual budget of $2bn might be conservative.
Photo: ISIS may have gained international prominence for its criminal activities, it has also developed several more mainstream funding sources (AA) | Source: Middle East Eye
19 March 2015 (Middle East Eye) – Sheikh Abu Saad al-Ansari, a senior religious figure in Mosul, northern Iraq, revealed earlier this year that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS) has approved its first annual budget of $2bn for 2015, with an expected surplus of $250m.
David S Cohen, the US Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, has also seemingly confirmed this number by saying that the budget for the areas controlled by IS was more than $2bn a year.
If true, this would make IS the wealthiest “jihadi” movement in history, exceeding even the central branch of al-Qaeda.
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20/03/2015
Happiness for the entire human family is one of the main goals of the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared, as the Organization kicked-off its global celebrations marking the annual observance of the International Day of Happiness on 20 March 2015.*
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Children from the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced perform traditional dances at the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, El Fasher, Sudan. UN Photo/Albert Gonzalez Farran
“Peace, prosperity, lives of dignity for all – this is what we seek. We want all men, women and children to enjoy all their human rights. We want all countries to know the pleasure of peace,” the Secretary-General said in his message for the Day.
“We want people and planet alike to be blessed with sustainable development, and to be spared the catastrophic impacts of climate change.”
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20/03/2015
Amid ongoing fighting between Government forces and Boko Haram insurgents, the effects of the crisis in north-eastern Nigeria are increasingly reverberating across the region, two senior United Nations humanitarian officials on 19 March 2015 said, as they urged international donors to ramp up financial support for relief efforts.
A group of Nigerian refugees rest in the Cameroon town of Mora after fleeing armed Boko Haram attacks. Photo: UNHCR/D. Mbaoirem
Briefing the press at UN Headquarters in New York, John Ging, Operations Director for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and Afshan Khan, Director of Emergency Programmes for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), reported on the growing tragedy facing civilians following their recent visit to the city of Yola, near the Nigerian-Cameroonian border.
“The people of north-east Nigeria have suffered immensely,” stated Ging.
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20/03/2015
Women, children and the elderly are disproportionately bearing the devastating impact of the protracted conflict in Ukraine, which has left five million people in need of humanitarian assistance, senior United Nations officials on 19 March 2015 said, as they stressed the “grave and urgent need” to scale up international relief efforts.
Residents walk along the main road of Nikishino village in eastern Ikraine. Photo: UNHCR Andrew McConnell
Accessing vulnerable populations and lack of funding remain the two biggest obstacles to getting the help to where it is needed most, John Ging, Director of Operations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a press conference in New York.*
Fresh off a multi-agency visit to Ukraine and Nigeria, Ging, who was joined by Afshan Khan, Director at the Office of Emergency Programmes, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), called his trip an “unprecedented mission.”
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 