Palestinian Pundit

فضيحة مخابراتية للبريطانيين يتناقلها ابناء البصرة

"Short summary:
A tribal head called a meeting to defuse a simmering rumor that two prominent leaders were contemplating killing each other. The discussion that ensued revealed that both of the leaders were separately informed by the "British Intelligence" (henceforth, lack of) that they were the assassination target of the other. Proper advice was administered."

Haneyya visits Switzerland next month

"GAZA, (PIC)-- PA premier Ismail Haneyya is to pay an official visit to Switzerland next month at the invitation of the Swiss government, a statement issued by the PA foreign ministry on Saturday declared.

The statement said that foreign minister Ziyad Abu Amre discussed the visit preparations with his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is also this year's Swiss president, in Geneva......."

***

It is going to be hard to get Habila back to his house in a refugee camp in Gaza. Soon he will ask for an airport in Gaza to keep up with his travel needs. Here is a hint, Mr. Prime Minister: Switzerland is a great place to open one of those famous, secret bank accounts.

The Looming Challenges

Palestine and Peace
By HANAN ASHRAWI
CounterPunch

"......When there is a vacuum in any conflict, particularly a political vacuum, violence takes over and fills that vacuum. Extremism fills that vacuum. And this is exactly what happened given the fact that since the year 2000, there has been no peace process, the U.S. has kept its distance [and] there was no genuine intervention in order to re-legitimize peace. So, keeping one's distance is certainly quite counterproductive if not destructive. In cases of conflict, you do need the political will to intervene effectively [she is urging direct U.S. involvement; since it worked so well between 1993-2000??].......

....And when it comes to the Palestinians, you have to talk to all Palestinian interlocutors-those who were chosen by the Palestinian people. And fortunately right now, we all know that the PLO is the party in power to negotiate, and the presidency has the mandate to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people. There is no reason not to engage.[What PLO is she talking about? The one that appoints its own fossilized "leaders" as "representatives" of the Palestinians? No one has authorized these people to negotiate on their behalf. Of course she is behind the Usraeli stooge Abbas since he will do America's bidding.].......

There is, of course, the Arab initiative that is ready. Again, it may not be perfect, but it is there. It's a comprehensive approach......

.....And returning to UN resolutions, for the first time, Israel and the U.S. had to go to the UN and ask for a UN resolution and at the same time, they asked for international troops on the ground. All these are precedents, and these have to be understood in context again. They can be in many ways not a blueprint but influences or indicators for how to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli issue [she wants a U.S.-imposed military solution with an "international troops" cover and the UN fig leaf.].....

The latest elections prove that Palestinian society is extremely polarized. And I am saying this as [Palestinian Finance Minister] Salam [Fayyad] and I are in the Third Way, as you know. Salam was here last week. But the polarization was very clear between Fateh and Hamas, between people who had militias, people who had extreme ideologies and so on. The third alternative, including the old traditional left, did not make it numerically significant. We may be qualitatively significant but quantitatively certainly not that decisive.[she is not interested in a culture and ideology of resistance, to her this is "extremism;" the U.S. calls it extremism and terror, so does she (and the other U.S. stooge Fayyad)].....

....Let's put together a coalition of the willing for peace this time and see whether we can make a difference. So what works? Rapid, bold, decisive steps straight into permanent status issues that we all know; we do not need to reinvent the wheel. We do not have much time......

....Now how would this government end? How long will it last? How would it end? It depends on other factors, but if there is agreement, this government could be in preparation for elections. Elections cannot take place without consensus, without the agreement of all parties involved, particularly Hamas and Fateh. So maybe between now and the end of the year, there can be elections if all parties are convinced that early elections can work or it can be a preparation for a new type of government which we had advocated earlier: a government of professional, independent nationalists.....[she is advocating the U.S. formula of "government" of technocrats, like her buddy World-Bank-Fayyad and others who were created by and owe their survival to various western NGOs]....

The security forces cannot be political forces, they must be depoliticized and they must not be engaged in anything financial. They must be reformed in terms also of their numbers. The militias have to be disbanded, including the executive force. I do not see the executive force as a legitimate security service. It is a militia and it was given the title of a security force. All illegal weapons must be collected.The use of weapons must be regulated, particularly in Gaza.[she is advocating the Usraeli definition of "security services." She wants Palestinian puppet forces to control Palestinians and to disarm and end the resistance. According to her, they shouldn't be "politicized," meaning intended for resistance]....

The National Security Council [the one headed by Dahlan] has to be a credible and effective council and not, again, a combination of power basis and leaders. Lawlessness and kidnappings have to end.....

.....The Hamas political agenda has really undergone some serious transformations. I don't know if you're aware of it, but they have accepted the two-state solution. They've accepted the long term period of quiet and ceasefire. They have accepted all these things. They recognized signed agreements, Arab legitimacy international legitimacy and so on. All the things we were asking them to do, they have done......"

Deciding About Iraq: Withdrawal.....No Withdrawal.....Withdrawal....No....
By Baha Boukhari

By Robert Fisk

"When did the sands run out for us journalists? When did the moment of immunity pass away? When we took to wearing flak jackets or donned military costumes in the 1990 Gulf War? In Bosnia? In the cancerous, repetitive use of "terrorism, terrorism, terrorism" in our news reports? In Iraq, as we stood in our gated hotels, behind our watchtowers and bodyguards? When we grew used to what Martin Bell calls the "two palm trees", the Monty Python-like shrubbery that stands as a back-lot to almost every BBC report from the roof of its Baghdad office?.....

And so it has come to pass. We cannot move in most of Iraq for fear of being butchered by our countries' enemies. We cannot move in southern Afghanistan. Italian journalists might be ransomed by their governments. Afghan journalists - I am thinking of the reporter/translator of the Italian who was kidnapped - simply have their heads chopped off. Never has reporting been so circumscribed by these terrors. Never have we been so poorly informed......

Well, one reason is because this is not the Second World War. Nor is it - Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara, please note - World War Three. We are illegally fighting wars across the Middle East, supporting occupation and - by our frivolous support for the most objectionable governments - killing tens of thousands of innocents.

As journalists we can oppose this. We can raise our voices against these great injustices. But only if we are free. Yes, of course, I add my voice to those demanding the release of Alan Johnston. His imprisonment is a disaster for the Palestinians and for all the Arabs of the Middle East. And as long as he is held, how can we cover the atrocities of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Gaza?"

The only way the US can prop up its client regime in Somalia is through lawlessness and slaughter

Salim Lone
Saturday April 28, 2007
The Guardian

"This is the most lawless war of our generation. All wars of aggression lack legitimacy, but no conflict in recent memory has witnessed such mounting layers of illegality as the current one in Somalia. Violations of the UN charter and of international humanitarian law are regrettably commonplace in our age, and they abound in the carnage that the world is allowing to unfold in Mogadishu, but this war has in addition explicitly violated two UN security council resolutions. To complete the picture, one of these resolutions contravenes the charter itself.

The complete impunity with which Ethiopia and the transitional Somali government have been allowed to violate these resolutions explains the ruthlessness of the military assaults that have been under way for six weeks now. The details of the atrocities being committed were formally acknowledged by a western government for the first time when Germany, which holds the current EU presidency, had its ambassador to Somalia, Walter Lindner, write a tough letter - made public on Wednesday - to Somalia's president, Abdullahi Yusuf.......

Work must begin to derail the astounding proposal from the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, which is to be discussed by the security council in mid-June. He would like to mount a UN-sanctioned "coalition of the willing" to enforce peace and restore order in Somalia - in other words, the UN would help Ethiopia and the United States achieve what their own illegal military interventions have failed to accomplish: the entrenchment of a client regime that lacks any popular support. Such an operation is unlikely to succeed in any event, but it could further threaten the turbulent Horn of Africa, which is already teetering on the brink of chaos.

The Somali government is busy crying "al-Qaida" at every turn and offering lucrative deals to oil companies, in a bid to entice greater western support. But this war was lost long ago. In turning to the arch enemy Ethiopia, the transitional government's fate was sealed: the nation will not abide an Ethiopian-US occupation......"

US Administration presents model for peace: "freedom of movement in return for security"

"Bethlehem - Ma'an – the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, has reported that the American administration has presented model "examinations of implementation" to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. These models contain what is required to be implemented by each party, in accordance with a specific timetable, endorsed by Washington.

In the heart of the new plan, which Washington has dubbed "freedom of movement in return for security" is the requirement that Israel facilitates and expands the freedom of movement for Palestinians at the Gaza Strip crossings, in addition to the removal of a number of military checkpoints deployed in the West Bank. This is to be implemented in return for the completion of the reorganization of the Palestinian security forces affiliated to President Abbas.

The newspaper added that the American ambassador to Israel, and the United States' Security Coordinator delivered these reports to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

It is expected that the coming week will see wide-ranging discussions taking place over the American document and the possible Israeli response to it.

The newspaper also stated that, last week, the United States had offered the Palestinian Authority "concrete steps" that should be implemented in preparation for a special meeting to be held on Friday between the head of the PLO negotiations department, and an American delegation. It is widely believed that chief negotiator Erekat will give the Palestinian response to the American demands, represented in the necessity that the Palestinian Authority "must fight those who fire rockets, and to work to restore order and stability to the Gaza Strip".

The document entitled "freedom of movement in return for security" was initially prepared in November 2005, and comprises four main points:

1 - The opening of the Karni crossing [the primary import and export crossing]
2 - The reopening of the Rafah crossing [pedestrian transit to/from Egypt] and Kerem Abu-Salem [the entry point for goods from Egypt]
3 - To give the Palestinians in the West Bank "more freedom of movement"
4 – That the Palestinian Authority enforces "necessary security procedures" "

***

A COMMENT

This is why the U.S., with the direction of Keith Dayton, is arming and training Palestinian puppet forces. Iraq is the model: replace Maliki with Abbas, Ramallah's Mouqata'a with Baghdad's Green Zone, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad with the U.S. Consul in Jerusalem, Iraqi death squads directly under the CIA with Dahlan's death squads, Maliki's puppet forces with Abbas' puppet forces and the picture is complete. Just as in Iraq, Palestinian puppet forces will next be fighting the Palestinian resistance and trying to crush it with complete coordination with Usrael.

The key question is: are the Palestinians up to the challenge, and do they grasp what is being planned for them?

Prime minister tells Germany’s Focus magazine Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear program could be severely damaged by firing 1,000 cruise missiles in 10-day attack; ‘nobody ruling military action out,’ he says; PM's Office: Interview never took place

"Iran’s disputed nuclear program could be severely hit by firing 1,000 cruise missiles in a 10-day attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Asked in an interview with Germany’s Focus magazine whether military action would be an option if Iran continued to defy the United Nations, Olmert said: “Nobody is ruling it out.”

The full interview with the prime minister will be published Sunday......"

Mash'al warns: "Palestinians cannot tolerate the prevailing situation and it may blow up"

"Bethlehem – Ma'an – Head of the Hamas politburo, Khaled Mash'al, warned of the continuation of the crippling economic embargo and Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people.

Mash'al said that Israeli measures seek to block any political horizon between Israel and Palestinians. He said that Israel aims to corner Palestinians in order to force them to make more concessions. "The Palestinians," Mash'al says, "will not tolerate the prevailing situation and it may blow up."

Mash'al spoke to the press following his meeting with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Mousa. He says "after the Mecca agreement was signed, the unity government was composed and the Arab Summit has made decisions, everyone is looking forward to lifting the siege imposed on the Palestinian people, yet it is moving in slow motion."

He added: "The Palestinian people are hoping that the Arab nations and the international community will break the embargo and send aid to the Palestinians, however, everything is going very slowly. The unity government has been composed for two months and the siege still prevails in the Palestinian territories shattering the great hope of the Palestinians when the unity government was formed."

"We are discussing with the Secretary General of the Arab League a quick Arab move, which is very urgently needed in order to break the siege, and after that, the European countries will take a similar step. Then we have to construct different strategies regarding the US and Israel," Mash'al added......."

***

A COMMENT

What a pathetic, incompetent "leader." He hitches his hopes and the Palestinian future to the wagon of the so-called Arab League! He is expecting the very same Usraeli puppets to have the backbone to do anything and to stand up to their master. Is this leadership? Have the Palestinians learned anything about the Arab regimes in 90 years of struggle? Apparently not. Next we will see Hamas' leaders begging the puppet boy king of Jordan to help mediate with Israel, since he is Israel's favorite "Arab" stooge. Don't laugh now; a trip to Jordan by Habila is being arranged.

Notice that even the terms Mash'al uses are now taken from Condoleezza's book. An example is, ".....to block any political horizon...." Rice was the first to introduce "political horizon" to the "peace process" rhetoric. After that all the puppets, starting with Abbas started using the term; now Mash'al is on board.

Click on photo to enlarge

Contributed by Datta

BBC Newsnight For 26/04/07:

6 Minute Video

"Asha Hagi Elmi, a politician, talks about the genocide in Somalia being committed under the pretext of of "War on Terror""

"My Credibility is This Big"

Marchers say Israel Lands Authority trying to create a Jewish Jaffa, compare evictions to events of 1948

Ethnic Cleansing at Work

"Hundreds of Jaffa residents on Friday participated in a march to protest measures that the Israel Lands Authority and the Amidar housing company have taken in the past year to evict Arab families from Jaffa.

