Palestinian Pundit

You know, I can't help but notice that when Pope Rottweiler was first selected that Zionists were up in arms over the fact that he was a Hitler youth. Remember when the Zionist uproar revolved around him being a Hitler youth, folks? I do. I remember thinking, "gee, they couldn't find someone that wasn't a Hitler youth?

But now all of a sudden Pope Rottweiler is attacking Islam and the Zionists applaud him for his "astute" observations on Islam? OKKKKKKK.

I really hope that Muslims don't start rioting over his remarks, I mean, I am totally offended on behalf of Muslims by his comments, but let's keep it in perspective, Papa Rottweiler was a Hitler youth.



P.S. my mom showed the first picture to my 2 year old nephew on Christmas and he was so frightened and cried so hard that he horked all over my legs. Kids have great intuition.

GAZA - Rapper D.R. (Dynamic Rapper) enters an upscale restaurant in the city center in the early afternoon. A beautiful young American woman named Jackie escorts him to the table and sits with him. He is full of smiles and high-fives, and his black eyes peek out above the rims of his fashionable sunglasses. Everyone here knows him. He is very skinny, wears a sleeveless shirt and low-riding Bermudas that look like they could fall down at any moment; on his head is a red baseball cap over a hairnet, not unlike rapper 50 Cent - and on his feet are sneakers, obviously.

"I don't want to imitate the Americans; I'm a proud Palestinian," says D.R., a.k.a. Mohammed al-Faraa. The place: Gaza City. The restaurant - Ma'atuk, on Omar al-Mukhtar street, next to the Hezbollah support tent set up by Islamic Jihad.

Al-Faraa, a Khan Yunis resident, is only 21, but is known all over the coastal strip, along with his two peers in the group Palestinian Rappers, PR for short. He looks like a real rap star, standing out in gray, militant Gaza. But PR's lyrics bring us back exactly to where we are. "The peoples' tragedy" is the name of a song they wrote about the 1948 Nakba ("catastrophe," the founding of the State of Israel). "That which occupied our lives, destroyed all our opportunities, the massacre commited, Sabra, Chatila and the deportation ... 1948," sing al-Faraa and his comrades Ayman Magames and Mahmoud Fayyad, a.k.a. Kana'an.

When rapped the words indeed sound less militant, but maybe the lyrics are the reason the group's concerts were not banned in Gaza.

"In our society some like us, and of course some condemn us," Magames says. "After they heard what we have to say, there were no more allegations about our trying to be like the Americans. As Palestinian-Arab rappers we convey a message of rage. Rap started in the United States as a protest against racism. Our protest here is against the Gaza reality. Some of the Palestinians express their rage by throwing rocks; we do it through rap. It is better than stones, because violence only breeds more violence."

Can't take away my art

When asked whether they are the only rap group in Gaza, they respond with a triumphant smile. "Shitloads, there are so many rappers in the city today you can hardly count them," al-Faraa says. "We started in 2003 and since then dozens of young people have been trying their luck in rap."

It appears Gaza also boasts a female rapper - Nivin, a 17-year-old, sings a love song with the trio.

"We don't see any money out of music, forget about it. We have to pay the recording studio, and every song costs us NIS 300," says al-Faraa. "For months we have been saving money for a studio, and it takes a lot of our time. Our dream is for the Palestinian issue to be known all over the world. That when I chat with someone on the Web and tell him where I'm from, I won't be accused of being a murderer. I hope they realize the Palestinian message is a message of peace. I had five friends who were killed in the intifada, and those gone will not come back. But I don't hate the Israelis, only the Israeli government that deprives me of my freedom and liberty; but it cannot take away my art."

A mention of Israeli rappers stirs mixed reactions. "We don't like Subliminal," Fayyad says. "I don't see him as an Israeli, but as a Zionist. He hates Arabs, and I'm addressing his message. But if there is a group of rappers with a message of peace, we can work with them. Subliminal aside, we are ready to work with any Israeli rapper. We already played in Israel, at Peki'in. There was an American Idol-style show there, and we were guests of honor. There were even Israeli cops and soldiers in the crowd."

During our meeting, the three look through the window of the al-Masharaq building, the site of their recording studio. From there the Gaza beach can be seen, but the PR crew is concerned about a parade of armed men passing below the building - thousands of members of the various security apparatuses demonstrating against the Hamas government. The armed men fire their guns, and the rappers seem amused. "I took part in demonstrations when the intifada began," says al-Faraa. "At the end of 2000 I was even shot with a live bullet. Since then I stopped going to demonstrations."

Drugs no, narghile yes

They enter the studio. Al-Faraa at the center, as is fitting for a star, and Magames and Fayyad at his sides. "Heyna ana jai, heyna ana jai" (Here I come), they begin - and are surprised to hear the Israeli rap group Hadag Nahash sings the same lyrics. But PR's song does not deal with the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv relationship, but rather criticizes Arab singers Nancy Ajram and Haifa Wehbi, who might be described as the Arab versions of Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears. "They only show off their bodies and put no meaning in their songs, no message, sort of show girls," Magames says.

The rhythm picks up, and the trio is into the beat. Al-Faraa leads with his hand gestures. Like the best of American rap, he also repeatedly cups his groin, and the song ends in English: "Get out of the way, bitch."

"We don't curse," he says. "Look, when my parents understood I intended to be a rapper, they had conditions - that I stay in school and keep the tradition. We live in Gaza in a Muslim society, and we plan to keep living here. We started rapping while studying at the university, after we heard songs on the Internet. At the beginning we played before different audiences in Gaza. We left for Ramallah and then we toured abroad. We had concerts in Ireland, the British embassy flew us there to play for the Arab community, but ultimately it is clear to me that my home and land is in Gaza.

"Therefore there are a few things we don't do, like drugs. We do like to smoke narghile. We even have a song about the narghile, whose lyrics make you think at first that the song is about sexual relations between a guy and a girl, and then you realize it is actually a love song for a narghile."

What about groupies, post concert sex?

"We are Arabs, we are bound by a certain tradition. I cannot walk in Gaza with girls or whores around me like rappers abroad. It's not our thing. Sometimes we sing about love, a mate, and even about girls who only care about makeup and a good time. But you have to understand something. With the girls in Gaza you can only look. You cannot talk to them. If I approach them, it could get messy."

At the end of the day they leave their dreams of a rap career at the studio and descend the stairs from the sixth floor, since frequent power failures have grounded the elevators. Exiting to the street they are met by the dozens of armed men coming back from the demonstration. Welcome back to Gaza reality.

Saturday September 16, 2006
The Guardian

Much of the debate in Washington in the aftermath of the fighting between Israel and Hizballah has focused on who has "won" and who has "lost" Lebanon War II. Foreign policy pundits have pondered about the final outcome of the bloody cycle of violence in the Levant and the way it affected each side's strategic goals, military power, economic resources, diplomatic support and propaganda methods.

Wars not only bring about the rise and fall of military powers, they also create winners and losers in the wars of ideas and decide the fate of certain intellectual tenets that guided the leaders of these powers. Indeed, there is a growing recognition in Washington that the neoconservative paradigm that equated the advancement of U.S. interests with the spread of democracy in the Middle East has suffered a major blow as a result of the disastrous outcome of the Iraq War. Hence the notion that freedom is not on the march in Mesopotamia and elsewhere in Arabia could erode the influence of the Wilsonian agenda promoted by the neocons and enhance the power of their intellectual rivals in the foreign policy community, namely the realpolitik types.

From that perspective, one of the main casualties of the latest crisis in the Middle East has been another favorite neoconservative paradigm, according to which the United States should regard Israel as a major "strategic asset" in the Middle East, which in turn is rooted in a neoconservative axiom of sort, that what is good for Israel's strategic interest is good for America and vice versa.

The neoconservative plot-line of the recent Middle East "cinematic event" was obvious: Iran and Syria encouraged its proxy in Lebanon, Hizballah, to deliver a blow to America's proxy in the Middle East, Israel, as a way of shifting the balance of power in the Middle East in favor of Tehran and Damascus. According to the script, Israel, the American proxy was supposed to deliver a counter-blow to Hizballah, the Iranian-Syrian proxy and re-shift the balance of power in favor of Washington. This game was expected to conclude with an American-Israeli win over the Axis of Evil team. Instead, according to the conventional wisdom among experts, the final results of Lebanon War II--Israel failing to decimate Hizballah by doing a rerun of the Six Day War or a remake of the Entebbe rescue operation--are looking more and more like, in the best case scenario, a draw or, in the worst-case scenario, a perception of a Hizballah victory.

Continued.

Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the "War on Terror":The U.S. government-sponsored program of renditions is an unlawful practice in which numerous persons have been illegally detained and secretly flown to third countries, where they have suffered additional human rights abuses including torture and enforced disappearance.

So Guantanamo wasn't needed after all

By Alasdair Palmer

09/17/06 "The Telegraph" -- -- President Bush's policy on how to treat people captured in the course of the war on terror is unravelling fast. In order to comply with a Supreme Court ruling, he has to get new rules for military tribunals for the suspects held at Guantanamo through Congress.

Last week, Sen John McCain vowed to fight the president's attempt to change the definition of "cruel, inhumane and degrading" treatment in the Geneva Conventions, and to give members of the CIA immunity from prosecution for "grave breaches" of the con-vention (in other words, torture). Bush's former secretary of state, Colin Powell, endorsed McCain's attack, solemnly pointing out what has long been obvious: "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism."

The incarceration and torture of men such as Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the man who planned the 9/11 attacks, has certainly done immense damage to America's reputation, as has the indefinite detention without trial of terrorist suspects in Guantanamo.

George Bush did not, of course, come up with those policies himself: his lawyers did. They were convinced that the administration would have a chance of successfully interrogating the terrorists they captured only if they kept them out of the reach of… yes, other lawyers.

That was the reason for setting up the Guantanamo camp on Cuba. What the lawyers feared most was civilian trials for those captured in the war on terror. They were worried by the presumption of innocence, which inevitably makes securing a guilty verdict difficult in terrorist cases, where the evidence usually depends on the coercion of witnesses.

Moreover, the experience of the trials arising from the first attempt to blow up the World Trade Centre revealed that when the prosecution disclosed its evidence to the defence, it handed the terrorists a huge amount of intelligence on the US government's knowledge of their network.

There was a furious debate in the months after 9/11 as to whether the US should treat and try those captured in the war on terror according to the Geneva Convention. Lawyers in the defence department insisted that it should not: terrorists did not wear uniforms, they broke all the laws of war, and they did not serve a state but a terrorist group. They should therefore be categorised as "enemy combatants" to whom the conventions did not apply.

The strongest argument against their case was based not on law but on policy. Colin Powell, then running the State Department, predicted that to announce that the US was "coming off Geneva" would destroy America's reputation abroad and make it much harder to win the war on terror. Small breaches of the convention would any way not count as "violating" it, he added. And no one was contemplating "grave breaches"… were they?

In fact, "grave breaches" were precisely what some lawyers in Bush's administration were advocating. The now-notorious "torture memo" stated that the President's wartime powers meant he could order just about anything he liked. That memo was later revoked by other, less extreme officials within the Justice Department.

But by then, the pictures from Abu Ghraib were out and the "torture memo" was public. The world had concluded that the US's primary weapons in the war on terror were vicious cruelty and the violation of international law.

What must be most galling to Gen Powell now is that it could all have been avoided if the President had taken his advice. Military tribunals based on Geneva Convention principles would have ensured that terrorist suspects were held legally on US soil.

As for torture, the lawyers who advocated it broke the fundamental rule governing gruesome methods: do not try to justify them by anything except necessity. Above all, do not write your justification down in a 50-page memo that will inevitably leak.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.

Occupation confiscates more Land in West Bank and announces Apartheid Road: The Occupation is to isolate over 7000 dunums of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem and Hebron areas in preparation for the continuation of the Wall and the construction of an apartheid road which will carve through the south of West Bank. The new 'Jews-only' road will run virtually parallel to the existing road, linking the Gush Etzion settlement block Karmel settlement in the South and 1948 land. Israel has been seeking international funding since 2004 for 52 apartheid roads totalling 500 kilometers.

Christian presence in Holy Land small and getting smaller: The exodus of Christians from the Holy Land troubles the faithful worldwide. With tensions rising the past five years and economic conditions worsening, some have begun to whisper about a day when the native Christian population disappears entirely. Since 1948, when Christians were estimated at 20 percent of all Palestinians in the region, their numbers have dropped to roughly 2 percent, according to the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, a group based in Bethesda, Md.

NAM Rejects Israeli Annexation in Jerusalem: The support to the UN resolutions confirming Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel was Saturday included in the Final Declaration of the 14th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit. The document terms null measures to change character, political and demographic condition of that sacred city, whose eastern segment was occupied militarily by Tel Aviv in the 1967 war. Four resolutions by the UN Security Council and one of the General Assembly allude the issue, and they are ignored by the Israeli government.

U.S.-born Palestinian fights for resident status; Thousands face deportation under Israeli policy: Bahour pushed on, somehow managing to do the near impossible — planning, building and opening the Plaza Shopping Centre in Ramallah during the height of an Israeli military siege. At a time when Palestinian youths were tempted by violence, Bahour instead did his all to tempt them with jobs. All of which makes the 40-something Bahour's latest project sadder still. Bahour is leading a campaign to save himself and an estimated 12,000 other foreign-born Palestinians from a new Israeli policy designed to sweep them out of the territories.

It takes a village: This was the discordant opening note of the last operation to capture the "Little Triangle," consisting of three Palestinian villages located about 20 kilometers south of Haifa, which held out until the second truce of the War of Independence on July 19, 1948, and continued to block the coastal road between Zichron Yaakov and Haifa. Thanks to the truce, the fledgling Israel Defense Forces was able to throw itself into the battle against the recalcitrant villages with the unprecedented support of armored vehicles, artillery and the air force

Palestinian area churches attacked: Palestinians wielding guns and firebombs attacked five churches in the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday, following remarks by Pope Benedict XVI that angered many Muslims. Relations between Palestinian Muslims and Christians are generally peaceful, and the attacks on the churches sparked concern that tensions would heighten.

Muslim Leader in Palestine reject attacks against Christians: The supreme judge of Palestine Sheikh Tayseer At-Tamimi called Saturday on the Palestinian people not to be provoked by the Pope's words which have irritated Muslims' religious feelings.

ISM Responds to Internet Photos, Reaffirms Commitment to Non-violence: Possibly the most outrageous claim is that two of the foreigners in the photos are now in Israeli custody, which is totally untrue. This article is part of a long standing campaign to slander ISM and destroy non-violent Palestinian resistance by spreading false information. See previous statements on the ISM site. None of the individuals photographed ever took part in any violent activity. As non-violence is one of the three basic principles of ISM.

Soldiers attack a vehicle that belongs to the Red Crescent Society: Local sources in Tubas reported that soldiers surrounded the building of the Society, broke the front window of the vehicle while it was parked in front of the building. Also, soldiers fired at residents who were in the area and bared them from entering the building.

Irish academics call on EU to stop funding Israeli academic institutions: In a letter published in the Irish Times today (text below), 61 Irish academics from a wide variety of disciplines called for a moratorium on EU support of Israeli academic institutions until Israel abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian territories.

US to spoil Arab plan for peace meeting: The US is trying to block attempts by Arab countries to turn the UN Security Council into a key player in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the upcoming General Assembly opening next week.

Haneya: new gov't not to recognize deals with Israel: "There are no deals with the Israeli occupation," Haneya told reporters in front of his office in Gaza City. But he showed flexibility in dealing with those agreements by saying that "they would be handled in a way that serves the higher interest of the Palestinian people."

Police apologize for using derogatory term for Arabs: The National Police Control Center transmitted a message Friday to police officers saying that “15 thousand Arbushim (derogatory term for Arabs) have arrived so far at a rally in Umm al-Fahm.” The message was transmitted to beepers, as was reported by the IDF radio.

Islamic Movement head: J'lem destined capital of caliphate: Israeli Arab Muslim cleric Sheik Ra'ad Salah declared that Jerusalem will soon become the capital of an Islamic nation at a rally in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm, Israel Radio reported on Friday. The leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement Salah, told a crowd of 50,000 gatherers that Israel's occupation of the Temple Mount was nearing its end.

Hamas turns to hearts not minds with wedding party: Among the excited and besuited celebrants on the platform was Saher Jarbouah, a designer-stubbled, hair-gelled 24-year-old accountancy student who admitted that only 30 of the 84 grooms were religious, and that he was not among them. But the ceremony had saved him about £1,200, he estimated. “It saves people money, it brings joy and happiness and it brings people together. It unites the families of 84 people, so that rich and poor can celebrate, not just the wealthy.”

Power Play: Lieberman is critical of the style, but identified with the substance. As far as he is concerned, "There is no argument about the facts and the conduct of Israeli Arabs" - that is, about the fact that, to quote Eitam, they are "a fifth column, a bunch of traitors of the first degree," who must be expelled from the political system. The problem is that Eitam made a tactical error. He chose a fiery formulation, which damages the public relations of the expulsion.

Kuwaiti company wins license for Palestine''s second mobile communications: Kuwait's Wataniya Telecommunications announced on Saturday winning of the license for the second GSM in Palestine bidding 251 million Jordanian dinars as the first batch for license.

