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A reconstrução do Haiti

A prioridade do momento no Haiti ainda é salvar vidas. Enquanto as chances de se encontrar algum sobrevivente nos escombros de Porto Príncipe diminuem, uma semana após o devastador terremoto, o trabalho de agências humanitárias e tropas internacionais visa distribuir água, comida e medicamentos para evitar um número ainda maior de vítimas fatais. Mas já está claro, tanto para a Organização das Nações Unidas como para os governos diretamente envolvidos no futuro do Haiti, que o país terá de ser reconstruído. Não há governo operante, não há infraestrutura, e a economia está como os prédios da capital, em ruínas. O Haiti terá de renascer praticamente do zero, e a atual operação de ajuda precisará ser mantida por vários anos.

Trata-se de uma oportunidade única para a comunidade internacional mostrar que aprendeu com os erros e acertos do passado na difícil missão de reconstruir um Estado. Deu certo no Japão do pós-Guerra e, apenas parcialmente, na Alemanha (um país dividido por mais de 40 anos não pode ter sido um exemplo perfeito de reconstrução). Mas outros Estados falidos ou decapitados são símbolos de fracasso de ações recentes da comunidade internacional. Na Somália, por exemplo, a ONU tentou implementar uma megaoperação de socorro no início dos anos 90, em meio à guerra civil. A ação, que chegou a contar com quase 30 mil soldados, inclusive marines americanos, foi muito tímida ou muito ambiciosa, dependendo do ponto de vista. A verdade é que não deu certo, entre outras razões por não ter o apoio de lideranças locais. A Somália conitnua hoje uma terra de ninguém, sem Estado operante, um país fragmentado, fértil para a ação de piratas e milícias seguidoras da Al-Qaeda.

No Afeganistão, os ataques do Taleban nesta segunda-feira, em Cabul, mostram como o país continua engatinhando no caminho da estabilidade interna. Os Estados Unidos, seus colegas na Otan e a ONU parecem tentar de tudo, mas a tão sonhada reconstrução do Afeganistão não se realiza. No Iraque, por sua vez, a situação melhorou, mas os primeiros anos da ocupação americana foram uma receita de como não tentar reconstruir um Estado. O projeto americano, de impor um modelo econômico e político, de dar as cartas sem considerar a realidade local (política, religiosa e cultural) e de pensar em lucros e oportunidades antes de o país se reerguer, foi um desastre, como mostrou o belo livro do repórter Rajiv Chandrasekaran sobre a Zona Verde de Bagá.

O Haiti tem muitos dos elementos vistos na Somália ou no Iraque: ausência de um governo em funcionamento, milhões de pessoas afetadas pela morte violenta de familiares (em uma guerra ou em um desastre natural), uma economia destruída, população descrente do mundo exterior e um passado recente de violência política. A comunidade internacional terá de trabalhar com as necessidades dos haitianos em mente, evitar conflitos de interesse das nações envolvidas na reconstrução (Brasil e Estados Unidos terão de operar juntos, em sintonia) e criar bases sólidas para um futuro de estabilidade política e econômica para o país. Nada disso foi feito nos fracassos recentes. No Haiti, o mundo precisará provar que agora sabe como reconstruir uma nação.

Original de: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/portuguese/

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Jan 13, 2010 16:16 | Updated Jan 14, 2010 8:42

‘PMO, Foreign Ministry failed at hasbara’

By YAAKOV KATZ

Citing a major failure, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss slammed the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday for not creating an effective Arab-language public diplomacy team.

Michelle Stein-Teer coaches French-speaking residents of the Sderot area (left to right: David Mamou, Avi Kadoch, Georges Adjedj, and Miri Levine) on the do’s and don’t’s of advocating for Israel abroad, Tuesday.

In a report released Wednesday, the comptroller said that the lack of Arabic speakers to address the relevant media was a “national failure” that was demonstrated during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip last year.

The government also failed to set up proper radio stations that could be used to transmit Israel’s message to the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Lebanon and Syria.

“This has harmed Israel’s public relations to these populations,” the report claimed.

In the report, Lindenstrauss said he found that the government decision to establish a National Information Directorate was not fully implemented, particularly with regard to setting up a team of Arabic-speaking spokespeople in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and the IDF.

According to the report, the Foreign Ministry failed to implement a cabinet decision from 2007 to bolster its Arab-language department.

“Instead, it has regressed due to a lack of personnel,” the report said.

Lindenstrauss noted that in conversations with Israel’s Arabic spokespeople, it is clear that there are too few who are effective on camera.

“In reality, the PR teams in Israel, which each require spokespeople like this, are finding it difficult to properly respond to the demand,” the report stated.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147883335&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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Jan 13, 2010 17:30 | Updated Jan 13, 2010 18:17

Palestinian fighting spreads in Lebanon

By RACHELLE KLIGER / THE MEDIA LINE

A row between the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a clan affiliated with Fatah has turned violent as both sides claim control over a mosque in a Beirut suburb.

The Furqan Mosque, located in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, has become a new battleground for the intra-Palestinian struggle.

Two people were lightly wounded in a brawl between the parties on Tuesday, according to Lebanese news reports.

Tensions between the two sides began around two weeks ago when the Islamic Jihad decided to take control of the mosque, which was renovated with charity money the organization collected.

The Al-Ashwah family, which is affiliated with the Fatah movement, was consequently barred from running the mosque even though they have controlled it since the building was constructed on their land.

The brawl is highlighting broader inter-factional differences between the various Palestinian political divisions.

“Within the camps you always have competition between the factions,” Sahar Atrache, an analyst for the International Crisis Group in Beirut told The Media Line. “Mainly [it's] between what’s called the PLO and the Tahaluf, which is an alliance of factions that includes theIslamic Jihad, Hamas and several other factions which are, for the most part, pro-Syrian.”

“Most of the camps have conflicts between the two sides,” she continued. “In some cases there’s a conflict between Hamas and Fatah and in other cases it’s broader. Each side or faction is trying to control the camp or part of the camp.”

The conflict in Burj Al-Barajneh was taken up a notch when members of the Al-Ashwah family set fire to Islamic Jihad offices in the camp.

On Tuesday morning masked and armed men belonging to Islamic Jihad proceeded to surround the mosque and open fire in order to seize it by force.

Worshipers inside the mosque fled with the mosque’s imam to a smaller mosque inside the camp.

Atrache said political and family affiliations were often interlocked in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and it was hard to separate the two factors.

“You can’t talk about the individual or family dispute without including the political side,” she said. “The politics will affect any individual conflict because in one way or another, the family or individual belongs to a group or a faction, so this generates a broader conflict and it will be inter-factional.”

According to local media there are suggestions fighting was sparked by rumors of a weapons cache hidden beneath the Furqan mosque but many locals are skeptical weapons would be hidden near such a main throughway rather than inside the camp itself.

The mosque is located at the entrance to the Burj Al-Barajneh refugee camp, located on a main road connecting Beirut’s international airport to Beirut’s southern suburb.

Hassan Nassar, a resident of the camp, told A-Sharq Al-Awsat that the security situation in the camp was not as bad as reports were making it out to be.

“Compared to other camps, Burj Al-Barajneh is considered a quiet and secure camp,” he said. “Any problems that arise among the residents can be resolved quickly so they don’t get worse and most of the incidents are isolated. There are no extremist radical movements in the camp, as there are in other camps like Ein Al-Hilweh.”

Burj Al-Barajna is one of 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and accommodates approximately 16,000 refugees.

More than 420,000 Palestinian refugees are registered in Lebanon with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Most are descendents of those who either fled or were forced out of their homes during the war of 1948. They are deprived of basic economic and political rights and many live in inadequate conditions. They are allowed to bear weapons within the camps, which are off limits to the Lebanese authorities.

Rivalries and violent conflicts among the political factions in Lebanese refugee camps are not new, and often reflect tension between factions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, especially between Fatah and Hamas.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147883844&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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Miep Gies, Hid Anne Frank, Dead at 100

By Ami Eden (JTA)

http://www.forward.com/articles/123230/

Miep Gies, the woman who recovered Anne Frank’s diary, has died at 100.