The Israel Lands Authority and Amidar claim the families invaded the properties and built on them illegally.

The march was organized by The Popular Committee to Defend the Land and the Right to Residency, which was established by the Arab residents of Jaffa several weeks ago.

According to the committee's leaders, the Authority and Amidar in the past year issued 500 eviction notices to Arab families from the Al Ajami and Givat Aliya neighborhoods, and some of the notices have evolved into eviction lawsuits.

The organizers of the march questioned why the Authority and Amidar have taken a sudden interest in the matter in the past year, when the families have been living in their homes for several decades. They say the families have held a status of protected tenants who pay rent.

The residents' representatives say the authority and Amidar are attempting to Judaize Jaffa while also making a profit from selling the properties, which are near the seafront, to an affluent Jewish population.

The protesters in the march shouted various slogans such as "Jews and Arabs against house demolitions" and "The transfer won?t happen."

According to the "This is a tsunami of evictions and demolitions," said Al Ajami neighborhood chairman, Camel Agbaria. "The struggle for a roof over one's head should be the ultimate struggle. Instead of firing bullets, they fire dollar bills here."......"

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

An Excellent Interview

"In Somali, fierce clashes in Mogadishu are being described as some of the heaviest fighting in the city's history. Some 329 people have been killed over the past ten days. This comes just three weeks after another series of battles claimed at least 1,000 lives. The United Nations says more people - over 350,000 - have been displaced in Somalia in the past three months than anywhere else in the world....

The escalating war in Somalia has received little attention in the U.S. media especially on broadcast television. Using the Lexis database, Democracy Now examined ABC, NBC and CBS's coverage of Somalia in the evening newscasts over the past three months. The result may surprise you: ABC and NBC has not mentioned the war at all. CBS mentioned the war once. The network dedicated a total of three sentences to the story......

Salim Lone is a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya and a former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq. He joins us today from London.....

AMY GOODMAN: Salim Lone, you're now in London. The British think tank Chatham House criticized the US role in the war. The authors of the report write, “In an uncomfortably familiar pattern, general multilateral concern to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Somalia has been hijacked by unilateral actors, especially Ethiopia and the United States.”

SALIM LONE: Well, you know, this is par for the course these days. What they also should have mentioned -- but it’s an excellent report, by the way. I really enjoyed reading it, and I’m so glad they were so candid. But one of the big issues here is not merely the unilateralism of the United States, but the inability of the international community and particularly the United Nations Security Council to try to play, if not an independent role, at least a moderating role. It is quite astonishing that for now three months, there has been terrible violence in Somalia, and yet we have not heard anything from the security council about how this carnage must stop. There is no interest whatsoever......

AMY GOODMAN: State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack. Salim Lone, columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya, your response?

SALIM LONE: Well, I mean, I’m very interested in the Iraq analogy, and it is really multiple, apart from what was already said there. The contrasts are striking, as well. But let me add to the analogy, actually, that May 1 is approaching. That was the day when on the -- right after the war, President Bush said that his mission had been accomplished. We have the same statement coming out of the prime minister of Somalia yesterday, that the mission has been accomplished and the insurgents have been wiped out.

But let's look at the other contrasts, which are very fascinating. In Iraq, the world body, the Security Council, for the first time in many years since the Soviet Union collapsed, stood up to the United States and refused, despite enormous pressure, to authorize a UN war in Iraq. In Somalia's case, it is precisely the opposite......

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General’s call for a coalition of the willing to go into Somalia? You’re a former UN official.

SALIM LONE: You know, it is so disgraceful. For him to try to get the Security Council -- that's what he proposes, the Security Council, in case there is no peace in Somalia in the meeting in June, in mid-June, to discuss it in the Security Council -- for him to propose that the UN should now go in to do what the US and Ethiopia have been unable to do, which is basically to impose a client regime on Somalia, it's just absolutely disgraceful......"

Dahr Jamail, Electronic Lebanon, 27 April 2007

"SRIFA, Southern Lebanon, 27 April (IPS) - Close to a million unexploded bombs are estimated to litter southern Lebanon, according to UN forces engaged in the hazardous task of removing them.

The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created by the Security Council in 1978 to confirm an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and restore international peace and security. After the war last year it has a new job on its hands.

Following the July-August war between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon, UNIFIL enhanced its force and took on new tasks such as monitoring the cessation of hostilities and removing untold numbers of unexploded missiles, mines and cluster bombs.

Most of these lie in southern Lebanon, which took the brunt of bombings from Israeli warplanes.....

"Between 10-40 percent of the cluster bombs do not explode on impact," a lieutenant who gave his name as Verbeke, with the Belgian contingent of UNIFIL, told IPS at the site of a 500kg unexploded bomb in Srifa, a little town near the border. "Sometimes they get stuck in trees or bushes, and there are Lebanese people being injured or killed by them nearly every single day."

Israeli warplanes roared overhead as he spoke, in clear violation of the ceasefire agreement brokered between Lebanon and Israel......"

Contributed by Fatima


Sarkozy has Israel's stamp of approval

Israel said seeking expanded role for EU at Gaza-Egypt crossing

"Israel has asked the European Union to expand the powers of its monitors at Gaza's border crossing with Egypt to help prevent militants from bringing in money and equipment, EU diplomats said on Friday.

"There is some flexibility" to negotiate the mandate of the monitors, said a senior EU official involved in talks, a month before the expiry of the current mandate at the border. But the official said the bloc would not accept changes that transform the monitoring mission into one with expansive executive powers.

European and Israeli officials sought to play down any discord, but one Western diplomat involved in the matter said preparations were under way in case the EU decided to pull the monitors out of the Rafah crossing with Egypt altogether......."

King Abdullah tries to woo the Israelis into accepting the Arab Peace Plan

By Khaled Amayreh in East Jerusalem
Al-Ahram Weekly

"....According to the Israeli media, the king told the visiting Israeli officials that, "we are in the same boat, we have the same problems, and we have the same enemies.".....

More significantly, Abdullah II is said to have told the Israeli delegation that clauses in the Arab Peace Plan pertaining to the Palestinian refugees' right of return should be understood as referring to "compensation" not "repatriation", and that "everything will be consensual and that the Arab Peace Plan was not actually a plan but merely a talking point.".....

However, government spokesman Nasser Judeh denied that the king ever made these remarks during the meeting.....

The king's remarks drew angry reactions throughout the occupied Palestinian territories and at various levels. Hamas asked the Jordanian government to clarify the statements attributed to the king in regard to the right of return and also Hamas being an enemy of Jordan.....

A more stinging response to the royal statements came from the Palestinian public. Abdul-Sattar Qassem, professor of political science at An-Najah University in Nablus and former presidential candidate, argued that Palestinians would attach more credibility to the Hebrew press reports on the King's statements than to denials by Jordanian officials. "It is true the Israelis lie a lot, but Arab leaders lie even more, they are inured to lying to their people and to deceiving and misleading them.

"We, the Arab and Muslim masses, know quite well for many decades that you [Jordanian officials] and the Zionist entity face a common enemy and that enemy is the United Arab Islamic Trend. We also know that you have been coordinating intelligence efforts against all free Arab and Islamic movements. "We are your and Israel's common enemy. But we will continue our struggle for the unity of the Arab umma. So, do what you may, and kill whomever you want to kill, for eventually you will only reap defeat."

The severity of Palestinian reaction to the Jordanian king's reported remarks reflect a growing determination to cling to the right of return for the refugees as a paramount right that should never be compromised especially as Israel continues to steal more Palestinian land and build Jewish-only settlements in the occupied territories......

There is no doubt that the Jordanian leadership, namely King Abdullah II, is very worried about the possible ramifications and turbulence that may engulf the region, especially its most vulnerable spots, such as Jordan, if the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is allowed to linger on without resolution....."

"A film about the lives of Iraqi and foreign fighters in northern Baghdad has won first prize at the Al Jazeera International Documentary festival in the Qatari capital Doha.

Meeting Resistance - directed by the UK/US team of Steve Connors and Molly Bingham - won the award, including a 50,000 Riyal ($13,737) prize, for the best long film.

The film beat off competition from 32 other features to win the award at the third Al Jazeera documentary festival.....

Meeting Resistance focuses on eight fighters based in the northern Baghdad suburb of Adhamiya and details their personal and political reasons for their involvement in attacks on US forces.

The fighters come from a range of backgrounds.

Most are Iraqi, but one man is a Syrian who says he came to Iraq after an appeal from his local mosque to "join the jihad".

Adhamiya is now reported to be a largely Sunni part of the Iraqi capital but the film - made between June 2003 and May 2004 - depicts the area's mixed nature before months of bloody sectarian conflict began.

Three of the fighters are Shia, another is a former Iraqi Republican Guard officer who was married to a Shia woman.

Some are motivated by a desire to end the US occupation of Iraq at that time while others draw on their religious beliefs and one is an imam at an Adhamiya mosque.

All, however, are united by a desire to drive foreign forces from Iraq."

As I predicted in an earlier post, Habila was smiling and waving as he spoke to Journalists in Gaza on Friday.

The plundering of Iraq's wealth, first by the UN and now by Iraq's new Green Zone czars, is the biggest, most shameful financial-political scandal of our times.

By Ramzy Baroud
PalestineChronicle.com

".....As Mr von Sponeck spoke, I reflected on my lengthy interview with Iraq's former Ambassador to the United Nations Mohamed Al-Duri. Al-Duri, being interviewed for the first time by English-language media since taking up his post at the UN, revealed to me in early 2001, in equally shocking detail, what sanctions had done to his country and people. He claimed that the UN was a key part of the problem. Led by two countries, the US and Britain, the UN Oil for Food Programme and the "humanitarian" mission it established in Iraq was reducing Iraqis to beggary, robbing the country blind and mis-managing funds, whereas the large bulk fuelled UN-related missions and operations, with needy Iraqi families receiving next to nothing. He spoke of the manipulation of Iraq's wealth for political purposes and alleged that the UN was a tool in the hands of the US government, aimed at encouraging widespread popular dissatisfaction with Saddam's government, before the country was dragged into war.....

The robbery in Iraq hardly discontinued after the "liberation". On the contrary, it intensified beyond belief. The US Government Accountability Office uncovered appalling discrepancies in the US military administration's handling of money: uncountable billions went missing; hundreds of contractors fully paid but the work never done; layer upon layer of shady companies, mercenaries and sub-contractors (Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root but mere illustrations). In partnership with the new rulers of Iraq, these corporations are stealing the wealth of the once prosperous nation, leaving it in shambles.

And now, the Iraqis are facing enormous pressure to approve the Iraqi oil and gas law. The draft bill, according to Iraqi MP Nureddin Al-Hayyali, would give "50 per cent of the Iraqi people's oil wealth to foreign investing oil firms". The nationalisation of the country's oil industry in 1972 is being reversed. The robbery that began in the early 1990s continues unabated. Shameful as it is, Iraq's new rulers are stealing from the poor and giving the spoils to the rich."

by Sonja Karkar
Women for Palestine

".....Others are much more sinister: concrete slabs that are used to control populations that we fear or do not like. We use the euphemism “security” to justify their “necessity” without any care for the human suffering going on behind them.


Whether for protection and security or to contain and imprison, walls are a symbol of failure – a failure to revel in freedom and embrace our common humanity: that is reason enough to bring them down. In 1989, the world watched in rapture as the Berlin Wall tumbled. At 4 metres high and 166km long, it had stood for 28 years creating an Iron Curtain between East and Western Europe. However, for all its immensity, the wall – with its watch-towers, border patrols, barbed wire, guard dogs and searchlights – never worked......

Humankind has not learnt its lesson despite the costly failures of containment which dot our history. It seems that once in government, the mindset of politicians becomes focused on dreams of invincibility at all costs, even human ones. This filters down and insidiously contaminates the people they purport to lead creating an “us and them” mentality which erects real and invisible walls. Without knowing it, the concepts of freedom, democracy and peace slip silently away from the lives of those who erect the walls as much as from those the walls contain. We are all to blame. We cannot speak of symbols, or triumphantly clutch our piece of the Berlin Wall, or put our white arm around a black brother, or speak about Christian love, God’s people and Allah the all-Merciful unless we are prepared to raise our voices against the new walls being built before our eyes and bring them tumbling down. "

If you can read Arabic, this is a great, long article and a recommended reading.

بقلم : د. إبراهيم حمّامي


"تسارعت الأحداث خلال الأسبوع المنصرم، فجاءت تسابق هذا الجزء الثاني من أخطر ملفات فلسطين، ولتثبت حقيقة أن تيار وزمرة أوسلو لم ولن يستكينوا حتى تحقيق هدفهم المتمثل في السيطرة على مفاصل ومقدرات الشعب الفلسطيني تمهيداً لتركيعه النهائي - طبعاً كما تزين لهم عقولهم والخطط التي تعد لهم في الخفاء والعلن.

أيضاً تسارعت وتيرة الردود ورسائل التهديد والوعيد والشتم والتهجم الشخصي، ربما كخطوات استباقية أرادها البعض حتى لا يُنشر هذا الجزء الثاني من أخطر ملفات فلسطين والذي يحدد دور زعيم الفلتان المجرم دحلان فيما يجري، وكذلك يثبت أن تيار الفتنة والفوضى ما زال حتى اللحظة يسعى وبكل قوة لتمرير مخططه، برغم اتفاق مكة وحكومة الوحدة الوطنية التي أرادوها غطاء شرعياً لتحصينهم من الشعب وغضبته. ....