A suggestion for Judge Winograd: Looking back more than 30 years, it appears that the Agranat Commission, which investigated the Yom Kippur War, was a failure. Not only did it not resolve questions, it actually intensified the national dispute. It's important that the 2006 commission, headed by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd, learn from its mistakes.

THAT'S THE TROUBLE WITH CRUSADES, THEY ALWAYS DRAG RELIGION INTO IT!

By GARY LEUPP
(Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion)

"Recall that the Greeks, aside from shaping rational western thought, also shaped our ideas about geography. The Greeks first divided "Europe" from "Asia," and opined that Greeks were unique and superior to the "Asiatics." The Greeks, declared the Father of History, Herodotus, knew that they were "free," whereas the Asiatics (particularly the Persians) were prone to enslavement by nature.This ideological construction derives from a century of conflicts---the Greco-Persian Wars of the fifth century---but it has been echoed by Orientalists for centuries. Repeated by the Pope, for example, who while still Cardinal Ratzinger told the French newspaper Le Figaro that Turkey should not be admitted into the European Union "on the grounds that it is a Muslim nation" which has "always represented another continent during history, always in contrast with Europe."

In beginning his remarks citing that exchange between a Byzantine Greek emperor and this "learned Persian," the pontiff was perhaps conveying a not-so-subtle political message. It may have been a response to the learned letter from Iranian President Ahmadinejad to President Bush. Ending his speech with two references to the need for a (truly reasonable, nonviolent) "dialogue of cultures" Benedict unmistakably alludes to former Iranian President Khatami's campaign for a "dialogue of civilizations." This is the Pope's rejoinder to that plea, presented as the response of the western world (growing out of that remarkable Judeo-Christian Greco-Roman synthesis), to today's Persia---the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Did the Byzantine emperors generally act according to "reason"---any more than their Persian, Turkish, or Arab contemporaries? And when did the Byzantine Empire ever tolerate a "dialogue of cultures" or apply "reason" to religious issues?

Seems to me that the Byzantine emperors, including the Palaeologan line from the thirteenth century, persecuted religious minorities, including Jews, Manichaeans and dissident Christians, during centuries in which the Islamic world showed relative tolerance. I've read the texts of anathemas that virtually everyone in some parts of the Empire was obliged to pronounce publicly in the sixth century: "I renounce Mani, Buddha his teacher," etc. On pain of death, basically. There was no division between church and state. Many Byzantine Jews welcomed the initial Muslim Arab advances, providing relief from Christian persecution.

One increasingly expects historical distortion and hypocrisy in the speeches of Bush administration officials. The effort to depict the Terror War as a war on "Islamofascism" shows their desperation. They must be delighted to hear the pope conflate Christianity, the west, and Reason explicitly while implicitly linking Islam, violence, and irrational intolerance. How sweet that His Holiness's erudition should elliptically reference Iran, while the Bush administration prepares to attack it!"

Five years after 9/11, the question remains unanswered, MATT TAIBBI

So, why did they hate us after all?

We sure blew off that question nicely. As with everything else in this country, our response to 9/11 was a heroic compendium of idiocy, cowardice, callow flag-waving, weepy sentimentality (coupled with an apparently bottomless capacity for self-pity), sloth, laziness and partisan ignorance.

So, why did they hate us after all?
We sure blew off that question nicely. As with everything else in this country, our response to 9/11 was a heroic compendium of idiocy, cowardice, callow flag-waving, weepy sentimentality (coupled with an apparently bottomless capacity for self-pity), sloth, laziness and partisan ignorance.
We dealt with 9/11 in many ways. We instantly dubbed everyone who died in the accident a hero and commissioned many millions (billions?) in mawkish elegiac art. We created a whole therapy industry to deal with our 9/11-related grief, made a few claustrophobic two-star Hollywood movies about the bombings, read Lisa Beamer's book and bought that DVD narrated by Rudy, watched Law and Order entertainments about sensational murders committed that morning and left for Jerry Orbach to solve, made bushels of quasi-religious references to "hallowed ground." We made many careers out of assigning blame for the attacks, with the right blaming Bill Clinton, Michael Moore blaming George Bush and the clinically insane blaming those mysterious demolition experts who allegedly wired the bottoms of the towers with the explosives that "really" caused the tragedy. And we talked about 9/11 -- to death. We blathered on so much about the attacks and whined so hard about our "lost innocence" that the rest of the world, initially sympathetic, ended up staring at us in suicidally impatient agony, a can of kerosene overturned above its head, like the old lady sitting next to Robert Hays in Airplane!
We did just about everything except honestly ask ourselves what the hell really happened, and why.

We did just about everything except honestly ask ourselves what the hell really happened, and why.

Continued.

The Prison of the West Bank

By ELIZA ERNSHIRE
CounterPunch

Nablus

"While war raged in Lebanon throughout the month of July and death was a daily occurrence in Gaza, other regions in this war-torn part of the world also experienced weeks of torment and torture at the hands of the Israeli Military.

Among these regions is Nablus. A city filled with tragedy and the knowledge of how unjust and unforgiving the occupational forces can be. Invasions, incursions and curfews are not new to the people of Nablus, nor are the sights of bleeding children and mourning families.

Many people say if you want to know the Occupation of the West Bank and what it actually entails then you must go to Nablus and spend some days wandering in the Old City and surrounding districts talking to residents, nearly every one of whom have lost members of their family in the decade-long struggle against Occupation; you need to talk to the students of An Najar University and listen to their stories of suffering and how many difficulties they must overcome if they want to continue their education; you must let the sorrow of the city soak into your unconsciousness.

If you wander the streets of the Old City and listen to even a few of the tales that are imprisoned within it, you will understand better the reality of this occupation, and the sadness of the city will seep into your unconscious

'But beware of becoming hopeless.even the women who cry in my garden grow strong again and return to their homes and continue to attend to their daily work. If they didn't do this Israel would have destroyed us long ago.'"

By ROBERT FISK

"In the week that George Bush took to fantasising that his blood-soaked "war on terror" would lead the 21st century into a "shining age of human liberty" I went through my mail bag to find a frightening letter addressed to me by an American veteran whose son is serving as a lieutenant colonel and medical doctor with US forces in Baghdad. Put simply, my American friend believes the change of military creed under the Bush administration--from that of "soldier" to that of "warrior"--is encouraging American troops to commit atrocities.

From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo to Bagram, to the battlefields of Iraq and to the "black" prisons of the CIA, humiliation and beatings, rape, anal rape and murder have now become so commonplace that each new outrage is creeping into the inside pages of our newspapers. My reporting notebooks are full of Afghan and Iraqi complaints of torture and beatings from August 2002, and then from 2003 to the present point. How, I keep asking myself, did this happen? Obviously, the trail leads to the top. But where did this cult of cruelty begin?

I suppose, in the end, we are supposed to lead the 21st century into a shining age of human liberty in the dungeons of "black" prisons, under the fists of US Marines, on the exhaust pipes of Humvees. We are warriors, we are Samurai. We draw the sword. We will destroy. Which is exactly what Osama bin Laden said."

Khalid Amayreh, The Electronic Intifada

"In fact, there are already ominous signs showing that pro-Israeli sympathizers, some of them with a background in the BBC, are exerting control on the editorial policies of the new channel, all under the rubric of professionalism and journalistic standards.

This writer, who has been working for Aljazeera.net/English (which has now been incorporated into AJI) has discovered, by chance, efforts by some senior western editors at AJI to minimize and avoid as much as possible the publication of articles, especially news and feature stories, portraying Israel in a bad light or otherwise exposing Israeli occupation practices against the Palestinian people.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of similar examples, all showing that AJI is knowingly and deliberately avoiding serious coverage of the Palestinian plight, especially in its feature section which abounds with all kinds of stories covering various — and outlandish — subjects and events.

Ryan apparently never forgave me my "audacity", as was evident from his subsequent behavior. In the third week of June this year, I submitted an article on Palestinian children and minors killed by the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish settlers. The article was based on statistical information released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

However, instead of thanking me for the article, Ryan, upon seeing it and without giving it a second thought, wrote to tell me that I was lying and that the information contained in the article was false. His vindictive and nervous tone was very telling and spoke volumes.

Finding he had no case against me, Merryman resorted to a red-herring, accusing me of creating confusion and turmoil at Aljazeera.net from the West Bank — from which I am barred from leaving by the Israeli occupation authorities! And after a brief email exchange, he told me I was fired.

I don't know for sure why Merryman behaved the way he did. It is quite possible that he had been urged or cajoled by some of his Zionist friends to make sure that "anti-Israeli" articles were rejected.

This build-up had two main manifestations: neutralizing Palestinian correspondents from Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and the intensive reliance on reports by American news agency, the Associated Press, viewed by many as 'Israel's ultimate news agency.'

Last week, Merryman decided to change the rules governing the editorial policies of Aljazeera.net/English. The new rules make sure that "undesirable stories," e.g. stories that expose Israeli brutality and racism against the Palestinians, or those portraying Israel as a Nazi-like entity, wouldn't find their way to Aljazeera.net.

Another told me that "this man and his friends want to turn Al-Jazeera into another Fox News or even another Jerusalem Post." The latter is Israel's main right-wing English newspaper, and a mouthpiece for the Jewish settler movement.

I am sure that this article will sign me off from Al-Jazeera. However, I am willing to sacrifice my own personal interest and lose the bulk of my income in the hope that al-Jazeera officials, particularly Chairman Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani and Managing Director Waddah Khanfar, will open their eyes and make sure that al-Jazeera International doesn't become a new weapon in the hands of the enemies of Arabs and Muslims.

For God's sake, don't let them hijack Al-Jazeera under the disguise of journalistic ethics."

***

For quite sometime, I have noticed the difference in coverage between Aljazeera.net/English and the Arabic counterpart. I fully support the observations of Khalid Amayreh in this article.

Haniyeh and Abbas to each other, "please be my guest, you go (to lift the burden of the Israeli occupation) first!"

The Palestinian people under the occupation, "take your time gentlemen, we are in no hurry!"

A current online poll on Al-Jazeera Online asks the question:

In which context do you read the Pope's declarations on Islam?

Here are the results with over 2,200 participating (so far):

70.5%----------As part of a conspiracy against Islam.

8.2%-----------He was misunderstood.

21.3%----------Reflected religious bigotry.

So it seems that an apology saying that the "Pope was misunderstood" will not be adequate.

ARE WE OUTDOING EACH OTHER IN "SLIPS OF THE TONGUE?"

This was no casual slip. Beneath his scholarly rhetoric, the Pope's logic seemed to be that Islam is dangerous and godless

Giles Fraser
Saturday September 16, 2006
The Guardian

"Christopher Tyerman's latest book on the Crusades, God's War, argues persuasively that analogies between the Crusades and the present global conflict are often overdrawn and historically dubious. That may be so. But it's an argument that doesn't cut much ice with millions of Muslims. After all, it was one of Benedict's predecessors, Urban II, who first summoned a Christian jihad against Islam. And it's born-again Christians who have been at the forefront of support for the invasion of Iraq, the occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel, and the whole "reorganisation" of the Middle East - a catastrophe in which many thousands of Muslims have lost their lives.

Furthermore, the Pope has form on all of this. Just a few months before he was elected, he spoke out against Muslim Turkey joining the EU. Christian Europe must be defended, he argued. It didn't go down well at the time with Muslim leaders. But what makes his comments from Bavaria doubly insensitive is that Munich and its surrounding towns are home to thousands of Gastarbeiter, many from Turkey, who are often badly treated by local Germans and frequently subjected to racism. It won't be lost on them that Manuel II ran his Christian empire from what is now the Turkish city of Istanbul. And reference to that time, in circumstances such as these, has the unmistakable whiff of Christian triumphalism.

For the Pope argued that in Muslim teaching, because "God is absolutely transcendent", He is "not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality". In other words, there is no reasoning in or with Islam. Which, surely, is another way of the Pope saying how dangerous he thinks Islam is.

Blog sites have been buzzing with the thought that the Pope may have the president of Iran in mind when he speaks of Manuel's Persian interlocutor. But we don't need to speculate upon a contemporary casting for this speech to recognise its dangers. For in claiming that Islam may be beyond reason, and then to claim that to act without reason is to act contrary to the will of God, is pretty close to the assertion that this religion is godless."

By Patrick Seale

"
President George W Bush is coming under enormous pressure from Israel - and from Israel's neoconservative friends inside and outside the US administration - to harden still further his stance toward Iran. They want the American president to commit himself to bombing Iran if it does not give up its program of uranium enrichment - and to issue a clear ultimatum to Tehran that he is prepared to do so. They argue that mere rhetoric - such as Bush's recent diatribe, in which he compared Iran to al-Qaeda - is not enough, and might even be counter-productive, as it might encourage the Iranians to think that America's bark is worse than its bite.

Hard-liners in Israel and the United States believe that only military action, or the credible threat of it, will now prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, with all that this would mean in terms of Israel's security and the balance of power in the strategically vital Middle East.

Fears that Bush might succumb to this Israeli and neoconservative pressure is beginning to cause serious alarm in Moscow, Beijing, Berlin, Paris, Rome and other world capitals where, as if to urge caution on Washington, political leaders are increasingly speaking out in favor of dialogue with Tehran and against the use of military force."

By Tony Sayegh

I am afraid that there is more to this event than a slip of the tongue on the part of the Pope or simple ignorance of Islam. It comes at a time of increasingly heated rhetoric against political Islam and Islamic resistance movements such as Hizbullah and Hamas, as well as Iran. It has to be seen in the same context as Bush's recent adoption of the "Islamic fascists" label to denigrate political Islam.

Usrael and the neocons (with the EU under their wings) keep talking about and preparing for a "long war" or "World War IV" and "clash of civilizations" against Islam. Bush compares this "struggle" with the struggle against the Nazis (World War II) and the Soviet Union (World War III). These comments by the Pope have to be seen as an opening shot and a major auxiliary to the shaping political/military confrontation.

After Carter became president, the US used its influence to have a Pole selected as the Pope (John Paul II). Immediately, he was put to use in agitating in Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe against Communism and the Soviets. He played no small part in the process that ultimately led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Since political Islam is the "threat" du jour, I see this Pope and this message in the same light.

If this is the case, then this is a significant escalation that is catapulting us indeed towards what might become an irreversible clash of civilizations and a new Crusade. God help us!

TIMELESS WISDOM

From the book "The Art of War" written by the great Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, some 2,500 years ago:

On Waging War

"There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare"

On Attack By Stratagem

"There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:

(1) By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the army.

(2) By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the soldiers' minds.

(3) By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers."

"JERUSALEM (AFP) - A general resigns, a colonel is disciplined and the command structure is battered by an unrelenting storm of criticism: the Israeli army is in disarray as it struggles to cope with the failures of the war in Lebanon.

A month after the 34-day campaign against the Shiite militia Hezbollah ended, the barrage of brickbats continues, with the military and political leadership both under fire for their handling of a deadly conflict that failed to achieve its main aims.

Colonel Amnon Eshel, head of the seventh brigade, reportedly complained that his immediate boss, General Gal Hirsh, was "completely cut off from realities on the ground" as his badly prepared men battled to counter Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel.

The war left 162 Israelis dead and failed to achieve either of its main objectives -- retrieving two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a July 12 raid and halting the barrage of more than 4,000 rocket attacks fired into the north of the country by the guerrillas.

"Going to war was scandalous and he is directly responsible for that," Yaalon was quoted as saying in the Haaretz daily when asked if Olmert had to resign. "The management of the war was a failure and he is responsible for that.""

***

Can you imagine something like this debate and self-criticism taking place in any of the dictatorial Arab regimes (the PA included)?

by John Pilger

"When I began working as a journalist, there was something called "slow news." We would refer to "slow news days" when "nothing happened" – apart from, that is, triumphs and tragedies in faraway places where most of humanity lived. These were rarely reported, or the tragedies were dismissed as acts of nature, regardless of evidence to the contrary. The news value of whole societies was measured by their relationship with "us" in the West and their degree of compliance with, or hostility to, our authority. If they didn't measure up, they were slow news.

Let's take a few recent examples and compare each with the regular news as seen on the BBC and elsewhere. Keep in mind that Palestinians are chronically slow news and that Israelis are regular news.

Slow news: "A genocide is taking place in Gaza," warns Ilan Pappe, one of Israel's leading historians. "This morning … another three citizens of Gaza were killed and a whole family wounded. This is the morning reap; before the end of the day many more will be massacred."

Regular news: Blair visits the West Bank and Lebanon as a "peacemaker" and a "broker" between the Israeli prime minister and the "moderate" Palestinian president. Keeping a straight face, he warns against "grandstanding" and "apportioning blame."

Slow news: When the Israeli army attacked the West Bank in 2002, flattening homes, killing civilians, and trashing homes and museums, Blair was forewarned and gave "the green light." He was also warned about the recent Israeli attack on Gaza and on Lebanon.

Regular news: Blair tells Iran to heed the UN Security Council on "not going forward with a nuclear program."

Slow news: The Israeli attack on Lebanon was part of a sequence of carefully planned military operations, of which the next is Iran. U.S. forces are ready to destroy 10,000 targets. The U.S. and Israel contemplate the use of tactical nuclear weapons against Iran, even though Iran's nuclear weapons program is nonexistent."

