CINA

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"Dear Friends,

This letter is to inform you of an urgent situation of labor repression unfolding in South Korea and to ask for your support. In an act of repression against migrant workers and an affront to all workers in Korea, the Korean government is blocking the Migrants Trade Union's President Anowar from participating in the 14th ILO Asian regional meeting and threatening to arrest and deport him.

...

The 14th ILO Asian Regional Meeting is scheduled to take place in Pusan, South Korea from Sept. 1. to Sept 4. KCTU selected President Anowar as a representative to the ILO.  He is scheduled to speak during a session that will address the issue of migrant labor.

After receiving the list of KCTU representatives the  South Korean Ministry of Labor intentionally declined to report President Anowar's name to the ILO general office, saying he could not participate because of his illegal status.  Further, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Justice are now threatening to arrest and deport President Anowar.  This is a clear act of labor repression.

This incident demonstrates clearly the extend to which the Korean government ignores the principles and purpose of the ILO and is instead operating on a principle of labor repression.  The Korean government is afraid that the world will see its repression of migrant labor and anti-labor policies and is therefore trying to stop President Anowar from participating in the ILO.

Blocking President Anowar's participation in ILO and threatening to deport him is not only a threat to MTU.  It is a threat to KCTU's right to choose is own representatives and its autonomy.  Therefore it is a threat to all workers in Korea.  

Because this matter concerns the Noh Moohyun government's image, international support is essential.  We are therefore asking your assistance in pressuring the government to stop its threats and allow President Anowar's participation.

..." 

But perhaps this text must be edited before it can be sent...(??)^^

For to read the entire appeal please check out:

"END THE REPRESSION OF MIGRANT WORKERS! STOP THREATENING.."

http://migrant.nodong.net

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URGENT CALL FROM PYEONGTAEK

Stop US Military Base Expansion in Pyeongtaek!

On May 4, 2006 South Korean military troops and riot police officers put up a barbed wire fence along parts of Daechuri and Doduri in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and began occupying the land.  The SK government proclaimed that farming is “prohibited” in the villages of Daechuri and Doduri because they are designated as a special protection area for military facilities. 

Residents are now required to go through inspection at checkpoints to enter their village where they have lived for generations. The South Korean government also announced that all residents must move out of their homes by June 30, or face forced eviction.

The two peaceful villages Daechuri and Doduri, Pyeongtaek suddenly became a restricted zone for civilians.  Residents are required to present their resident card in order to enter the village and all others are denied access, at will, by the police.  The entry restriction is to pave the way for the upcoming construction of the US base expansion, for which the South Korean government is ruthlessly committing violence against its people and denying people’s basic right to stay in and right to enter their own neighborhood.

The US base has brought tremendous tension between the people of Korea and their government.  The South Korean military troops and police officers are committing a  serious crime against its people by using physical force and violating people’s basic human rights.  Thus, the Pyeongtaek people’s community and their peaceful way of life are gravely undermined.

In 1952, the Daechuri and Doduri residents were once more evicted out of their homes in the middle of the night by US military troops that brought bulldozers to build an air force station.  At the time, the displaced residents could not bring their belongings nor bring the burial stone of their ancestors (that Koreans consider sacred).  But people were determined to live in their hometown so they began building a community in the periphery of the new air force station.  It was the seawater that these displaced people converted into a fertile farmland by bringing soil from outside and rehabilitating it with their hand, little by little.  The land now produces Korea’s top quality rice.  It took Pyeongtaek residents more than 50 years to cultivate the land that they consider as their life.

The government falsely proclaims that the farmers will be adequately compensated if they surrender ownership of their land and move out.  What is missing in this equation is the quality of life, that cannot be compensated with money.  The farmers who are mostly in their 60s, have built a thriving community in Pyeongtaek.  Life outside of Pyeongtaek is unimaginable. In fact, the elderly farmers have nowhere else to go.   How is it possible for elderly people to suddenly make a living outside of what they are most familiar with and have so much love for?  Who dares place any monetary value on the life that these farmers have created for themselves at all odds.  In Doduri, this land grab is even more serious because the farmers here are tenant farmers who cannot even be compensated for the land that they do not own.  In fact, they are the people who have incurred high debt to become tenant farmers and have built their homes in this town.

The Korean government cannot compensate for the loss of the Pyeongtaek farmers' quality of life.