ما بعد اتفاق مكة

في مقدمة ما كتبت بتاريخ 15/04/2007 تحت عنوان "إعادة استنساخ" قلت:

ظن البعض - ولست منهم- أن ثلاثة أيام في مكة المكرمة مع أداء فريضة العمرة قد غيّر من سلوك وطباع وأفكار زمرة الفساد والإفساد، وظنوا أيضاً أن اتفاق مكة المكرمة قد جب ما قبله، وأن صفحة جديدة بدأت بعد طي الصفحات السوداء القديمة على قاعدة "عفا الله عما سلف"، واعتقدوا أن عهداً جديداً من الوفاق والوئام انبلج فأصبح متآمر الأمس كأنه "ولي حميم".......

ماذا بعد؟

هذه هي زمرة وعصابة أوسلو وهذا تخطيطهم ومخططهم، وهذه رموزهم وشخوصهم، وهذا توثيقنا وتفصيلنا، فهل لعاقل أن يسأل بعد اليوم أو يشك في أهداف هذه الزمرة ومراميها، وهل يمكن الوثوق بهم وهم يعدون ويخططون بعدما أعطوا الأمان وأقسموا أغلظ الأيمان؟

خلال أيام وربما ساعات يستعد جيش الاحتلال لشن عدوان جديد على الشعب الفلسطيني، ومع هذا العدوان تغرز زمرة أوسلو خنجرها المسموم المدعوم عسكرياً ومادياً واستخباراتياً في ظهر شعبنا، وتستمر في تلقي الأسلحة والأموال وفي تخريج الدفعات المتتالية من حرس عبّاس الذي بات أقرب ما يكون لحرس إمبراطوري، وواهم من يظن أن أياً من هؤلاء سيرفع سلاحه أو يستخدم ما تدرب عليه في مواجهة العدوان أو حماية الشعب، وواهم من يعتقد أن لدى عصابة أوسلو ذرة من الوطنية، فالتدريبات والأسلحة والذخائر هي لصدور شعبنا ولقمعه، وفي وقت الفراغ لإحراق مؤسساته كما الجامعة الاسلامية.

لكل من سيقفز قفزاته المعتادة في الهواء ليعلن أن هذا التوثيق هو فتنة وضرب للوحدة الوطنية، نقول ودون خوف أو وجل أن هذا التوثيق هو للقضاء على الفتنة ورموزها، وهو لفضح ما يخططون له أمام شعبنا ليقول كلمته الفصل، وهو تسمية للأشياء بمسمياتها، ولا يمكن أن يكون المجرم إلا مجرما، وهكذا هو دحلان رأس الفتنة وزعيم الفلتان مجرم عميل، والرجل الأول ل"إسرائيل"، وهكذا هو محمود عباس كوهين فلسطين وعدوها الداخلي الأول، وهكذا هي كل عصابة أوسلو، ولن تفزعنا أو تفت من عزائمنا أراجيف وألاعيب التلاعب بالعبارات والألفاظ من فتنة وغيرها، ولن تثنينا التهديدات ولا الشتائم التي تصل ليل نهار مؤكدة أخلاق هذه العصابة، ولن نهدأ حتى يتخلص شعبنا من الطفيليات التي تشوه تاريخه ونضاله. "

By Kurt Nimmo

"Big choice for the French, as the 2007 election plays out with Nicolas Sarkozy on top, followed closely by Ségolène Royal. Sarkozy, billed as a “law and order” candidate, is considered the bête noire of the so-called Left, in France actually a gaggle of ineffectual and lukewarm socialists. Sarko, as he is both affectionately and derisively nicknamed, called for ethnically cleansing the banlieue of La Courneuve in June 2005 “with a Kärcher,” a well-known brand of pressure cleaning equipment, a rather remarkable comment, as he is Minister of the Interior. It is this attitude and his “circulaire Sarkozy” mandating a crack down on Muslim immigrants, that has won the favor of the neocons on the other side of the pond in America. It helps, as well, that Sarko supports the invasion and occupation of Iraq......

In short, the French people have a choice between a neocon who likes to call Muslim immigrants voyous (thugs) or a graduate of the elite École nationale d’administration, in other words Ségolène Royal is one of a handful of énarques selected to become senior bureaucrats in France. For some reason, probably a throwback to their royal past, the French people accept this ironclad political monopoly with little question.

If the neocons and the Israel Firsters have their way, Sarko will come out the winner, as his well-established animosity toward Muslims—indeed, the whole of the Islamic Maghreb—is a more or less a perfect fit, whereas Royal’s socialist neoliberalism may result in flip-flopping disaster for the “clash of civilizations” game plan. In order to cinch the election, the neocons and Likudniks in Israel are tolling the “al-Qaeda” bell, as should be expected......."

EU Commissioner: EU funds to continue to bypass Palestinian government, concern about violations of international law

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel has stated that the European Union will continue to bypass the Palestinian government, which is headed by a Hamas prime minister, until this government overtly recognizes Israel, renounces terror and demonstrates its commitment to the previously signed peace agreements, Palestinian journalistic sources have said.

Mr. Michel said, "As long as these demands are not met, there will be no change in the system or style, or the aid presented by the European Union." Speaking to UN officials, Mr. Michel has assured that UN agencies can count on continued EU support for projects in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The Palestinians had hoped that the formation of the Palestinian national unity government in mid March would motivate the EU and other major donors to lift the economic embargo, which was imposed on the Palestinian Authority when Hamas won the legislative elections in January 2006......."

***

What is the point of maintaining this beggar of a government when all it is capable of is capitulating to everyone's dictates while providing nothing to the Palestinians.

Who needs this disgrace besides Usrael?

Mash'al and Abbas summoned to Cairo by Egyptian intelligence chief;
Egypt praised for halting an Israeli offensive

".......Well-informed Palestinian sources said that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman had sent an urgent letter to Abbas and Mash'al urging them to come to Cairo for a meeting at the earliest possible opportunity.

Israeli letter: end the projectile-launching!

The sources said that this letter concentrated on the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli threats to invade the Strip, in addition to the continued projectile-launching at Israeli towns. The sources added that the letter was sent by Suleiman after the Egyptians received an urgent letter from the Israeli government, calling them to pressure the Palestinian Authority leadership to stop the projectile-launching from the Strip.

The letter is also reported to confirm that Israel will launch a wide military operation if the projectiles continue.

Mubarak's efforts

On Thursday, the head of negotiations in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Saeb Erekat, hailed the role of Egyptian President Husni Mubarak in preventing an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip........"

***

Celebrate the Palestinian "leadership's" capitulation to the Egyptian CIA asset Suleiman who was capitulating to Israeli orders to stop or else. I expect Habila to hold a press conference any minute now to wave and smile and praise the heroic role of brotherly Egypt and this great Palestinian victory.

A British soldier has broken ranks within days of returning from Iraq to speak publicly of the horror of his tour of duty there, painting a picture of troops under siege, "sitting ducks" to an increasingly sophisticated insurgency.

Contributed by Datta

The Independent

".......But, he said, he felt strongly that somebody had to speak out: "I want people to see it as it is; not the sugar-coated version."

His public protest is a sign of the groundswell of anger among the troops, and predictions that more will come forward to break the traditional covenant of silent service. Just last month, Pte Steve Baldwin, 22, a soldier in the same regiment, spoke to The Independent about the way he had been "pushed aside" since being injured by a roadside bomb which killed three others during the Staffords' first tour of Iraq in 2005......

The regiment lost one soldier, Pte Johnathon Wysoczan, 21, during its tour, but 33 more were injured. "I was the first one to get to one of the tents after it was hit, where one of my mates was in bed. The top of his head and his hand was blown off. He is now brain damaged. "We were losing people and didn't have enough to replace them. You hear about the fatalities but not the injuries. We have had four who got shot in the arm, a bloke got blown up twice by roadside bombs and shot in the neck and survived." Most, he said, endured at least one "lucky escape" during their tour. "I had a grenade chucked at me by practically a five-year-old kid. I had a mortar land a couple of metres from me."

The regiment was based in the Shatt al-Arab hotel base, which was handed over to the Iraqi army on 8 April. Of the 40 tents in the base, just five remained unscathed by the end of the tour, he said. "We were just sitting ducks ... On the last tour we were not mortared very often. This tour, it was two to three times a day. Fifteen mortars and three rockets were fired at us in the first hour we were there."

He added: "Towards the end of January to March, it was like a siege mentality. We were getting mortared every hour of the day. We were constantly being fired at. We basically didn't sleep for six months. You couldn't rest. Psychologically, it wore you down. "Every patrol we went on we were either shot at or blown up by roadside bombs. It was crazy."

He insisted that the insurgents appeared to be considerably better trained, funded and equipped than had been the case during their first tour of duty. "Last tour, I never fired my rifle once. This time, I fired 127 rounds on five different occasions. And, in my role [providing medical support], I shouldn't have to fire." He added: "We have overstayed our welcome now. We should speed up the withdrawal. It's a lost battle. We should pull out and call it quits.""

The bank's credibility was already fatally compromised by hypocrisies far greater than those of Wolfowitz

Naomi Klein
Friday April 27, 2007
The Guardian

"It's not the act itself, it's the hypocrisy. That's the line on Paul Wolfowitz coming from editorial pages around the world. It's neither: not the act (the way he disregarded the rules to get his girlfriend a pay rise); and not the hypocrisy (the fact that Wolfowitz's mission as World Bank president is fighting for "good governance").
First, let's dispense with the supposed hypocrisy problem. "Who wants to be lectured on corruption by someone telling them to 'Do as I say, not as I do'?" asked one journalist. No one, of course. But that's a pretty good description of the game of one-way strip poker that is our global trade system, in which the United States and Europe - via the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation - tell the developing world: "You take down your trade barriers and we'll keep ours up." From farm subsidies to the Dubai Ports World scandal, hypocrisy is our economic order's guiding principle......

The three main institutions at the heart of that crusade are in crisis - not because of the small hypocrisies, but because of the big ones. The World Trade Organisation cannot get back on track, the International Monetary Fund is going broke, displaced by Venezuela and China. And now the World Bank is going down.

The Financial Times reports that when World Bank managers dispensed advice, "they were now laughed at". Perhaps we should all laugh at the World Bank. What we should absolutely not do, however, is participate in the effort to cleanse the bank's ruinous history by repeating the absurd narrative that the reputation of an otherwise laudable anti-poverty organisation has been sullied by one man. The bank understandably wants to throw Wolfowitz overboard. I say: let the ship go down with the captain."

Steve Bell on Congress backing for a deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The Guardian

Bill Moyers indicts media reporting in the run-up to war

By Justin Raimondo

"I have to say that watching Bill Moyers’ "Buying the War" was quite an experience for me: a kind of vindication, yes, but also, ultimately, quite a depressing experience.

As the editorial director of Antiwar.com, my job is to make sure that we cut through the government propaganda and get at the truth about what is really going on in the world, and during the run-up to the Iraq war we had quite a time of it. The lies were coming so thick, and so fast, that it was all we at Antiwar.com could do to continually refute them, and yet that is precisely what we did. Moyers takes us through the lies, and shows how the "mainstream" media failed to make any critical analysis of the administration’s allegations. That job, sadly, was left to us.

Saddam’s mythical nuclear program was really the linchpin of the case for war, and we debunked it as early as February, 2001 (also here), and kept doing so throughout the years. The fake "centrifuges," the tall tales of Iraqi "defectors" (in reality, phonies primed by the Iraqi National Congress), and the really quite comical claim by the President that Iraq was going to bomb the U.S. using unmanned aerial vehicles – all of this was derided in this space, and in the editorial columns of Antiwar.com, years before the rest of the media woke up to the fact that they’d been fooled.

Iraq’s alleged "links" to al Qaeda – the "cakewalk" fantasy – the Niger uranium mythos – the lies of Ahmed Chalabi – the announced goal of building "democracy" in Iraq: we debunked all this, and more, every day before war finally broke out (having predicted its outbreak as early as 1999).

So, if we – at the time, practically a singlejack operation with even less funding than we have now – could get this right, how come the major media organizations, with all kinds of bureaus, analysts, and whatnot, got the story so wrong? The answer doesn’t really come through in the Moyers documentary......."

by Mairead Corrigan Maguire (Nobel Prize Winner)

"On Friday April, 20th, 2007, my friend Ann Patterson and I joined the Bil’in Peoples Committee, a Palestinian peace group (based outside Ramallah) for their weekly nonviolent protest and march to the Apartheid Wall. We were joined by Israeli peace activists and some two hundred other activists from over 20 countries, including France, America, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, and India.

Before the peace vigil, I participated in a Press Conference with the Palestinian Minister for Information, Mustafa Barghouti. Minister Barghouti praised the nonviolent vigil of the Bil’in people and the nonviolent resistance of many people around Palestine. He said that the Bil’in resistance movement was a model and example for all. He called for an end to the building of the wall, and for upholding of Palestinian rights under International Law.....

Half way down the road, Israeli soldiers started firing a mystery gas at us, and aimed plastic bullets directly at us. Later, they used water cannons. We were a completely unarmed. It was a peaceful, nonviolent gathering. This vicious attack upon civilians by the Israeli soldiers was totally unprovoked. The soldiers blocked the upper part of the road, thus preventing Dr. Barghouti and some of the Palestinians from joining the main vigil. Then we were tear gassed.