Civil society organizations meeting at the UN have condemned Apartheid Israel and called for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the state and for the prosecution of Israeli war criminals.

The International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People includes representatives from Palestine and all continents. In a strongly-worded statement, the conference condemned the Israeli occupation:

“Twelve years after the end of apartheid in South Africa, we are reminded that Israel continues to practice a system of apartheid and, further, perpetuates the longest occupation in recent history.

We civil society organizations and activists from around the world join with the United Nations once again to identify, condemn and commit ourselves to opposing these heinous crimes. As we were in the past, we are again determined that the perpetrators of that crime be brought to justice..."

In the statement civil society further committed itself

“to expand our global campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to ever broader sectors of our countries and regions”.

The Conference drew up an action plan to work with Palestinian civil society movements and NGOs over the next nine months to mark the 40 year anniversary of the Israeli occupation; to expand the global campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions and to convene a new international peace conference for the Middle East.

Achin Vanaik, Professor of International Relations and of World Politics, University of Delhi, spoke on behalf of the solidarity from the global south and underlined that “it was not possible for civil society organizations in the South to be able to fight effectively for Palestinian rights unless it recognised that there was a need to fight for more than Palestinian rights. Civil society organizations had to fight on a number of fronts: to try to bring to account the United States in Iraq, Israel and what had been done in Lebanon, how the United States was manipulating the nuclear issue in Iran, and the issue of the ideological banner of the global war on terror to provide a cover for larger geopolitical issues, namely the issue of State terrorism.”

During discussion time he further elaborated on the role Zionism played in quest for Justice in Palestine. Mr. Vanaik said that India was faced with a bitter struggle against those wishing to establish a Hindu State within India, and who admired the situation of Zionism. “To be a Zionist is to endorse the principle of a Jewish State with special rights for Jews, and this is anti-democratic. It is no excuse to say that Israel is more democratic than most Arab States. The spectrum of what was possible, realist and pragmatic, is very wide. When changing the political relationship of forces, the impossible becomes possible, and it is important for this to be borne in mind.” He further argued that “the Palestinian Liberation Movement is one of the most remarkable liberation movements of modern times, and its tragedy is that it had been strategically flexible, and tactically inflexible, when it should have been the reverse. With regards to changing the direction of political forces, there are two in this case, the larger geopolitical forces in the region, and there should be a shifting of the general forces globally, as well as work within the occupied territories and Gaza.”

Finally, Na’eem Jeenah, co-chair of the ICNP from South Africa, in his concluding words reminded all that the Plan of Action which had been deliberated was not enough: “No words can be enough to express what should be done in moving forward. The current conjuncture requires genuine and sincere solidarity, wholehearted sacrifice, and untiring commitment to the Palestinian people and the cause of justice, and even this will not be enough. The international community will never be able to make up for its desertion of the Palestinian people whilst they were robbed and continue to be robbed of their land, and were tortured and battered in an attempt to make them submit.”

He concluded that “the Plan of Action is a minimum, and the next nine months should be spent ensuring it came to fruition, with a truly global Day of Action at the end of those months, which will make those in Tel Aviv and in Washington shiver in their boots, and make it clear that the international community will no longer continue to desert the Palestinian people, but will stand by them until the attainment of their legitimate rights, self-determination, and State.”

Introduction: Ranking the presidential candidates "The Israel Factor: Ranking the presidential candidates" is a new project on Rosner's Domain that rates potential presidential contenders in the 2008 race for the White House based on their attitudes toward Israel.

Republican Rudy Giuliani The former New York mayor returned a $10 million donation from a Saudi prince after 9/11 following his comments on Israel.	Republican Newt Gingrich The former Speaker of the House says Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas is an alliance that cannot be dealt with in isolation.	Republican John McCain The Arizona Senator believes America must give Israel whatever equipment and technology it needs for defense.
Democrat Hillary Clinton The Senator for New York and former First Lady supports moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.	Democrat Al Gore The former Vice President attended the celebrations in Jerusalem to mark the State of Israel's 50th anniversary.	Republican George Pataki The Governor of New York State says there has been a clear pattern of Israeli concession followed by Palestinian terror.
Republican Sam Brownback The Kansas Senator believes Israel has the right to self-defend and to 'aggressively seek' Shalit's release.	Democrat Bill Richardson The Governor of New Mexcio maintains that the American commitment to the security of Israel is not negotiable.	Republican Condoleezza Rice The Secretary of State has called on Israel to help create the conditions for a Palestinian state to emerge.
Democrat Evan Bayh The Senator for Indiana called for economic sanctions to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons.	Democrat Joseph Biden The Senator for Delaware said Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a party that calls for its destruction.	Democrat Christopher Dodd The Senator for Connecticut addressed AIPAC in March 2006 on a nuclear Iran and the Hamas government.
Republican Bill Frist Tennessee's Senator says Israel clearly has the right to defend itself and calls for continued U.S. support for Israel.	Democrat Mark Warner The former Virginia Governor backs unilateral Israeli moves, as Hamas is not currently a suitable partner.	Democrat John Edwards The former senator for North Carolina has said that Iran is an enormous threat to Israel and to the Israeli people.
Democrat Russ Feingold The Wisconsin Senator sponsored an act calling for the American embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.	Republican George Allen Senator for Virginia made a bipartisan call with Senator Lieberman for the EU to add Hezbollah to its terror group list.	Republican Mitt Romney The Governor for Massachussetts delayed a trip to Israel earlier this year to focus on his legislative agenda.
Democrat Wesley Clark The retired four-star army general called Hezbollah 'the reach of Iran toward a Mediterranean beach head.'	Democrat John Kerry The 2004 presidential candidate has called Hamas a 'brutal organization' that refuses to take part in a peaceful process.	Democrat Tom Vilsack In May 2006, the Iowa Governor participated in a week-long visit to Israel, organized by AIPAC, to meet Israeli leaders.
Republican Mike Huckabee The Governor of Arkansas has made nine visits to Israel, including a trip to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.	Republican Chuck Hagel The Senator for Nebraska believes that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is central to Middle East peace.	Democrat Barack Obama The Senator for Illinois made his first visit to Israel in January 2006, where he visited the north and toured the fence.

CAIRO, Egypt - Egypt's best-known democracy movement has switched causes and is now focused on demanding an end to the country's peace treaty with Israel.

The campaign by the Kifaya group is a sign of how the war in Lebanon knocked momentum from democracy efforts and left many reform activists deeply resentful of the United States.

Over the past two years, Washington has made promoting democracy a key part of its Middle East policy. But now reformists accuse Washington of supporting Israel in its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas, which wreaked widespread destruction in Lebanon.

Edward S. Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, believes Kifaya's new campaign showcases Washington's dilemma as it strives to sell the values of democracy and freedom in a region galvanized for decades by the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"One of the costs of pressing for democracy in the Middle East is the fact that most democratically based Arab parties ... will be hostile to Israel," said Walker, now with the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

The Kifaya movement has launched a campaign to collect 1 million signatures on a petition calling for the annulment of Egypt's U.S.-sponsored 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

The move is mainly symbolic, but it highlights the extent of resentment felt by Egyptians toward Israel — and by association, the United States, its main backer.

"The Lebanon war is responsible," said George Ishaq, Kifaya spokesman and founding member. "The petition is a reaction in part to the (Egyptian) regime's feeble diplomatic handling of the war." He said 100,000 signatures have been collected so far.

The Egyptian-Israeli treaty ended hostilities between the two neighbors, after four wars between 1948 and 1973, and is cited by successive U.S. administrations as a model for peaceful coexistence in the region. But it failed to dent the animosity most Egyptians feel for Israel.

The anti-Israel campaign is a major shift for Kifaya, whose name is Arabic for "Enough" — as in enough of the 25-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

The movement, made up of politicians, intellectuals and rights activists, burst onto Egypt's political scene two years ago, holding noisy demonstrations aimed at stopping Mubarak from seeking a fifth 6-year term in office or allowing his son, Gamal, to succeed him.

At least for a time, Kifaya's actions captured Washington's attention as a movement with the potential to peacefully bring reform. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met with Kifaya and other reform activists during a visit to Cairo last year.

The movement succeeded in breaking down deeply ingrained political taboos, particularly by calling openly for Mubarak to step down. Its colorful street protests stirred up Egypt's stagnant politics and made democratic reform a top issue.

Still, Kifaya failed in its immediate political goals — the 78-year-old Mubarak was re-elected a year ago. Many believe his son is still on course to succeed him.

Many Egyptians strongly oppose an accession to power by Gamal Mubarak, seeing it as a mere continuation of his father's rule.

Now Kifaya is more concerned with Israel. On its Web site, dozens of postings expound on the pros and cons of abolishing Egypt's peace treaty.

Some wrote that peace with Israel was "an illusion" and a "danger to Egyptian national security." Another said it was time for Egyptians to "struggle" against Israel.

"The most prominent casualty of Washington's policy during the Lebanon war was its program for democracy in the Middle East," said Amr Hamzawi, a Middle East expert at Carnegie Endowments, a Washington think tank. "When an elected government in Lebanon faced a challenge, the American administration blatantly took the side of Israel."

Tens of thousands across the Arab world protested Israel's Lebanon offensive, focusing their anger on Washington because it rejected calls for a quick cease-fire. The United States argued a quick truce would not last without new political realities on the ground, but many Arabs saw that as just a green light for Israel to press on with its campaign.

"The Americans' handling of the Lebanon war has undermined an already diminishing U.S. credibility in the Arab world," said Rosemary Hollis, a London-based Middle East expert.

Agence France Presse
14 September 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States urged its European
allies not to rush into a decision to lift restrictions on
aid to the Palestinians following the proposed creation of
a national unity government involving Palestinian
moderates and the radical Hamas movement.

French reconsidering starvation tactics

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy met with
Abbas on Thursday in the West Bank town of Ramallah and
later suggested it was time to reevaluate the Quartet
policy.

"The formation of a Palestinian government of national
unity which takes into account the aims of the
international community would constitute a major
development," he said.

"If it is confirmed, it should lead to a re-examination of
the policies of the international community toward the
Palestinian government in terms of aid and contacts," he
said.

But US still adamant

US officials were less upbeat on the likelihood that a
government involving Hamas would meet international
demands to renounce terrorism, accept Israel's right to
exist and abide by past peace agreements.

A senior official on Thursday urged the Europeans not to
break ranks and lift sanctions on the Palestinians before
the conditions are met.

"One of the reasons why you do actually have some hope
now, or just a glimmer of a possibility of a change within
the Palestinian political system vis-a-vis willingness to
meet those conditions is a unified front," he said.

"People have remained united on this issue, so our view,
obviously, is that now is not the time to change that," he
said on condition of anonymity.

It is difficult to exaggerate the economic collapse of Gaza, with the Palestinian Authority cut off from funds by Israel, the United States and the European Union after Hamas won the legislative elections on Jan. 25.

Since then, the authority has paid most of its 73,000 employees here, nearly 40 percent of Gaza’s work force, only 1.5 months’ salary, resulting in a severe economic depression and growing signs of malnutrition, especially among the poorest children.

In northern Gaza, in Beit Lahiya, where Israeli troops fought Palestinian gunmen during July, Atemad Abu Leilah, 33, lives in a hovel with her 11 children and her handicapped husband. He used to get $68 a month from the welfare ministry, but has received nothing for four months, she said.

She is a not a refugee, so is ineligible for refugee aid and like many here, gets by on casual work and the charity of neighbors.

She taps into wires in the street to take electricity illegally, and she has not bought her children school uniforms for the new school year. “I can’t afford to buy them notebooks,” she said.

She feeds her children greens, herbs, lentils and eggplant, and sometimes gets flour given by the World Food Program. “Forget about meat,” she said. “The last time we had chicken was a month ago.’’

Her relative, Ghalia Abu Leilah, 60, came by with a pot of yogurt she bought for her husband, who is dying of cancer, with money from a neighbor, she said.

A year ago, when the Israelis left, “We were very happy,” Atemad Abu Leilah said. “I voted for Hamas, for reform and change and improvement. But now I look at my kids and I regret my vote.”

BAGHDAD, 13 September (IRIN) - The deteriorating conditions of Palestinians in Iraq have been highlighted in a report by US-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW). The report, released on 10 September, said that Palestinian refugees living in Iraq are being targeted by mostly Shi'ite militant groups and are also being harassed by the government."Since the fall of [former president] Saddam Hussein's government, Palestinian refugees in Iraq have increasingly become targets of violence and persecution," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director. "Shi'ite militant groups have murdered dozens of Palestinian refugees, and the Iraqi government has made it difficult for these refugees to stay legally in Iraq by imposing onerous registration requirements," she added.Fareed Ahmed, a 40-year-old Palestinian refugee living in Iraq, said that he had been affected psychologically as a result of violence. "When I walk in the street, I'm afraid that they are going to kill me if they discover that I am Palestinian. My wife and children are living like criminals, hiding themselves in a place that was used before as a cellar during the war in 2003," Ahmed said."No one knows we are there and they [his family] just go out in the evenings when there is no possibility for them to be seen. Because after receiving more than 10 threats from unknown sources, we have to take every precaution," he said.As an unemployed father of four, Ahmed is in a critical situation. He depends on an old family friend for food. Unfortunately, he said, the friend could not shelter them, afraid that he and his family could be targeted for sheltering Palestinians. Ahmed has been trying to find a secure place for his family to live after they were forced to flee their home in Iraq, but no country has yet agreed to give them refuge.Neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan have stopped accepting Palestinians as refugees. They do not even allow them to cross their borders to seek refuge in third countries. "All embassies either refuse to attend to us or tell us that under current circumstances they cannot give us an entry visa to their countries," said Ahmed Muffitlak, spokesperson for the Palestinian Muslims Association (PMA) in Baghdad."To compound our suffering, we Palestinians have been victims of discrimination even inside government offices. When they [officials] realise that we are Palestinians, the process is long, if not impossible," Muffitlak added.At the start of the US-led occupation of Iraq in 2003, some 23,000 Palestinians were registered in Baghdad by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. Smaller unregistered groups also reside in the governorates of Mosul in the north and Basra in the south. The total number of Palestinians in the country is estimated at 34,000, according to the Iraq government. The PMA in Baghdad says it has reported more than 360 cases of attacks on Palestinians since September 2005, including crimes such as rape and murder."If urgent measures are not taken, another crime against humanity will happen in Iraq and the victims are going to be the Palestinians," Muffitlak said.

By Silvia Cattori in Nablus

(Dr Abdul Sattar Kassem is a professor of political science at An-Najah National University, Nablus Palestine)

A long interview, but well worth reading.

"Silvia Cattori: You are a strong voice in Palestine, but a voice we don’t hear much in French speaking countries. Why?

Dr. Abdul Sattar Kassem: For 26 years, I am not authorized by the Israeli authorities to go out of Palestine. I spent two years in the Israeli jails and eight months in a Palestinian prison under Arafat’s regime. I was injured by four bullets shot by men recruited by the Palestinian authorities. But I am always here, with my pen, to help my people to recover their rights and try to get a change in the Arab world. I firmly believe that present Arab regimes must disappear, because they defend foreign interests and not the interests of their citizens. Most of these dictatorial regimes are collaborating with Israel, so against the rights of the Palestinians and the Lebanese. These regimes are the puppets of certain powers, more particularly of the United States.

Silvia Cattori: In such a difficult context, do you think that the Hamas movement will succeed to implement that atmosphere of democracy you call for?

Sattar Kassem: I do not think so, not because they are not able to do it, but because they are facing terrible problems from so many sides. The Israelis do not want to let this government function. Actually, the Israelis have arrested most of the ministers and many legislative members.

Silvia Cattori: When you complain about “Arab regimes” do you include the Palestinian authority?

Sattar Kassem: I include the former Palestinian authority and Abou Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), the present President of the Palestinians.

Silvia Cattori: But did Mr Arafat know that his aides were misbehaving? Was he aware of what was happening around him?

Sattar Kassem: Yes, he was aware and he was very clever. If you are challenged several times and you don’t correct your behaviour then you intend such behaviour. Arafat was warned hundreds of times by so many people that his aides were misbehaving, but he did nothing to stop that. He was supported by the money he got from Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Emirates. So, because Arafat was the man of Israel and America, these countries were asked to finance him. He had a lot of money; he was the richest so called "revolutionary man" in the world. How can that be when revolutionaries are generally under siege? Without the consent of Israel and America, these countries wouldn’t give him money. These aren’t independent countries. Now it is on orders from Israel and America that they aren’t giving money to Hamas.

Silvia Cattori: Are the people who succeeded Mr. Arafat better?

Sattar Kassem: Abou Mazen is a very weak person and he doesn’t have a vision. All Palestinians know him. I have known Abou Mazen personally for more than thirty years and I know that he has been against resistance all the time. So, Arafat was just putting him there until the time comes.

Silvia Cattori: In your opinion is he an honest man?

Sattar Kassem: I think he is better than Arafat in that sense, but he is very weak. He is like a tool. Fatah people supported him to keep him in power, especially as they knew he was weak.

Silvia Cattori: Was he not the man that Israel and United States promoted, as from 2003?

Sattar Kassem: He was Israel’s choice, but all the influential people in Fatah are the men of Israel and the United States. So, these three parties made that choice, but the person chosen is very weak and incapable.

Silvia Cattori: That means that, as yesterday, under Mr. Arafat’s power, people are scared because Fatah people are still powerful?