Gies, who died Monday in the Netherlands, was the last surviving member of the small group that hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. After the arrest of the Frank family by the Gestapo in 1944, Gies returned to the attic where they had been hiding, and found the diary.

“Miep Gies was a beacon of light during the dark days of the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

“Without her, the world would never have known about Anne Frank and hundreds of millions of people would never have been inspired by her story.

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Assassinated Iranian nuclear physicist was Mousavi supporter

By AP

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147871003&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A nuclear physics professor who publicly backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election was killed Tuesday when a remote-controlled bomb rigged to a motorcycle blew up outside his home.

State media identified the victim as Masoud Ali Mohammadi, 50, a professor at Tehran University, which has been at the center of recent protests by student opposition supporters. Before the election, pro-reform Web sites published Ali Mohammadi’s name among a list of 240 Tehran University teachers who supported Mousavi.

The government blamed the bombing on an armed Iranian opposition group that it said operated under the direction of Israel and the US. Iran often accuses both countries of meddling in its affairs – both when it comes to postelection unrest and its nuclear program. Israel’s foreign ministry had no comment.

Reflecting the internal tension that grew out of election, hard-line government supporters called at recent street rallies for the execution ofopposition leaders.

Iran’s nuclear work has also put it under pressure from the United States and its European allies, which suspect Tehran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Iran denies that and insists its nuclear work only has peaceful aims, such as energy production.

Ali Mohammadi had just left his house on his way to work when the remote-controlled explosion went off, state TV said. The blast shattered the windows of his home in northern Tehran’s Qeytariyeh neighborhood and left the pavement outside smeared with blood and strewn with debris. The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as confirming the killing and saying no one has been arrested.

Ali Mohammadi, who wrote several articles on quantum and theoretical physics in scientific journals, was not a well-known figure inIran.

He was also not an outspoken or visible supporter of Iran’s opposition movement during the months of turmoil that have followed the election, though his name did appear on the list of professors who backed Mousavi before the vote. That list was published on several pro-reform Web sites in the weeks leading up to the vote.

Mousavi and his supporters claim he was true winner of the June election but fraud robbed him of his victory. His supporters staged massive street protests in the weeks after the election, which met with a harsh government crackdown.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted a Tehran University official as saying Ali Mohammadi was not involved in any political activity.

“The prominent professor was not a political figure and had no activity in the field of politics,” Mehr quoted Ali Moqari, head of the university’s science department, as saying.

A spokesman for Iran’s atomic agency, Ali Shirzadian, told The Associated Press that Ali Mohammadi had no link with the agency.

“He was not involved in the country’s nuclear program,” Shirzadian said, adding that the professor was active only in the theoretical field at Tehran University.

Ali Mohammadi was a member of some academic associations focusing on experimental science, and a government news Web site called Borna described Ali Mohammadi as a senior nuclear scientist but gave no other details.

In 1992, he received the first doctorate in nuclear physics to be awarded in Iran, from Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused Israel and the US of involvement, according to the Web site of state TV.

“In initial investigations, there are some indications of vices of the Zionist regime, the US and their mercenaries in Iran in the terrorist incident,” ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying in the report.

Mehmanparst, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the killing of nuclear scientists cannot thwart the country’s scientific and technological progress.

Iran also directed suspicion at the exiled opposition group the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran. One conservative Iranian Web site close to the ruling establishment said the group carried out the attack under direction of Israeli agents.

The Tabnak site, which carried the report, is closely associated with Mohsen Rezaei, who serves on an advisory body to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Rezaei was the only conservative candidate to challenge hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the election.

The People’s Mujahedeen, however, denied any involvement in the killing.

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Jan 11, 2010 0:39 | Updated Jan 11, 2010 2:41

‘Hizbullah, Lebanese army the same’

By HERB KEINON

Israel has launched a diplomatic campaign to impress upon countries providing military assistance to Lebanon that any equipment and technology it provides the Beirut government is likely to fall into Hizbullah’s hands, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

This comes at at time when the US prepares to provide Lebanon with various military equipment.

According to government sources, the position Israel is trying to impress on countries that support Lebanon is that the Lebanese army and Hizbullah are virtually indistinguishable. As such, Israel is calling on countries that provide military aid toLebanon to rethink the matter.

In early December, the Lebanese parliament gave a vote of confidence to the government of Saad Hariri and approved a government platform that allowed Hizbullah to maintain its arms in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

From that time, which also included a declaration that Hizbullah had a mandate to defend Lebanon from Israel, “there has been a great deal of concern here,” one official said.

The main concern, the official said, is weaponry being provided or pledged by the US. The issue is likely to be raised during the expected meetings here Tuesday with US National Security Advisor James Jones.

The US has long provided military assistance to Lebanon. Over the past years this military assistance has included aircraft, tanks, artillery, small boats, infantry weapons, ammunition, Humvees and cargo trucks. The US is expected to provide the Lebanese army with 12 Raven unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft in the coming months.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147861011&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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Palestinian official: Israel razed 150 Arab homes in West Bank

By Reuters

Israeli security forces on Sunday knocked down shelters that were home to about 150 Palestinians in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

A spokesman for the Civil Administration, Israel’s authority in the West Bank, said 14 “illegally constructed structures were removed”.

They had been built on a military training ground, “endangering the lives of those present,” spokesman Lee Hiromoto said.

Atef Hanini, a local Palestinian official, disputed the Israeli justification and said the Palestinian farming community had lived in the area of Tana, east of Nablus, for decades.

A mechanical digger ploughed through what remained of one of the shelters and a Palestinian woman remonstrated with Israeli soldiers at the scene. The structures included homes, stables and a school.

Hanini said the residents had defied Israeli instructions to demolish the structures themselves. Hiromoto said numerous warnings and evacuation orders had been issued.

Under interim peace agreements with the Palestinians, Israel exercises full military and civil control over some 60 percent of the West Bank, a zone known as “Area C.”

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a December report that Israel’s restrictive planning regime in Area C meant tens of thousands of Palestinians were left with no choice other than to build without authorization, risking the demolition of their homes.

The UN body said it recorded the demolition of 180 Palestinian-owned Area C structures in 2009. The demolitions displaced 319 Palestinians, including 167 children.

The Palestinians want the West Bank and Gaza Strip to form an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1141553.html

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Jan 8, 2010 2:21 | Updated Jan 8, 2010 11:38

US preparing for possible Iran conflict

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT IN WASHINGON

The US does not want to see confrontation with Iran but is still preparing its military for that possibility, America’s top uniformed officer said Thursday.

“We’ve looked to do all we can to ensure that conflict doesn’t break out there, while at the same time preparing forces, as we do for many contingencies that we understand might occur,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during an appearance at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Mullen had been asked whether the US military was stretched too thin to take further action in trouble spots beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We’re very hard-pressed right now” because of the two wars, he noted, but added that it is primarily ground troops that have been deployed, and “the likelihood that our ground forces would have to go somewhere in these kinds of numbers in some other part of the world, or even in the same region, I think is pretty low.”

Many experts assess that any American military engagement with Iran would most likely rely on air and naval power.

Mullen was even more definitive when asked to assess whether Teheran was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

“I believe that they’re on a path that has a strategic intent to develop nuclear weapons and have been for some time,” he said.

Mullen’s words were echoed by a report in The New York Times this week that US President Barack Obama’s top advisers say “they no longer believe the much disputed National Intelligence Estimate” from 2007, which assessed that Iranian scientists ended all work on designing a nuclear warhead in 2003.

Israel had long objected to that finding, and questioned the intelligence evaluation behind it. Mullen’s comments and those of other US officials bring the two countries more in line.

“I think the Obama administration now fully acknowledges that Iran intends to conduct a nuclear weapons capability program,” Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. “We agree with the administration on the intent of the Iranian regime to acquire nuclear military capability.”