As I helped a French woman, I was shot in the leg with a rubber-covered steel bullet. I was targeted by an Israeli soldier and shot from a distance of 20 metres. This itself was illegal because such lethal weapons, under Israeli military law, are not allowed to be used within a 20 metre range.

Two young women, one from the US and the other New Zealand, helped me to an ambulance. An elderly Palestinian mother was carried away on a stretcher to another ambulance. She was shot in the back with a plastic bullet. I saw one man whose face was covered in blood; he was overcome with the gas. About 20 people were injured.....

This is not only an abuse of human rights and international law by the Israeli government; it is a health and environmental issue. We were all traumatized by the Israeli attack. With the gas on the air, I remembered the words from a Palestinian doctor, who said, “the whole Palestinian people, after 40 years of occupation, are traumatized. It is time for the International Community to act and put a stop to this suffering and injustice.”

I agree. Enough is enough. It is time for action to force the Israeli Government to enter into unconditional talks to end this tragedy upon the good and gentle Palestinian people. End the Occupation Now!"

Iraq criticises US pull-out bill

Attempts by US Democrats to hasten the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq are "damaging to security" in the country, Iraq's foreign minister says.

BBC

"Hoshyar Zebari was responding to a vote in the US House of Representatives making further funding of the war conditional on a withdrawal timetable.

The top US general in Iraq said there was still "vastly more work" to do......"

Construction of the Berlin Wall


A Good Article
By Scott Ritter

".....It is strangely curious that many ideologues on the right wing of the American political spectrum so openly identify with Reagan. As President Bush’s popularity ratings continue to plummet, many old-time Republicans and political conservatives wax philosophical about the “good old days” when a real conservative held the highest office of the land. Yet these are the same people who, when asked to comment point by point about various aspects of the policies of the administration of President George W. Bush, will defend the establishment of barriers dividing the Iraqi city of Baghdad (as well as the parallel policy of fencing off entire Iraqi villages and neighborhoods), the construction of a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico, and the establishment of a missile defense “shield” (nothing less than a wall projected into outer space) over Europe. Reagan, a Republican president, rightly noted that those who defend freedom must oppose walls. The present-day Republicans seem to have forgotten this.

The ongoing policy of building walls in Baghdad designed to segregate Sunni neighborhoods from Shiite neighborhoods is as morally despicable as it is ineffective. The Soviets built walls; the Nazis walled off entire communities, often as a precursor to rounding up the segregated population and shipping it off to concentration camps. History has rightly condemned both practices. The only modern nation that actively incorporates the construction of walls as an aspect of domestic and foreign policy is Israel, and its policy of apartheid regarding the Palestinians is morally indefensible. That the party of Ronald Reagan would willingly ally itself with those who embrace policies so rightly and strongly condemned by America’s 40th president speaks volumes to the moral vacuum it is operating in today. What is the next step these erstwhile “Reaganites” propose to undertake in Baghdad when the construction of walls fails to impede those who fight for the liberation of their nation from the tyranny of a brutal occupier? Concentration camps?......."

The Great Wall of Segregation...

".....The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, "Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!" And yet, it will also be difficult to get out.

The Wall is the latest effort to further break Iraqi society apart. Promoting and supporting civil war isn't enough, apparently- Iraqis have generally proven to be more tenacious and tolerant than their mullahs, ayatollahs, and Vichy leaders. It's time for America to physically divide and conquer- like Berlin before the wall came down or Palestine today. This way, they can continue chasing Sunnis out of "Shia areas" and Shia out of "Sunni areas"......

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?.....

So we've been busy. Busy trying to decide what part of our lives to leave behind. Which memories are dispensable? We, like many Iraqis, are not the classic refugees- the ones with only the clothes on their backs and no choice. We are choosing to leave because the other option is simply a continuation of what has been one long nightmare- stay and wait and try to survive......

The problem is that we don't even know if we'll ever see this stuff again. We don't know if whatever we leave, including the house, will be available when and if we come back. There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friends… And to what?

It's difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain. "

By Tony Karon

"......It’s not that they doubt that the U.S. will eventually be forced out of Iraq by domestic pressure driven by the cost in U.S. blood and treasure of maintaining the expedition — they’re not “shocked and awed” by U.S. power, remember, and recognize it as finite and fallible. Each of the players in Iraq has a Plan B for that eventuality, but they’re in no hurry to hasten the moment. (Even Moqtada Sadr plays to popular sentiment by demanding withdrawal, but he’s demanding a timetable rather than immediate withdrawal.) Until then, however, they’ll continue using the U.S. presence to pursue their own political interests and agendas — even as many of them publicly demand U.S. withdrawal — and position themselves to gain maximum advantage when it actually does go (as opposed to acting in ways that advance U.S. interests in order to allow Washington to substantially draw down). And, of course, Washington’s own position reflects a similar gulf between the actual policy and the public statements — Bush, for example, has always dodged the question, whenever asked (even by John Kerry in the presidential debates) about why the U.S. is building 14 permanent bases in Iraq.....

The interests of these regimes, as well as Israel whose own sense of its military deterrent power has been badly shaken by the U.S. failure in Iraq, need the U.S. to remain. So does Turkey, which sees the U.S. presence as the best guarantor against the Iraqi Kurds seceding and forcing Turkey into a political-military quagmire of its own in northern Iraq. (The flip side, of course, is that the Kurds have used the U.S. presence as a buffer against their Arab and Turkish foes, behind which they have maximized their autonomy.) Al-Qaeda’s interest in having the U.S. in Iraq is so obvious there’s no need to dwell on it here......"

Members of Abbas' security force march during their graduation ceremony in the West Bank city of Jericho, Wednesday, April 25, 2007.

They are armed and trained with direct U.S. help. Their mission? Provide security to Israel and crush Palestinian resistance.

Arab Puppets Romancing Olmert Across Apartheid Wall
By Hamed Najeeb

Israel to Continue "Limited" Operations.....
By Baha Boukhari

"BAGHDAD, April 25 (Reuters) - British troops in Iraq passed a bloody milestone this week with the killing of a 20-year-old gunner in the southern city of Basra.

Eleven British soldiers have now been killed in Iraq this month, the highest number of casualties suffered by British forces in a single month since March 2003 when 27 were killed in the opening days of the U.S.-led invasion.

British military analyst Tim Ripley said Basra had become more dangerous for British troops following the announcement by Prime Minister Tony Blair in February that the size of the force was to be reduced by a quarter.

"Now is their chance to prove that you were in the forefront of the struggle and you drove out the imperialists," said Ripley, who writes about Iraq for Jane's publications......."

Paul Wolfowitz must bear a large part of the responsibility that is usually laid at the door of his superior alone

Andrew Cockburn
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian

"Among those relishing the exposure of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz's manoeuvres on behalf of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, in recent weeks was almost certainly the former US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld was driven from public life thanks to the catastrophe of Iraq, and for the moment at least lurks in obscurity. Wolfowitz, his deputy until 2005, contributed in almost equal measure to the debacle, yet managed to slide from the Pentagon into the presidency of a leading international institution with every chance to redeem himself. Blame for torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, bungling over troop levels, chaos in Iraq's reconstruction, and the general meltdown in Pentagon management has all too often been laid at Rumsfeld's door alone. However, Wolfowitz was an energetic enabler of these outrages and many other notorious initiatives.......

Late last year Perle and other leading neoconservatives lashed out publicly at Rumsfeld, deriding his mismanagement of the Iraqi enterprise they had worked so hard to set in train. "Interesting they are not going after the puppet," the former colleague emailed me in reference to Wolfowitz's absence from his old friends' denunciations.

Given recent sordid revelations, his role in shredding the reputation of the World Bank and the morale of its employees may be harder to obscure."

By Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 26 April 2007

"......The South African model is good subject matter for a comparative study -- not as an object for a hollow emulation. Certain chapters in the history of the colonization in South Africa and the Zionization of Palestine are indeed nearly identical. The ruling methodology of the white settlers in South Africa resembles very closely that applied by the Zionist movement and later Israel against the indigenous population of Palestine since the end of the 19th century. Ever since 1948, the official Israeli policy against some of the Palestinians is more lenient than that of the Apartheid regime; against other Palestinians it is much worse.

But above all the South African model inspires those concerned with the Palestine cause in two crucial directions: by introducing the one democratic state, it offers a new orientation for a future solution instead of the two-state formula that failed, and it invigorates new thinking of how the Israeli occupation can be defeated -- through boycott, divestment, and sanctions (the BDS option).

The facts on the ground are crystal clear: the two-state solution has dismally failed and we have no spare time to waste in futile anticipation of another illusory round of diplomatic efforts that would lead to nowhere. As Avnery admits, the Israeli peace camp has so far failed to persuade the Israeli Jewish society to try the road of peace. A sober and critical assessment of this camp's size and force leads to the inevitable conclusion that it has no chance whatsoever against the prevailing trends in the Israeli Jewish society. It is doubtful whether it will even keep its very minimal presence on the ground, and there is a great concern that it will disappear all together.

Avnery ignores these facts and alleges that the one-state solution is a dangerous panacea to offer to the critically ill patient. All right, so let us prescribe it gradually. But for God's sake let us take the patient off of the very dangerous medicine we have been forcing down his throat the last sixty years and which is about to kill him......."

بقلم : سوسن البرغوتي

".......

المخرج الوحيد للمقاومة الفلسطينية، من نكبة البيع الجماعي، والتي استجدّت بعد مؤتمر القمة، هو حل السلطة الفلسطينية وحكومة الوحدة، والعودة إلى تشكيل جبهة مقاومة للاحتلال، ترتكز على الثوابت أولاً وأخيراً، وتحميل المحتل أعباء تسيير الأمور الحياتية الملزم بها، خاصة وأنه لم تتحرر أي مدينة فلسطينية فعلياً، وأن لا أحد له الحق في مقايضة القضاء على القضية الفلسطينية وشعبها مقابل "الاستسلام"، ومن يريد أن يبيع، فليشهر ممتلكاته في المزاد العلني، لكن ليس على حساب مصير شعب بأسره، والذي يبلغ عدده أكثر من سكان بلد نهض على حساب حروب أمريكا و"إسرائيل" في فلسطين ولبنان والعراق.

وعلى الشعب الفلسطيني بفصائله وكافة ألوانه وتوجهاته السياسية والفكرية، أن يعي خطورة ما يخطط في الخفاء، وأننا ندفع غالياً لخيار المصالحة الوطنية الصورية، فالخلافات الحادة ما زالت قائمة والمؤامرة مستمرة، ولا أحد يراهن على ما يخطط له تيار أوسلو غداً، فالإمدادات لم تنقطع والمعسكرات تُعد لإفناء المقاومة من أجل أمن "إسرائيل".

كفى حوارات وتصريحات، وكفى متاجرة بالقضية، فالأمر ليس أكثر من جينات يحملونها من الجاهلية، فمقولة "اليوم خمر وغداً أمر"، تعني أن الأنخاب لهم، والغد لا يمكن إلا أن يكون بوضع النقاط على الحروف، فإما فلسطين من بحرها إلى نهرها، وإلا فعلى الشعب الفلسطيني في الداخل والضفة والقطاع، والشتات.. السلام. وإذا كانت منظمة التحرير مجرد عنوان مفرغ من محتواه فلا تلزمنا.. فالشعب الفلسطيني قادر على تجميع طاقاته، ليشكل أفضل منها، والسفارات الفلسطينية في الخارج ما هي إلا مناظر تجميلية دون أي تفعيل أو حماية للفلسطيني في الخارج.أما سلطة أوسلو التي بُنيت على باطل فلن تأتي لنا بالخير، لأنها أداة أمريكية بامتياز.

لذلك كله فالفصائل الفلسطينية معنية ومسؤولة مباشرة عن هذه الإسقاطات المستجدة، إلا إذا زلّ المقاومون في إغراءات سلطة زائفة، ووجدوا أن الحل في تنصّبهم بوظائف مشبوهة مرفوعة على أنقاض هلاك وتصفية كل الشعب الفلسطيني."

"Democratic presidential candidate and New York Senator Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that it might be necessary for America to confront Iran militarily, addressing that possibility more directly than any of the other presidential candidates who spoke this week to the National Jewish Democratic Council.

Clinton first said that the US should be engaging directly with Iran to foil any effort to gain nuclear weapons and faulted the Bush administration for "considerably narrowing" the options available to America in countering Iran.

Still, she said, all avenues should be explored, since "if we do have to take offensive military action against Iran, it would be far better if the rest of the world saw it as a position of last resort, not first resort, because the effect and consequences will be global."......"

What a way to conduct a Mickey Mouse "Resistance"

Palestinians renew truce

"GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian armed factions renewed their commitment to a Gaza Strip truce on Thursday but said rocket salvoes from the territory could resume if Israel did not halt military operations in the occupied West Bank.

The message was delivered to Israel by an Egyptian mediator who has been trying to prevent a major confrontation after Hamas's armed wing fired rockets and declared the Gaza truce dead on Tuesday, Palestinians familiar with the talks said.

The envoy, Major-General Burhan Hammad, "informed the Israelis of the new commitment by the factions and at same time stressed that factions demanded the calm be reciprocal and simultaneous, covering Gaza and the West Bank," a source said......"