Sattar Kassem: Yes. We are scared of the Israelis and of Fatah people. Both are making threats to our security.

Silvia Cattori: So, you have two camps: the camp of Fatah, which is struggling to not lose its power and the camp of Hamas, who would like to defend the interests of the people, but which is impotent?

Sattar Kassem: That is true. And the camp of those who are against our own people is strong, because they are supported by Israel, by the United States, and by the European countries. Mr. Bush said openly, “We are supporting Abu Mazen financially and militarily.” They are supplying him with guns. Guns to use against whom? Against Israelis? No, against Hamas, of course!

Silvia Cattori: Does this mean that, when Mr. Abu Mazen and the PLO representatives call the new Hamas government to respect the results of the agreements negotiated with Israel, it is just because they want to preserve the privileges they got?

Sattar Kassem: Yes. They want Hamas to adopt the Oslo Accords so that they will preserve their personal interests and privileges. The Europeans and the Israelis needed supporters for the Oslo Accords. This is why they encouraged the corruption that Arafat established in the West Bank and Gaza. For the United States, Israel and European countries, corruption was an instrument to get supporters. So, much of the European money was wasted for the corrupt people. Palestinians do not believe that the negotiation has been productive for them; on the contrary. So they don’t want it anymore.

Silvia Cattori: Do you think the European Union will change its strategy and recognise the legitimacy of the Hamas authorities?

Sattar Kassem: No. The European countries will never recognize Hamas, never. The European states are a tool in the hands of the Israelis and the Americans. There are not independent. They are not united. If Hezbollah wins the war, the movement within the Arab countries will accelerate.

Silvia Cattori: You arrive at the same conclusion as the Lebanese political analyst, Youssef Aschkar,(3) who thinks that the so-called “war against terrorism” is a war against societies and against communities, a war cynically designed to destroy entire countries and peoples. He also concludes that the latter are no longer protected by their authorities.

Sattar Kassem: Yes, that is alas true. This is not, as Bush and Blair say, a war against “terrorism”. This is a war against all of us."

by William S. Lind

"During World War II, one of the Fuhrer's favorite sayings was, "All generals lie." Today, Washington prefers the word "spin" to lie, although the difference is often difficult to parse. As an 18th-century man, I prefer an 18th century word: puffery. If we consider some of the statements coming from our military leaders regarding the war in Iraq, we might think they are all clones of General Puff.

We expect puffery from politicians. But when Gen. Puff represents the military to the American people, the military puts itself in a dangerous situation. The loss of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will, at some point, have domestic political repercussions, perhaps of some magnitude. The U.S. military will rightly bear some of the blame for both failures. It cannot credibly claim that it was forced to fight two Fourth Generation wars with Second Generation tactics and doctrine, when it has rebuffed every effort to move beyond the Second Generation (the Marine Corps is a partial exception).

But the American people, I think, will be more forgiving of mistakes than of puffery, which in the end is a deliberate attempt to deceive. If the public comes to think that all generals lie, the American armed services may find it difficult to reestablish their good reputations."

By Professor Juan Cole
University of Michigan

"His allegation is incorrect. Surah 2 is a Medinan surah revealed when Muhammad was already established as the leader of the city of Yathrib (later known as Medina or "the city" of the Prophet). The pope imagines that a young Muhammad in Mecca before 622 (lacking power) permitted freedom of conscience, but later in life ordered that his religion be spread by the sword. But since Surah 2 is in fact from the Medina period when Muhammad was in power, that theory does not hold water.

In fact, the Qur'an at no point urges that religious faith be imposed on anyone by force. This is what it says about the religions:

' [2:62] Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians-- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. '

In fact, in early Islam it was hard to join, and Christians who asked to become Muslim were routinely turned away. The tyrannical governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj, was notorious for this rejection of applicants, because he got higher taxes on non-Muslims. Arab Muslims had conquered Iraq, which was then largely pagan, Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish. But they weren't seeking converts and certainly weren't imposing their religion.

In fact, the Quran also urges reasoned faith and also forbids coercion in religion. The only violence urged in the Quran is in self-defense of the Muslim community against the attempts of the pagan Meccans to wipe it out.

As for the Quran, it constantly appeals to reason in knowing God, and in refuting idolatry and paganism, and asks, "do you not reason?" "do you not understand?" (a fala ta`qilun?)

Of course, Christianity itself has a long history of imposing coerced faith on people, including on pagans in the late Roman Empire, who were forcibly converted. And then there were the episodes of the Crusades.

Another irony is that reasoned, scholastic Christianity has an important heritage drom Islam itself. In the 10th century, there was little scholasticism in Christian theology. The influence of Muslim thinkers such as Averroes and Ibn Rushd reemphasized the use of Aristotle and Plato in Christian theology. Indeed, there was a point where Christian theologians in Paris had divided into partisans of Averroes or of Ibn Rushd, and they conducted vigorous polemics with one another."

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief)

"Despite spending many millions of dollars, US intelligence, five years after the ouster of the Taliban from Kabul, remains in the dark over the command structure of the Taliban.

The Taliban have a tight high command from where - and this is the mystery - precise orders, such as targets, are relayed to the fighters in the field. Cracking this code is key to putting a brake on the insurgency that gathers strength by the day.

Significantly, the Taliban are now drawing increasing support from the Afghan population. These additional numbers have allowed them for the first time to conduct their own large-scale search operations against NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) troops in the south. As a result, NATO this week requested additional troops, with no success.

What is worth noting is that what is happening in Afghanistan has happened before, against the British many years ago and against the Soviets more recently. This latest battle against a foreign invader is being fought as a classic Afghan war, although the sequence of events is somewhat different."

By Steve Bell, The Guardian.
(Click on cartoon to enlarge and to see Blair)

BREAKING NEWS

وكانت مصادر إعلامية قد ذكرت اليوم أنّ الرئيس محمود عباس "أبو مازن" سيسلّم الليلة في غزة رئيس الوزراء إسماعيل هنية كتاب إقالة الحكومة الحالية فقط.

وحسب المصادر، فإنّ هذه التطورات ترجع إلى ضغوطٍ شديدة مارستها الولايات المتحدة الأميركية ضدّ تشكيل حكومة برئاسة "حماس"، واقترحت على الرئيس "أبو مازن" بدلاً من ذلك تشكيل حكومة طوارئ برئاسته.

ووفقاً لمسؤولٍ في حركة "فتح"، رفض الكشف عن اسمه، فإنّ الرئيس "أبو مازن" يفضّل حكومة وحدة وطنية برئاسة هنية، وفْق الاتفاق الذي توصل إليه مع "حماس" قبل يومين على اعتبار أنّ فُرَص بقاء حكومة الوحدة أكبر بكثيرٍ من تشكيل حكومة طوارئ تنتهي ولايتها بعد شهر، إضافةً إلى أنّ "حماس" باعتبارها أكبر قوة برلمانية هي الأحقّ بتشكيل هذه الحكومة من غيرها.

وأكّد المسؤول الفتحاوي صحّة ما تحدّثت عنه التقارير بشأن تحفّظات مصرية وأردنية على تكليف هنية بتشكيل الحكومة الفلسطينية الجديدة، بالنظر إلى أنّ هذه الحكومة لا تلبي شروط اللجنة الرباعية، والشروط التي تنادي بها الولايات المتحدة، وعلى رأسها اعتراف "حماس" الواضح والصريح بالكيان الصهيونيّ، ونبذ العنف والإرهاب والالتزام باتفاقات منظّمة التحرير.

وأشارت أوساط في حركة "فتح" إلى أنّ "أبو مازن" يواجه ضغوطاتٍ كبيرةً من الولايات المتحدة بهذا الخصوص، حيث أُبْلِغ من قِبَل الأمريكيين بأنّ الحصار المالي على الحكومة الفلسطينية والسلطة سيتواصل إذا شكّل هنية الحكومة الجديدة.

***

A ROUGH ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Sources have disclosed that Abbas will give Haniyeh tonight instructions to dissolve the Haniyeh government without asking him to form a new government, with Haniyeh remaining as PM.

Informed sources, including a Fatah official, disclosed that Abbas is under intense US pressure not to form a government of "national unity," but to form an emergency government, under him, without Hamas. The US told Abbas that the financial blockade would continue if Hamas headed the new government.

Egypt and Jordan also expressed opposition to a Haniyeh-led government, since it would not meet the US and the Quartet's conditions of explicitly recognizing Israel, ending the resistance and explicitly accepting all agreements agreed to by the PLO up to now (including Oslo and the Road Map).

***

My Take:

I think that there is a high probability of the long-planned coup against Hamas, in the name of "emergency government." This has been the Usraeli plan all along, with full support of the puppets in Jordan, Egypt and S.A.

Stay tuned!

جـلـسة عــلاجية

A RECOMMENDED, IN-DEPTH ARTICLE

by Nicola Nasser

"When President George W. Bush never stops repeating that “success in Iraq is necessary for the security of the United States” (1) and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledges “full security” (2) for Bush’s Iraqi regime, one could not but wonder whether Iran and the U.S. are in collusion or in collision in Iraq.

On July 26, al-Maliki addressed the Americans. “When (Iraqi and American) blood mixes together in the field, aiming to achieve one goal, this blood will help in establishing a long-lasting relationship between us. Our relationship will stay forever,” he said. 47 days later he addressed the Iranians after talks he described as “very constructive” and called Iran “a very important country, a good friend and brother,” Al-Maliki said.

A third more realistic interpretation is that both powers have converging agendas in the wretched country and have, in an ironic moment of history, worked either together or in harmony to bring to power in Baghdad a government that both bombastically claim as their own and both describe as democratically representative of the people whose independence, state, territorial integrity, resources and historical cultural identity they are unmercifully ravaging.

Iran’s passivity and de facto coexistence with the U.S.-led NATO presence in Afghanistan only serves as a precedent to Arab sceptics.

The sectarian divide is the only approach to enable Tehran to gain influence on the ground; it is the pretext the U.S. repeatedly cites to keep its occupation forces as the arbiter in the country; the Israeli Jewish state which bases its statehood on a purely religious identity foment it for high strategic stakes to prevent an influential Arab country from regaining its statehood; the U.S. and Iran-backed Kurdish separatists see it as a prerequisite to fend off the Arab majority from curbing their autonomous status and their aspirations for independence; and the sectarian-based militias and their leaders will have no other grounds for any power base without it.

The “excellent” bilateral ties hailed by Ahmadinejad during al-Maliki’s visit, his pledges to “completely support the Iraqi government and parliament” and his promise that “Iran will provide assistance to the Iraqi government to establish full security” (1) should have been more than gratefully welcome statements were they not extended to a government that was engineered, sustained, protected and still commanded by the generals of the U.S.-led occupation army.

Iran, al-Maliki’s government and its predecessors, and the U.S. occupying power are and were always keen to confuse the Iraqi resistance with a minority of foreign-linked or foreign fighters whom they accuse of fomenting sectarian violence and “terrorism” in Iraq. This ever growing resistance is the major threat to al-Malki’s government, which his Iranian host pledged to secure, and it is also the same threat to the foreign occupation.

How could Tehran agree to dissolving the militias it sponsored, financed, armed and used as a “fifth column” during the eight-year war with Iraq and prepared, alongside the similarly sponsored Kurdish Peshmerga in northern Iraq, to continue the U.S. inconclusive war, which evacuated Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991, to topple the Saddam-Hussein-led Baath regime in Baghdad."

Israel's Use of American Cluster Bombs

By FRANKLIN LAMB
CounterPunch

Al Sultaneih, Lebanon.

"As the initial assessment and clean up of American cluster bombs, estimated at more than 130,000 unexploded bomblets across the south of Lebanon, gets underway, unanticipated findings are emerging:

The breadth and depth of the problem with cluster bombs found in 498 locations in scores of villages as of September 9th was not expected. So far less than 4% have been disposed of, and 0 % of the villages in the south have been certified as safe for domestic or agricultural use by the United Nations ordnance disposal task force.

The U.S. cluster munitions dropped across Lebanon have been a near total failure as far as their claimed purpose and justification, degrading Hezbollah forces. Lebanese Army, UN, and Hezbollah sources agree the Cluster Bombs had virtually no impact on Palestinian, Amal, and Hezbollah fighters during the recent conflict.

Even operators of heavy rubble clearing equipment are finding their work is stymied because Israel dropped cluster bombs both before and after many buildings were destroyed by bombs, and therefore cluster bombs are sandwiched between layers of pancaked walls and piles of rubble."

Paradigm? What Paradigm?

By TIM WILKINSON
CounterPunch

"So when Dershowitz solemnly asserts that "democracies must adhere to their high moral and legal standards in combating terrorism", we should note that this innocuous statement is immediately equated with the provocative Israeli claim that democracies have to fight terrorism "with one hand tied behind their backs". One wonders which hand was tied during the month-long bombardment of Lebanon. Dershowitz then illustrates the 'both hands' approach by reference to the atrocious Nazi and Stalinist regimes--so apparently establishing his humane credentials. But these horrifying regimes are not used to frame a 'slippery slope' argument, or to point out that lesser oppression is nonetheless oppression. The Hitler/Stalin 'paradigm' is instead praised with faint damnation: "no democracy", we are helpfully informed, "could be, or should be, willing to employ such tyrannical methods." So now the range of potential 'new paradigms' is clearly revealed. At one extreme we have the dubiously 'high moral standards' of the Israeli military, and at the other, the most comprehensively nightmarish brutality ever known. Somewhere in between, we may conclude, lies the New Paradigm. The only certainty seems to be that the high moral and legal standards currently required by international law are, in Dershowitz's learned opinion, too stringent!"

"Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas on Thursday accused the United States of undermining efforts to form a new coalition government and called on Europe to take the lead in lifting international sanctions against the Palestinians.

Haniyeh spoke a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the new Palestinian government would have to accept international demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

"The U.S. administration does not want the Palestinians to be unified. It puts obstacles in the way of this political coming together," Haniyeh told reporters. "It wants to extort the Palestinian people and the Palestinian government."

Hamas, which has controlled the Palestinian government since March, caved in to the intense international pressure this week and agreed to share power with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party."

***

Duh Mr. Haniyeh! It finally dawned on you that "The U.S. administration does not want the Palestinians to be unified" and "It wants to extort the Palestinian people and the Palestinian government?"

You are not the brightest bulb in the lot. But keep listening to your advisor, Ahmed Yusef; pretty soon he will make sure that you and your "national unity" government will be tied with a thousand ropes and cut a thousand cuts. Long live "national unity!"

Tony Sayegh

By Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.
(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

TIMELESS WISDOM

From the book "The Art of War" written by the great Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, some 2,500 years ago:

On Laying Plans

"It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected."

On Waging War

"When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength."

THE SECRETARY OF STATE OF USRAEL WITH THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF USRAEL

IT IS DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN!

"VIENNA - UN inspectors have protested to the U.S. government and a Congressional committee about a report on Iran's nuclear work, calling parts of it "outrageous and dishonest," according to a letter obtained by Reuters.

The letter said the errors suggested Iran's nuclear fuel program was much more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and Washington's own intelligence assessments have determined.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: "We felt obliged to put the record straight with regard to the facts on what we have reported on Iran. It's a matter of the integrity of the IAEA."

The letter said the report falsely described Iran to have enriched uranium at its pilot centrifuge plant to weapons-grade level in April, whereas IAEA inspectors had made clear Iran had enriched only to a low level usable for nuclear power reactor fuel.

The U.S. has also said that mass quantities of uranium gas await enrichment, which would ultimately be used for the construction of some 40 nuclear bombs.

"Furthermore, the IAEA Secretariat takes strong exception to the incorrect and misleading assertion" that the IAEA opted to remove a senior safeguards inspector for supposedly concluding the purpose of Iran's programme was to build weapons, it said.

The letter said the congressional report contained "an outrageous and dishonest suggestion" that the inspector was dumped for having not adhered to an alleged IAEA policy barring its "officials from telling the whole truth" about Iran.

The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved false, and underlined continued tensions over Iran's dossier.

"This (committee report) is deja vu of the pre-Iraq war period where the facts are being maligned and attempts are being made to ruin the integrity of IAEA inspectors," said a Western diplomat familiar with the agency and IAEA-U.S. relations.

Diplomats say the inspector remains IAEA Iran section head."

KILLING IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS: BAE IS MAKING A KILLING

"LONDON, SEPT 13: BAE Systems Plc, Europe’s biggest weapons maker, said first-half profit rose 28%, more than analysts estimated, on US orders for Bradley fighting vehicles used in Iraq.
Net income increased to 405 million pounds ($759 million), or 12.4 pence a share, from 317 million pounds a year earlier, BAE said on Wednesday in a statement. Profit beat the 354 million-pound estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

BAE purchased United Defense Industries Inc, the maker of the Bradley, in June 2005 to become the Pentagon’s seventh-biggest contractor. London-based BAE on September 6 recommended shareholders approve the sale of its 20% stake in Airbus SAS to concentrate on US defence acquisitions.

The sale ‘‘will allow BAE to focus on the defense sector and not be distracted by some serious problems that Airbus is facing,’’ David Hart, an analyst at Fat Prophets in London, said in an interview. ‘‘Refitting Bradleys will be a strong market for them for years to come.’’