On May 4, 2006 South Korean military and riot police officers along with hired thugs destroyed a local elementary school that the residents had built with their hearts and hands more than 50 years ago. Despite poverty, people collected bags of rice to pay for construction supplies and gladly took on hard manual labor to construct the school--all for the love of their children.  People wept as they watched their beautiful school demolished into pieces.  The demolition signaled a loss of their collective memories of their lives together in a thriving community that they had created for themselves.  This was a horrific act of violence committed by the Korean government.  This states loudly that the government has every intention to carry out their plan of forced eviction of the Pyeontaek farmers.

So, what is the real reason behind the US military base expansion in Pyeongtaek?

Last January, the foreign ministers of Korea and the US have agreed to the terms of the strategic flexibility of the US Forces in Korea (USFK).  This will radically change the characteristic of USFK from defensive to offensive by realigning and transforming them into a swift mobilization force that can be “rapidly” deployed anywhere in the world to intervene in conflicts outside of Korea.  Under the Bush administration’s plan of pre-emptive strike the Second Division Infantry stationed near the DMZ border will be transferred to Pyeongtaek in order to contain North Korea and China.  By agreeing to the strategic flexibility of the USFK the Korean government is acknowledging that Korea can intervene in conflicts without the consent of the Korean people.  This places Korea under a tremendous threat of war.

Therefore, the expansion of the US military base in Pyeongtaek will force Korea to become a training ground for US military troops, thus threatening peace not only in Korea but also in all of Northeast Asia.

The new plan will not only realign USFK but cost $110 billion dollars to strengthen military capability.  Ironically, the cost of transfer, clean-up and military build-up is being placed on the Korean government.  The money will come from the tax dollars of the Korean people.  The military base expansion in Pyeongtaek is not only taking land and housing from the farmers but it is also taking money from the Korean people.

By 2008 the number of USFK will be reduced to 25,000 troops.  Primary responsibilities including defense from NK will be shifted to the Korean troops while the operational command will be transferred to the commander of the Korean military.  There is talk about eliminating Korean-US Joint Command Office and further reducing or transferring the 8th Army of USFK.  As such, the USFK will continue to reduce its size.  This would imply that there is no need to expand a US military base whatsoever when existing bases can be used.   It is evident that the primary purpose of the expansion in Pyeongtaek is to provide a military base that serves a different purpose (than as agreed to in the Korea-US Mutual Defense Treaty).  The Pyeongtaek base expansion will be served to increase US military build-up and aggression.

The two issues of strategic flexibility and additional reduction in military troops were not reflected during the review of the agreement at the Assembly.  The Assembly did not have any opportunity to review or approve(?).  The Korean government failed to present accurate facts; thus, it is necessary to hold a hearing to review the problems of the agreement and to renegotiate the details of the military expansion.

Under these circumstances, KCPT(Pan-S.Korea solution Committee against US base extension in Pyeongtaek) demands that the Korean government re-review and renegotiate the plan.  The Korean government must provide accurate facts and review the expansion plan in entirety, as well as withdraw its plans of forced eviction.  All problems of the agreement must be resolved, including immediate removal of the barbed wire fence. The government must also make a sincere public apology to the public for committing violence against its people and immediately release all prisoners.

Should the government continue with its plan without coming to a sound resolution, a fierce resistance from the people will be unavoidable.

The Korean government announced that it will begin elevating the expropriated Pyeongtaek land in October.  The land is currently not suitable for use by the military.  This elevation of soil is expected to be as high as 2 to 3 meters, which means a significant amount of soil must be brought in from nearby mountain or ocean.  This is detrimental to the environment. 

Despite the clear evidence of problems and opposition from the people, the South Korean government claims that it must proceed with the expansion plan in order to safeguard its alliance with the US.  This is a contradiction.  When the Roh Moo Hyun administration fails to serve its people and places them under a threat of war, it seeks to maintain  foreign relations with another country?

To counter this injustice, KCPT is gearing up for two major events in the near future.  On September 24, the fourth major Peace March will be held calling for support from people nationwide and from all sectors.  Following this Peace March will be a Day of International Solidarity on October 21.

In order to adequately prepare for another major crack-down from the South Korean government, we urge you to hear the urgency of this matter and to share this story of the  resistance of Pyeongtaek farmers with your communities.  We must tell the entire world of the injustices of the US government.  It is planning a massive military build-up in Korea.  Once again, the US war agenda will continue to destroy people’s lives.