***

Well, the "Resistance" with all the bravado, bluster and huffing and puffing by Hamas lasted.......one day! I guess Habila got the message from Israel and he didn't want to be killed or captured. This is what happens when a resistance movement becomes a political movement; just ask Fatah.

Celebrate the new truce NOW!

An Excellent Editorial (Arabic)

انهيار الهدنة.. انقاذ لحماس
عبد الباري عطوان

".....
الجناح العسكري في حماس كان يعيش حالة من الغليان في قدر مكبوت .. فقد كان من الصعب ان يتحول طابور الاستشهاديين، الي حراس لمعالي الوزراء والمدراء العامين لحركتهم، او فراشين في وزارات هي وزارات بالاسم فقط.
حركة حماس تعرضت الي اكبر خديعة في تاريخها، فقد دخلت الشراكة السياسية بنية طيبة، وعلي امل ان يتم الاعتراف بها كحركة سياسية شرعية منتخبة، او يتم رفع الفيتو المفروض عليها، والتعامل معها، خاصة بعد ان تنازلت عن جميع وزارات السيادة ، واضطرت للقبول بسلام فياض وزيرا للمالية، وزياد عمرو للخارجية، ووافقت مكرهة علي المرشح رقم عشرين لوزارة الداخلية بعد رفض اكثر من مرشح تقدمت باسمه الي الرئيس عباس، ومع ذلك ظل الفيتو مسلطا كالسيف علي رقبتها، ولم يتغير وضع الحصار.
الاهانة الاكبر التي تعرضت لها حماس تمثلت في تعيين العقيد محمد دحلان مستشارا للأمن القومي الفلسطيني، تخضع له جميع الاجهزة الامنية الفلسطينية، ووزير الداخلية الجديد. التعيين جاء بعد يوم واحد فقط من اداء الحكومة الجديدة اليمين الدستورية. وبلغت الشكوك ذروتها عندما اعتمد الكونغرس مبلغ 56 مليون دولار لدعم الحرس الجمهوري (العباسي)، علي ان يقتطع منه مبلغ ثلاثة ملايين دولار للميزانية الخاصة لمصاريف مكتب العقيد دحلان. فقد اصبح وزير الداخلية الفلسطيني مثل شاهد زور او مثل نوري المالكي رئيس وزراء العراق يضع الخطط الأمنية ولا يستطيع تنفيذها لانه لا يحكم علي القوات الامنية.
في ظل كل هذه الاستفزازات المتلاحقة من الصعب ان تستمر الهدنة واذا استمرت فإن بديلها هو انشقاق الجناح العسكري للحركة، وتحوله الي فصيل مستقل يعود الي منابع الحركة الفكرية ومنطلقاتها الاساسية التي وضع اسسها المرحوم الشيخ احمد ياسين، او انضمام عناصره الي منظمات وحركات ما زالت ترفع راية المقاومة، وترفض الانضمام الي العملية السياسية مثل حركة الجهاد الاسلامي ولجان المقاومة الشعبية.
قيادة حركة حماس في الداخل والخارج عكست بانطوائها الملحوظ في الفترة الاخيرة، حالة القلق والارتباك هذه. فمنذ اتفاق مكة لم نر السجاد الاحمر يفرش للسيد خالد مشعل ورفاقه في المطارات والعواصم العربية، كما غابت تصريحاتهم النارية عبر شاشة قناة الجزيرة .. وباتوا يراقبون التهافت الرسمي العربي علي التطبيع مع اسرائيل، والفلتان الامني في الداخل بصمت المحرج ولا نقول العاجز.
انهيار الهدنة، ولو كان مؤقتا، ربما ينقذ حماس من الانشقاق، ويجنبها المصيدة التي نصبها لها القادة العرب، لادخالها بيت الطاعة، واستخدامها كمحلل لتصفية القضية الفلسطينية.
......"

By Dahr Jamail, Electronic Lebanon, 25 April 2007

"BEIRUT, Apr 25 (IPS) - Lebanon is caught in political gridlock in the face of sustained opposition to the U.S.-backed government.

The government is refusing to give in to opposition demands for more representation. The government says it is there to stay; so do the protestors.

Their opposition is very visible. Scores of tents, many with solar powered television sets, wooden walls and doors, and cooking facilities fill several huge parking lots at the foot of the heavily barricaded headquarters of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government......

Others are happy at the unification amongst the different parties.

"It's new for us to be together with all of these other groups," a student from the Free Patriotic Movement who gave his name as Aran told IPS. "It is good because Muslims, Christians and all of the confessions are here together. We hope this experience will be diffused throughout society."....."

A Good Video
Contributed by Datta

"Scott Ritter, former Major of the US Marines and Chief UNSCOM Weapons Inspector in Iraq, spoke on the folly of war with Iran in the General Pershing Room of the War Memorial, Indianapolis, IN on April 18, 2007.

This is Part 1 - his presentation in the program "US Policy in the Middle East; Target Iran and the role of Congress"

Israeli minister threatens to kidnap PA premier if IOF soldiers were captured

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Benjamin Ben Eliezer, the Israeli minister of infrastructure, on Wednesday threatened to kidnap the PA premier, Ismail Haneyya, if the Qassam Brigades captured any more Israeli soldiers.

Hebrew media quoted Ben Eliezer, who was a former war minister, as saying that the IOF would not hesitate in sweeping the Gaza Strip, storming Haneyya's house and taking him hostage if the Palestinians abducted more Israeli soldiers from their bases adjacent to the Strip.

The Hebrew radio also quoted an unidentified Israeli politician as saying that attempts to abduct soldiers and the continued firing of missiles would be met with severe retaliation.

The IOF claimed that the intensified Qassam Brigades firing of missiles on Tuesday was a cover up for an attempt to kidnap Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian security sources said that the IOF troops are preparing to break into certain areas in the Strip mainly those from where the missiles are being fired, but were waiting for a political endorsement to the plan."

***

This threat makes it crystal clear why you can't have a serious resistance and the trappings of "government" at the same time.

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

"Legendary broadcaster Bill Moyers is returning to the airwaves of PBS tonight to launch his new series Bill Moyers Journal. The debut episode is titled “Buying the War.” Moyers makes the case that the press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush Administration to go to war on false pretenses. In a few minutes Bill Moyers will join us here in our Firehouse studio, but first, an excerpt from the program. This part includes an interview with former CBS News anchor Dan Rather who gives his own mea culpa for the media's coverage in the lead-up to the Iraq war. Clip from “Buying the War.”
“Buying the War” airs tonight on the new weekly program Bill Moyers Journal. This marks the return of Bill Moyers to the airwaves of PBS. Two and a half years ago he retired after a 30-year career, where he became one of the most recognizable faces on public television. Bill Moyers joins us in our Firehouse studio......"

***

Don't miss Moyers program tonight on PBS.

 العدو لا يتعب والشعب نائم وحزب الله لا يكفي

An Excellent Article (Arabic)

By Dr. Adel Samara
Ramallah, Occupied Palestine

".......

أين تتجه الأمور؟
سيكون من السذاجة بمكان الفشل في التقاط اللحظة، مهما كانت ملتهبة ومهما كانت اصابعنا عارية وناعمة. هذه اللحظة حارقة كالجمر. فلم نعهد يوماً التقت فيه معظم إن لم نقل كافة الأنظمة العربية، وحتى أنظمة إسلامية على "ترجي" الكيان الصهيوني بقبول استسلامها. والأخطر أنه استسلام خطف تمثيل الفلسطينيين والشعب العربي في قضية فلسطين. واستغل موات الشارع العربي، وجوع وحصار الشعب الفلسطيني.

لم تفضح الأنظمة العربية وجهها لكي تتوقف عند الفضيحة، ولم تشن الولايات المتحدة حربها على الأمة العربية كي تعتذر عن ذلك، فما بالك بالكيان وخاصة بعد لطمة لبنان. شئتم أم أبيتم، فإن قبائل قريش قد جمعت قضها وقضيضها، ذاهبة باتجاه تصفية حق العودة، بما هو مركز القضية الفلسطينية وهي القضية/الصراع الذي يقف في طريق تحرير التجارة الدولية، يعيق التراكم، في أشد لحظات العوز الأميركي والغربي له، وفي لحظة يحتاج المركز الإمبريالي الأرض العربية كمنصة تنطلق منها صواريخه، وتتبعها استثماراته وآليات النهب إلى آسيا، سواء كانت الصين أو الجمهوريات السوفييتية السابقة.

أما الكيان، فقد ذاق طعم هذا النوع من السلام. ولذا، فإن شهيته لن تشبع. فمنذ مفاوضات مدريد_أوسلو والمليارات تتدفق على الكيان كاستثمار أجنبي مباشر. يكفي أنه في العام الماضي 2006 تدفقت على الكيان22,5 بليون دولار. فقد ترافق تدفق الإستثمار الأجنبي المباشر على الكيان مع بدء التسوية وتدمير العراق. كان عام 1990 عاماً فارقاً بامتياز. لذا، يستعجل الكيان مشروع التسوية، ولم يعد يكتفي بالمستوى الحالي، اي اتخاذ التسوية حالة التنسيق مع السلطة الفلسطينية على طريقة التسلية والإثارة لتطمين راس المال الأجنبي ان "السلام" موجود... فتقدموا. يريد الكيان اليوم، أن يلقي بما تحصل لديه من مليارات وفوائض مالية كاستثمارات له في الوطن العربي لكي يحقق انتقاله من مجتمع إسبرطة إلى مجتمع وادي السليكون.

قد تساعدنا في هذه الفترة تجربة الشعب الفلسطيني في نطاق إعداد فرق عملاء التفاوض والتسوية والاستسلام. فقد بدأت القنصلية الأميركية في القدس عام 1978، أو على الأقل هذا العام الذي عرفنا فيه، إرسال "مثقفين" فلسطينيين للتحاور الثقافي والمسرحي مع "نظرائهم" الأميركيين، أو هكذا قيل. كتبت آنذاك في مجلة البيادر الأدبي قبل أن تصبح البيادر السياسي حيث اشتراها اليمين الفلسطيني، أن هذه الزيارات هي تدريب لمثقفين فلسطينيين على المفاوضات للتسوية. ولم يخب ظني. فيحنما بدأت مفاوضات مدريد-اوسلو كان هؤلاء في طليعة المفاوضين، حيث كانوا قد تراكموا في قلعة "جامعة بير زيت" وجامعات أخرى. وبقي هؤلاء على "العهد" للتسوية، وطبعا لم يكونوا وحدهم، فقد باراهم إلى هذا "الشرف" مثقفو منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية، ومثقفونا في الأكاديميا الأميركية.

أعتقد أن هناك الآن إعداد لفرق تفاوض من أجل التصفية النهائية هذه المرة، ولذا، ستضم هذه الفرق مثقفين ورجال سياسة واديان من المحيط إلى الخليج، بل ومن بلدان العالم الإسلامي، فليس صدفة حضور بعضهم مؤتمر القمة العربي الأخير وتنطح برفيز مشرف "للوساطة" بين العرب وإسرائيل. كما ستضم بعضاً من مثقفي أراضي الإحتلال الأول، "ابطال" كنيست، فمن اقسم يمين الولاء للدولة العبرية لا بد أن يكمل "إيمانه" بتصفية حق العودة. فقريش الآن مصرة على التصفية.

هذا يعني أن خيار المقاومة هو الخيار الوحيد. والمقاومة هنا متنوعة منها مقاومة الفتنة الطائفية الكبرى التي يعظ بها العملاء من السنة الشيعة بإيحاء من أميركا والكيان، ومنها مقاومة التطبيع ومقاومة الأنظمة، ومقاومة الإحتلال.  "

Tariq Ali interviewed by
Arab Monitor

".....Nowadays we are witnessing an accelerated efforts of the USA and its Western allies to build up a pro-Western front in all the countries you named, from the Gulf to Yemen, Somalia, Lebanon, around Syria. The situation that has been created in Iraq prompts the question whether some kind of orderly regime, even a colonial one, can ever come out of this policy ?

“Not at all. I think the occupation of Iraq has been a total disaster, first of all, for the people of Iraq, second, for Iraq as a unified state. I think that Iraq is now dead. It has been killed by the United States, Great Britain and all those who backed them, and it’s being killed now by those who back this occupation. So Iraq has been destroyed against the wishes of the people, who don’t want it to be destroyed. All the opinion polls show that the people in Iraq want it to remain as one country. The United States however, whether they did it knowingly, or more probably as a result of total ignorance, have destroyed Iraq. And the country will be divided into three segments: the largest segment will be with Iran, the middle segment with Saudi Arabia and the Kurdish segment will become an Israeli-American protectorate. That is what I think, is going to happen. And the USA will keep military bases in the northern area. That is their plan. But there are many imponderables. The Turkish government does not like what is happening in Iraq. For its own reasons, they are threatening to intervene. So this is creating an instability of the whole region, which is shocking. There are reports done by medical people and medical institutions confirming that something close to one million Iraqis have been killed. One million Iraqis have died. And the Western citizens see this, read about it and are saying nothing to their governments”.....

Can we have hope that what we’re seeing, a US-NATO project to cut up the Middle East and possibly North Africa, will encounter resistance ? There is a chanche that from within the Islamic world, a power fuelled by the strength of Islam will expand to a spiritual empire all over the world, whose spiritual resistance will be capable of bringing this project to a halt ?