BAE generated one-third of its 15.4 billion pounds in 2005 sales in the US. It is adding sensor technology and protective systems to vehicles that carry infantry into battle, including the US Army’s fleet of 7,000 Bradleys."

The Independent

"US and British strategy in Afghanistan was in danger of unravelling last night after appeals for Nato partners to volunteer more troops fell on deaf ears.

Tony Blair joined Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, in warning that Afghanistan could become a "failed state" unless Nato members provide more troops to combat the resurgent Taliban forces.

Their appeal to Nato countries meeting in Mons, Belgium, produced no immediate promises of extra troops. Commanders on the ground demanded an extra 2,500 troops after the British-led Nato forces in Helmand province in the south fought a series of ferocious battles."

The Independent

"The war lasted 34 days. It left 1,393 people dead. Another 5,350 injured. And more than 1,150,000 displaced, of whom 215,413 are still homeless. The damage amounts to more than £2.6bn. Exactly one month after it ended, a Foreign Office minister admits that Tony Blair should have called for a ceasefire.

A Foreign Office minister has conceded that Tony Blair's refusal to call for a ceasefire during 34 days of slaughter in Lebanon may have been a mistake.

The admission by Kim Howells, minister for the Middle East, reflects the growing worries of senior figures in government that Mr Blair's defence of US foreign policy at every turn is damaging his administration at home and abroad."

Geoffrey Wheatcroft
The Guardian

"Palestinians will point out that Israeli state violence has always more than matched that of its opponents - notably in the numbers of civilians killed - and they could point out also that this dates from before the creation of the state of Israel.

Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, has been described as "one of Likud's princes from a prominent Revisionist family", which makes Tzipi Livni, his photogenic foreign minister, a princess. In an interview with the Spiegel, the German magazine, she said that as a girl "All I ever heard about was that we Jews have the right to a state on both sides of the Jordan". Her father's grave bears the old map of that Greater Israel of Revisionist dreams, and she is one of the few prominent Israelis who can still quote the works of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the brilliant and charismatic man who founded the political tradition from which the groups called Betar, Irgun Zvei Leumi, Herut, Likud and now Kadima descend: a tradition to which she and Olmert belong by birth.

In the 1920s Jabotinsky created the Revisionist Zionist movement, defiantly nationalistic and militaristic, with an aim of admirable clarity: "The revival of the Jewish state with a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan." For Jabotinsky, Zionism was a psychological as well as political project. In an essay entitled Against Excessive Apology, he told the Jews to stop cringing and tell the goyim "to go to hell", which Olmert may be said to have taken to heart.

Instead of pretending that Palestine was "a land without people for a people without land", or that the existing inhabitants would welcome the Zionists, Jabotinsky insisted that they would not: "The native population, civilised or uncivilised, have always stubbornly resisted the colonists." It was thus "utterly impossible to obtain the voluntary consent of the Palestine Arabs", and the Zionists must be ready to use force by building an "Iron Wall". His famous phrase has now been interpreted literally by the Israeli government.

In the 30s, David Ben Gurion, the Labour leader who became Israel's first prime minister, called his antagonist "Vladimir Hitler", and the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann told the New York lawyer Morris Rothenberg that the Jewish extremists evinced "Hitlerism in its worst possible form".

By the late 1930s some Revisionists had formed the Irgun, an armed militia committed to driving out the British and dealing with the Palestinian Arabs - by whatever means seemed necessary. "In blood and fire did Judea fall, In blood and fire will Judea rise again," ran one Revisionist song, and the Irgun were as good as those words. On July 22 1946 they blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which housed the British headquarters of the military command, killing 91 people, among whom 28 were British, 41 Arab and 17 Jewish.

We are now meant to be waging a "war on terror", and "terrorist" is a curse supposed to end all argument. But those who once supported the Irgun didn't shirk that word."

NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY, JUST ANOTHER PALESTINIAN BOY (13) KILLED BY ISRAEL
Palestinian mourners carry the body of thirteen-year-old Mohammed Shawriya during his funeral in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006. Shawriya was killed during an Israeli army raid into the town Tuesday evening, Palestinian medical sources said. (AP Photo)

PALESTINIAN UNITY MATH:
ONE LOSER + ONE LOSER = A WINNER!

HAARETZ

"According to the commander, in order to compensate for the rockets' imprecision, the order was to "flood" the area with them. "We have no option of striking an isolated target, and the commanders know this very well," he said. He also stated that the reserve soldiers were surprised by the use of MLRS rockets, because during their regular army service, they were told these are the IDF's "judgment day weapons" and intended for use in a full-scale war.

The commander also said that at least in one case, they were asked to fire cluster rockets toward "a village's outskirts" in the early morning: "They told us that this is a good time because people are coming out of the mosques and the rockets would deter them." In other cases, they fired the rockets at a range of less than 15 kilometers, even though the manufacturer's guidelines state that firing at this range considerably increases the number of duds. The commander further related that during IDF training exercises hardly any live rockets are fired, for fear that they would leave duds behind and fill the IDF's firing grounds with mines.

At the same time, soldiers are reporting that they fired phosphorous shells, which are supposed to be used by the IDF for marking or setting fire to areas, in order to start fires in Lebanon. The artillery commander says he saw trucks with phosphorous shells en route to artillery batteries in the North.

A direct hit from a phosphorous shell causes severe burns and a painful death. Around a year ago, there was an international scandal after a television crew presented harsh pictures of the charred bodies of Iraqis injured by phosphorous bombs during the course of the American attack on the city of Fallujah."

"French President Jacques Chirac was overheard expressing his concern about the future of Lebanon due to the strong Hezbollah presence in the country.

A microphone accidentally left on recorded part of the conversation between Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Chirac at the Sixth Euro-Asia summit in Helsinki, Finland. The broadcast revealed Chirac’s concern about the future of the U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed in Lebanon. According to the recording aired by the Spanish radio station Cadenaser, Chirac said: “In my opinion there won't be any problem for the next two or three months because Hezbollah is a little weaker. But in three, four or five months it could be dangerous. I’m a little worried about the future.”

French Ambassador to Turkey Paul Poudade said Turkey would be the stabilizing power in Lebanon. Speaking at a ceremony commemorating the opening of the French embassy to the public, Ambassador Poudade said: “Turkey has good relations with both Israel and Arab countries in the region. Thanks to these relations, Turkey will contribute to maintain peace and stability in the region.”"

Martin Rowson, The Guardian

HAARETZ

"European states have signaled to the Hamas government that they intend to lift the economic embargo on the Palestinian Authority once a national unity government is established, according to Ahmed Yusef, political adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

"The European states have promised to reconsider their stance regarding the boycott of the Palestinian government. Following the war in Lebanon there is greater understanding in Europe that they must present a more balanced stance regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict," Yusef said in an interview with Haaretz yesterday.

"Recognition and other political issues will be part of the negotiations Abbas will hold. We have granted him full legitimacy to negotiate on behalf of the entire Palestinian people. If he can achieve a diplomatic solution, his plan will be presented before the Palestinian institutions, such as the government and the parliament, and they will need to authorize his proposal. The Arab initiative and the previous UN resolutions will be part of the government's future political agenda."

On the question of relinquishing violence, Yusef said that if Israel ceases its military operations, the Palestinians would also agree to a cease-fire.

He explained that the national unity government would be set up so that the boycott would be lifted, contacts with the EU and Arab world would be renewed, and pressure on Israel to alter its policies would increase.

"We will put forth a broad political program that will result in greater European support for the Palestinians, and that will create more diplomatic pressure on Israel, in the hope that this will soon end Israeli occupation. A new diplomatic initiative is needed to bring about change and a solution through peaceful means. The initiative must include greater European, international and Arab involvement than the failed initiatives of the past."

"The new government is not a Hamas government but one of the entire Palestinian people. All the issues are open for discussion from out point of view, and Abbas can meet Israeli politicians from our point of view," Yusef said.

Responding to the press conference held yesterday by Noam Shalit, father of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Yusef said the Palestinians hoped a deal would be concluded soon."

***

RETURN TO THE ARAFAT ERA DELUSIONS

This Ahmed Yusef who is devising the strategy for Ismail Haniyeh is a Palestinian American public relations consultant. The fact that he is playing an important role in marketing Haniyeh and the new and improved Hamas is telling me a lot. It is very reminiscent of the advisors to Arafat who used to offer similar advice and who succeeded in bringing Fatah in the American orbit. Arafat's advisors also had delusions about the role an "independent" Europe can play to "pressure" Israel and help set up a "Palestinian state." Another delusion of those advisors was the possibility of securing a "neutral" America.

It is amazing that after all the catastrophes and failures affecting the Palestinians, including the Oslo agreements and the resulting puppet PA, Hamas is listening to the same canard and is now following the same policies.

As if, since the days of Arafat, there has been no occupation and destruction of Iraq by the US, with varying degrees of support from Europe (especially Britain). As if there has been no reawakening of France's colonial interests. As if the US/Israel/EU/UN have not all taken part in attacking and destroying Lebanon. As if thousands of combat-ready troops from France, Germany, Italy and other European countries are not in effect establishing a bridgehead in Lebanon and providing security for Israel. As if none of that has transpired.

There we go again with the same failed advice; the same failed policies; the same failed "peace initiatives"; the same begging of the US, the UN and the EU; in short the same delusions, but under a new management and a new "national unity government."

The great Palestinian people are truly stubborn and steadfast in refusing to learn! But let me not spoil the fun and the excitement of "national unity;" the Palestinians will get to eat again. Onward on the same trail blazed by Arafat leading straight ahead over a cliff.

Tony Sayegh

HAARETZ

"Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is arriving today in the United States, where she will meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, and apparently also with Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Rice will tell Livni at their meeting tonight (Israel time) that Israel must help bolster the standing of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel made clear to the Americans ahead of this visit that negotiations with Syria are not on the agenda for now. An official familiar with the preparatory talks said that Israeli and American positions on this subject had grown closer following the war in Lebanon.

Rice and Livni will try to coordinate a response to the formation of a Palestinian national unity government. Both countries do not consider this development sufficient reason to alter the prerequisites for talks with the PA. Israel will update the U.S. on potential gestures toward Abbas, among them the possibility of handing over responsibility for West Bank towns to the presidential force under his command."

The Independent

"Soldiers deployed in Helmand province five years on from the US-led invasion, and six months after the deployment of a large British force, have told The Independent that the sheer ferocity of the fighting in the Sangin valley, and privations faced by the troops, are far worse than generally known.

"We are flattening places we have already flattened, but the attacks have kept coming. We have killed them by the dozens, but more keep coming, either locally or from across the border," one said. "We have used B1 bombers, Harriers, F16s and Mirage 2000s. We have dropped 500lb, 1,000lb and even 2,000lb bombs. At one point our Apaches [helicopter gunships] ran out of missiles they have fired so many. Almost any movement on the ground gets ambushed. We need an entire battle group to move things. Yet they will not give us the helicopters we have been asking for.

"We have also got problems with the Afghan forces. The army, on the whole, is pretty good, although they are often not paid properly. But many of the police will not fight the Taliban, either because they are scared or they are sympathisers.""

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"Osama bin Laden is on the move, and Tuesday's terror attack on the US Embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, could be a tangible result of this.

Exclusive information obtained by Asia Times Online shows that the al-Qaeda leader recently traveled from the South Waziristan tribal area in Pakistan to somewhere in the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nooristan, or possibly Bajour, a s mall tribal agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Area of Pakistan in North-West Frontier Province.

In addition to bin Laden's improved health, al-Qaeda has in the past few months gained some breathing room to regroup and solidify its logistics as a result of the situation in the semi-autonomous North and South Waziristan tribal areas.

A new dynamic among militant groups has emerged in Egypt to complement al-Qaeda's designs in the Middle East. Tuesday's Damascus attack could also be an illustration of this.

Many youths previously associated with the militant Gamaa Islamiya of Egypt have formed independent cells, while some Egyptian youths of Palestinian origin have created underground organizations to target the pro-Israeli Egyptian government and US interests.

The Israel-Hezbollah war proved the ideal starting point for this plan. The successful defense of Lebanon by Hezbollah was largely taken in the Arab world as the first Arab victory against Israel. Sentiment on the streets of the Middle East turned noticeably against the US, Israel and pro-West Muslim rulers. Al-Qaeda wants to keep this mood, and inflame it even further. Attacks like the one in Damascus could be such pot-boilers. More, and bigger, ones are most likely being plotted by the masterminds sitting in the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Who attacked the U.S. embassy in Damascus – and why?
By Justin Raimondo

"Jund al-Sham, loosely affiliated with al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the Levant, including the assassination of a Hezbollah official. Now this last certainly seems like an odd task for a purportedly Islamist group to undertake. The ostensible motivation for this attack is the Shi'ite-Sunni rivalry: the Shi'ite Hezbollah is considered heretical, and therefore a target of Takfiri retribution, yet the confluence of interests between these "Soldiers of Syria" with the soldiers of Israel in the IDF is striking. Another oddity: the links between Jund al-Sham and a recently uncovered Israeli spy network in Lebanon.

Hussein Khattab, a Palestinian member of the spy ring – which has been linked to several assassinations of Palestinian leaders and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon – is the brother of Sheik Jamal Khattab, an Islamic cleric and recruiter for al-Qaeda in Iraq, who is, in turn, connected to Jund al-Sham. Furthermore, a suspiciously large part of Jund al-Sham's activities in the Levant have been directed against Hezbollah. In July 2005, Jund al-Sham faxed a threat to the Shi'ite Fatwa Center in Tyre, vowing to murder several prominent Hezbollah figures, including former spiritual leader Sayyed Hussein Fadlallah. The group also issued a number of statements labeling Hezbollah "unbelievers" – and thus justifiably targeted by "true" Muslims. Another coincidence: the assassination of Hezbollah leaders Ali Saleh and Ghaleb Awali, as well as Palestinian militants in Lebanon, previously claimed by Jund al-Sham, has been uncovered by the Lebanese security forces as the work of the Mossad ring."

By Tony Sayegh

* Blair was given the red-carpet treatment in Ramallah by Abbas.

* The next day, with great fanfare, Abbas and Haniyeh announced agreement on a "national unity" government.

* Two days later (today) Israel announced that 18 Hamas lawmakers will be released on bail.

* Today the puppet Abbas is meeting the boy king of Jordan who praised "Palestinian unity!"

* The EU is hailing the "Palestinian unity government" as a good step to get the "peace process" moving!

* Hamas has announced that it will not be involved in "peace negotiations," but would leave that to Abbas and the PLO (whatever is left of it).

* Informed sources say that Hamas ministers will no longer run the key ministries of finance, foreign relations and interior. Hamas will be given such ministries as health, education (and garbage collection?).

* In a speech today in Brighton, England Blair asked for the removal of the economic blockade against the Palestinians. He said that the announcement of a "national unity" government was what he had been hoping for. Surprise, surprise!

* The impotent Arab regimes are launching a new "peace initiative" at the UN this month.

Something has been cooked and Blair was the messenger; he delivered the instructions. Don't be surprised to hear that the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas will be released soon.

As I said before, I don't like the smell of what has been cooked.

***

The problem is that Hamas is not helping itself by putting itself in the situation it will be in. Instead of healing and restoring popular support, Hamas will lose support by being seen as defeated without having the courage of its convictions to pull out of this miserable PA arrangement.

It was a mistake in the first place for Hamas to participate in elections under the Oslo roof. That decision reflected naïveté, since Hamas thought that Usrael would respect the democratic choice and not besiege it. Next Hamas bet that it would generate alternate sources of funding and withstand the siege; that failed. Hamas knew all along that Abbas, Fatah and the Arab regimes were conspiring to topple it; yet it continued to deal with Abbas and now will have a government of "national unity" basically controlled by the same Fatah ministers who wanted to topple it. The ministers of finance, foreign affairs and interior will not be from Hamas. These are the key ministries. In addition, the despicable Saeb Arikat will remain as minister in charge of "negotiations." What is left for Hamas? To collect the garbage and sweep the streets? Haniyeh recently showed his skills in this regard.

What will turn a lot of people away from Hamas is the new dependence on obfuscation and doubletalk, instead of being straight talker (as it used to be). What is this nonsense that the new government is not in charge of "negotiations?" It left that to the same corrupt Abbas and his PLO. Who is Hamas kidding? Who needs such government if it is not concerned with the key issue of political settlement and the future of the Palestinians? This is deceitful, and that made me lose respect for Hamas. Now, Hamas is using Arafat-era rhetoric of stressing "national unity" and discouraging any dissent!

It would have been much better if Hamas followed Islamic Jihad and stayed outside this framework of Oslo and the PA. Hamas was more effective as an opposition and a resistance movement. Now, it will be tied with a thousand ropes, cut a thousand cuts and humiliated. People will lose respect for Hamas.

Compare its position towards the puppet Abbas with Nasrallah's position towards Siniora; there is no comparison. It would have been much better if Hamas were as principled.