The Times also reported that technical challenges and potential Western sabotage have significantly hurt Iran’s production of low enriched uranium, a necessary component for a nuclear bomb. That has set back the American estimated timeline for production of a weapon, according to the Times.

Oren indicated that Israel remains focused on the low enriched uranium still being produced.

“In spite of some reported breakdown in centrifuges, Iran still has something in the vicinity of 4,000 centrifuges that are operating and they are churning out significant quantities of LEU,” he said.

Mullen called any attainment of a nuclear weapon by Iran “incredibly destabilizing,” particularly because it could set off an arms race in the region and because of Teheran’s support for terrorism.

“On the other hand,” he added, “striking Iran, that also has a very, very destabilizing outcome. What I worry about in most of the cases are the unintended consequences.”

He said that to prevent such scenarios, the US needed “to continue to aggressively address the nuclear weapons issue,” to stress international discussions of additional sanctions and to continue “where possible to engage and have a dialogue.”

Jim Hoagland, who has written extensively about foreign policy for The Washington Post and participated in Thursday’s event, described Mullen’s remarks on Iran as vague.

“That does reflect a lack of a clear policy within the administration about what to do on Iran,” he said.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339426936&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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The Forgotten Palestinian Refugees

Even in Bethlehem, Palestinian Christians are suffering under Muslim intolerance.

By DANIEL SCHWAMMENTHAL

Bethlehem

Meet Mr. Ibrahim (a pseudonym to protect him from reprisals), a 23-year old Palestinian refugee living in the West Bank. Unlike those descendents of refugees born in United Nations camps, Mr. Ibrahim fled his birthplace just two years ago. And he wasn’t running away from Israelis, but from his Palestinian brethren in Gaza.

Mr. Ibrahim’s crime in that Hamas-ruled territory was to be a Christian, a transgression he compounded in the Islamists’ eyes by writing love poems.

“Muslims tied to Hamas tried to take me twice,” says Mr. Ibrahim, and he didn’t want to find out what they’d do to him if they ever kidnapped him. He hasn’t seen his family since Christmas 2007 and is afraid even to talk to them on the phone.

Speaking to a group of foreign journalists in the Bethlehem Bible College where he is studying theology, Mr. Ibrahim describes a life of fear in Gaza. “My sister is under a lot of pressure to wear a headscarf. People are turning more and more to Islamic fundamentalism and the situation for Christians is very difficult,” he says.

In 2007, one year after the Hamas takeover, the owner of Gaza’s only Christian bookstore was abducted and murdered. Christian shops and schools have been firebombed. Little wonder that most of Mr. Ibrahim’s Christian friends have also left Gaza.

On the rare occasion that Western media cover the plight of Christians in the Palestinian territories, it is often to denounce Israel and its security barrier. Yet until Palestinian terrorist groups turned Bethlehem into a safe haven for suicide bombers, Bethlehemites were free to enter Israel, just as many Israelis routinely visited Bethlehem.

The other truth usually ignored by the Western press is that the barrier helped restore calm and security not just in Israel, but also in the West Bank including Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity, which Palestinian gunmen stormed and defiled in 2002 to escape from Israeli security forces, is now filled again with tourists and pilgrims from around the world.

But even here in Jesus’ birthplace, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Christians live on a knife’s edge. Mr. Ibrahim tells me that Muslims often stand in front of the gate of the Bible College and read from the Quran to intimidate Christian students. Other Muslims like to roll out their prayer rugs right in Manger Square.

Asked about why Muslims would pray so close to one of Christianity’s holiest sites, Pastor Alex Awad, dean of students at the Bible College, diplomatically advises me to pose this question to the Muslims themselves. Mindful of his community’s precarious situation, he is at pains to stress that whatever problems Christians may have with their Muslim neighbors, it’s not the PA’s fault.

“Muslims and Christians live here in relative harmony,” he tells reporters, only to add that Christians “feel the pressure of Islam . . . There is intimidation and fanaticism but these are little instances and there is no general persecution.”

Samir Qumsieh, the founder of what he says is the holy land’s only Christian TV station, also stresses that there is no “Christian suffering” and that the Christians’ problems are not orchestrated by the PA. Yet his stories of land theft, beatings and intimidation make one wonder why, if the PA doesn’t approve of such injustices, it is doing so little to stop it?

Christians have only recently begun to talk about how Muslim gangs simply come and take possession of Christian-owned land while the Palestinian security services, almost exclusively staffed by Muslims, stand by. Mr. Qumsieh’s own home was firebombed three years ago. The perpetrators were never caught.

“We have never suffered as we are suffering now,” Mr. Qumsieh confesses, violating his own introductory warning to the assorted foreign correspondents in his office not to use the word “suffering.”

Always a minority religion among the predominantly Muslim Palestinians, Christians are, Mr. Qumsieh says, “melting away,” even in Bethlehem. While they represented about 80% of the city’s population 60 years ago, their numbers are now down to about 20%, a result not just of Muslims’ higher birth rates but also widespread Christian emigration. “Our future as a Christian community here is gloomy,” Mr. Qumsieh says.

Palestinian plight not attributable to Israel barely seems to register in the West’s collective conscience. As Christians around the world remember Jesus’ birth, perhaps we can think of Mr. Ibrahim and those Christians still suffering in Gaza and Bethlehem.

Mr. Schwammenthal is an editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704304504574610022765965390.html

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‘We seek sanctions on Iran gov’t to avoid harming civilians’

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT IN WASHINGTON

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339395400&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

WASHINGTON – The US is seeking sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian government elements to avoid hurting ordinary civilians, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday.

The Obama administration has been tight-lipped about what punitive measures it would seek against Teheran, should diplomacy prove ineffective at preventing it from enriching uranium, as Iran rejected international deals for compromise. Clinton’s statement Monday highlighted what she called the goal of these sanctions, as the US looks at ratcheting up pressure on Teheran, while trying not to hurt reformists demonstrating against the regime, which she accused of carrying out “ruthless repression.”

Clinton also acknowledged that diplomatic efforts had not yielded the results the administration was looking for, saying that “the results of our efforts to engage Iran directly have not been encouraging.”

She added that the US was “disappointed” by the Iranian rejection of the international proposal, whereby the Islamic Republic would have shipped much of its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing.

“We have already begun discussions with our partners and with like-minded nations about pressure and sanctions,” Clinton said. “Our goal is to pressure the Iranian government, particularly the Revolutionary Guard elements, without contributing to the suffering of ordinary [Iranians], who deserve better than what they currently are receiving.”

While Israel is pleased to see the US engaging international allies on enhanced sanctions, and see the Guards as a crucial target given its role in military actions at home and abroad, more focused measures fall short of the “crippling sanctions”Israel has said it would like to see. In addition, Clinton stressed that opportunity to choose diplomacy was still there and that the US doesn’t use the term deadline when speaking of its Iran posture.

Though White House spokesman Robert Gibbs did recently use the term deadline, he was speaking in the context of the low-enriched uranium deal brokered by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran was given until December 31 to accept. The US has generally referred to a policy of “reviewing” the results of engagement at the end of the year.

“We have avoided using the term deadline,” Clinton said, “because we want to keep the door to dialogue open. But we’ve also made it clear we can’t continue to wait.”

She was speaking at a joint press conference with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, which starts off a round of US talks with Arab leaders this month that is also focused on efforts to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Clinton is meeting with top Egyptian officials on Friday as the pace of efforts to restart talks picks up. she stressed America’s interest that talks start immediately, adding, “We’re going to be even more committed this year” to the process.

Monday’s meeting with Hamad bin Jassem came amid reports that the US is looking to Arab states to help press the Palestinians to come to the table, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to negotiate with Israel without a full settlement freeze.

At the press conference, the Qatari leader said that the Arab world was ready to assist.

“All of us, we are ready to help,” he said, adding later that Qatar would continue to give aid to the PA.

But Hamad bin Jassem also raised the issue of forming a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas as a necessary condition for peace talks to make progress.

