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LONDON – To be blunt, there is no Israel and no Palestine. At least not in a continuous historical sense, as there is a France or an Egypt, a China or a Thailand. Without the British there would be neither a modern Israel nor Palestine. The Jews claim that they are merely returning to their roots, unwinding the clock to Old Testament times. But if every group of ethnic kin with an ancient pedigree did this where would we be? The Indians could reclaim North and South America, the Moguls Russia and the Hottentots South Africa. The Jews left what was relatively recently named Palestine a long time ago. In AD 70 after the Jewish insurrection the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple and the Jews began a new exodus to Babylonia, in modern day Iraq. This large-scale Jewish settlement of Babylonia endured until the eleventh century. Other Jews went to...

LONDON – The Basque autonomy question and its corollary, the future of Europe’s one remaining active, homegrown, terrorist movement, is moving into a new phase, one both subtle and contradictory. The relatively new Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero works both sides of the street. On the one side it has just convened a meeting of the Anti-Terrorist Pact, a forum where the government and the opposition meet to review a joint approach to Basque terrorism. Despite their bitter differences, as recently as three years ago the Popular Party and the Socialist Party combined their forces in an unsuccessful effort in the Basque regional elections to avoid victory by the moderate Basque Nationalist Party. Both the mainstream parties do their best to stand shoulder to shoulder in their support of the security services which recently had a stunning success in capturing top leaders of ETA, the terrorist arm of...

LONDON – This week as the world watched with baited breath the American presidential election the last thing that most people were thinking about was sea and oceans. Yet both George W. Bush and John Kerry were unanimous on one important point of foreign policy – although neither spoke a word about it. They agreed, if elected, that they would move to ratify the UN’s Law of the Sea. It could happen before the month is out. All the road blocks of the last twenty years since President Reagan decided to torpedo the treaty have been removed and Congress is poised to give the White House the green light on ratification. It will be a momentous step forward for international law, one which defeated a willing Bill Clinton and is out of character for the unilateralist-inclined George W. Bush. But the consensus in Washington is now very real. Until the...

War of civilizations? Violence-prone Muslims living out the inheritance of their prophet, Mohammed who, in marked contrast to Jesus Christ, established his creed on earth by vigorous use of the sword. It’s all there in Princeton professor Bernard Lewis’ new book, “From Babel to Dragomans”. Labeled the neo-conservatives’ Islamic expert, the Wall Street Journal says, “the Lewis doctrine has become U.S. policy.” And if George W. Bush wins re-election it will continue unchallenged. Only last week Attorney General John Ashcroft was claiming that the Bush administration was assisting “the hand of Providence”. Those who read both the future and the past this way still appear to have the intellectual upper hand in the Anglo-Saxon political arena, even if there is a division of opinion on how best to confront it. Harvard professor, Samuel Huntington, author of the seminal “The Clash of Civilizations”, whose title he borrowed from Lewis, wrote in...

Vaclav Havel On July 9, 1955, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto was issued in London. Its concern was with the new, powerful H-bombs, which the signers of the Manifesto believed placed the human race in jeopardy of annihilation. “Here, then, is the problem,” the Manifesto stated, “which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war? People will not face this alternative because it is so difficult to abolish war.” Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein were two of the leading intellectual figures of the 20th century. Russell was a philosopher, mathematician and Nobel Laureate in Literature. Einstein was a theoretical physicist, considered the greatest scientist of his time, and a Nobel Laureate in Physics. Both men were tireless advocates for peace throughout their lives. Russell was primarily responsible for drafting the Manifesto, but it contained ideas that Einstein...

LONDON – In 1967 when he was a presidential candidate Richard Nixon caused a sensation with his Foreign Affairs article, “Asia after Vietnam”, anticipating a more conciliatory policy towards China. In his first presidential debate Bill Clinton tore into George Bush Senior accusing him, in effect, of being soft on China and promising that if he were elected the age of conciliation would end. Now in the recently held presidential debates between George W. Bush and Bob Kerry China policy appears to have come to a silent stop. Judging by the total lack of debate China is a non-issue between them, not even worth a few sentences of analysis. Before Nixon came to power “Red China” was portrayed in America and much of the West as a nation bent on the domination of Asia. Its admission to the United Nations was firmly refused. Nixon turned all this on its head....