“I don’t think so. I don’t think that Islam is capable of producing this. One of the things that have been characteristic of Islam right from the beginning of this religion until now, is its incapacity to unite and show solidarity with each other. From the beginning, factional wars have wrecked Islam, If it had been as united, as Christianity was at the time of the Crusades, many developments in history would have gone different......

What about the Lebanese Hezbollah ?

“They’re very different. Hezbollah, in fact, the only force capable of defending national sovereignty in Lebanon. The Muslim Brotherhood, in my opinion, is a collaborationist organization. It has collaborated with imperialism in the past and it will be ready to do so again, if only imperialism gives it a chance”......."

by Sonja Karkar
Women for Palestine

"The time will have to come for Israel to declare its hand: is it “a state of the Jewish people throughout the world” as it defines itself, or a state of all its citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish? So far Israel has managed to convince the Western world that it is the only democracy in the region, but neglects to add that this democracy works only for its Jewish citizens. This is the conundrum: Israel has been unable to reconcile what it says it is, with want it wants to be – democratic and exclusively Jewish......

The discourse has been taken up in the Palestinian public arena and now Israel is beginning to feel the same stirrings that finally exposed Apartheid South Africa for the racist state it was. It knows that sooner or later it will be forced to commit to being a “Jewish state only” or recognise the Palestinians as equal citizens and a national minority in their own land. Already Palestinian intellectuals have drafted a document called The Democratic Constitution which envisages Israel as a multicultural democracy for the people living and born there. Whatever Azmi Bishara does now in exile, the seed has burst: he has inspired a subjugated people to seek again their liberation. What is surprising is that Israel has taken so long to understand the lessons of history - that no one person or state no matter how powerful can oppress a people forever. However, Israel still has the option to switch course and institute democracy for all, and if genuinely undertaken, this may well be the solution worth working towards for both peoples. "

Windbag du Jour: Mohammed Al-Madhoon, the chairman of Habila's office

By Jim Lobe

"Six and a half years after U.S. President George W. Bush launched his "global war on terror," suspicion of U.S. motives remains pervasive throughout the Islamic world, according to a new and highly detailed survey of four countries [.pdf] released Tuesday.

An average of more than 75 percent of respondents across the four countries – Egypt, Morocco, and the world's two most populous Muslim nations, Indonesia and Pakistan – said they believed that dividing and weakening the Islamic world and maintaining control over Middle East oil were key goals of U.S. foreign policy, according to the survey by the University of Maryland (UM) and WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO).

And an average of two out of three respondents named "expand[ing] the geographic borders of Israel" as a third major U.S. policy objective in the region.

By contrast, less than one in four agreed that Washington wanted to create "an independent and economically viable Palestinian state," despite Bush's explicit endorsement of that goal since before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.......

Suspicion of U.S. goals was particularly high in Egypt, by far the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the Islamic world since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1978, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in Morocco, another longtime U.S. ally.....

The survey, which was carried out between mid-December and mid-February, is the latest in a string of polls suggesting that Washington's image in the Islamic world, particularly in Arab countries, has fallen to all-time lows......."

The Karen Hughes Touch to "Humanize" Apartheid Walls in Iraq and Palestine

Across the region, ordinary people want the Americans out. But from Israel to al-Qaida, political groups and states have other ideas

Hussein Agha
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian

"Overt political debate in the Middle East is hostile to the American occupation of Iraq and dominated by calls for it to end sooner rather than later. No less a figure than King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, arguably the United States' closest Arab ally, has declared the occupation of Iraq "illegal" and "illegitimate". Real intentions, however, are different. States and local political groups might not admit it - because of public opinion - but they do not want to see the back of the Americans. Not yet......

In common with neighbouring states, Iraqi Shias, Sunnis and Kurds are united in being able to use the Americans' presence to pursue separate and often conflicting political agendas. The grand disconnect in the region is between the political sentiments of ordinary people, which are overwhelmingly for an end to occupation, and the political calculations of leaders, which emphasise the benefits of using the Americans and consequently of extending their stay - at least for the time being.

In this grim picture, the Americans appear the least sure and most confused. With unattainable objectives, wobbly plans, changing tactics, shifting alliances and ever-increasing casualties, it is not clear any longer what they want or how they are going to achieve it. By setting themselves up to be manipulated, they give credence to an old Arab saying: the magic has taken over the magician."

"BAGHDAD, 23 April 2007 (IRIN) - BAGHDAD, 23 April 2007 (IRIN) - Baghdad specialists and citizens have hit out against the US strategy of building walls around Sunni districts that are surrounded by Shia areas. They say such barriers would worsen the lives of thousands of Iraqis and would increase violence.

"When they build barriers, automatically they are assuming the existence of religious and ethnic differences in Iraq, reinforcing the fighting groups' beliefs," Jassem al-Rheiri, a sociology professor at Baghdad University, said......"

Welcome to Diyala Province
By Naser Jafari

The U.S. Military in Iraq is Going by the Books....
Books About Killing, Destruction and Racist and Sectarian Apartheid Walls Written by Israel.

A News Quiz: Is This In Baghdad or in the West Bank?

Three Useful Stooges in Service of the Empire
Palestinians: Celebrate! You Have a Claim to Fame.

"......Inside al-Adhamiyah, the three-mile long wall under construction around the area was being compared with the walls built by Israel to surround and control Palestinian towns and villages on the West Bank.

"Adhamiyah will be isolated from all other areas," said one man in a cafe in the district. "We'll be like the Palestinians and we will not accept that."......"

Abbas: Hamas truce violation was an exception, won't be repeated

"Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that Hamas' violation of the five-month-old Gaza Strip cease-fire was an exception and would not be repeated, calling on Israel to show restraint in order to avoid a security deterioration.

"The violation of the truce is an exceptional event that will not last," said Abbas at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome.

"I take this opportunity to appeal to Israel to show the necessary self-control so that this will not happen again."....."

***

The puppet went on to assure Israel that it can go on killing and kidnapping as many Palestinians as it likes, with no response from the Palestinian side. This is the kind of "peace" he advocates.

Government to face a "national decision" if embargo not lifted; security plan to go ahead

"Gaza - Ma'an - The Palestinian government would be facing a crucial "national decision" if the international community fails to bear their responsibilities and lift the embargo imposed on the Palestinian people, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh assured on Tuesday .

Haniyeh said, "The Palestinians have suffered too much from the Israeli occupation on one hand, and from the tyrannical embargo on the other."

The "national decision", according to Haniyeh, will be taken unanimously in accordance with the interests of the Palestinian people. It will include a mechanism to respond to the Israeli threats on the Palestinian cities and villages, which culminated with the threats to invade the Gaza Strip......"

***

"You just keep on waving and smiling and everything will be fine" -- Ahmad Yousef

Ghazi Hamad warns of the collapse of the ceasefire

"Gaza – Ma'an - The spokesperson of the Palestinian Prime Minister's office, Ghazi Hamad, warned that the ceasefire is precarious due to the Israeli forces' continued atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Hamad said in a statement that the Palestinian government supports the continuation of the ceasefire in accordance with Palestinian interests, and in order to protect Palestinians from Israeli assaults.

The Palestinian government affirmed the necessity of ending Israeli hostilities and frequent threats to invade the Gaza Strip.

The government declared that it will consult Palestinian factions in order to follow-up with developments in the ceasefire and to protect the people's interests, said Ghazi Hamad. "

***

At the same time, the military wing of Hamas declares that the "truce" has ended. Which wing do we believe or trust?

by Greg Mitchell

"The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq will appear next Wednesday, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called "Buying the War," which marks the return of "Bill Moyers Journal." E&P was sent a preview DVD and a draft transcript for the program this week......

At the close, Moyers mentions some of the chief proponents of the war who refused to speak to him for this program, including Thomas Friedman, Bill Kristol, Roger Ailes, Charles Krauthammer, Judith Miller, and William Safire.

But Dan Rather, the former CBS anchor, admits, "I don't think there is any excuse for, you know, my performance and the performance of the press in general in the roll up to the warWe didn't dig enough. And we shouldn't have been fooled in this way." Bob Simon, who had strong doubts about evidence for war, was asked by Moyers if he pushed any of the top brass at CBS to "dig deeper," and he replies, "No, in all honesty, with a thousand mea culpas, nope, I don't think we followed up on this."

Instead he covered the marketing of the war in a "softer" way, explaining to Moyers: "I think we all felt from the beginning that to deal with a subject as explosive as this, we should keep it, in a way, almost light if that doesn't seem ridiculous."

Moyers replies: "Going to war, almost light."....."

***

Don't miss it on PBS, Wednesday April 25.

"فريق عمل إسرائيلي يعمل بتنسيق كامل مع لجنة الحشد الشعبي والتي يرئسها احمد الجلبي لتطويق أكثر من خمسين مدينه في العراق بسياج عزل


دار بابل للدراسات والإعلام - الموصل
ـ24 نيسان 2007
.
Dar Babel for Studies & Information (Mosul) has issued a report (above, in Arabic, April 24, 2007) indicating that work on the "walls" that are now being put up in Iraq have been in preparation for over three months. This project is being headed by Ahmad Al-Chalabi in conjunction with the Israeli company of Zeef Belinsky who has a long track record in ghetto construction, and with Al-Mahdi Army's financing and labor. The document provides sufficient details on the six work locations producing these concrete blocks, for easier targeting."

لو أحرقوا النهار ... ـ
لوأطفأوا الشموس والأقمار ... ـ
لو قتلوا الأزهار ... ـ
لو دفنوا الحب بأكباد الصغار ... ـ
لو جففوا الغيوم والأمطار ... ـ
لو سلطوا الإرهاب والخراب والدمار ... ـ
لو شيـّدوا ألف جدار ... ـ
فالأعظمية دأبها بدء المسار ... ـ
والأعظمية دومها تبقى المنار ... ـ
ها هنا نور و نار ... ـ
فليخسأ الآتون من خلف البحار ... ـ
وليخسأ الطاغوت والشذاذ أحفاد التتار ... ـ
الشعب قلب واحد ... ـ
والشعب دم واحد ... ـ
والشعب صوت واحد ... لا للجدار ! ـ

طالب البغدادي
ـ24 نيسان 2007

Baghdad's Barrier
By Baha Boukhari

Gift to the Iraqis in Baghdad

By Dr. Mona El-Farra

"last November when i visited bet ha noun village north of Gaza Strip , straight away after the Israeli army withdrawal , i met families next to their demolished homes , i have met a very interesting 70 years old man , he is a poet ,and was wearing traditional Palestinian costume ,
in front of all of us , and unusual to our traditions and on top of their home rubble , he hugged his wife and started reciting some of his love poetry , i felt speechless, his poetry was about land , love home and resistance.

Palestinian people do not have the spirit of victims , they have the freedom fighters spirits , we fight for noble , just cause ,life will continue , and one day justice and peace will prevail , i can then tell you a lot of humans steadfastness stories , ordinary people stories, whom i have met during my work and they made the Palestinian people struggle against occupation legendary."

Al-Manar Special - Hakam Amhaz - Translated

"23/04/2007 The aim at the popular base of Hezbollah constituted Israel's major objective in its war against Lebanon last summer. This is what the Israeli political and military leadership stated on many occasions, saying that the goal of air raids, bombing civilians and displacing them was to incite them against Hezbollah to isolate it.
However, Israeli massacres failed to achieve its goals. Instead it had opposite results, so Israel brought about a second plan to stop an increase in Hezbollah's popularity. US and Israeli administrations expressed deep concern over Hezbollah's exceptional preparedness to compensate those damaged by the war. In a meeting for the Tel Aviv government, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz hastened to warn the international community against the dangers of what he termed as the neglect of the direct Iranian interference in rebuilding south Lebanon. He suggested forming a powerful international economic force to stop Iranian money from reaching Hezbollah so as not to further strengthen it in the region. Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres then rushed to Washington for an urgent meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to tell her that Lebanon must be rebuilt by western countries and "moderate" Arab states, but not by Iran.
Despite efforts to materialize this plot, Hezbollah once again dealt a blow to Washington, Tel Aviv and their allies inside and outside Lebanon, when it fulfilled its promise and fully compensated the public. US Under-Secretary of State David Welch had cast doubt on Hezbollah's capability to keep its promise of giving a sum of 12,000 USD to every family whose home was damaged during the war. This frustration prompted the ruling bloc in Lebanon to try to keep face, and made promises of compensations to the Lebanese public. However, the unconstitutional government of Fouad Saniora has so failed to finalize the first phase of its plan, nine months after the end of the war. "

Car bomb kills 9 U.S. soldiers in Iraq

"BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb struck a patrol base northeast of Baghdad on Monday, killing nine U.S. soldiers and wounding 20 in the single deadliest attack on American ground forces in more than a year, the military said......"

***

In the first three weeks of this month, 85 U.S. and 11 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq. This is more than the fatality total for an entire month since last December. A surge it is.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire taken away after being shot with rubber bullets by Israeli soldiers.



Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

"AMY GOODMAN: Israeli forces have killed eight Palestinians over the past two days, including a seventeen-year-old girl and a Palestinian police officer. Meanwhile, Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a nonviolent protest against the separation wall near the West Bank village of Bilin. Several protesters were injured, including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire. She was shot with a rubber bullet. She returned yesterday to Ireland, where she joins us now on the line. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Mairead Maguire.