In order to understand this struggle we ask that you join the people of Pyeongtaek in Pyeongtaek.  It is important that you become an eyewitness to the struggle in the place of struggle.  Hearing the stories of resistance directly from the farmers will inspire you.

We know that the military power is overwhelming, but that will not stop us.  We must all take part in this struggle to put a stop to this inhumane venture.

Our message of solidarity needs to be delivered not only to the Korean government but also to the US government.

Our message needs to reach the Congress and the mainstream media.

If needed, we will send a delegation from South Korea to the US to carry out this mission. 

We hope that all of us can work together strategically in order to place real pressure on the US government to renegotiate this agreement.

As we are fully aware, the US military is occupying communities around the world.  It is creating war and causing destruction, death, pollution, illness and grave suffering.

The US needs to stop investing its taxpayers’ hard earned money into building up its war machine.  It is about time that taxpayers’ money be spent on education and on serving the needs of the community at large.

The suffering of all people must end now!

For more informations please check out:

http://www.antigizi.or.kr

http://www.saveptfarmers.org

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"Jinro Ltd., Korea's No. 1 soju maker, said yesterday it unveiled a low-alcohol soju..
Soju is a Korean-originated liquor distilled from a number of grains, including rice and potatoes." (JoongAng Ilbo, 8.25)

What a f.. stupid idea!!! ^^

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Until now nearly all Palestinian "resistance" groups are demanding the leberation of the entire Palestine (from the Red See till the borders to Lebanon, from the Mediterranian to the Jordan River/just check out several of the pictures on www.intifada.or.kr (만화/그림), for example. Hizbullah is demanding the same(and its mentors Iran and Syria of course too..). If you don’t believe, just check out their own statements on their own web sites!

London. "Anti-war" rally (Jews = blood drinking pigs**)

(Hizbullah "fighters"..)

* The Turkish Labour Party(Emek Partisi) is the "legal arm" of the Turkish Revolutionary Communist Party(TDKP/harrharr, or enemies are calling them a "Stalinist" party).

** for muslims and jews pigs are the most dirty animals

PS.(8.30):

Last Sunday the "Holy War Brigades(HWB)" - a Palestinian "resistance" group - released the two Fox TV reporters who were kidnapped about two weeks before in Gaza. Actually HWB wanted the release of Muslim prisoners from US jails. But of course the US administration refused.. So finally HWB, just for to achieve a something, forced the reporters to convert to Islam before they would be freed.....

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Following article was published in Guardian, 8.26:

Hizbullah: the new heroes on the streets of Ramallah
 
On the back wall of Mohammad Sharak's taxi dispatch office, next to the pictures of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and below gilded Qur'anic verses, are two new posters: portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbullah leader.

Since war erupted between Israel and the Lebanese militia, Hizbullah has emerged as a new hero on Palestinian streets. Shops and cafes in Ramallah and other towns are sporting Hizbullah posters. Stalls are selling Hizbullah's yellow flag, alongside the Lebanese flag. In the eyes of many Palestinians, Hizbullah struck a rare blow against the Israeli military, despite the huge cost in civilian casualties and damage in Lebanon.

"The beauty of this war was that a force of just 6,000 or so with light weapons superseded an organised army that all the Arab countries are scared of," said Mr Sharak, 35. "I was surprised by Hizbullah's capabilities."

"The point about Nasrallah," interrupted another employee, Saeed Nimur, 58, "is that he says something and then does it. And that is very unusual among leaders in the Arab world. Hizbullah doesn't just threaten, it achieves."

Mr Sharak, who sipped sage tea as he spoke, has little but hostility for Israel - he served eight years in an Israeli jail after being convicted of attacking West Bank settlers. But he hopes the war might increase the chance of negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians. "Now Israel has a fear of these kind of military movements and they will find another path rather than war," he said.

While most people on both sides of the Israeli conflict acknowledge Hizbullah has strengthened its position in the Arab world, they argue about its implications for the Palestinians. Many fear negotiations are at a stalemate and that Hizbullah's display of military might will only encourage more violence from Palestinian militants.

In a small upstairs office, not far from the taxi dispatch firm, is the Minbar al-Islah, or the Platform of Reform, a Hamas newspaper. Sari Orabi, 26 and just six months out of an Israeli jail, is the deputy editor. "What happened in Lebanon increased the belief of people living in the area that resistance is the only language that the occupation understands," he said.