“The most important things is how we can do a unity government between the Palestinians so they can concentrate how to deal in the peace process,” he said. Clinton was not asked about the issue during the press conference.

Though the Obama administration has been more open to a Palestinian unity arrangement, but has not emphasized the issue in the recent efforts to relaunch talks, Qatar ran afoul of the previousadministration for trying to mediate talks that would see Hamas return to the PA. Qatar has faced criticism from some quarters for playing all sides, which have included closer ties to bothIsrael and Iran than many other Arab countries.

But that also helps Qatar play an important role in brokering disputes, and Hamad bin Jassem also expressed willingness to help with the conflict in Yemen, which has elevated into what some in the US and Sunni Arab world see as a proxy war with Iran, which faces accusations of aiding the rebels fighting the Yemen government.

Clinton sharpened US rhetoric on the issue Monday when she called the conflict there one with “global implications,” as were “the ongoing efforts by al-Qaida in Yemen to use it as a base for terrorist attacks far beyond the region.”

Yemen was the site of training received by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before he attempted to blow up a plane heading to Detroit. The US has charged that al-Qaida was connected to the attack, and Clinton said the US Embassy in Yemen would be closed until “security conditions permit” based on threats posed by al-Qaida.

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Report: Obama backs Egypt plan for Mideast peace

By Haaretz Service

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1139597.html

Barack Obama’s administration supports Egypt’s vision for a Middle East peace plan that would include a complete halt of construction in West Bank settlements as well as the release of senior Palestinian officials from Israeli prisons, the Qatar-based news network Al-Jazeera reported on Sunday.

The U.S. administration is making efforts to convince Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to agree to the resumption of peace talks through a series of goodwill gestures on the part of Israel – including the release of prisoners and the transfer of territory under Israel’s security control (Area B) to Palestinian security control (Area A).

These proposals, however, have still not been agreed to by Israel, while the PA remains adamant in its demand that no further Israeli construction take place in East Jerusalem.

Abbas arrived in Cairo on Sunday for talks with Egyptian officials, including President Hosni Mubarak. Should he accept Egypt’s proposal, Israel and the U.S. would be invited to partake in a trilateral summit on the matter.

The Palestinian Authority on Friday said it has not received an official request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a proposed meeting with Abbas that would restart peace negotiations, Ma’an news agency reported.

“We didn’t receive anything about such a thing,” Abbas’ spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeina, told the Palestinian news agency on Friday evening. “So far what we heard was from the media.”

Netanyahu briefed his inner cabinet on Friday on the conversation he had held last week with Mubarak regarding Israel’s efforts to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.

However, senior Palestinian sources said last week that Abbas was likely to turn down the offer in line with his precondition that negotiations would resume only if Israel extended its settlement construction freeze to East Jerusalem.

The same sources said Abbas may also add to his preconditions that the talks between the two sides be resumed from the point at which they stopped during former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s tenure.

As such, the sources said it is highly unlikely that Netanyahu will be willing to meet Abbas’ conditions, and therefore expressed pessimism at the likelihood that the two sides would resume talks in the near future.

Following the meeting between Mubarak and Abbas, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman will depart for Washington for talks on possibly renewing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Palestinian sources said that the basis of Egypt’s proposals for resuming talks between the two sides is the demand for a freeze in construction in East Jerusalem as well. At the conclusion of talks with Egyptian officials in the American capital, Special Middle East Envoy George Mitchell is due to arrive in the region.

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Dec 30, 2009 15:00 | Updated Dec 30, 2009 18:16

Israel’s population at 2010 is 7.5m

By RUTH EGLASH

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364549070&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

On the eve of a new decade, Israel’s population stands at 7.5 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

Published ahead of the Gregorian New Year 2010, Israel’s population has continued to grow at a steady rate of 1.8 percent over the past seven years, with 160,000 new babies born since last January 1 and some 14,500 new immigrants arriving over the past year.

In terms of ethnic divisions, Israel’s Jews now make up 75.4% of the population, or 5,664,000 people; Arabs consist of 20.3%, or 1,526,000 citizens; and the remaining 4.3% (319,000) are those registered as “others” by the Interior Ministry.

According to the CBS’s population report published ahead of the Jewish New Year in September, Israel is still a fairly young nation with nearly 30% of its population under the age of 14, compared to 17% in most other Western countries. Only 9.7% of the population is over the age of 65 in Israel, whereas in other Western countries the average is closer to 15%.

The report also showed that the average Jewish family size increased since 2008 from 2.8 children per household to 2.96. In the Muslim community, the average number of children per mother was 3.84, a drop from the previous two years where it had previously reached 3.97 children per household. Among Christian families the average number of children was down to 2.11 in 2008.

The ratio of men to women continues to be consistent too, with the number of women in the country still slightly outweighing the number of men, especially in the more advanced years of life. According to the statistics, there is 979 men for every 1000 women, however in the under 37 set there are more men but it is the imbalance in the over 75 age group that off-sets this with some 673 men for every 1000 women.

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Ahmadinejad: Opposition rally a Zionist, U.S-ordered masquerade.

By The Associated Press and Haaretz Service

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1138490.html

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday opposition rallies were a foreign-backed “nauseating masquerade,” the official IRNA news agency reported.

“The Iranian nation has seen a lot of such masquerade. A Zionist [Israeli], and American ordered masquerade,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by IRNA.

Tens of thousands of government supporters rallied on Tuesday, state media said, and a reformist party called on Iran’s rulers to apologize to the nation two days after eight people were killed in anti-government protests

The rallies called for the punishment of opposition leaders for fomenting unrest after June’s disputed presidential poll which was won by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, state media reported.

The elite Revolutionary Guards accused the foreign media of joining hands with the opposition to harm the Islamic state and the British ambassador to Tehran was summoned by the Iranian government to be accused of interference” in state matters.

“If Britain does not stop talking nonsense it will get a slap in the mouth,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said. The British government said their envoy would respond “robustly” to any criticism.

The establishment intensified a crackdown on the reform movement on Sunday by rounding up leading moderates to try to end street protests after the deadly weekend clashes erupted during the Shi’ite Muslim religious ritual of Ashura.

At least 20 opposition figures have been arrested since Sunday, including three senior advisers to opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, his brother-in-law and a sister of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, opposition websites reported. Ebadi confirmed her sister’s arrest.

At least nine Iranian demonstrators, including the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, were killed in dissident clashes with security forces across Iran, according to a pro-reformist Web site.

“Ali Mousavi, 20, was killed in clashes on Sunday noon and his body was still kept in a Tehran hospital,” said parleman news.

An Iranian opposition website said at least four protesters were killed in the northwestern city of Tabriz. Earlier in the day, the Web site said four protesters were killed in a rally in central Tehran while a fifth was reported in the evening.

Iranian police arrested about 300 people during the anti-government protests in Tehran, state broadcaster IRIB quoted a senior police official as saying.

Political turmoil has entered a new phase in Iran with bloody face-offs and arrests, with security forces calling on authorities to deal “firmly” with opposition leaders.

“Trying to overthrow the system will reach nowhere … designers of the unrest will soon pay the cost of their insolence,” the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement. “The opposition, which has joined hands with the foreign media, is backed by foreign enemies.

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Lieberman urges diplomats: Show world Israel has done enough for peace

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday urged Israeli diplomats to show the world that Israel has “done enough” in its efforts to try to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Lieberman told the more than 100 diplomats gathered at his office not to expect the Palestinians to sign a peace agreement with Israel in the next 10 years.

“I put the ideology and the politics side by side and try to estimate them in an objective way,” he said. “What is the chance for any sort of permanent agreement? We must remember that it all depends on them.”

“I’ve reached the conclusion that even if we do retreat to the 1967 borders, it won’t bring an end to the conflict,” he declared. “Even if we retreat to the last centimeter, nothing will change.”

Lieberman also said that the international community was growing less concerned with the Middle East conflict and urged the envoys to “broadcast to the world that we have done enough.”