MAIREAD MAGUIRE: Good afternoon, Amy, and to all your listeners.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us what happened?

MAIREAD MAGUIRE: Yes. I was invited with my friend to attend a nonviolent conference in Bilin, a village outside Ramallah, and to give a talk there, which I did. At the end of the conference, we were invited to participate in a nonviolent demonstration with some of the Palestinian members of parliament, including Dr. Barghouti, and Israeli peace activists and local villagers and international visitors from over several hundred countries so -- or several hundred international peace activists from over twenty countries.

We walked along to try to walk up toward the separation wall, and it was a totally nonviolent protest. And we were viciously attacked by the Israeli military. They threw gas canisters into the peace walkers, and they also fired rubber-covered steel bullets. As I tried to move back and helping a French lady, I was shot in the leg with a rubber-covered steel bullet, and the young Israeli soldier who shot me was only twenty meters from me. I was stunned by it, and then later on, after having some treatment by the ambulance medics, I went back down to the front line with the peace activists, and we were again showered with gas. I was overcome and had a severe nosebleed and had to be taken by stretcher to the ambulance and treated.

And I witnessed there a Palestinian woman, maybe around in her sixties, and an old Palestinian man with blood on his face. These were over twenty-five unarmed peace people who had been viciously attacked by the Israeli military. And it was a completely peaceful protest. It was absolutely unbelievable. I never in all my years of activism witnessed anything so vicious as from the Israeli military.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, who just came from the West Bank town of Bilin. Can you describe the wall there, the wall that you were protesting?

MAIREAD MAGUIRE: Yes, the wall is being built right through the village of Bilin, and the villagers’ land is being cut off. This wall is actually not so much a security wall, as it is really a wall that is taking in yet more of Palestinian land. The Palestinians have lost two-thirds of their land. When I was walking along that road, my interpreter from the press conference earlier in the day told me that he had owned ten acres of land on the other side of the wall, that the Israeli authorities had moved in, confiscated his land, uprooted his olive trees, which are 400 years old, and taken the olive trees to Jerusalem, and they were planted in Israeli settlements in Jerusalem.

So this is a wall, which is -- it is an apartheid wall. It’s dividing the people. But this is also by domination and control, which is what the word “apartheid” means. So, I mean, this kind of repression of the Palestinian people and the occupation which is going on -- now, the anniversary is June the 9th, when it’s forty years occupied -- this will not bring peace or security to Israel, which we all want to see. This will bring division and suffering, uninhibited. The international community needs to demand that the occupation end......"

A peace plan minus the Palestinians appeals to the arrogance of the Arab dictators and autocratic monarchs who for the sake of their own positions of privilege and power have never permitted the Palestinian voice to speak unfiltered.


A Very Good Article

By Ben White
PalestineChronicle.com

".....Yet despite all the fanfare, and self-congratulatory talk of an “historic moment”, this proposal shares the same flaw as those that have come before – it is being offered on behalf of those at the root of the conflict, the Palestinians. The Palestinians, who, from the refugees exiled since 1948 to those living in the Occupied Territories, are still not ‘permitted’ to speak for themselves......

Ever since then, Palestinian resistance to colonisation and occupation has been deliberately subsumed into the generic ‘Arab-Israeli’ conflict, reduced to one component of a regional question. That Arab states are presumed to speak for the Palestinians appeals on two main levels. Firstly, it chimes with a racialised Western discourse that sees the conflict through the prism of ‘little Israel’ against all ‘the Arabs’ (or more commonly since 9/11, the ‘Muslims’), an interpretation that owes much to the influence of the Israeli narrative.....

Just as in 1948, high profile 'peace plans' continue to marginalise the very people whose dispossession was, and crucially still is, the core of the conflict. It was not Egyptians, or Syrians, or Saudis who had their orange groves stolen and villages emptied to make way for a Jewish state. Libyans and Kuwaitis have not lived under Israeli military occupation for 40 years. It is only the Palestinian people who can ‘offer’ peace to Israel, because it is their country that has been colonised and occupied; an offer, moreover, that will be made just as soon as, and not before, justice is forthcoming."

Jonas Martinez writing from Bil'in, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, 23 April 2007

""Thanks to the media here for telling the truth ... Bring this truth to whatever country you come from!"

These were Mairead Maguire's words, a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Northern Ireland, just one hour before she was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet by Israeli Occupation Forces.

At a press conference next to the Apartheid Wall in Bil'in, she stood beside Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian Information Minister.

"Nonviolence will solve the problems here in Israel and Palestine," Ms. Macguire continued. "Often, the world sees only violence. But Palestinians are a good people, working towards nonviolence. This Wall must fall! It is an insult to the human family and to the world -- that we are building Apartheid Walls in the twenty-first century! More than forty years of Occupation and land appropriation."

Ms. Macguire demanded the world stop Israel's "mild dictatorship" and "total Israeli government control."

Dr. Barghouti thanked her and the 500 attendees of the Second Bil'in International Conference on Nonviolence. Regarding the Wall, he stated that it was an "instrument of ethnic cleansing, the same as what happened in 1948." Barghouti suggested to read Ilan Pappe's book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine for a clear explanation.

Barghouti stated that the Apartheid Wall is being used to suffocate the idea of a two-state solution and an independent Palestinian state.

Describing the Wall, Barghouti said that it was 850 km in length, which is three times the length of the Green Line, that the wall surrounds and imprisons cities and villages. Qalqiliya was mentioned, a city of 46,000 Palestinians, which is completely surrounded by the Aparthied Wall.

"This Wall is being built between Palestinians and Palestinians," he said. "It is not being built between Palestine and Israel. Eight-hundred-and-fifty thousand Palestinians are behind this wall. It is destroying Palestinian social, economic, health, and educational systems......."

Palestinian minister of tourism generates support from Arab nations for Palestinian tourist industry

Contributed by Lucia

"Bethlehem – Ma'an – Palestinian minister of tourism and antiquities, Khouloud Daibes, has returned to the Palestinian territories after taking part in a conference for the Arab ministers of tourism, which was held in Beirut between the 14th and 19th of April.

Dr Daibes updated the Arab representatives on the tourism situation in the Palestinian territories and the major role of this sector in promoting and developing the Palestinian economy.

She also explained the obstacles that are hindering the development of tourism in the Palestinian territories, including the Israeli occupation and the international embargo imposed on the Palestinian people.

On the minister's request, the Arab council for tourism ratified a decision to support tourism in the Palestinian territories through funding the tourism ministry's participation in Arab and international tourist exhibitions which are to be held this year. The Arab council will also provide technical support to develop a strategy for promoting Palestinian tourism.

Before travelling to Beirut, the Palestinian minister of tourism met with the Jordanian Prime Minister, Ma'roof Al-Bakhit and minister of tourism, Osama Dabbas in Amman. While in Beirut, Daibes held several meetings with Lebanese clerics and members of parliament. "

The New Flag of Iraq Under U.S. Occupation

A Good Article

By Chris Hedges

"There is a false, but effective, fiction that one has to be born again to be a Christian. The Christian right refuses to acknowledge the worth of anyone’s religious experience unless, in the words of its tired and opaque cliché, one has accepted “Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.”

The emotional meltdown that leads to the conversion experience—one often induced in crowds skillfully manipulated and broken down by demagogues—is one of the most pernicious tools of the movement. Through conversion one surrenders to a higher authority. And the higher authority, rather than God, is the preacher who steps in to take over one’s life. Being born again, and the process it entails, has far more in common with recruitment into a cult than it does with genuine belief......

The new convert is gradually drawn into a host of church activities by his or her new friends, leaving little time for outside socializing. But the warmth and embrace soon bring new rules. When you violate the rules, you sin, you flirt with rebellion, with becoming a “backslider,” someone who was converted but has fallen and is once again on the wrong side of God. And as the new converts are increasingly invested in the church community, as they cut ties with their old community, it is harder to dismiss the demands of the “discipler” and church leaders. The only proper relationship is submission to those above you, the abandonment of critical thought and the mouthing of thought-terminating clichés that are morally charged. “Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior” or “the wages of sin are death” is used to end all discussion......

And when it is over, the new believers are told, “Welcome to the family of God.” They are told to read a chapter a day in the Gospel of John and that they will be visited again in a week to talk about the Bible. They are encouraged to pray, because God “promised to hear and answer our prayers.” They are told to find “a good Bible-believing church and become a part of it.” They are told to join a Christian fellowship group. And they are told to witness to those in their family. With this, the process of deconstructing an individual and building a submissive follower, one who no longer has any allegiance to the values of the open society and the democratic state, begins."

Hamas: Political flexibility does not mean abandoning the Palestinian just cause

"Hamas Movement has stressed on Sunday the political flexibility it has been showing recently did not in anyway mean that it has abandoned its commitment to the Palestinian cause.

Hamas affirmation came during a meeting between Hamas and PFLP delegations in Gaza city on political developments in the Palestinian arena.

During the meeting Hamas stressed the importance of communicating with all Palestinian national forces and political parties with the aim to consolidate national ranks to face occupation schemes.....

For its part, the PFLP maintained its stand towards the PA unity government, adding it prefers to remain in “constructive opposition”. The PFLP turned down offers to join the PA unity government......"

The 5-kilometer-long, 3.7-meter-high concrete wall being built to contain the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah in Baghdad will fail, even if Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki doesn't manage to get it stopped. The US cannot cut off the head of the resistance in Iraq - simply because there is no head. Talking to the nine recently united leading Sunni Arab resistance groups would be a better idea.

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"......Call it the first instalment of The Baghdad gulag (Asia Times Online, April 14), apartheid in Mesopotamia, or Balkanization with Arabic subtitles.

"Suicide bombers" and/or "death squads" - whose life, according to the Pentagon, will be "more difficult" with the arrival of the gated community, have already celebrated by lobbying a few Katyusha rockets inside the walled-off area. Similarities with the wall of shame being built by Israel in the Palestinian West Bank are also to the point: no concrete wall peppered with checkpoints will be able to block the main fact that every hour in Iraq, day in, day out, there are at least seven or eight bloody bombings or attacks, 75% of them against the US occupation, 17% of them against the so-called Iraqi security forces.

The US cannot cut off the head of the (resistance) snake in Iraq - simply because there is no head: a Buddhist monk would say the snake now is one with the river itself, and it flows non-stop. Walls are irrelevant - either to the resistance or to the militias or death squads.

The surge promoted by US President George W Bush is no more - its metaphorical wall already smashed by almost 100 car and truck bombings since February, perpetrated either by strands of the Sunni Arab resistance, some more nationalistic, some more Islamic, or by al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers......"

PM's political advisor: Haniyeh to embark on extensive tour


In the aftermath of the fury unleashed by the declarations of the puppet king of Jordan to visiting Knesset members and his intent to ignore the right of return, the following story is truly shocking. It shows that Hamas has been totally co-opted and it is now part of the "moderate" camp. For Habila to visit Jordan now and for Ahmad Yousef to praise Jordan and its support is a stab in the back of every Palestinian. Is there any doubt left that Hamas, in reality, has been seriously compromised? What next, Mr. Yousef? Are you making arrangement for Habila to address the Knesset soon? This man (Yousef) is very dangerous and his American ties should not be underestimated.

"Bethlehem - Ma'an – The Palestinian prime minister's political advisor, Ahmad Yousef, has announced that preparations are being made for Haniyeh to go on an extensive tour.

The tour will include many Arab and Asian countries, as well as Jordan, Yousef said. Speaking to the Jordanian daily, al-Ghad, Yousef also said that consultations are ongoing to decide which countries the tour will include. The tour will start at the beginning of next month.

Yousef hailed the role of Jordan in supporting the Palestinian issue and said "the Palestinians welcome any efforts made by the king as long as they take into consideration the Palestinian interests and rights and aim to ease Palestinian suffering."

In a statement made to Ma'an's correspondent in Gaza, Ahmad Yousef denied that Haniyeh will make any visits to any of the European nations, especially in the wake of the ongoing economic embargo imposed on the Palestinians, he said......"

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Bendib

by Conn Hallinan
Foreign Policy in Focus

"In 1609, a terrible thing happened: not terrible in the manner that great wars are terrible but in the way that opening Pandora's Box was terrible. King James I of England discovered that dividing people on the basis of religion worked like a charm, thus sentencing the Irish to almost four centuries of blood and pain.

If the Bush administration is successful in its current efforts to divide Islam by pitting Shi'ites against Sunnis, it will revitalize the old colonial tactic of divide and conquer – and maintain the domination of the Middle East by authoritarian elites allied with the U.S. and the international energy industry.

Its vehicle, according to the New York Times, is an "American-backed alliance" of several Sunni-dominated regimes, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, "along with a Fatah-led Palestine and Israel." The anti-Shi'ite front will also likely include Turkey and Pakistan......

Suddenly, rhetoric like the "eastern tide" and the "Persian menace" have begun appearing in official newspapers in the region, although the average Arab does not view Iran as a threat. A recent Zogby International poll of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) found that roughly 80 percent of those polled considered the United States and Israel the biggest threats to their security, while only 11 percent listed Iran. Further, fewer than 25 percent believe Iran should be pressured to halt its nuclear program, while 61 percent think Iran has the right to a nuclear program even if it results in nuclear weapons.....