LONDON – Diminutive Taiwan’s (population 23 million) best defense against massive China (population: 1.3 billion) is its vibrant democracy that gives it its telling sense of community. If there were a final showdown between the two it is true that guns probably wouldn’t count. What would matter would be Taiwan’s ability to amount a popular passive resistance to a Chinese occupation, including ending all high-tech investment in the Shanghai region which would have a devastating impact since this is the single most important factor in China’s current boom. But that is no excuse for the moves afoot by France and Germany to push the European Union into ending its arms embargo to China. A looser gun policy by Europe sends just the wrong signal. What we need is a reaffirmation of the status quo policy, the one in effect today most of the time, a policy that the EU now...

Om vi ska förstå samhälllet,  och vad som händer i samhället,  så måste vi också kunna analysera  utifrån grupper.. Vi gör det ofta när vi talar ekonomi (överklass, medelklass, arbetarklass/underklass) men vi kan också använda “kön” för att analysera. Gör vi det så ser vi  att det är stor skillnad mellan gruppen kvinnor och gruppen män. Inom samtliga områden finns en struktur som ger män makt och privilegier och som underordnar och diskriminerar kvinnor. Det visar sig bl.a. i lönediskriminering,  men också mer brutalt, i form av mäns våld mot kvinnor. Det finns tonvis med statistik som visar detta. Det handlar om 5 mordförsök i veckan, mer än en kvinna mördas varje vecka, 62 misshandlas varje dag, 6 våldtas varje dag. Detta är siffror från Brottsoffermyndigheten och gäller antalet anmälda brott år 2003. Mörkertalet är stort, påtalar både myndigheten och kvinnojourerna, dvs många väljer att inte anmäla. Realistiskt är att...

Spørsmålene som ikke stilles Etter 11. september 2001 har vi sett en utvikling der stadig flere deler av samfunnet er blitt angrepet av “sikkerhetsmafiaen”. Alt som med rikelig fantasi kan defineres som et “sikkerhetsproblem” blir utnyttet av vaktselskaper, journalister, låsesmeder, gjerdeprodusenter, fredsforskere, produsenter av overvåkningssystemer, politifolk og politikere. Budsjettene til sikkerhetstiltak ser ut til å stige raskere enn høstens oljepriser og dessuten er budsjettbevilgningene like selvklare som naturlover. Den offentlige debatten hopper lett over det grunnleggende spørsmålet om hvorfor? og henger seg opp i detaljer om tekniske løsninger. Det kan være på sin plass å få noe perspektiv på dette med “terror”. Hva er det som fasinerer? Hvorfor er det på alles lepper og i alle medier? Hva er drivkreftene som så lett åpner planboka til så vel stater som private bedrifter? Og hvorfor får visse faremomenter så uproporsjonerlig stor oppmerksomhet og store ressurser? “Terrorisme” er suspekt – Mandela var...

LONDON – Last week, Sudan’s minister of state for foreign affairs told a press conference in Khartoum that the Darfur crisis was “a smokescreen” to hoodwink the international community into aiding political opponents who seek to overthrow the government. I immediately phoned up Olusegun Obasanjo, the president of Nigeria and the current chairman of the African Union. Obasanjo who is hosting a peace conference later this month between the warring parties and Nigeria, along with Rwanda, has sent peace-keepers to Sudan to monitor the conflict. As usual Obasanjo was to the point: “If there is any smokescreen at all it is coming from the Sudanese government”. I asked him if the situation today was very different from the one that preceded the massacres in Rwanda a decade ago when the U.S. and Britain squashed attempts in the Security Council to beef up the tiny UN presence in Rwanda. “I’m sure”,...

Visionen Lad det være sagt med det samme. For at skabe en bedre verden skal vi ikke fjerne konflikter, vi skal reducere volden i alle dens facetter. Konflikter sker, punktum! De findes overalt. Ethvert menneske har indre konflikter mellem at gøre det man har lyst til og det man skal eller det man godt ved man ikke burde. Frie mennesker tænker selvstændigt og forskelligt og vil noget forskelligt. Konflikter er det stof livet består af; et samfund hvor der ikke var konflikter og alle ville det samme måtte være det mest Orwellianske, man kan tænke sig. Ægte demokrati er et af de bedre konflikt-håndteringsmidler, vi kender. Opgaven foran os er at reducere og på visse punkter helt fjerne volden, inden den fjerner os. Der er volden i tanke, i tale og i handling. Der er volden mod andre mennesker, mod andre kulturer og mod naturen. Der er fysisk og psykisk...