“From the moment this government was established, we said we were prepared for negotiations with the Palestinians,” he said. “We have gone above and beyond; even the decision to freeze settlement construction was dramatic, not simple, yet we did it.

“The proof in the pudding is now up to the other side,” said Lieberman. “We must get the world used to the fact that they are no wonder cures, just long-term interim arrangements that will last a decade or two. Until then, we won’t reach an agreement.”

Lieberman: Syria wants to talk? Not with Turkey as mediator

In his address to the diplomats, Lieberman also declared that Turkey had no place in mediating peace talks between Israel and Syria, despite “hints” to the contrary made by his government colleagues.

Lieberman lambasted Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Labor chairman and high-ranking ministers, who accused of “proposing and hinting that there is place for Turkish mediation.”

“Stop creating illusions and disseminating things that have no connection to reality,” Lieberman warned, in an address to more than 100 Israeli diplomats gathered at the foreign ministry. “If you think that after [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogans comments [about Israel] we would agree to Turkish mediation, even if it meant smiles and visit, forget about it.”

“So long as I am foreign minister and Yisrael Beiteinu is in the government, there will be no Turkish mediation,” Lieberman vowed. “The Syrians want to talk? Then direct negotiations, only.”

During Ehud Olmert’s tenure as prime minister, Turkey mediated five rounds of talks between Israeli and Syrian officials. Toward the end of Olmert’s term the two sides were on the verge of resuming direct negotiations.

At the last meeting between Olmert and Erdogan, the Turkish leader called Syrian President Bashar Assad and relayed messages to and from Olmert. But after Operation Cast Lead earlier this year and the freeze in negotiations with Syria, Erdogan said Olmert had stabbed him in the back

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137981.html

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Year after Gaza war, Hamas says ready to fight Israel again

By Reuters

One year after Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip, the spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing said this week that the Islamist group would not shirk away from a new battle with Israel.

“We do not wish for war. We wish for calm and peace for our people,” Abu Ubaida, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades spokesman told Reuters.

But if any battle is imposed on us, we are ready with all our manpower and equipment to confront any Zionist war, any crime and any attack regardless of scale,” he added.

Israel has said the brigades, which some observers estimate have 25,000 fighters, have been seeking with Syrian and Iranian help to upgrade their rocket capabilities and put the Israeli heartland and the commercial capital of Tel Aviv within range.

Abu Ubaida said Hamas had no choice but to improve its arsenal.

“The enemy is developing its weapons and is using internationally banned weapons against us,” he said, without giving details.

“Therefore, we have the right to use any weapon that we deem suitable and we have the right to get into [Gaza] any weapon that we see as appropriate in the ongoing battle with the occupation,” Abu Ubaida said, using Hamas’ term for Israel.

He declined to elaborate on Hamas’ weaponry. Observers close to the group said Hamas, which rules Gaza, was also developing more effective anti-tank weapons and training to improve battlefield tactics.

“The nature of our battle with the enemy requires that we do not announce the nature of our capabilities and the weapons we possess until we use them to confront any upcoming aggression against the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Abu Ubaida urged Egypt to stop building a steel wall along its border with the Gaza Strip.

He declined to comment on weapons-smuggling via a network of tunnels through which commercial goods are also brought into the territory, which is under an Israeli-led blockade.

Israel tightened its Gaza border restrictions after Hamas seized the enclave from Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. Hamas has spurned Western demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

Calm has largely returned to the Israel-Gaza frontier since Israel’s three-week offensive last year, an operation it said it launched to end cross-border rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

Abu Ubaida said the Gaza war, in which 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed, had stirred thousands of Gaza residents to volunteer to join the ranks of the Qassam brigades.

Israel and Hamas are currently negotiating, through a German mediator, a deal under which Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for an Israeli soldier captured in 2006 by Gaza militants who tunnelled across the border.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137451.html

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Police, protesters clash in south Iran

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHERAN, Iran

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364487212&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Security forces and hard-line militiamen assaulted opposition protesters, beating men and woman and firing tear gas, as thousands gathered in a central Iranian city for a memorial commemorating the country’s most senior dissident cleric, who died this week.

Opposition supporters and pro-government demonstrators scuffle during the funeral ceremony of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in Qom last week.

The government’s crackdown showed signs of moving for the first time against clerics who support the opposition: Basij militiamen surrounded the house and office of two prominent religious figures, shouting slogans and breaking windows, opposition Web sites reported.

The death on Sunday of the 87-year-old Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a sharp critic of Iran’s leaders, gave a new push to opposition protests, which have endured despite a heavy security crackdown since disputed presidential elections in June.

His memorials have brought out not only the young, urban activists who filled the ranks of earlier protests, but also older, more religious Iranians who revered Montazeri on grounds of faith as much as politics. Tens of thousands marched in his funeral procession in the holy city of Qom on Monday, many chanting slogans against the government.

Wednesday’s violence erupted when thousands tried to gather for a memorial to Montazeri at a mosque in the central city of Isfahan, 200 miles (325 kilometers) south of Teheran. They were met by a large force of riot police and Basijis, which stormed the crowds to disperse them, according to a witness and oppositionWeb sites.

Farid Salavati, an Isfahan resident who tried to attend the memorial, said baton-wielding riot police clubbed people on the head and shoulders, and kicked men and women alike, injuring dozens.

“They didn’t allow anybody to enter the mosque,” Salavati told The Associated Press. “I saw at least two people with blood pouring down their face after being beaten by the Basijis.”

“Tens of thousands gathered outside for the memorial but were savagely attacked by security forces and the Basijis.” He said sporadic clashes continued into the early afternoon, and the memorial at the Sayed Mosque was canceled.

More than 50 people were arrested in the Isfahan clashes, including pro-opposition cleric Masoud Adib, who was expected to address the gathering at the mosque, the Salaamnews and ParlemannewsWeb sites said. Parlemannews reported that Basijis beat people, including women, and used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the crowds.

The reports could not be independently confirmed. Iranian authorities have banned foreign media from covering protests.

Security forces also surrounded the home of Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, a senior reformist cleric who organized the memorial, several Web sites reported. “Treating people this way at a memorial service is deplorable,” Taheri said in a statement.

Later in the evening, his supporters forced their way through the cordon, scuffling with security forces, who eventually relented and moved from the area, Web sites reported.

Taheri was the chief Friday prayer leader in Isfahan until he resigned in 2002 in protest against the establishment, which he said was paralyzing the country in the name of religion to maintain its hold on power.

Meanwhile, for the past two nights, plainclothes hard-liners, thought to be Basijis, surrounded the office in Qom of another prominent pro-reform cleric, Grand Ayatollah Youssef Saanei, shouting “insulting slogans,” tearing up posters and breaking windows, Saanei’s office said in a statement carried on oppositionWeb sites.

In the postelection crisis, Saanei has emerged as one of the most prominent critics of Iran’s clerical leadership among the country’s grand ayatollahs, the highest rank in the Shiite religious hierarchy. He denounced the crackdown launched after the June election, which the opposition says Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by massive vote fraud.

Saanei and other reform clerics have been criticized by hard-liners in past months, but rarely have they come under direct harassment or pressure.

The leadership may be particularly nervous about the fallout from Montazeri’s death because it came as Iran marks one of the most important periods on the Shi’ite religious calendar, the first 10 days of the Islamic month of Moharram, a time of mourning rituals for a revered Shi’ite saint. The period culminates on Sunday with Ashoura – a day that coincides with the seventh day after Montazeri’s death, a traditional day of further commemorations. That could fuel greater protests.

Iran’s police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, on Wednesday threatened tougher action against protesters and issued a warning against those in the opposition who he said “made a show of supporting” the Islamic republic – an apparent reference to the many pro-reform political leaders and clerics who are veterans of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought clerics to power.

“Today, it has been proven to the people that they are moving in violation of [the Islamic Republic] and the law,” he said, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. “The hypocritical nature of this movement has become clear.”

“We once again urge them to stop their actions, or else severe action will be taken against them under the law,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad removed opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from his official post as head of the Art Academy. Mousavi, who the opposition says was the true winner of the election, is an architect who has long been prominent in the arts scene.

