CounterCurrents: Israelis Vote To Abandon All Pretence Of Seeking Peace, Solar Express: Can India’s Rail Network Hit Its Clean Energy Target?

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www.countercurrents.org


Netanyahu's Victory: Now What President Obama?
By Alan Hart

http://www.countercurrents.org/hart190315.htm

Unless Obama can summon up the will and the courage to publicly tell Israel that enough is enough and then back his words with actions, the answer to Lerman's question is that nobody can stop Netanyahu advancing the doomsday clock. My guess is that Obama will wash his hands of the conflict and walk away from it. In that event he'll deserve a place in history as the American president who gave Zionism the green light to take the region and possibly the whole world to hell. I hope, Mr. President, that I am wrong about you and your intentions


Israel Votes Apartheid
By Neve Gordon

http://www.countercurrents.org/gordon190315.htm

Pandering and fear mongering together with hatred for Arabs and the left are the ingredients of Netanyahu's secret potion, and it now appears that many voters were indeed seduced. Within a matter of a few days Netanyahu garnered almost ten additional seats for his party, cannibalizing two of his extreme right allies: Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinuand Naftali Bennett's Habayit Hayehudi. Owing to his magic, the Likud did much better than expected, and together with the ultra-Orthodox parties and a new party recently formed by a former Likud minister, Kulanu (All of US), an extreme right wing bloc with 67 out of 120 seats will almost certainly be created (and this even before the soldier's votes have been calculated, which are usually right of center). The outcome is clear: the people of Israel have voted for Apartheid


Israelis Vote To Abandon All Pretence Of Seeking Peace
By Dan Glazebrook

http://www.countercurrents.org/glazebrook190315.htm

Israelis went to the polls the other day in an election which, defying all predictions, saw the ‘left-wing’ of Zionism – genocide with a human face – soundly beaten by its more honest ‘right wing’, whose commitment to the total eradication of the Palestinians as any kind of political entity is openly stated


Netanyahu Victory Opens Door For One-State Solution
By Francis Boyle

http://www.countercurrents.org/boyle190315.htm

Before the Palestinian Declaration of Independence of 15 November 1988, the position of the Palestine National Council and the Palestine Liberation Organization was that there should be only one, democratic and secular state for the entire mandate for Palestine, which would include Israel within it. It was PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat himself who encouraged the Palestine National Council to accept the two-state solution in the Palestinian Declaration of Independence of 15 November 1988. After 27 years of fruitlessly trying to pursue a two-state solution, it is now time for the Palestine National Council and the PLO to reconsider their options


Ukraine Declares Resumption of War Against Donbass
By Eric Zuesse

http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse190315.htm

On Wednesday, March 18th, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Prime Minister of Ukraine — who was selected for that post by Victoria Nuland of the U.S. State Department on 4 February 2014, 18 days before the U.S. coup that installed him into this office — told his cabinet meeting, “Our goal is to regain control of Donetsk and Lugansk.” Those are the two districts comprising Donbass, the self-proclaimed independent region of Ukraine, which now calls itself “The People's Republic“ and sometimes “Novorossiya,” and which rejects the coup and its coup-imposed Government


Obama's Double-Standard On Russia: He Attacks Russia,
Then Condemn's Putin For Defending Russia From His Attack
By Eric Zuesse

http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse190315A.htm

Obama overthrew the legal Government, and replaced it by this illegal one. But now he criticizes Putin as if he were the aggressor instead of the defender here. And Obama demands that the Soviet dictator's forced transfer of Crimea to Ukraine be legal and that Putin's defense of Crimeans' democratic self-determination in response to that coup be considered illegal


Countries Agree On UN Plan In Sendai To Save Lives From Disasters
By Megan Darby

http://www.countercurrents.org/darby190315.htm

Twelve hours behind schedule, 187 countries agreed a deal in Sendai on Wednesday to reduce death and economic damage from natural disasters.The Sendai Framework set seven targets and four priorities for the next fifteen years. These include plans to “substantially reduce” loss of life from 2005-15 levels in 2020-30 and to reduce economic losses as a proportion of global GDP by 2030


Solar Express: Can India’s Rail Network Hit Its Clean Energy Target?
By Ashok Thanikonda

http://www.countercurrents.org/thanikonda190315.htm

The time has come for the Indian Railways to seize the day, and scale up its investment in solar power


The New American Order
By Tom Engelhardt

http://www.countercurrents.org/engelhardt190315.htm

1% Elections, The Privatization of the State, a Fourth Branch of Government, and the Demobilization of "We the People"


‘Islamic State’ As A Western Phenomenon? Reimagining The IS Debate
By Ramzy Baroud

http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud190315.htm

No matter how one attempts to wrangle with the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS) rise in Iraq and Syria, desperately seeking any political or other context that would validate the movement as an explainable historical circumstance, things refuse to add up


The Veggie Pride Talk I Didn’t Give
By Mickey Z.

http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz190315.htm

For the first time in many years, I’ve declined an offer to be the lead speaker at the annual Veggie Pride Parade in NYC’s Union Square Park. I learned the hard way that although the cheers have been loud, the local vegan/animal rights scene wasn’t actually hearing me. Since I’ve opted to no longer howl into an echo chamber, I’ll share my thoughts here instead


Ahwazis Call The Amnesty International To Urge Iran To Stop Persecution
By Amir Saedi

http://www.countercurrents.org/saedi190315.htm

Ahwazi Community in the UK demonstrated in front of the Amnesty International on Tuesday 17 March 2015 against the persecution of the Arabs by the Iranian regime. Following the protest a group of Ahwazi activists met with Mrs Hassiba Hadh Sahraoui, the Deputy Director of Middle East and North Africa Programme


Condemn The Gang-Rape In Nadia And Continuing Attacks On Christians
By People's Union for Democratic Rights

http://www.countercurrents.org/pudr190315.htm

PUDR expresses outrage at the gang-rape of a 71 year old nun by a gang of “dacoits” inside a convent in Gangnapur village, Nadia district, West Bengal on 14th March 2015. The men reportedly raided and desecrated the convent before taking away 12 lakhs.Clearly, the motive was not merely to rob and decamp but to punish the school and the community through this horrendous gang-rape. In this connection, PUDR wishes to draw attention to the disturbing trend of attacks on Christians, including their institutions and places of worship, in recent times


The Hindutva Algebra Of Nation-Making
By Braj Ranjan Mani

http://www.countercurrents.org/mani190315.htm

Remembering Martin Niemöller’s famous poem, I am tempted to think that if Martin had been an Indian—alive today—he would certainly have scribbled something like the following


Hold Tobacco Industry Liable: Turn The Cost-Benefit Ratio Upside Down
By Shobha Shukla

http://www.countercurrents.org/shukla190315.htm

WHO FCTC Article 19 envisions a world where governments hold the power to protect people from harmful products like tobacco, can recover the costs of treating tobacco-related disease from the tobacco industry, and can use their legal systems to ensure their right to do so