Palestinians run for cover from tear gas during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Tuesday Sept. 12, 2006. Israeli troops shot dead 13-year-old Mohammed Omar Shawriya during a raid Tuesday in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, witnesses and hospital officials said.(AP)

CRAZED IOF KILLERS
Israeli soldiers take part in a military operation in the West Bank village of Beit Kahel near Hebron September 12, 2006. (REUTERS)

A Palestinian woman sits on the rubble of a home destroyed by the Israel army in the Palestinian village of Zaatareh, south east of the West Bank town of Bethlehem. (AFP)

IOF KILLERS ON ANOTHER RAMPAGE; THIS TIME IN BETHLEHEM, SEPTEMBER 12

A Palestinian woman mourns her son, Mohammad Omar Shawariya, 14, who was killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Bethlehem September 12, 2006. (REUTERS)

Palestinians carry a wounded woman who was shot by Israeli troops during clashes in the West Bank city of Bethlehem September 12, 2006. Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in Bethlehem on Tuesday as they confronted protesters. (REUTERS)

IN LEBANON, a little-honoured truce remains in effect — yet another in a decades-long series of cease-fires between Israel and its adversaries in a cycle that, as if inevitably, returns to warfare, carnage and human misery.

Let’s describe the current crisis for what it is: a US-Israeli invasion of Lebanon, with only a cynical pretense to legitimacy. Amid all the charges and countercharges, the most immediate factor behind the assault is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This is hardly the first time that Israel has invaded Lebanon to eliminate an alleged threat. The most important of the US-backed Israeli invasions of Lebanon, in 1982, was widely described in Israel as a war for the West Bank. It was undertaken to end the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s annoying calls for a diplomatic settlement. Despite many different circumstances, the July invasion falls into the same pattern.

What would break the cycle? The basic outlines of a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict are familiar, and have been supported by a broad international consensus for 30 years: a two-state settlement on the international border, perhaps with minor and mutual adjustments.

The Arab states formally accepted this proposal in 2002, as the

Palestinians had, long before. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has made it clear that though this solution is not Hezbollah’s preference, they will not disrupt it. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei recently reaffirmed that Iran too supports this settlement. Hamas has indicated clearly that it is prepared to negotiate for a settlement in these terms as well.

The United States and Israel continue to block this political settlement, as they have done for 30 years, with brief and inconsequential exceptions. Denial may be preferred at home, but the victims do not enjoy that luxury.

US-Israeli rejectionism is not only in words, but more important, in actions. With decisive US backing, Israel has been formalising its programme of annexation, dismemberment of shrinking Palestinian territories and imprisonment of what remains by taking over the Jordan Valley — the "convergence" program that is, astonishingly, called "courageous withdrawal" in the United States.

In consequence, the Palestinians are facing national destruction. The most meaningful support for Palestinians is from Hezbollah, which was formed in reaction to the 1982 invasion. Hezbollah won considerable prestige by leading the effort to force Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000. Also, like other Islamic movements, including Hamas, Hezbollah has gained popular support by providing social services to the poor.

To US and Israeli planners it therefore follows that Hezbollah must be severely weakened or destroyed — just as the PLO had to be evicted from Lebanon in 1982. But Hezbollah is so deeply embedded within Lebanese society that it cannot be eradicated without destroying much of Lebanon as well — hence the scale of the attack on the country’s population and infrastructure.

In keeping with a familiar pattern, the aggression is sharply increasing the support for Hezbollah, not only in the Arab and Muslim worlds beyond but also in Lebanon itself.

Late last month, polls revealed that 87 per cent of Lebanese support Hezbollah’s resistance against the invasion, including 80 per cent of Christians and Druze. Even the Maronite Catholic patriarch, the spiritual leader of the most pro-Western sector in Lebanon, joined Sunni and Shia religious leaders in a statement condemning the "aggression" and hailing "the resistance, mainly led by Hezbollah." The poll also found that 90 per cent of Lebanese regard the United States as "complicit in Israel’s war crimes against the Lebanese people."

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Lebanon’s leading academic scholar on Hezbollah, observes that "these findings are all the more significant when compared to the results of a similar survey conducted just five months ago, which showed that only 58 per cent of all Lebanese believed Hezbollah had the right to remain armed, and hence, continue its resistance activity."

The dynamics are familiar. Rami G. Khouri, an editor of Lebanon’s Daily Star, writes that "the Lebanese and Palestinians have responded to Israel’s persistent and increasingly savage attacks against entire civilian populations by creating parallel or alternative leaderships that can protect them and deliver essential services."

Such popular forces will only gain in power and become more extremist if the United States and Israel persist in demolishing any hope of Palestinian national rights, and in destroying Lebanon.

In the current crisis even King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Washington’s oldest (and most important) ally in the region, was compelled to say, "If the peace option is rejected due to the Israeli arrogance, then only the war option remains, and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire."

It is no secret that Israel has helped to destroy secular Arab nationalism and to create Hezbollah and Hamas, just as US violence has expedited the rise of extremist Islamic fundamentalism and jihadi terror. The latest adventure is likely to create new generations of bitter and angry jihadis, just as the invasion of Iraq did.

Israeli writer Uri Avnery observed that Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, former air force commander, "views the world below through a bombsight." Much the same is true of Rumsfeld-Cheney-Rice and other top Bush administration planners. As history reveals, that view of the world is not uncommon among those who wield most of the means of violence.

Saad-Ghorayeb describes the current violence in "apocalyptic terms," warning that possibly "all hell would be let loose" if the outcome of the US-Israel campaign leaves a situation in which "the Shia community is seething with resentment at Israel, the United States and the government that it perceives as its betrayer."

The core issue — the Israel-Palestine conflict — can be dealt with by diplomacy, if the United States and Israel abandon their rejectionist commitments. Other outstanding problems in the region are also susceptible to negotiation and diplomacy. Their success can never be guaranteed. But we can be reasonably confident that viewing the world through a bombsight will bring further misery and suffering, perhaps even in "apocalyptic terms."

Report, IRIN, 12 September 2006

Two young Palestinian school children stand in front of a barrier that seperates their home from their school. The sign says those who cross the barrier will be killed. (Edward Parsons/IRIN)

WEST BANK - Six months of a crippling international embargo on the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) has brought its economy to a virtual standstill. As a result, children are being driven increasingly to find work to help support their families.

"After my father became jobless, I joined my friends to work at the checkpoint in order to support my 11-member family," said Subhi Abdullah 16, referring to his unofficial job at al-Hawawer Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron.

The embargo followed the democratic election of a Hamas-led government in February. Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by the West and Israel.

With a population of 4.2 million people, oPt comprises the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

While plans were announced on Monday for a Palestinian unity government that could meet conditions to have the embargo lifted, ordinary Palestinians continue to suffer.

According to the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 40,000 children under 18 work in oPt - 73 percent of whom were forced to work due to severe financial conditions.

Subhi goes to al-Hawawer checkpoint every morning, dragging his steel handcart behind him. He competes with other boys to get two or three shekels (45 to 70 US cents) a time for carrying the luggage of travellers.

Forty percent of the West Bank has been under the limited civilian jurisdiction of the Palestinian government since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, while Israel maintains overall control - hence the checkpoints.

"One man's poison is another man's meat," said Subhi, when asked what he felt about the existence of the checkpoints.

Israel has set up hundreds of checkpoints across the West Bank for "security reasons", its army says. These checkpoints make it difficult for Palestinians to move freely from town to town; sometimes even from village to village.

Subhi said he leaves home at daybreak. He goes to school first, then to the checkpoint. By the time he gets back home in the evening, he is completely worn out. "My studies have been negatively affected. I do not have enough time to study. I think it is useless," said Subhi.

Abdul Rahman, 14, from al-Khader village near Bethlehem, works at the al-Khader checkpoint. He prefers working than going to school.

"I impatiently wait for the school bell to ring. And when it does, I take my handcart, which I leave beside my school, and rush to the checkpoint. I leave my school bag with my younger brother, who takes it home," Abdul Rahman said. "I start looking around with my colleagues to get travellers' bags and transfer them to the other side of the checkpoint."

While these checkpoint children or 'the little porters', as they are sometimes called, are of great benefit to travellers, NGOs and relief agencies are concerned with their welfare and with the impact of the checkpoints on the Palestinian population.

The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has said that the prevalence of checkpoints coupled with Israel's intermittent curfews are hampering the education system in oPt. More than 225,000 children and 9,300 teachers in the West Bank face a daily struggle to get to school

According to the children's agency, two thirds of Palestinian children live below the poverty line (US$2 a day), 38 percent of Palestinian children are anaemic and 23 percent of students and 36 percent of teachers are unable to get to school on any given day.

A Palestinian Child Draft Law states that it is forbidden to employ children below 15 years of age. It stipulates that the state should take all appropriate procedures to rehabilitate working children - physically and psychologically.

While the little porters continue to relieve travellers' burdens, no one is helping them relieve theirs.

Just wanted to share with y'all two of my favorite blogs fom Palestine...

http://nashazz.blogspot.com/
Although she calls herself Nashaaz (can be Arabicized as discordant)... the most harmonious Arabic I read anywhere on the net... a Palestinian in Haifa, she lives thourgh the sharp ironies of the situation and blogs her way out...

http://faragallah.blogspot.com/
Sheikh Rousso seems to be a former Muslim with sharp sense of humor blogs his four-letter critiques of the ironies of the Palestinian politics from the West Bank... As he says he writes with moral support from the French cigarette company Gauloises.. Their motto for those who don't know is "liberte Toujours".

Apologies again for non-Aaarabs, they are both in Arabic... one in VERY BEAUTIFUL ARABIC, and one in VERY FACETIOUS OFFENDING ARABIC.

By Rupert Cornwell
The Independent

"Have the neo-cons been discredited?

Not necessarily. Their credibility has been shredded by Iraq, but Kristol and others blame the failure not on the original grand design, but on the poor organisation of the occupation by Rumsfeld and his minions at the Pentagon. The original principles of PNAC are still very much the cornerstone of US foreign policy.

The crucial test case of neo-con influence is now Iran. In contrast with Iraq, Bush's instinct seems to be to let diplomacy run its course in the dispute over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons programme. But neo-cons are urging him (and/or Israel) to take no chances and bomb Iran, just as Iraq was attacked three years ago.

Do the neo-cons have a British equivalent?

Most certainly, in the person of Tony Blair. The Labour leader is in many respects an identikit US neo-con. Obviously Britain, unlike America, doesn't have the power to reshape the world. Nor is Mr Blair as unabashedly pro-Israel as Mr Bush. But he is a left-of-centre politician who espouses a robust and ideals-driven foreign policy, despite being fully aware of the unpopularity of his chief ally, and of UK domestic opposition to the neo-cons' main policy, the invasion of Iraq. If that isn't neo-conservatism, what is?"

Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, has used the British prime minister's recent visit to Beirut to issue his strongest criticism of the Lebanese government since the fighting ended between Hezbollah and Israel.

"Nasrallah criticised Fuad Siniora, the Lebanonese prime minister, for giving Tony Blair a warm welcome in the country on Monday, in remarks aired by Aljazeera on Tuesday. "You bring him home to me and to my family and you give a great reception?" Nasrallah said. "If there was an invitation made for Tony Bair to visit, then this is a national disaster."

The Shia leader said that Blair participated in the killing of Lebanese by not doing enough to stop Israel's war with Hezbollah. "This Tony Blair is an associate in the murdering," he said.

Nasrallah also said his group has been practicing self-restraint against what he described as back-stabbing and provocation by some politicians. "Do not these [Lebanese officials] have feelings, calculations, brain or heart?" Nasrallah asked, apparently also criticising the Lebanese government's attempts to secure foreign aid to restore Lebanese infrastructure that was damaged during the war. "Are people made of stone in Lebanon? Is this country vacant of people? Are we only hotels, concrete, roads and bridges?" he said."

***

Sayyed Nasrallah's description of Siniora's reception of the war criminal Blair as immoral and his reminder that "This Tony Blair is an associate in the murdering," applies equally to the puppet Abbas. Abbas gave Blair a red-carpet reception in Ramallah, which was a stab in the back for all Lebanese. Most Palestinians would agree with Nasrallah and would also describe Abbas' reception of Blair as immoral and cowardly. However, we (Lebanese and Palestinians) should remember that Siniora and Abbas do not make decisions, they follow orders.

Tony Sayegh

The Dream Philosophy of Paranoids
By NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
CounterPunch

"A central thesis of my book Beyond Chutzpah is that whenever Israel faces a public relations debacle its apologists sound the alarm that a "new anti-Semitism" is upon us. So, predictably, just after Israel faced another image problem due to its murderous destruction of Lebanon, a British all-party parliamentary group led by notorious Israel-firster Denis MacShane MP (Labor) released yet another report alleging a resurgence of anti-Semitism.

The single novelty of the report, which mostly rehashes fatuous allegations already disposed of in Beyond Chutzpah, is the new thresholds in idiocy it breaks. Consider the methodology deployed for demonstrating a new anti-Semitism. The report defines an anti-Semitic incident as any occasion "perceived" to be anti-Semitic by the "Jewish community." This is the school of thought according to which it's raining even in the absence of any precipitation because I feel it's raining. It is the dream philosophy of paranoids ­ especially rational paranoids, for whom alleged victimhood is politically serviceable. The report includes under the rubric of anti-Semitic incidents not just violent acts and incendiary speech but "conversations, discussions, or pronouncements made in public or private, which cross the line of acceptability," as well as "the mood and tone when Jews are discussed." The wonder is that it didn't also tabulate repressed anti-Semitic libidinal fantasies. In the category of inherently anti-Semitic pronouncements the report includes "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" (only comparisons of contemporary Arab policy to that of the Nazis are permissible) and "theories about Jewish or Zionist influence on American foreign policy" (even if Jewish and Zionist organizations boast about this influence).

Finally, it is anti-Semitic for student unions to advocate a boycott of Israeli goods because this "would restrict the availability of kosher food on campus." Maybe Israel can organize a "Berlin airlift" of gefilte fish."

A SEMINAL ARTICLE:

The Moral Bankruptcy of Israel's Founding Idea

By KATHLEEN CHRISTISON
Former CIA Analyst
CounterPunch

"Is it only observers outside the conventional mainstream who have noticed that by its murderous assault on Lebanon and simultaneously on Gaza, Israel finally exposed, for even the most deluded to see, the total bankruptcy of its very founding idea?

Racism has always been the lifeblood of Israel. Zionism rests on the fundamental belief that Jews have superior national, human, and natural rights in the land, an inherently racist foundation that excludes any possibility of true democracy or equality of peoples. Israel's destructive rampage in Lebanon and Gaza is merely the natural next step in the evolution of such a founding ideology. Precisely because that ideology posits the exclusivity and superiority of one people's rights, it can accept no legal or moral restraints on its behavior and no territorial limits, for it needs an ever-expanding geography to accommodate those unlimited rights.

Total domination means no physical threat and no demographic threat: Jews reign, Jews are totally secure, Jews always outnumber, Jews hold all military power, Jews control all natural resources, all neighbors are powerless and totally subservient. This was the message Israel tried to send with its attack on Lebanon: that neither Hizbullah nor anything in Lebanon that nurtures Hizbullah should continue to exist, for the sole reason that Hizbullah challenges Israel's supreme authority in the region and Israel cannot abide this effrontery. Zionism cannot coexist with any other ideology or ethnicity except in the preeminent position, for everyone and every ideology that is not Zionist is a potential threat.

The cluster bombs are a certain sign of Israel's intent to remake Lebanon, at least southern Lebanon, into a region cleansed of its Arab population and unable to function except at Israel's mercy.

This was not a war against Hizbullah, except incidentally. It was not a war against terror, as Israel and its U.S. acolytes would have us believe (indeed, Hizbullah was not conducting terrorist acts, but had been engaged in a sporadic series of military exchanges with Israeli forces along the border, usually initiated by Israel). This was a war for Israeli breathing space, for the absolute certainty that Israel would dominate the neighborhood.

In the nearly 40 years since then, Israeli policy has been largely directed -- with periodic time-outs for attacks on Lebanon -- toward making the Palestinians disappear for certain. The methods of ethnic cleansing are myriad: land theft, destruction of agricultural land and resources, economic strangulation, crippling restrictions on commerce, home demolition, residency permit revocation, outright deportation, arrest, assassination, family separation, movement restriction, destruction of census and land ownership records, theft of tax monies, starvation."

AN EDITORIAL (Arabic) BY LEBANESE COLUMNIST
JOSEPH SAMAHA

"هذا في الشكل. أما في المضمون، فالمؤتمر الصحافي تكثيف للمأزق الذي يعيشه «الاعتدال العربي» ممثلاً بأحد أرقى رموزه، فؤاد السنيورة. وتكثيف، أيضاً، للفشل الذريع الذي يعانيه توجّه غربي أبوي واستعلائي يريد إحلال «العلاقات العامة» محل السياسة.

كان يمكن القول إن المشكلة مع الولايات المتحدة هي في سيطرة إسرائيل (أو «اليهود» حسب قول عنصري) على مفاصل القرار الأميركي. والاستنتاج من ذلك، أن معركة تحرر العرب من الاحتلال هي نفسها معركة تحرير أميركا من «النفوذ الصهيوني» ويكون ذلك بتلبية جميع مصالح الولايات المتحدة في المنطقة بشكل لا تعود تحتاج معه إلى «الركيزة الاستراتيجية».
لقد كان أساس هذه السياسة «الواقعية» واهياً على الدوام ولكن، أمكنه، أن يشكّل زاداً شبه مقنع في مرحلة الحربين الباردتين: الكونية والعربية ــ العربية.
انهار هذا الأساس نهائياً مع مطالع الألفية الثالثة وبعد 11 أيلول والانعطافة الأميركية العدوانية التي تلاقت مع الاندفاعة التوسعية الإسرائيلية. ومع ازدياد التطابق المعلَن بين واشنطن وتل أبيب كان لا بد لـ«الاعتدال العربي» من أن يدفع الثمن.