Iranian state television announced Wednesday that Ahmadinejad appointed a new head. Salaamnews said Ahmadinejad broke off a tour of southern Iran Tuesday to attend the meeting that sacked Mousavi.

There have been concerns Mousavi could be arrested and tried, along with hundreds of opposition supporters now on trial for taking part in the protests.

Pro-reform lawmaker Darioush Ghanbari said it was a “politically motivated decision” by the government. “It shows they can’t tolerate Mousavi even” as part of the academy.

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A victory for the settlers – by Amos Harel

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1136475.html

The release of a leaked internal Israel Defense Forces memo, outlining the army’s plans for destroying structures in the settlements during the West Bank construction freeze, is a real victory for the settlers. The IDF plan has energized opponents of the settlement freeze and spurred a competition among right-wing leaders over who can better express shock (the head of one council used the term “war crime” yesterday, while a Knesset member compared the plan to rape, using explicit detail).

Moreover, the memo – which was leaked to the settlers, who then leaked it to the media – has brought to the surface tensions between the IDF and the police, and shown the army the extent to which the settlers are aware of its activities.

It’s no secret that the security forces are not very enthusiastic about implementing the freeze. In a rare interview, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi told Army Radio last week that it was preferable for soldiers not to be at the forefront of clashes with settlers. Meanwhile, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch rushed to announce that the police counter-terrorism unit would not participate in home demolitions – contrary to the contents of the leaked memo (but he conveniently forgot to mention that most of the evacuation enforcement would be handled by other police units).

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That leaves Defense Minister Ehud Barak as the highest-ranking figure involved in implementation of the construction moratorium. Barak was deeply impressed by a Haaretz op-ed by Yehuda Ben Meir last month, declaring that the state has the right to direct the army to use force to enforce its sovereignty and the will of the people. The defense minister has been handing out copies of the article to top IDF officials, to reinforce his position.

There is an element of hypocrisy in the agitated appeals of the right wing, which wants the freeze to fail. It’s in the interest of the right for the army and the police to implement this policy with their hands tied. It is worth noting that the memo states that the IDF has received no information about the use of arms to prevent evacuation or demolition. Barak is right on this point: If the settlers really want to keep IDF efforts to a minimum, they won’t employ force in their protests.

The bottom line depends on the politicians, not on the army or the police. Does the government intend to enforce the freeze, or will this be just another directive that is not carried out – like the promises every government has made for a decade about evacuating illegal outposts? Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip because that was the goal Ariel Sharon had set, and to reach it, he was ready to trample anything that stood in his way, including the will of the Likud voters.

It’s not at all certain that Benjamin Netanyahu sees things in a similar way. It seems as if the prime minister primarily wants quiet – from the settlers and from Washington. If he gets what he wants, not a single structure in the West Bank will be demolished. It’s always possible to waste time with High Court of Justice petitions, legal deliberations and equivocation in the field. In that case, the plans for implementing the moratorium will remain within the realm of the theoretical.

Another point worth noting concerns that fact that the IDF memo was leaked to the settlers in the first place. After so many years of “togetherness,” it looks like they know everything about the IDF in the West Bank; indeed the leak just verifies that.

It will be interesting to see whether the chief of staff will put as much effort into finding those who leaked the document as he does into tracking down and punishing any officer who dares to speak to the press.

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Profissionais do Holocausto: o Khmer Vermelho, os nazistas e a banalidade do mal

Der Spiegel

Erich Follath

Hannah Arendt usou a frase “a banalidade do mal” para descrever Adolf Eichmann, o burocrata nazista que conduziu milhões de pessoas à morte. As semelhanças marcantes entre Eichmann e “Duch”, o oficial do Khmer Vermelho que está em julgamento, indicam que a propensão ao mal é realmente universal.

No final de novembro, os argumentos finais foram apresentados no caso da comunidade internacional e da população do Camboja contra Kaing Guek Eav, mais conhecido como “Duch”. Esse ex-oficial do Khmer Vermelho, de 67 anos, foi o comandante da mais famosa prisão e centro de torturas em Phnom Penh.

O veredicto desse julgamento espetacular deverá sair em breve. Quando os juízes de Phnom Penh o pronunciarem e, como se espera, Duch for condenado a várias décadas de prisão, a justiça terá sido feita. O agressor será trancafiado e um capítulo da história cambojana estará encerrado.

Mas o julgamento de Duch realmente representa um acerto de contas razoável para o passado do país, que viu quase um quarto de sua população ser vitimada pelo genocídio no terrível período entre abril de 1975 e janeiro de 1979?

Da mesma forma, há semelhanças entre os homens que mandam outros cometerem genocídio, um núcleo de mal absoluto que pode ser identificado em suas personalidades e suas carreiras? Nesse caso, os crimes contra a humanidade podem ser dissecados e classificados de modo a evitar sua recorrência?

Duch, que foi ora submisso, ora desafiador durante seu julgamento em Phnom Penh, parece depressivamente comum. Mas, examinado mais de perto, fica claro que ele realmente não é único. Na verdade, Duch parece um capanga nazista julgado em Jerusalém no início da década de 1960 por sua participação na morte de 6 milhões de judeus. De certa maneira, Duch é de fato um segundo Adolf Eichmann.

A vida desse oficial do Khmer Vermelho, os crimes que ele cometeu metodicamente, completamente despidos de compaixão, suas manobras durante o julgamento entre expressar remorso pelas vítimas e tentar escapar da responsabilidade alegando que não passou de um “dente na engrenagem” – tudo isso lembra muito o comportamento de Eichmann.

E, como o julgamento em 1961 do tenente-coronel das Stradivari – que, apesar das melhores intenções da promotoria e da grande atenção que provocou entre os afetados -, foi uma oportunidade histórica perdida, o julgamento de Duch em Phnom Penh em 2009 também ameaça terminar em fracasso.

Antigos paralelos

Kaing Guek Eav, filho de um agricultor, sempre foi um estudante modelo. Ele valorizava a precisão e a lógica; sua matéria preferida era a matemática. Para ele, a clara distinção que os ideólogos do Khmer Vermelho faziam entre uma vida útil e uma que merecia ser destruída era perfeitamente racional.

Uma geração antes, Adolf Eichmann exibia traços de personalidade parecidos. Filho de um contador da cidade de Solingen, no oeste da Alemanha, Eichmann não era um intelectual. Na verdade, deixou a escola cedo e depois abandonou um curso de mecânica. Mas foi esperto o suficiente para compreender que sua ascensão ao poder dependia de uma instituição – o “seu” Partido Nazista – que cuidava dele e à qual se dedicou incondicionalmente.

Nem Eichmann nem Duch jamais conheceram seus respectivos líderes supremos. Duch não conheceu Pol Pot, ou “o irmão número 1″, e Eichmann nunca se encontrou com Hitler. Eles galgaram os degraus até atingir cargos de responsabilidade. Duch subiu de pequenos postos administrativos para se tornar comandante da prisão de Tuol Sleng, a principal prisão e centro de torturas do Khmer Vermelho depois de 1975.

Eichmann começou sua carreira como atendente de assuntos judeus, depois subiu na hierarquia e registrou os minutos da conferência de Wannsee em 1942; finalmente tornou-se o administrador técnico da “solução final” na Hungria. Nenhum lugar nos registros meticulosos mantidos pelos dois existe a menor evidência de que eles abrigavam dúvidas sobre seus atos. Ambos tinham certeza de estar cumprindo seu dever.

Paralelos tardios

Os paralelos entre os dois são espantosos. Mesmo quando seus respectivos mundos se desintegravam, eles continuaram se comportando como haviam feito enquanto cometiam assassinatos em massa: com sangue-frio, sem emoção e sistematicamente pesando suas opções.