He sought to distinguish Hizbullah from the Palestinian militant movements, saying the group was a "national Lebanese faction" that fought not for Palestinians but for "pure Lebanese goals". "Maybe they provide emotional and political support for the Palestinian people but the military action carried out by Hizbullah was for the sake of Lebanon and only Lebanon," he said.

He noted the differences between the two sides, pointing to what he said were Hizbullah's tactical advantages.

"We don't enjoy support from outside the country like Hizbullah does," he said in an apparent reference to Syrian and Iranian backing for the Lebanese militia. "In fact our neighbours are tied to the Israelis through peace treaties. Remember also we are under direct occupation by the Israelis, not like Hizbullah."

But there were lessons too. "The first lesson is that we can see the belief of the Palestinian people in resistance has been strengthened," he said.

His newspaper carries a front-page advertisement showing 31 senior Hamas political leaders detained by Israel in recent weeks, among them cabinet ministers and Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian parliament. "Release them immediately," it says. The detentions, say analysts, are likely to add further impetus to Hamas hardliners and weaken the hand of those like the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, who argue in favour of a more political path.

"The way the war in Lebanon ended, coupled with the Israeli arrests of relatively moderate members of the government, has played into the hands of the more radical wing of Hamas that is based either outside Palestine or functions outside the Palestinian Authority," Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian cabinet minister, wrote in a recent analysis in the Bitter Lemons internet journal. He said the war would "contribute further to the trend of radicalisation evident in Palestine in the last five to six years".

For its part, the Israeli government still insists in public that the war successfully proved the deterrent effect of its military and served as a warning to others that any attack would be met with a swift and severe response.

But at the same time it has been struggling with a growing domestic backlash against the handling of the conflict. Prime minister Ehud Olmert's partial withdrawal plan for the West Bank has had to be shelved. As yet there is no alternative strategy, even though a newspaper poll on Friday showed 41% of Israelis wanted a negotiated solution with the Palestinians.

At a cabinet meeting this week, Yuval Diskin, Israel's security services chief, is said to have warned that Palestinians might imitate Hizbullah's tactics. "The terror organisations are trying to draw conclusions," he was quoted as saying in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. "They have understood the power of the anti-tank weapons and guerrilla warfare, and the advantages of barricading in underground bunkers."

On the outskirts of Ramallah, close to al-Amari refugee camp, a young fighter from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade spoke enviously of Hizbullah's arsenal. "If the same equipment were given to us the whole image of this region would change dramatically," said the man, who gave his name only as Abu Rida, and who said he had been in and out of Israeli jails since the age of 13. He is now 37. But, he added: "Even to try and smuggle a bullet into Palestinian land is very difficult for us to do."

Although there are many posters of Hassan Nasrallah in Ramallah, there are even more of Ramzi Obaid, a West Bank commander of the al-Aqsa militants, which is allied to the Fatah organisation. He was arrested by the Israelis this month. Abu Rida said there was little inclination to seek a political solution now. "The Israelis only understand the language of force. I think we'll be fighting them from here until judgment day."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1858716,00.html

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Some pages of the 1st grade elementary school textbook for "Korean language"(^^), published in the D.P.R.K., P.Y., 2005

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FINALLY IT WAS JUST A DREAM..

(..unfortunately)

Yalla, Yalla, Ya Nasrallah

by Fishman & the Pioneers

You look like a hippopotamus!
You have the brains of a bird!
You may as well stay in your hole
because soon you will die!
You are simply a complete fool
with a severe megalomania!
You are a devil, or to make a long story short,
you are the scum of mankind!

Even if you launch rockets at us,
or threaten the Galilee
with your friends from Syria and Iran,
Even if you drop here more Katyushas
Know that there’s no despair around here at all,
Together we will overcome the Evil Trouble.

REFRAIN:

Yalla(*) Ya Nasrallah,
We will screw you Inshallah(**)
And send you back to Allah
With all the Hezbollah!
Yalla Ya Nasrallah,
go away ya garbage
It’s already been sentenced from above
That this is your end.

You are pathetic, you are small
and resemble an orangutan!
You have lice on your beard!
and soon you’ll be out of here!
You are a dead cockroach, you are skunk,
you are running out of breath!
The IDF is asking just after you to
burn you up in fire.

REFRAIN..