ولقد كانت الحرب الإسرائيلية على لبنان مناسبة لاختبار هذه المعادلة الجديدة. ولذا شهدنا «الاعتدال العربي» يجيز هذه الحرب متلطياً وراء ضرورات التصدّي للتمدد الإيراني الداعم للإرهاب.
إلاّ أن الحرب لم تنجح عسكرياً كما كان متوقعاً. ولقد أدّى ذلك إلى إحراج «الاعتدال العربي» وخاصة مع اتضاح أن الولايات المتحدة ماضية في السعي إلى أن تحقق لإسرائيل، ولنفسها، بالسياسة ما لم يتحقق بالقوة.

لقد عاش «الاعتدال العربي» فترة راحة في بداية الحرب، لكنه عاد فدخل في المأزق من دون أن تبدو الإدارة الأميركية مهتمّة به. ولعل الدليل اللبناني على ذلك أن الولايات المتحدة المهتمّة بدعم حكومة «الاعتدال» تجعل الموافقة الإسرائيلية المسبقة شرطاً لتسليح الجيش اللبناني. ولا نشكّ في أن الرئيس السنيورة قرأ خبر «يديعوت أحرونوت» وهو يستعدّ لاستقبال بلير. ومن الطبيعي أن يشعر بقدر من الإحراج وخاصة أن البحث مع الضيف يتناول، في ما يتناول، دعم المؤسسات الأمنية.
لقد وجد السنيورة مخرجاً من ارتباكه بأن كال المديح لـ«الديموقراطية اللبنانية». إلاّ أنه يدرك تماماً أن ذلك لا يغيّر شيئاً في طبيعة «المأزق»: كل علاقة مباشرة بإدارة بوش أو حكومة بلير هي، اليوم، وأكثر من أي يوم مضى، علاقة غير مباشرة بإسرائيل."

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times

"Iran has finally blinked, reportedly agreeing to a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, as a confidence-building measure in response to growing international pressure. This is a welcome development that can potentially take the wind out of the sails of the ship of sanctions planned by the US and its allies at the United Nations Security Council.

Inevitably, many Iranians rightly ponder whether Bushehr will ever be completed, recalling how only a few months ago Nicholas Burns, a top US State Department official, bluntly asked Russia to withdraw from the Bushehr project if Iran failed to heed the UN's call to suspend enrichment activities. From Iran's vantage point, looking at past episodes of Russia's barter trade with the US over Iran, there is now a distinct possibility that Putin will prioritize his ties to the West over Iran if pushed to make a choice - and the diplomatic momentum is drifting precisely toward such a stark choice.

Both Tehran and Washington support the present besieged governments in Kabul and Baghdad, and the combination of impending civil war in Iraq, potentially spilling over to neighboring countries such as Iran, and the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan alone dictates fresh thinking on Tehran's and Washington's part on how not to let the situation in the region get out of hand.

Sure, the change of regimes in Kabul and Baghdad has been a security plus for Iran, but the massive infusion of US military might, bolstered by base-building in both Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan and elsewhere in Iran's vicinity, have been tantamount to major tremors threatening the wellspring of Iran's national security."

By Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Asia Times

"FALLUJAH, Iraq - After enduring two major assaults, Fallujah, a key city in the western province al-Anbar, is under threat from US forces again. This coincides with news of a classified US intelligence report that the Pentagon is taking "very seriously" - that US forces are losing control of Anbar.

In Fallujah, 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, residents are edgy. "They destroyed our city twice and they are threatening us a third time," said Ahmed Dhahy, 52. "They want us to do their job for them and turn in those who target them." Dhahy, who lost 32 relatives when his father's house was bombed by a US aircraft during the April 2004 attack on Fallujah, said the US military had threatened it would destroy the city if resistance fighters were not handed over to them.

Fallujah was heavily bombed in April 2004 and again in November that year. The attacks destroyed 75% of the city's infrastructure and left more than 5,000 dead, according to local non-governmental groups.

But after the heavy assaults, resistance fighters have continued to launch attacks against US and official Iraqi forces in the city. Fallujah remains under tight security, with the US military using biometric identification, full body searches and bar-coded identification cards for residents to enter and leave their city.

"There are so many arrests and killings, and collective punishments, such as random shootings, violent inspection raids, repeated curfews and deliberate cutting of water and electricity," said Mohammed al-Darraji, head of a human-rights group in Fallujah called the Iraqi Center for Human Rights Observation. "What is going on in this city requires international intervention to protect civilians and to punish those who seriously damaged Fallujah society and committed serious crimes against humanity," Darraji said.

Another human-rights campaigner in Fallujah, who asked to be referred to as Khalid, said human-rights activists in Iraq felt betrayed by the United Nations. The UN had played ignorant "by leaving US troops to act alone in the city", said Khalid, who works with Raya Human Rights, a non-governmental organization in the city. "This was after the media exposed the enormity of the violence and human-rights violations during the last three years." "

"What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs," the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.

Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.

In addition, soldiers in IDF artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law. According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war.

The rocket unit commander stated that Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) platforms were heavily used in spite of the fact that they were known to be highly inaccurate.

MLRS is a track or tire carried mobile rocket launching platform, capable of firing a very high volume of mostly unguided munitions. The basic rocket fired by the platform is unguided and imprecise, with a range of about 32 kilometers. The rockets are designed to burst into sub-munitions at a planned altitude in order to blanket enemy army and personnel on the ground with smaller explosive rounds.

The use of such weaponry is controversial mainly due to its inaccuracy and ability to wreak great havoc against indeterminate targets over large areas of territory, with a margin of error of as much as 1,200 meters from the intended target to the area hit.
Because of their high level of failure to detonate, it is believed that there are around 500,000 unexploded munitions on the ground in Lebanon. To date 12 Lebanese civilians have been killed by these mines since the end of the war.

According to the commander, in order to compensate for the inaccuracy of the rockets and the inability to strike individual targets precisely, units would "flood" the battlefield with munitions, accounting for the littered and explosive landscape of post-war Lebanon."

***

This IDF commander is clearly an anti-Semite or a self-hating Jew.

Israel/Palestine Since 2003

A new book by Professor Tanya Reinhart

"The Road Map to Nowhere is a devastating and timely book, essential to understanding the current state of the Israel/Palestine crisis and the propaganda that infects its coverage. Based on extensive analysis of information in the mainstream Israeli media, it argues that the current road map has brought no real progress and that, under cover of diplomatic successes, Israel is using the road map to strengthen its grip on the remaining occupied territories. Exploring the Gaza pullout of 2005, the West Bank "separation wall", the rise to power of the Kadima party and Hamas, Reinhart examines the gap between myth - the Israeli leadership’s public affairs achievement that has led the West to believe that a road map is in fact being implemented - and bitter reality.

Reinhart shows that throughout, Ariel Sharon’s goals, and those of his successor Ehud Olmert, have stayed the same: to maintain Gaza as a closed prison, to transform the West Bank into a system of sealed enclaves and to annex Palestinian land under cover of the construction of the "separation wall". The army, which represents the true power in Israel, will forcibly ensure the legacy of Sharon is applied - Hamas’ election success represents an ideal pretext to do so.

This powerful new book is written with the rigour and sharp anger of one of the rare Israeli intellectuals who had long predicted and explained the prolonged stalemate of the successive "peace processes" initiated by the 1993 Oslo accords."

About the author

Tanya Reinhart is Professor Emeritus of linguistics and media studies at Tel Aviv University and, from January 2007, a Global Distinguished Professor at New York University. She has had a regular column in the biggest Israeli daily, Yediot Aharonot, is the author of Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, and contributes regularly to Counterpunch, Zmag and Redress Information & Analysis websites.

***

Click on Recommended Reading on Palestine on the right, under Please Read more about Palestine for more new books on Palestine.
Molly

"Thousands of Hezbollah supporters on Monday filled the streets of a Beirut suburb heavily bombed in Israeli air raids, defending the militant group's right to bear arms and demanding that the government resign.

In its first rally in Beirut since the end of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, one of the group's 14 members of parliament poured scorn on the cabinet for receiving British Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier on Monday.

"We say to this government, you must go. You must go because you are a government that today received the killer Blair," Ali Ammar told supporters, waving yellow Hezbollah flags on flattened ground or standing on the broken shells of nearby buildings.

"This government cannot be trusted ... What we want is a government of national consensus that includes the honorable faces ... who stood by the Lebanon of resistance, of Arabism, sovereignty, freedom and independence.""

In support of the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff and his courageous stand with the Palestinian and Lebanese people and in the face of threats on his life by the Zionist thugs of the Likud, here I am posting some of his best.

(Click on any cartoon for a larger image)

Latuff threatened!

Just a tiny example how the IsraHell' dirty tactics work.

Now guess what! I'm being threatened by Likud, a right wing party in Israel (former party of Sabra and Shatila butcher Ariel Sharon). In a page linked to Likud, www.likudnik.co.il/Front/NewsNet/reports.asp?reportId=171273, my picture and some of my cartoons are shown. Along the same old name-calling (Nazi, anti-Semitic...) they say that "This Carlos should be 'taken care of' long time ago, in some way or another."

Of course, we can expect anything from IsraHell. If they can carry on "selective killings" of Palestinians, and carpet Beirut with tons of bombs murdering hundreds of civilians, what is the big deal about "neutralizing" one cartoonist in Brazil? Death threats, cheap attempts to terrorize me, however, will not prevent me from supporting Palestinians in their struggle against brutal Israeli occupation. The most that Likud creeps can do is silence me with a bullet, but they will never be able to silence my art.

Latuff

September 8, 2006
Rio de Janeiro
Brazil

SHAME ON HAMAS!

The Lebanese showed more guts and were more principled in their opposition to Blair than the Palestinians. Only a handful of protestors protested in Ramallah while thousands of angry protestors gathered in Beirut. Hizbullah deputies and Nabih Berri from Amal refused to meet with Blair and the country's most senior Shiite cleric blasted Blair and exposed him as the war criminal that he is. By contrast, Ismail Haniyeh published an article in the British Guardian, reproaching Blair for refusing to meet with him! What a contrast! In addition, Hamas refused to add its name to a list of Palestinian leaders and intellectuals who opposed the Blair visit and told him not to come. What a difference between Hamas and Hizbullah! I take my hat off for Hizbullah, but I can't do the same for Hamas. Shame on Hamas!

Tony Sayegh

By Kurt Nimmo

"It wasn’t a good day for the embattled Tony Blair. During a press conference in Beirut with Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora—former central banker for Group Méditerranée and Citibank employee—an “angry protester accus[ed] Tony Blair of complicity in the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon,” according to ABC News.

And then Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri “left town in an apparent snub” and “the country’s most senior Shiite Muslim cleric said he held Blair responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Lebanese civilians during the 34-day war because Britain supported the United States in refusing to demand a quick cease-fire.” Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah characterized Blair as a “killer of children, women and the elderly.” Blair responded blithely by saying “he understood the anger in Lebanon” and “pledged Britain would help Lebanon rebuild. Both he and Saniora said a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was crucial to securing stability in the entire region.”

Of course, for Blair and his neocon co-conspirators in Washington, the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”—in other words, Israel killing thousands of Palestinians and stealing their land—will be resolved when Palestinians surrender and finally consent to their assigned colonial role as hewers of wood and drawers of water. Caoimhe Butterly, a well-known Irish peace activist, mentioned above, understands this and that is why she unfurled a banner declaring “Boycott Israeli apartheid” in front of live TV cameras. “It’s all right. We are in a democracy…. We respect all sorts of expression,” Saniora commented as security thugs dragged Butterly out of the press conference. In democratic Lebanon, as in democratic America, protesters were “kept about a half-mile from the government headquarters,” thus making sure they did not embarrass Blair, as Caoimhe Butterly had managed to do."

For non-Aaarabs, the script on the cow says "September 11"

I AM WARY AND SUSPICIOUS OF THIS "NATIONAL UNITY"

Coming on the heels of the Blair mission, I smell something very fishy. I am afraid that Hamas has been co-opted by shining but empty promises. The "breakthrough" is a formula for Hamas to meet the Usraeli/British/EU demands without openly saying so; a typical Arab/Palestinian charade. In return, Haniyeh gets to keep his "job," whatever that means.

It appears that the Blair circus is building momentum and more pseudo-leaders are jumping on the bandwagon, from Palestine to Lebanon. Get ready to welcome the resurrection of the "peace process" from its grave. The peace process industry has a new convert: Hamas. We, in the Middle East, should be getting ready for 24/7 coverage of the exciting news of this "peace process" and endless meetings, phony smiles and handshakes, press releases, initiatives and empty but solemn promises.

The financial siege on the Palestinians will be lifted, the Puppet Abbas and those who support him (the US and the EU) will get credit, the Palestinians will get their paychecks and get to eat again, but forget about resistance and liberation. In the meantime, building of Israeli colonies on the West Bank (with US financing) will accelerate. A couple of years from now, the "national unity" government will still be "negotiating" about the last 5% left of Palestine. All the Palestinian politicians (including those from Hamas) will be congratulating themselves about such unity, steadfastness and determination.

In the end, all the Palestinians will be the losers, but as they say, the people get the leadership they deserve.

Tony Sayegh

THIS SAYS IT ALL
A protester holds a banner as he takes part in a demonstration against the visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 11, 2006. Thousands of protesters shouted angry chants and accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair of complicity in last month's Israeli bombardment of Lebanon as he arrived Monday in a country still reeling from 34 days of fighting. (AP Photo)

Protestors attend a demonstration, organised by Hizbollah, against Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair in Beirut September 11, 2006. Thousands of Lebanese protested against Blair's visit to Beirut on Monday, accusing him of backing Israel's 34-day war with Hizbollah guerrillas. Troops, riot police and barbed-wire barriers kept the demonstrators well away from the government building in downtown Beirut where Blair was meeting Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. (REUTERS)

Protestors carry posters with slogans against British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a picture of Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during a demonstration organised by Hizbollah in Beirut September 11, 2006. Thousands of Lebanese protested against Blair's visit to Beirut on Monday, accusing him of backing Israel's 34-day war with Hizbollah guerrillas. Troops, riot police and barbed-wire barriers kept the demonstrators well away from the government building in downtown Beirut where Blair was meeting Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. (REUTERS)

Protesters wave Lebanese flags and hold banners during a demonstration against the visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 11, 2006. Thousands of protesters shouted angry slogans and accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair of complicity in last month's Israeli bombardment of Lebanon as he arrived Monday in a country still reeling from 34 days of fighting. (AP Photo)

A woman carries a banner denouncing British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a demonstration in Beirut to protest against his visit to Lebanon. Blair has begun his first visit to Lebanon, where he was greeted by angry demonstrators protesting his stance on Israel's month-long war with Hezbollah guerrillas.(AFP)

BLAIR: YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN LEBANON
A protester, waving a Hezbollah yellow flag, is held by others shouting slogans during a demonstration against the visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 11, 2006. Thousands of protesters shouted angry chants and accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair of complicity in last month's Israeli bombardment of Lebanon as he arrived Monday in a country still reeling from 34 days of fighting. (AP Photo)

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT, SAME OLD GRIZZLY TORTURE

"The notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad is at the centre of fresh abuse allegations just a week after it was handed over to Iraqi authorities, with claims that inmates are being tortured by their new captors.

Staff at the jail say the Iraqi authorities have moved dozens of terrorist suspects into Abu Ghraib from the controversial Interior Ministry detention centre in Jadriyah, where United States troops last year discovered 169 prisoners who had been tortured and starved.

An independent witness who went into Abu Ghraib this week told The Sunday Telegraph that screams were coming from the cell blocks housing the terrorist suspects. Prisoners released from the jail this week spoke of routine torture of terrorism suspects and on Wednesday, 27 prisoners were hanged in the first mass execution since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Access to the part of the prison containing terrorism suspects was denied, but from that block came the sound of screaming. The screaming continued for a long time.

"I am sure someone was being beaten, they were screaming like they were being hit," the witness reported. "I felt scared, I was asking what was happening in the terrorist section.

"I heard shouting, like someone had a hot iron on their body, screams. The officer said they were just screaming by themselves. I was hearing the screams throughout the visit."

Haleem Aleulami, who was released from the jail last week, three weeks after being arrested in Ramadi for carrying a pistol in his car, said the Americans had treated him better when they ran the jail. He claimed that visits from the International Red Cross staff had dried up and accused local human rights workers of being members of Shia groups who turned a blind eye to problems in the jail.

"The people are Iraqis and they are members of the Sciri and al Dawa parties. They have a good relationship with the leaders of the jail and they keep quiet," he said. The guards swore at the ordinary prisoners, he said, but those in the terrorist section were treated more brutally."

Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - European parliamentarians sympathetic to Israel have formally banded together in the European Union's first official pro-Israel lobby. They will inaugurate the new "European Friends of Israel" organization next week, according to Ynet.

The endeavor is reportedly being backed by Jewish businessmen across the continent.

Organizers hope the lobby will one day enjoy the influence that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has in Washington.