Em janeiro de 1979, quando os vietnamitas invadiram o Camboja e puseram fim ao reinado de terror do Khmer Vermelho, Duch conseguiu escapar à captura. Então desapareceu e se converteu ao cristianismo. Mas parece muito improvável que estivesse realmente comprometido com sua nova fé. Na verdade, é mais plausível que estivesse usando sua conversão apenas como uma maneira de desorientar os juízes que viesse a encontrar neste mundo.

Em todo caso, Duch nunca considerou a possibilidade de se entregar às autoridades. Em 1999, um jornalista descobriu o ex-comandante quase por acaso. Confrontado com evidências de seu passado, Duch sabia que o jogo tinha terminado. Mas mesmo nos momentos em que sua verdadeira identidade foi revelada ele já depositava as bases para sua estratégia de defesa, dizendo: “Eu não queria ser nada além de um bom comunista”.

Então Duch tornou-se um prisioneiro modelo. Passaria mais uma década antes que o primeiro-ministro cambojano Hun Sen, ele também ex-membro do Khmer Vermelho, abrisse caminho para um julgamento apoiado pela ONU.

Em 1945 Eichmann escapou de um campo de internamento americano e, com identidade falsa, trabalhou como madeireiro na região de Lüneburg, no norte da Alemanha. Com a ajuda de padres católicos, conseguiu escapar pela chamada “trilha dos ratos” para a Argentina.

Não havia dúvida de que o Vaticano sabia quem estava ajudando. Para Eichmann, a simples idéia de se entregar deve ter parecido absurda. Agentes israelenses finalmente o localizaram em 1960 em Buenos Aires, onde ele trabalhava como operário na Mercedes-Benz. Em uma operação secreta ousada, eles o sequestraram e o levaram para Israel.

Homens e monstros de família

Com suas próprias palavras, Eichmann descreveu uma noite com colegas de trabalho em 1944: “Fizemos uma refeição modesta, bebemos um copo de vinho húngaro com a comida e, durante a conversa, eu lhes disse que Himmler gostaria que os judeus de Budapeste fossem colocados em guetos e depois levados para Auschwitz”.

Da mesma forma, graças a registros de vigilância de espiões israelenses, sabemos como era uma noite na casa de Eichmann na Argentina. O homem que mandou centenas de milhares de pessoas para a morte com um golpe de caneta tornou-se pai mais uma vez. Seu quarto filho era um menino, que ele aparentemente mimava.

“Ele levantou o menino, o girou no ar e depois engatinhou ao lado dele, de quatro. Os dois riram”, disse Peter Malkin, um ex-agente do Mossad, o órgão de inteligência estrangeira de Israel que se envolveu na missão. Eichmann conseguia separar as coisas com grande precisão: em um momento podia ser um carinhoso homem de família; no próximo, uma máquina de aniquilar judeus.

Duch também teve quatro filhos. Sua filha mais jovem nasceu em 1978 – exatamente quando o pai ordenava que os últimos 14 mil prisioneiros de Tuol Sleng fossem executados nos campos da morte do Camboja. As crianças eram atiradas de cabeça contra árvores, enquanto os adultos eram espancados até a morte com barras de ferro. Duch queria economizar balas.

Sua vida de trabalho cotidiano também era semelhante à de Eichmann, mas Duch tinha contato mais próximo com suas vítimas e até fechava suas janelas para afastar os gritos das pessoas que eram torturadas. E as responsabilidades profissionais de Duch, como as de Eichmann, envolviam uma quantidade considerável de papelada – catalogar os nomes de suas futuras vítimas e escrever a ordem de “exterminar” em vermelho na margem da ficha de cada prisioneiro.

Como eram as noites de Duch em casa com sua família? Um dia ele ordenou que Nhem En, o fotógrafo do campo de concentração, registrasse como sua família era feliz depois do nascimento de sua filha. A mulher de Duch trabalhava em um hospital perto da prisão, onde sua função era salvar vidas. O trabalho de seu marido como diretor de um centro de tortura era dar fim a elas. Se o relato de En for correto, o casal passava suas noites em um aconchego sobrenatural, cuidando dos filhos.

Paralelos no banco dos réus

Nada é mais revelador que o comportamento dos dois homens no tribunal. Ambos apenas admitiram coisas que não podiam ser negadas. Ambos definiram sua culpa como no máximo marginal, argumentando – através de seus advogados – que eram meros burocratas que agiam sob ordens de cima, as quais lhes eram impostas como alguma lei da natureza. Ambos não quiseram admitir que tinham sangue nas mãos.

“Eu nunca matei um judeu ou mesmo um não-judeu – nunca matei um ser humano … Todo o nosso trabalho era burocrático … eu tinha de obedecer”, disse Eichmann durante seu depoimento, sentado em uma gaiola de vidro em um tribunal de Jerusalém, onde se declarou “inocente” de todas as acusações feitas contra ele.

É claro que as transcrições do tribunal também mencionam que ele testemunhou execuções em Minsk – e até ficou ligeiramente abalado. Mas não processou a experiência. De fato, o gerente do extermínio em massa negou qualquer responsabilidade pelo Holocausto, alegando que foi responsabilidade de outros, dos que estavam no topo da cadeia de comando, e que ele havia apenas cumprido seu dever. “Arrependimento não serve de nada. Arrepender-se das coisas é inútil.

O remorso é para criancinhas”, ele disse em um interrogatório. Eichmann se ofereceu para enforcar-se em público e notou – em um tom um tanto macabro – que esse seria “um ato maior de expiação”. Para evitar que nazistas recalcitrantes transformassem o túmulo de Eichmann em local de peregrinação, os israelenses espalharam suas cinzas pelo Mediterrâneo em 1º de junho de 1962.

O comportamento de Duch diante do tribunal de Phnom Penh no recente julgamento não foi mais esclarecedor. Dizendo que “lamentava profundamente” as atrocidades do regime do Khmer Vermelho, ele de vez em quando enxugava lágrimas nos olhos enquanto pedia perdão. E até tentou atrair os favores de uma testemunha, Bou Meng, que foi um dos menos de dez sobreviventes de Tuol Sleng e que perdeu sua mulher na prisão, quando lhe disse: “Eu envio meus respeitos ao espírito de sua esposa”.

Falando quase casualmente, Duch convidou as famílias de suas vítimas a visitá-lo na prisão, para conhecer o “verdadeiro eu”. Aparentemente, não tinha consciência de que sua proposta deve ter sido ultrajante para as famílias das vítimas. Estava lhes pedindo para confirmar o que ele acreditava sobre si próprio: que havia se tornado uma pessoa limpa.

“Eu recebi ordens para limpar o partido – o mal devora até o mal”, ele disse ao tribunal. Eichmann, o modelo de mediocridade, teria gostado de ouvir Duch dizer: “Fui um instrumento da liderança do Khmer Vermelho, tão dedicado aos meus superiores quanto um cão pastor-alemão a seu dono”. Em sua declaração final ao tribunal, Duch pediu para ser libertado.

Buscando as raízes do mal

Como uma pessoa pode se tornar tão sangue-frio quanto Duch, que escreveu sete linhas em seu diário para expressar arrependimento diante da morte despropositada de algumas galinhas, mas apenas duas linhas para admitir a tortura de 14 prisioneiros até a morte? Do mesmo modo, o que tornou um homem como Eichmann tão insensível ao sofrimento de seus semelhantes?

Nenhum dos modelos explanatórios estabelecidos se aplica aos dois: eles não foram negligenciados durante a infância nem expostos a injustiças sociais em sua juventude que pudessem ter destruído seus conceitos morais. Eichmann recebeu uma educação cristã em um ambiente de classe média, enquanto os pais simples mas corretos de Duch lhe ensinaram ideais budistas como a não-violência e o altruísmo.

Desde tempos imemoriais, todos, de filósofos tementes a Deus a cientistas agnósticos tentaram desvendar as raízes do mal. No século 4º, o teólogo Agostinho afirmou que o mal surgia em consequência do livre-arbítrio do homem.