So listen good, ya pathetic Hezbollon’chik
and be prepared, because soon all the IDF
with the Apaches, the F-16s, the battleships,
the missiles and the tanks,
the commandos, paratroops, Golani, Giv’ati,
all of them! All of them are coming to visit you!
So take a few deep breaths, and enjoy them
because they are your LAST ones!
Ya Kahlb! (haehae~^^)

REFRAIN..

*  yalla(arabic): come on

** inshallah(arabic): so God will 

This song was very famous in the Israeli radio, tv... short after the beginning of the Lebanon War. But since about two weeks it's not so famous anymore.., not really^^

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Poll: Majority wants Olmert out (8.25)

Yedioth Ahronoth(*) poll shows majority of Israeli public believes government failed in handling Lebanon war, Olmert, Peretz, Halutz should go home; Likud gained from war deficiencies

Political earthquake: A poll published on Friday in the Yedioth Ahrnonoth daily shows that 63 percent of Israelis feel that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed in managing the war in Lebanon and should resign.

Only 29 percent believe the prime minister is fit to continue leading the country.
 

About 74 percent of those polled said Defense Minister Amir Peretz mishandled the war and should resign his post. A mere 20 percent said Peretz should keep his post.
 

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz faired slightly better than his superiors with 54 percent saying he should resign over the army's failure to knockout Hizbullah, while 38 percent said he should keep his post.

Some 25 percent of respondents said former defense minister Shaul Mofaz is most fit to lead the defense establishment.

Labor MK and former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon was the second most popular figure for the post with 20 percent of support, followed by former IDF chief Moshe Ayalon with 10 percent and Israel Our Home leader Avigdor Lieberman with 8 percent.

Only 3 percent of respondents said Peretz is suitable for the job. Only 5 percent of those polled said Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu should fill the defense post.

Twenty-seven percent of those polled said they support early elections as opposed to 20 percent who said Olmert should form a national unit government. Only 19 percent said the government should stay in its current formation.

Netanyahu favorite for PM

Sixteen percent of respondents said Labor should be ousted of the government to make way for a right-leaning party, while 14 percent said Labor should stay but the coalition should be broadened to include right-wing coalition partners.

The poll showed that should elections be held today Likud would gain 20 parliament seats, a significant improvement from the 12 seats it currently holds.

Kadima on the other hand would drop from 29 to 17 seats.

Labor didn't fare much better than Kadima with the poll showing a huge drop in support for the party. The poll showed the left-wing party dropping from 19 to 11 Knesset seats if elections were held today.

Support for right-wing rivals Israel Our Home increased with projected results showing the party would gain 17 seats in elections. The party currently holds 11 seats in parliament.

Asked if Olmert and Netanyahu were the only two contestants in the election race, 45 percent said they'd vote for the latter and 24 percent for the former.

The poll showed that if elections were held today Netanyahu would earn the support of 22 percent of voters, followed by Avigdor Lieberman with 18 percent and Shimon Peres with 12 percent.

Olmert earned a mere 12 percent in projected election results.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3295576,00.html

* Israeli bourgeois daily

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Perhaps you can imagine, but I have some(possibly controversially) thoughts about this issue..

Well, very soon(aeh~ as soon as possible..) I'll write about it!.........................

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Following article was already published 8.08 in the French daily Le Figaro, but only yesterday I found it on Indymedia Germany.

In my opinion the article is very interesting, even I don't agree with everything in it. But I think it might be an important part for the current discussion about the situation in the Middle East..

The Jerusalem Syndrome

by André Glucksmann

From surrealistic geopolitics to apocalyptic delusion

The outrage of so many outraged people outrages me. On the scales of world opinion, some Muslim corpses are light as a feather, and others weigh tonnes. Two measures, two weights. The daily terrorist attacks on civilians in Baghdad, killing 50 people or more, are checked off in reports under the heading of miscellaneous, while the bomb that took 28 lives in Qana is denounced as a crime against humanity. Only a few intellectuals like Bernard-Henri Lévy or Magdi Allam, chief editor of the Corriere della Sera, find this surprising. Why do the 200,000 slaughtered Muslims of Darfur not arouse even half a quarter of the fury caused by 200-times fewer dead in Lebanon? Must we deduce that Muslims killed by other Muslims don't count - whether in the eyes of Muslim authorities or viewed through the bad conscience of the west? This conclusion has its weak spots, because if the Russian Army - Christian, and blessed by their popes - razes the capital of Chechnian Muslims (Grosny, with 400,000 residents) killing tens of thousands of children in the process, this doesn't count either. The Security Council does not hold meeting after meeting, and the Organization of Islamic States piously averts its eyes. From that we may conclude that the world is appalled only when a Muslim is killed by Israelis.