Lobby leader Michel Gur Ari said, "We have set ourselves a target to turn Europe into Israel's ally."

Yehoshua Ben-Yosef, the lobby's representative in Israel, told Ynet that to date more than 150 European parliamentarians have joined.

Electric Politics interviews British journalist Jonathan Cook, who is based in Nazareth, Israel. Cook has a superb grasp on the Palestinian issue. Near the end of this interview (one hour, ten minutes), Cook addresses the potential outcome of the neocon-Zionist plan to invade Iran. In addition, Cook puts Israel’s invasion of Lebanon into perspective and has a few interesting comments on Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah. In order to listen click here.

By Ares, Cuba.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

"For the past two months, Gaza residents like Aqdeir have lived without a regular supply of electricity after the Israeli military bombed Gaza’s only power station on 28 June.

More than 226 Palestinians, many civilians, have been killed in air raids and ground assaults since then, according to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

With a crippled infrastructure and low and unreliable power and water supplies, Gaza’s 1.4 million citizens face a daily struggle to survive.

Gaza’s power station, which is privately owned by an American firm and Palestinian investors, is run by the Gaza Power Generating Company (GPGC). Before the bombing, it provided 140 megawatts of electricity, or just over half of Gaza’s power needs.

The lack of electricity means sewage cannot be treated, increasing the risk of disease spreading, and hospitals cannot function normally. It means ordinary Gazans cannot keep perishable food because their fridges do not work.

At night, they are plunged into complete darkness when the electricity cuts off. They rely on candles and paraffin lamps.

Many residents have also been left with an irregular water supply as they need electricity to pump water up from nearby wells or from ground floor level to higher floors in blocks of flats.

The United Nations has called for an inquiry into Israel’s strike on the power plant, which it said exacerbated an already critical health situation and may be a breach of international humanitarian law.

“The destruction of Gaza's electricity power station is profoundly inconsistent with the health and safety of all civilians living in Gaza, especially the young, sick, infirm and elderly, as well as their right to the highest attainable standard of health, enshrined in the International Bill of Rights and other international human rights instruments,” said Paul Hunt, the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health."

HUMAN RIGHTS Watch

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The security of the approximately 34,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since the fall of the Saddam Hussein government in April 2003. Militant groups, mostly Shi`a, have targeted this predominantly Sunni minority community, attacking their communal buildings, committing several dozen murders, and threatening harm unless they immediately leave Iraq. Amidst the widespread politically motivated and criminal violence in Iraq, Palestinians have been targeted more than other minorities because of resentment of the privileges Palestinians received during Saddam Hussein’s rule, and suspicions that they are supporting the insurgency.

The Iraqi government bears considerable responsibility for the plight of the country’s Palestinians. Elements of the Ministry of Interior have been implicated in the arbitrary detention, torture, killing, and “disappearance” of Palestinians. Despite their status as refugees, Iraqi Palestinians have been subjected to new and extremely burdensome registration requirements, providing a venue for bureaucratic hostility. And unlike Iraqi citizens at risk, who are largely able to find refuge abroad, Palestinians have nowhere to flee: countries in the region (with rare, temporary exceptions) have kept their borders firmly closed to fleeing Iraqi Palestinians. And the international community has done little to help ease their plight.

Palestinian refugees in Iraq became a target for violence, harassment, and eviction from their homes soon after the Iraqi government fell to U.S.-led forces in 2003. Unknown assailants fired upon Palestinian housing projects with assault weapons and mortar rounds, and threw bombs into Palestinian homes. A particular point of contention had been the government’s provision to Palestinians of subsidized housing, often at the expense of mostly Shi`a landlords who were paid a pittance in rent by the Iraqi government. Immediately after the fall of the Saddam government, Shi`a landlords forcibly evicted their Palestinian tenants.

Since then, conditions for Palestinian refugees in Iraq continue to worsen. The February 22, 2006 bombing that destroyed one of Shi`ism’s holiest shrines, al-`Askariyya mosque in Samarra, led to a wave of sectarian killings that continues to date. Alleged Shi`a militants attacked Palestinian housing projects in Baghdad and killed at least ten Palestinians, among them the two brothers of the former Palestinian attaché in Baghdad, who were kidnapped from their father’s home on February 23 and found dead at a morgue two days later, their bodies mutilated. On the evening of the Samarra bombing, unidentified persons murdered Samir Khalid al-Jayyab, a fifty-year-old Palestinian, hitting him over the head with a sword and shooting him some twenty times. On March 16, unidentified armed men strangled to death Muhammad Hussain Sadiq, a twenty-seven-year-old Palestinian barber, together with two Sunni Iraqis in the Shu`la neighborhood of Baghdad.

In mid-March, a militant group calling itself the “Judgment Day Brigades” distributed leaflets in Palestinian neighborhoods, accusing the Palestinians of collaborating with the insurgents, and stating, “We warn that we will eliminate you all if you do not leave this area for good within ten days.” The killings and death threats put the Palestinian community in a “state of shock,” according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and led Palestinian National Authority President Mahmud Abbas and the High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres to each call upon Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to intervene to stop the killings of Palestinians. Fear continues to grip Palestinian communities in Baghdad, and thousands more Palestinians in Iraq are eager to leave the country. And the killings continue: UNHCR reported at least six more killings of Iraqi Palestinians in Baghdad and renewed death threats against Iraqi Palestinians in the last two weeks of May.

The post-Saddam Iraqi governments have done little to protect the Iraqi Palestinians – a community whose members were given the same rights as citizens, minus the actual citizenship and the right to own property – and some elements within government have actively contributed to this community’s insecurity. Notably, in October 2005 the minister of displacement and migration called on the government to expel all Palestinian refugees to Gaza, accusing Palestinians of involvement in terrorism. Iraqi Palestinians consistently told Human Rights Watch that Ministry of Interior authorities frequently harass and discriminate against Palestinian refugees in Iraq, singling them out for arrest and falsely accusing them of terrorism. One Palestinian who had been detained at the Kut military base southeast of Baghdad for sixty-eight days described torture he believes he suffered simply for being Palestinian: the guards would enter the detention room and ask for “the Palestinian,” and gave him regular beatings and attached live electrodes to his penis. A lawyer for a group of four Palestinians arrested on terrorism charges in May 2005 said his clients had suffered beatings with chains, electric shocks, cigarette burns on their faces, and being placed in a room with standing water carrying live electric current. Iraqi National Guard troops arrested a seventy-five-year-old Palestinian man in April 2005, and he remains “disappeared,” with the suspicion that they killed him in custody.

Where previously Palestinian refugees in Iraq had little trouble obtaining and maintaining their residency status, the Ministry of Interior ordered Palestinian refugees to obtain short-term residency permits, treating them as non-resident foreigners instead of as recognized refugees. The residency requirements are onerous, requiring Palestinian refugees to bring all members of their families to Ministry of Interior offices to renew the permits, which can take days or even weeks, and the new permits are only valid for one to two months.

Palestinian refugees seeking to flee Iraq face far greater obstacles than do Iraqi citizens, including other minority communities under threat, such as Mandaeans and Chaldeans. Neighboring countries like Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Syria refuse to admit them. Israel in general does not allow Palestinian refugees to return to Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories. And resettlement options in other countries have been largely unavailable to them.

The attacks in 2003 on Palestinian refugees led to the internal displacement of thousands of Palestinian refugees, and the flight of hundreds to neighboring Jordan. Jordan initially blocked the border for Iraqi Palestinians, then allowed a few hundred into the barren, isolated al-Ruwaishid refugee camp eighty-five kilometers inside Jordan from the Iraqi border. Other Iraqi Palestinians remained at the equally barren Karama camp located inside the no-man’s land (NML) at the Iraqi-Jordanian border for more than two years, until the Jordanian authorities closed the camp in 2005 and relocated them to al-Ruwaishid camp. For the past three years, several hundred Palestinian refugees have remained virtual prisoners in al-Ruwaishid camp. Some 250 of them elected to return to the dangerous conditions in Iraq rather than remain in the camp with no solution to their plight in prospect.

From March to May 2006, a group of nearly 200 Iraqi Palestinians was stuck on the Iraqi side of the Jordanian border, after Jordan refused them entry and armed Iraqi border guards forcibly pushed them back into Iraq. Following a request from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Syria allowed these Palestinians into Syria, but again closed its borders to Palestinian refugees immediately afterwards.

Human Rights Watch calls upon the states bordering Iraq to open their borders to Palestinian refugees from Iraq and to afford them the same opportunities to flee persecution and generalized violence that they accord to Iraqis. The current Palestinian refugee crisis in Iraq needs a regional approach, and all countries in the region – including Israel and the Gulf States – should participate in sharing the burden of accepting and housing the Palestinian refugees fleeing Iraq. The broader international community should also assist governments in the region by sharing the burden, either through providing financial assistance or through third-country resettlement.

***

A very alarming 44-page report of the horrors facing 34,000 Palestinians in "liberated" Iraq.

***

Click Here To Read The Report In Arabic

WHAT A CLOWN!

BLAIR, A MAN OF WAR NOT A MAN OF PEACE
A Palestinian man plays a flute during a demonstration against British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the West Bank town of Ramallah Sunday Sept. 10, 2006. The placard on left reads in Arabic: 'Blair a man of war not a man of peace.' (AP Photo}

THIS WALL WILL FALL
British activists walk along the controversial Israeli barrier during their 'Peace Cycle' ride from London to Jerusalem, in the West Bank town of Qalqilya September 10, 2006. (REUTERS)

British activists cycle along the controversial Israeli barrier during their 'Peace Cycle' ride from London to Jerusalem, in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, September 10, 2006. (REUTERS)

THE TRUE GOAL OF BLAIR'S MISSION: ARAB AND MUSLIM RED BLOOD AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE

TONY BLAIR, YOU MAKE ME ASHAMED TO BE BRIRISH
British woman Kirsty (surname not known) who lives in Ramallah, wears a T shirt protesting about Prime Minister Tony Blair, seen at rear, during the joint Press Conference between Blair Minister and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Presidential Compound in Ramallah, West Bank , Sunday Sept.1 0 2006. (AP Photo)

ASHAMED TO BE BRITISH
A British woman who only indentified herself as Kirsty wears as shirt in protest as she stands up during a joint news conference of British Prime Minister Tony Blair , background left, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, background right, at Abbas's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Sunday Sept. 10, 2006.(AP Photo)

A Palestinian man takes part in a demonstration during British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah September 10, 2006.(REUTERS)

By Khalid Amayreh

"The Bush Administration in coordination with Israel has been bullying the weak Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas to form an “emergency government” made up mainly of Fatah elements for the purpose of deposing the legitimate democratically elected government of Prime Minister Ismael Haniya.

According to reliable sources in Ramallah, American officials, including Special Envoy David Welch, have been pushing for the idea for sometime, hoping that a Fatah coup against the existing Hamas-led government might spark a confrontation between the two biggest Palestinian factions.

“Of course, the Americans didn’t say they wanted civil war, but everyone knows that forming an emergency government without any coordination with Hamas is a prescription for civil war,” said a high-ranking PA official.

“As to the Israelis, they have been dreaming of and fantasizing about a Palestinian civil war since 1967,” said the official, who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to make statements to the media.

On Saturday, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema, who had met with Abbas in Ramallah earlier this week, was quoted by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz as saying that Abbas would decide to create an emergency government or to a government of national unity with Hamas within a few days.

Blair has been attacked and lampooned severely by British political circles, including his own Labor party, as well as by the press for subservience to the Bush administration and also for supporting Israel too much.

During the 34-day war between Israel and Hizbullah in August, Blair effectively supported the indiscriminate bombing by the Israeli air force of Lebanese civilians and civilian infrastructure.

He also publicly opposed a ceasefire in the early days of the war, blaming Hizbullah for provoking Israel and utterly ignoring the abduction and internment by Israel of hundreds of Lebanese civilians.

Blair, in a further show of bias against the Palestinians, met with the families of Israeli soldiers taken prisoners by Hizbullah and Palestinian resistance. During his visit, he made no mention of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners even when he called for the release of Israeli prisoners.

On Sunday, Palestinians in Ramallah demonstrated against Blair, calling him “George Bush’s poodle” and “a liar.”

Last week, dozens of Palestinian intellectuals and academics called for boycotting Blair, saying in a statement published in the Arabic daily, al Ayyam, that Blair was trying to whitewash Lebanese blood with Palestinian water."

The Independent

"British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday said the world should restore contacts with the Palestinians if the ruling Hamas group agrees to form a unity government, but only if the coalition accepts Western demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

With the statement, Blair became the first Western leader to signal that a Palestinian government that includes members of Hamas could be acceptable. The international community has been boycotting Hamas, which the European Union and United States consider a terrorist group, since it won legislative elections in January."
---
With a war criminal such as Blair cheerleading for such a "unity government," count me as one Palestinian strongly against such "national unity." This is unity in acceptance of the subjugation of the Palestinian people and their abandoning their historic human and political rights. It is a unity in the acceptance of Usrael as the hegemon of the region whose every diktat has to be complied with. It is a unity with every corrupt and subservient Arab dictator in the region and a betrayal of not just the Palestinian people but of all the Arab people.

Tony Sayegh

By Gideon Levy

"Neither war nor sieges will free your children. The only way to free them is to free many Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners. Does Noam Shalit, father of Gilad, think the bombing of bridges and the power station in Gaza advanced the release of his son in any way, or does he know it caused only more suffering and hatred? Does Shlomo Goldwasser, father of Udi, believe the destruction and siege of Lebanon will bring about the release of his son?

The Lebanese movie about the abductees broadcast last week held a mirror up to Israeli society. Suddenly it was possible to see that there are anxious and loving parents on both sides of the border. Not only in Israel do the families weep, but also in Lebanon and the occupied territories, and with the same terrible pain. There are abductees from both sides. We and they both use the same methods to try to free the boys. Hezbollah and Hamas abducted Israeli soldiers, Israel abducted Lebanese civilians. Hassan Nasrallah said in the movie that kidnapping the soldiers at Har Dov was the only way left to him to bring about the return of the abducted Lebanese. What other route did he have? Israel abducted, Hezbollah abducted, both hid information about the fate of the abductees. The vicious cycle must be broken.

The issue of the security prisoners is not supposed to come up only in the context of freeing the abducted soldiers. Israel has long had an interest in freeing them. More than 9,000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails nowadays; it is a nightmarish number. Anyone who knows the Shin Bet security service and the military justice system can safely assume a significant proportion of them are imprisoned for no reason. Israeli society doesn't even ask why so many are jailed. Some 750 of them have been held in prison without trial for months and years as administrative detainees, a scandal unto itself. The number of minors is also nightmarish: some 300 boys and youths, about half of whom have never been put on trial. A democratic society cannot exist if it denies freedom to so many prisoners, whose main fault was that they fought the occupation with the means used to fight occupations everywhere, including by us in the past. In the eyes of many in the world, at least some of them are rightly considered political prisoners. What are the imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarians if not political prisoners?"

"Hezbollah could have tens of thousands of rockets still left in its arsenal, the group's deputy leader Naim Qassam said in an interview published Sunday in a London-based Arabic-language newspaper.

Qassam said that the reconstruction of Hezbollah's military wing was not a top priority as the group still had a plentiful supply of weapons.

"We had the option to confront Israel for many months," he said. "The 8,000 missiles that we fired at Israel could be a quarter or even just 10 percent of the rockets we have."

The group is now contemplating how best to move ahead following the deployment of Lebanese soldiers and United Nations troops in the south of the country, Qassam said.

He said that Hezbollah has yet to decide on its policy toward Israel if it does not pull out of the Shaba Farms, but indicated the group would not give up its "right to resistance."

He stressed that Hezbollah has no plans to strike American targets and said that the resistance to Israel would be carried out only on Lebanese soil, not "all around the world."

Qassam also repeated the previous declarations by Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, that the group had scored an historic victory against Israel.

"After the war, there was great destruction in Lebanon, but the decision to go to war was an Israeli-American one, with the declared aim of breaking Hezbollah. This aim was not ultimately achieved and in that we see an historic victory," he said."

By Reuters

Lebanon's top Shi'ite cleric said on Sunday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is on a tour of the Middle East, was not welcome in Lebanon because of his support for Israel and the United States.

Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah criticized Blair for not calling for an early truce in Israel's 34-day war with Shi'ite Hezbollah guerrillas and for allowing U.S. weapons to be shipped via Britain to Israel for use against Lebanon.

Fadlallah said in a statement that the Lebanese government should have told "Blair that he is not wanted in Lebanon, so that he -- and those like him -- would know that we are not so naive as to welcome him when he has contributed to killing us and slaughtering our children."
---
This is the proper and principled position and Sayyed Fadlallah is right. Most Palestinians agree with this position and feel that Blair is trying to wash his hands stained most recently with Lebanese blood by reinventing himself as a "peace maker." He pulled this trick so many times before, and after every slaughter of Arabs from Iraq to Palestine and Lebanon, that he has zero credibility. There is no "peace process;" there is a killing process and Blair is its chief cheerleader. The puppet Abbas should have refused to receive him under these circumstances, but then can a puppet do that?

Tony Sayegh

A WAR CRIMINAL AND CHIEF CLOWN OF THE "PEACE PROCESS" CIRCUS PROPPING UP HIS PUPPET