Hoje neurocientistas procuram uma assinatura do mal no cérebro. Alguns acreditam que peculiaridades semelhantes encontradas nos cérebros de alguns criminosos violentos podem servir como evidências da inevitabilidade de uma carreira criminosa. Em outras palavras, os assassinos poderiam ser eximidos, até certo ponto, por sua genética.

Ninguém sabe realmente se alguma dessas teorias é válida. No entanto, nos casos de Eichmann e Duch, não há como atribuir sua incapacidade de expressar humanidade, sua completa falta de empatia e sua violação de todos os padrões éticos a algum defeito genético que tenha afetado seus lobos frontais. Ambos adotaram para si uma ideologia dominante. No caso de Eichmann, foi o veredicto dos nazistas contra os “subumanos”; para Duch, foram os planos do Khmer Vermelho de criar um “novo homem”.

Dificilmente podem acusá-lo de ter-se conformado, como fizeram muitos vilões em sua época. Mas o fato de que esses notários da morte fizeram tudo o que puderam para garantir que a máquina mortífera operasse da maneira mais eficaz possível – e conseguiram promover suas próprias carreiras nesse processo – é imperdoável. Para Adolf Eichmann e Kaing Guek Eav, o mal foi um modelo de sucesso acima de tudo. Foi o Holocausto como carreira.

Obediência cega, mas criativa

Portanto, não há mérito no argumento de Duch no tribunal de que ele, como um capanga do sistema, não teve alternativa senão fazer o que fez. Duch sabia que o partido achava que os “adversários do regime” espreitavam em todo lugar e que o partido queria que ele fornecesse as provas de que precisava.

É claro que, se tivesse libertado muitos dos suspeitos presos em Tuol Sleng, ele mesmo poderia ter sido executado. Mas em sua pressa para obedecer às ordens o calculista Duch superou sua cota e até esboçou uma proposta para o líder do partido sobre como o “banho de sangue purificador” poderia ser intensificado. Em uma referência inconfundível à “solução final” dos nazistas, ele intitulou seu panfleto “O Plano Final”.

No caso de Eichmann, afirmar que ele foi apenas um pequeno dente na engrenagem daqueles que detinham realmente o poder também falhou. O tribunal de Jerusalém conseguiu provar que ele havia interpretado as ordens da maneira mais ampla – e hedionda – possível.

O historiador Raul Hilberg descreve o papel especial do burocrata na implementação do genocídio nazista: “O processo não poderia ter chegado à conclusão se todos tivessem de esperar por instruções. Nada foi tão crucial quanto a exigência de que o burocrata devia compreender as oportunidades e ‘necessidades’, que devia agir de acordo com os imperativos percebidos”. E isto se aplica tanto a Eichmann quanto a Duch. A obediência cega é uma exigência básica do genocídio; mas em cargos elevados devia ser uma forma criativa de obediência cega.

Confrontando o diabólico

Como modelo explanatório para o inimaginável, isto nos deixa com o que Hannah Arendt chamou de “banalidade do mal”? Enquanto escrevia sobre o julgamento de Eichmann para a revista “The New Yorker”, Arendt – uma filósofa que escapou por pouco das câmaras de gás – cunhou uma das frases mais interessantes, polêmicas e incompreendidas de todos os tempos.

Os políticos israelenses ficaram fulos de raiva quando a reportagem de Arendt foi publicada. Ainda hoje, muitos acusam Arendt (que morreu em 1975) de ser uma judia antissemita – embora isso também possa ser atribuído em parte ao caso romântico que ela teve com seu professor Martin Heidegger, um filósofo que teve laços estreitos com o regime nazista.

Alguns reacenderam as antigas alegações de que Arendt tentou minimizar o Holocausto. Na realidade, porém, ela compreendia mais do que seus críticos, ou seja, que é um engano interpretar o genocídio dos judeus como uma espécie de evento metafísico e transformar Eichmann em um demônio desumano.

Ela admitia que uma pessoa podia cometer crimes monstruosos sem ser um “Übermensch” satânico e que, nesse sentido, até o crime inenarrável contra os judeus teve um contexto político e histórico.

É difícil para os parentes das vítimas aceitar que pessoas assustadoramente normais podem cometer crimes tão terrivelmente perversos. Quando os mais hediondos dos crimes são cometidos – alheios a qualquer sentido de moral, fé ou civilização -, tudo parece perder o significado.

Mas aqueles – como Arendt – que veem o regime totalitário como um ataque à natureza humana não se surpreenderão ao descobrir que, apesar de que a Shoah não se repetirá, novas variações de genocídio podem ocorrer e se repetir.

O fato de a morte não ser (somente) uma especialidade alemã não nos absolve do legado da era nazista, nem diminui aqueles crimes. No entanto, poderia nos ajudar a “enfrentar o diabólico com cabeça fria”, como coloca o historiador Klaus-Dietmar Henke, de Dresden – e a desenvolver instrumentos que ajudem a evitar o genocídio.

Na opinião de Avraham Burg, um ex-presidente do Knesset, o Parlamento israelense, uma nação que alegava ser ao mesmo tempo a herdeira e a personificação das vítimas não deveria ter-se permitido assumir o papel de juiz no caso Eichmann. Burg teria preferido um tribunal com jurisdição internacional, mas isso era claramente algo que não iria acontecer.

“O Estado de Israel quis se vingar e reeducar o mundo… Nós entendemos que a Shoah nos afetava exclusivamente, e a nacionalizamos e monopolizamos”, diz Burg, de maneira muito dura, em retrospectiva. Mas até ele admite que houve um aspecto libertador no julgamento. “Pela primeira vez os adultos puderam falar abertamente sobre as coisas que haviam sofrido repetidamente em seus pesadelos”, ele diz.

Punir, isolar e reabilitar

Em termos morais, ao descartar a opção da pena de morte, o tribunal do Camboja se elevou acima dos culpados e seu desvario mortal. Mas existem outros reveses às “Câmaras Extraordinárias dos Tribunais do Camboja”, como o tribunal é chamado.

Autoridades corruptas de Phnom Penh que serviram no tribunal tentaram limitar qualquer culpa pelo passado do Camboja a um punhado de casos, assim desviando a atenção do fato de que ex-membros do Khmer Vermelho ainda hoje ocupam cargos oficiais em Phnom Penh.

Da mesma forma, existe certa dúvida quanto a se os hoje idosos líderes do Khmer Vermelho jamais serão julgados. Estes incluem Nuon Chea, que foi o segundo no comando do regime, o ex-presidente Khieu Samphan (1976-1979) e os ex-ministros Ieng Sary e Ieng Thirith.

Depois de certa hesitação inicial, a população do Camboja começou a demonstrar interesse pelo julgamento de Duch. Mais de 50 testemunhas depuseram; cerca de 25 mil pessoas assistiram às audiências da galeria pública do tribunal; e milhões escutaram as transmissões de rádio das audiências.

“Para mim, foi uma vitória ver esse antigo oficial – que foi tão arrogante e poderoso – sentado impotente no banco dos réus”, diz uma cambojana que perdeu muitos parentes durante os anos de trevas. Ela acrescentou que gostaria de ver Duch “apodrecer” na prisão e morrer atrás das grades.

Mas esse desfecho não é totalmente garantido. Uma avaliação psiquiátrica de Duch, ordenada pelo tribunal, que foi vista por “Der Spiegel”, chega a conclusões surpreendentes. Segundo o relatório, Duch foi de fato responsável por seus atos; ele foi “meticuloso, consciencioso e controlado”; não obstante, conseguiu “compor poderosos mecanismos de defesa próprios, especialmente através da percepção seletiva dos fatos”.

Ainda assim, os especialistas chegam a uma conclusão perturbadora: do ponto de vista dos psicólogos, o ex-comandante de Tuol Sleng poderá um dia ser ressocializado e reintegrado à sociedade. Mas se ele será libertado, continua o relatório, “depende, é claro, de mais que simples considerações médicas”.

http://noticias.uol.com.br/midiaglobal/derspiegel/2009/12/20/ult2682u1438.jhtm

Tradução: Luiz Roberto Mendes Gonçalves