Should we thus presume that the public at large implicitly endorses the ideas that Ahmadinedjad shouts at the top of his lungs? And yet so many of those sceptics who display consternation over bombings in Lebanon seem shocked if you suspect them of anti-Semitism. I want to trust them. We don't want to imagine that the entire planet is mired in anti-Jewish paranoia! But then the matter becomes even more puzzling. What is the source of this hemiplegia? Why is the world frightened by Israeli bombs alone?

Perhaps the reason why the deaths in Lebanon are so disproportionately shocking as compared with the starving people of Darfur and the ruins of Chechnya is that they are seen as a surrealistic geopolitical signal. Anyone who follows the news in Gaza or Qana does not simply count the dead on a particularly violent day - rather, the coffins of these victims encircle the aura of a fatal promise - a promise that the hundreds of thousands of corpses from Africa and the Caucasus have no chance of approaching. Haven't legions of experts - for decades now - identified the Mideast conflict as the centre of the world's chaos and the key to its pacification? Is there any diplomat who does not repeat ad nauseum the formula about the gates to a hell of future wars versus the gates to world harmony, all of which open in Jerusalem? A never-changing script haunts 21st century minds. The script maintains that everything is decided on the banks of the Jordan. In its most grim version, that means: As long as four million Israelis and as many Palestinians are facing off against one another, 300 million Arabs and 1.5 billion Muslims are condemned to live in hate, bloody slaughter and desperation. And the rosier version: We just need peace in Jerusalem to put out the fires in Tehran, Karachi, Khartoum and Baghdad and to set the course for universal harmony.

Have our sages gone crazy? Do they really believe that sans Israeli-Palestinian conflict nothing bad would have happened, neither the deadly Khomeini Revolution, nor the bloody Baathist dictatorships in Syria and Iraq, nor the decade of Islamic terrorism in Algeria, nor the Taliban in Afghanistan, nor the angry warriors of God the world over? The sad, reverse hypothesis is seldom posed, but it is actually much more likely: Every truce along the Jordan is fleeting, as long as the palaces and streets, the majority of the intelligentsia and the officials of the Muslim world hang on to their anti-western passion. Globalization (which entails the dismantling of economic barriers but more importantly all social and mental barriers) necessarily leads to tough and terrible defensive reactions. The development of anti-western ideologies in Germany, from Fichte to Hitler, does not depend on the foundation of the Zionist state. The anti-western affect is constantly renewed in Russia, from the tsars to Stalin and on up through Putin. And it would be naive to presume that the Iranian lust for power, in search of its Khomeinistic force de frappe, uses the "Jewish question" as anything more than a pretence for a universal Jihad. Does anyone think that the green subversion, after erasing Israel from the map, will mark its success by laying down its weapons?

A hypocritical geopolitics, which ordains the Mideast as a basic pillar of the world order, has become the religion of the European Union, the belief of the unbelievers and of the doubters of the west. Post-modern thinkers have no justification in proclaiming the end of all ideologies. In fact, we are swimming in an ideological illusion and have secretly exchanged our deceptive hopes for a final battle with a fearful incantation conjuring a catastrophe to end all catastrophes, that is just as absolute. While our head swarms with surrealistic ghosts, our heart perceives, in every photo from Lebanon, the death of humankind. Jerusalem is only the centre of the world because it is considered the centre of the end of the world. Our illusions feed on apocalyptic notions.

And so every Mideast conflict is like a rehearsal for the end of days. Just look at the undefinable war of cultures, if you need convincing. And anyone taking that position is resigned to a self-fulfilling prophecy. The years of bombing of Israeli cities by the rockets of the Party of God become a foretaste of the Iranian godfather's promised destruction. And so, as Clausewitz already noted with irony, it is not the aggressor who starts the war. Instead it is he who steps in to stop the aggression. So Israel is guilty. Guilty of a collectively fomented fantasy of the end of days. From surrealistic geopolitics to delusion - just one step.

André Glucksmann is a French philosopher and writer.

Original title of the article in Le Figaro:

Proche-Orient : les illusions calamiteuses d'une géopolitique surréaliste

Proche-Orient : les illusions calamiteuses d'une géopolitique ...