What next for North Africa/Middle East?

Generali

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I would question whether the Jewish member of the Iranian parliament is truly democratically elected, given that it's a state of affairs which is engineered by the constitution.

That said, Wikipedia suggests 3 out of 290 Iranian MPs are Jewish, and the got 1.1% of the vote, which at a turnout of 64% on 30 million electorate suggests 200,000+ votes, which is roughly 8 times the reported size of the Jewish community in Iran.

That is odd, but then the BNP got 1 million votes in the uk's last European elections, and there is no way they actually have that level of support.

That suggests to me that the stereotyping is wrong and Iranian people, rather like most other people with votes, vote for reasons other religion for the most part.

Don't tell the warmongerers and lazy journalists but maybe Iranians are normal people like the rest of us rather than a nation of nut job zealots.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

maybe Iranians are normal people like the rest of us rather than a nation of nut job zealots.

We are all the product of our environment.

There are of course, plenty of perfectly sensible and decent people in every country in the world, including Iran. And plenty of nutty and zealous people in every country in the world, not just Iran.

But in some countries, people with the potential to become "nut job zealots" are encouraged to be particularly nutty and extra-zealous by the religious, political and social environment and so form a greater percentage of the population that they would elsewhere.

Iran would be one of those places.

John_Pierpoint

Generali wrote: »

Israel and Iran are the 2 countries. IIRC, the Iranian constitution mandates that there must be at least one Jewish MP.

Is the USA the answer to #15?

I found several sites on the interweb that say it is the UK that has the highest number of legislators claiming to be Jewish.
However I am not sure that all these sites had updated their statistics to take care of the last election.
I think I would be more suspicious of political parties, the masons and "the Midlothian question".

There are all sorts of groupings that command loyalty to the "gang", if one wants to get paranoid about conspiracy theories.

I'm also discovered that the Tunisian assembly, included a Jewish member. I was in two minds about Iran as the Iranians insist that they are not Arabic; in much the same way that the Chinese used to claim to be a superior sort of monkey, until DNA proved them wrong.
[In my opinion China is more of a continent that a country].

vivatifosi

There's a lot about Iran people don't understand. It's a place that I've been reading a lot about even though I stress I haven't been there - it's just somewhere that fascinates me. It's a shame ninky isn't around still, she could say a lot more on the subject. However it is fair to say that while religious zealots do force women to dress extremely conservatively, they are also allowed to study in universities, hold good jobs (at the whim of the government), participate in sports (albeit in somewhat interesting outfits) and even under certain circumstances gain a divorce. There's a great underground system and the northern suburbs of Tehran are - by local standards - middle class and liberal. Also, under the previous regime, women were forced not to wear the hijab albeit that this was a long time ago, so there has been pressure in both directions.

Iran reportedly has the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside of Israel. It also has a substantial well-educated diaspora, many of whom leave the country because the job prospects for graduates are so poor.

However Iran is not the west. Women are subject to the whims of legislators: per Wikipedia last year women were banned from skiing after it was suggested that they could wear outfits that did not meet the strict dress code and meet men. When comparing human rights for women the countries it compares favourably with are the likes of Saudi Arabia, not Europe.

vivatifosi

Is Libya one step closer to breaking up as a nation? Tribal leaders in Cyrenica, the region that contains Benghazi, have declared semi-autonomy; much to the annoyance of the new government in Tripoli. They say it is important because the region has received so little funding under Gaddafi. The region is the one that contains the oil, as well as the one where the rebellion kicked-off in the first place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17282953

This reminds me a bit of Iraq, where you have the Sunni middle, Kurdish north and Shia south all wanting different things. Although in this instance it is tribal, the splits seem to also run very deep.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Is Libya one step closer to breaking up as a nation? Tribal leaders in Cyrenica, the region that contains Benghazi, have declared semi-autonomy; much to the annoyance of the new government in Tripoli. They say it is important because the region has received so little funding under Gaddafi. The region is the one that contains the oil, as well as the one where the rebellion kicked-off in the first place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17282953

This reminds me a bit of Iraq, where you have the Sunni middle, Kurdish north and Shia south all wanting different things. Although in this instance it is tribal, the splits seem to also run very deep.

It sounds a bit like Scotland to me. Fed up with political mistreatment by the country they find themselves in they want to bogger off and take all the oil with them!

chewmylegoff

Watch out, their next move will be to abolish prescription charges in Benghazi! That won't go down well in Tripoli.

John_Pierpoint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_people

Here we go again - These people were generally referred to as the highest priced slaves or the Jews of Africa.

Memorable advertisements in the papers, along the lines of "Protein is flying into Biafra", and featuring a picture of a locus against the background of "A biblical famine".

Meanwhile the UK supported Nigeria & France supported Biafra.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19690226&id=8n9AAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0KMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1704,4732927

"The Affaire Soames", to which this newspaper cutting refers, if I remember correctly, was a leaked attempt by De Gaulle to reach an accommodation over the civil war because "all we both want is to get our hands on the oil".

When we in the UK, the former colonial power, were simply trying to maintain the rule of law and justice for all................

Plus ca change....................

Interestingly, the Chinese are withdrawing their people from Syria; after hoping that Libya would blow over, and then having to mount a rescue operation.

Next step will be Shetland independence - no point in supporting those alcoholic unemployables in Glasgow.

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2009/04/03/politics-what-is-the-shetland-charitable-trust

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2011/05/27/oil-wealth-fund-managers-beat-the-market-but-council-outspends-growth

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Law of unintended consequences strikes again.....

JERUSALEM, April 22 (Reuters) - Egyptian energy companies, citing a trade dispute, have terminated a deal to supply Israel with natural gas in a step that may further erode bilateral ties strained by a popular revolt that toppled Egypt's pro-Israeli leader last year.

An Israeli partner in the business made the step public on Sunday but an Egyptian firm said the decision to cancel the deal had been made on Thursday.

Israel, which relies on Egypt for 40 percent of its natural gas supply, worried about facing further energy cuts after a series of sabotage attacks on the pipeline running through the volatile Sinai peninsula contributed to shortages.

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz expressed "great concern" about the suspension, saying it had set "a dangerous precedent which casts a shadow on the peace agreements and the peaceful atmosphere between Egypt and Israel".

Egypt was the first of two Arab countries to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994.

The Egyptian decision was announced in Israel by Ampal-American Israel Corporation, partner in the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), which operates a cross-border pipeline supplying gas to Israel.

Ampal said the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company had told EMG they were "terminating the gas and purchase agreement".

The Egyptian decision followed a dispute over damages caused by a series of blasts on the pipeline supplying Israel, via the Sinai desert region on its border where lawlessness has risen since President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in 2011.

vivatifosi

UN Monitors have arrived in Syrian town of Houla to monitor ceasefire following complaints that over 90 people, including children, have died in shelling.

http://www.itn.co.uk/home/46261/Syrian+forces+27kill+50+in+Homs27

10 Syrian Olympians are due to come to the UK, but the chiefs from their delegation risk arrest due to close links to the Assad regime. The IOC has been funding the athletes directly rather than sending to the regime:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=oly&id=7932019