The real U.S. target may be a good deal bigger than simply the Shia Crescent. "Could it be that the U.S. endgame is to weaken Islam from within," asks Lebanese writer Jihad Azine in An-Nahar, "and divert attention from targeting U.S. interests to targeting the Shia?"....."

by Dahr Jamail and Tom Engelhardt

".......Recently, TomDispatch regular Dahr Jamail, who covered the war in Iraq from Baghdad for a while, visited some of the beleaguered refugee camps and centers in Syria that are trying to cope with the tens of thousands of desperate Iraqi refugees arriving each month. Jamail is a remarkable figure. A young man who originally went to the region on his own to cover the war, he gives "independent" journalism a name to be proud of. Our premier investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, said this of him recently, in offering criticism of American mainstream journalism's attribution practices at an al-Jazeera media conference:

"There is a young journalist here, Dahr Jamail, whose stuff has been very prescient, and I've four or five times included the brave accounts of some of his work in my stories. …".....

Since the shock-and-awe invasion of Iraq began in March 2003, that country's explosive unraveling has never left the news or long been off the front page. Yet the fallout beyond its borders from the destruction, disintegration, and ethnic mayhem in Iraq has almost avoided notice. And yet with – according to United Nations estimates – approximately 50,000 Iraqis fleeing their country each month (and untold numbers of others being displaced internally), Iraq is producing one of the – if not the – most severe refugee crisis on the planet, a crisis without a name and without significant attention.

For the last two weeks, I've been in Syria, visiting refugee centers and camps, the offices and employees of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and poor neighborhoods in Damascus that are filling up with desperate, almost penniless Iraqi refugees, sometimes living 15 to a room. In statistical and human terms, these few days offered a small window into the magnitude of a catastrophe that is still unfolding and shows no sign of abating in any immediately imaginable future.

Let's start with the numbers, inadequate as they are. The latest UN figures concerning the refugee crisis in Iraq indicate that between 1-1.2 million Iraqis have fled across the border into Syria; about 750,000 have crossed into Jordan (increasing its modest population of 5.5 million by 14 percent); at least another 150,000 have made it to Lebanon; over 150,000 have emigrated to Egypt; and – these figures are the trickiest of all – over 1.9 million are now estimated to have been internally displaced by civil war and sectarian cleansing within Iraq.

These numbers are staggering in a population estimated in the pre-invasion years at only 26 million. At a bare minimum, in other words, at least one out of every seven Iraqis has had to flee his or her home due to the violence and chaos set off by the Bush administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq......"

"GOC Southern Command Major General Yoav Galant has confirmed that Iranian terror and guerrilla experts are in the Gaza Strip training Palestinian terror organizations. Galant says the Iranians are the source of most of the know-how coming to the West Bank, Lebanon and Iraq on the use of land mines, explosives and anti-tank missiles.

The crux of Maj.-Gen. Galant's remarks, delivered at a lecture at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a Middle East policy think-tank headed by Dore Gold, were published by the center last week.

Galant said terrorists move freely between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and from there to Syria, Lebanon and Iran for training. "Iranians also come to Gaza to inspect the situation and hold training exercises." he said.

Galant contends that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, has already become an Iranian organization, and that Iran has had a similar influence on the Islamic Jihad.

Galant said he believes a large number of Iranian terror experts are operating in the Gaza Strip, receiving know-how, money and equipment from abroad, mainly from Iran, to carry out attacks on Israel......."

From The Sunday Times

"AL-QAEDA leaders in Iraq are planning the first “large-scale” terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran, according to a leaked intelligence report.

Spy chiefs warn that one operative had said he was planning an attack on “a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki” in an attempt to “shake the Roman throne”, a reference to the West.

Another plot could be timed to coincide with Tony Blair stepping down as prime minister, an event described by Al-Qaeda planners as a “change in the head of the company”.

The report, produced earlier this month and seen by The Sunday Times, appears to provide evidence that Al-Qaeda is active in Iran and has ambitions far beyond the improvised attacks it has been waging against British and American soldiers in Iraq.

There is no evidence of a formal relationship between Al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, and the Shi’ite regime of President Mah-moud Ahmadinejad, but experts suggest that Iran’s leaders may be turning a blind eye to the terrorist organisation’s activities.

The intelligence report also makes it clear that senior Al-Qaeda figures in the region have been in recent contact with operatives in Britain.

It follows revelations last year that up to 150 Britons had travelled to Iraq to fight as part of Al-Qaeda’s “foreign legion”. A number are thought to have returned to the UK, after receiving terrorist training, to form sleeper cells.

The report was compiled by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) - based at MI5’s London headquarters - and provides a quarterly review of the international terror threat to Britain. It draws a distinction between Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda’s core leadership, who are thought to be hiding on the Afghan-Pakistan border, and affiliated organisations elsewhere......"

***

Is there a clue in here that the attack on Iran will take place before May 9, the day when Blair is supposed to be stepping down?

This video will tell you why Bush was elected twice.

“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” –H. L. Mencken

George W. Bush likes to present the “war on terror” as a clear-cut moral crusade in which evildoers who kill innocent civilians must be brought harshly to justice, along with the leaders of countries that harbor terrorists. There are no grays, only blacks and whites.

By Robert Parry

"But evenhanded justice is not the true core principle of the Bush Doctrine. The real consistency is hypocrisy: violence which Bush favors – no matter how wanton the slaughter of innocents – is justifiable, while violence that goes against Bush’s interests – even an insurgency against a foreign military occupation – must be punished without remorse as “terrorism.”

In other words, if Bush hates the perpetrators, they are locked up indefinitely without charge and, at his discretion, can be subjected to “alternative interrogation techniques,” what most of the world considers torture. The rule of law is out the window. Wild West hangin' justice is in. Even the ancient fair trial right of habeas corpus is discarded.

However, when the killers of civilians are on Bush’s side, they get the full panoply of legal protections – and every benefit of the doubt. Under this Bush double standard, therefore, right-wing Cuban terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, though implicated in a string of murderous attacks on civilians, get the see-no-evil treatment.......

The Posada-Bosch cases point to one unavoidable and unpleasant conclusion: that the Bush family regards terrorism – defined as killing civilians for a political reason – as justified or at least tolerable in cases when their interests match those of the terrorists.

Terrorism is only a moral evil to the Bushes when the violence against civilians clashes with the Bush family’s interests.

This blatant hypocrisy often has been aided and abetted by the U.S. news media, which intuitively understands the double standard and acts accordingly. The U.S. press corps downplays or ignores cases in which terrorism has connections to U.S. government officials – and especially to the Bush family."

The olive tree is scolding the Arab puppet:
"Get lost you and your peace initiatives! You have left me bare after plucking all of my branches"

Fatah accuses Israel of using targeted killing to incite violence in last-ditch attempt to destroy Palestinian image

"Ramallah - Ma'an – The Fatah movement has accused Israel of attempting to frustrate Abbas' European tour and destroy the Mecca Agreement.

The movement claimed that Israel is attempting to incite Fatah and Islamic Jihad to retaliate to the targeted assassinations of Palestinians in the north of the West Bank.

In a press release, spokesperson of the Fatah movement, Jamal Nazzal, said that Israel plans to destroy the new public image of Palestinians who are receiving widespread understanding in Europe, especially after the Mecca Agreement.

En route to Rome, accompanying Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Nazzal stated "the Mecca agreement left the ball in the Israeli court, as the deal clearly calls on Israel to allow Palestinians to build their own state. For this reason Israel is in great need of bomb attacks, in order to accuse the Palestinians of attempting to destroy Israel and make the president's tour of Europe fail."

'Traps'

Nazzal urged the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Brigades to practice restraint in the face of Israeli aggression, in order to deprive Israel of ammunition for a slander campaign against Palestinians.

He also warned the Palestinians to be aware of Israeli 'traps'......."

***

After 90 years of struggle, is this the best that the Palestinians can come up with? This has gone way beyond embarrassment and mediocrity; this is treason and we have to name it for what it is.

By Kurt Nimmo

"“Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that if she is elected president, she would make her husband a roaming ambassador to the world, using his skills to repair the nation’s tattered image abroad,” reports the Associated Press. “I believe in using former presidents, particularly what my husband has done, to really get people around the world feeling better about our country,” Hillary said. “We’re going to need that. Right now they’re rooting against us and they need to root for us.”......

How soon we forget. Bill Clinton, according to Edward S. Herman, “has gone beyond the Bush [Senior] record of criminality, and has brought to the commission of war crimes a new eclectic reach and postmodern style. A skilled public relations person, he has refined the rhetoric of humanistic and ethical concern and can apologize with seeming great sincerity for our earlier regrettable sponsorship and support of mass murder in Guatemala while carrying out similar or even more vicious policies in Colombia and Iraq at the same moment…. Clinton’s crimes range from ad hoc bombings to boycotts and sanctions designed to starve into submission, to support of ethnic cleansing in brutal counterinsurgency warfare, and to aggression and devastation by bombing designed to return rogues to the stone age and keep them there.”......

But all of this pales in comparison to Clinton’s complicity in genocide. “Bombs are merciful compared to what Clinton has done to the innocent children of Iraq, the most vulnerable of all, by maintaining ten years of the harshest sanctions in the history of mankind, begun on August 6, 1990, and kept in place at the insistence of the United States,” writes David L. Harten. “In 1989, the literacy rate [in Iraq] was 95%; and 93% of the population had free access to modern health facilities,” Anupama Rao Singh, UNICEF’s senior representative in Iraq, told John Pilger in early 2000. “Parents were fined for failing to send their children to school. The phenomenon of street children or children begging was unheard of. Iraq had reached a stage where the basic indicators we use to measure the overall well-being of human beings, including children, were some of the best in the world. Now it is among the bottom 20%. In 10 years, child mortality has gone from one of the lowest in the world, to the highest.”

In 1996, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, “567,000 Iraqi children had died as a direct consequence of economic sanctions,” and the following year UNICEF reported “that 4,500 Iraqi children under five were dying every month as a result of sanctions—induced starvation and disease.”......

Of course, Americans have short memories, or are amnesiacs altogether, and most of them know nothing about Clinton’s record as a war criminal. For many Americans, all that matters is Clinton made them feel good because he is a more accomplished actor than his successor, the dysfunctional former alcoholic George W. Bush. In fact, last year, Bush referred to Clinton as “my new brother,” in part because of “shared experiences,” for instance killing off large numbers of Iraqis. Clinton “has found his surrogate family,” writes Peter S. Canellos for the Boston Globe. “He is part of a sprawling clan, legendary for its warmth and unity. It is a clan that is so accustomed to acquiring surrogate sons and daughters that adoption has become a part of its strength…. Clinton has become a member of the Bush clan,” or rather crime family.

Turn them upside down, they all look the same. "

Contributed by Lucia

"Saturday, 21 April 2007
Kawthar Nofal told PNN that Israeli intelligence has taken to arresting the mothers and wives of Palestinian political prisoners in order to extract confessions.

Nofal, known as Umm Said for her eldest son, said that the idea is to threaten the prisoners by harming their loved ones. Israeli intelligence wants information, and will take what they can get, real or fabricated, the northwestern West Bank woman said candidly on Saturday.

“They arrested me from inside my house after the arrest of others in my family, and immediately took me to Jalama Prison so that my captive son, Said, could see that they had me.”

Now out of prison, Umm Said, continued, “I was subjected to two hours of interrogation tied to a chair with my feet and hands bound in chains without mercy or compassion.”

The woman said, “Intelligence officers told me that that I would be kept in prison and so would the men in my family. But I answered with confidence and pride. I said, 'Jail is not only inhabited by men and I do not fear for my children.'”

She described further assaults on her family. “My husband is sick and in need of care. And they bring a patient to the prison.”

Umm Said said that the threat was for the future as well. “They said that I would not be able to visit my children in the prisons and if I did I would be watched and monitored, subjected to other things.”

The Qaliqilia mother described the conditions of Jalama Prison built on Jenin lands in the northern West Bank. “The cell was so narrow. After two days one came and asked me if was still alive. I told him that I live with the Lord and pray to God while in the cell. 'I am not alone as you think,' I told him. He was angered and walked away.”

Umm Said described the moments before she was released from the Israeli prison. “Hours before the release I fainted, lost consciousness fully. And I woke up in the prison infirmary after my blood pressure fell due to the poor conditions in the cell and during the times of interrogation. After I was released they continued to pressure my family who have lived harsh weeks in the cells of Jalama.” "

The Uncensored Anger Manifesto part V or you may call it the "Hot Bed".
The rules have not changed : If you don't like it...move on.
As for others, who tolerate my "bad" language, you will undoubtedly agree with me that Part V is long overdue.

By Layla Anwar

".....For me, the whole of Iraq is a hot bed...a burning bed, an inflamed spot...that will devastate you, once and for all. You motherfuckers.

They blew the Sarafiya bridge up and now they are constructing a wall to separate the "sooneees from the shiites". They can't even pronounce the damn word. They would not know what a sunni or a shia is...just as they can't tell their ass from a hole in the ground.

But,I have news for you. There is nothing to tell, you fucking idiots.
We have intermarried and lived together as ONE for hundreds of years...until the self flagellating hypocrites from Qum took over backed by your shits called the brave boys.

And your brave boys...Don't make me laugh please. Most of them have not been in an airplane in their lives...Hence they join their army. Free travel. I kind of miss Juba, the sniper of Baghdad...really.

So what happens if someone is married to a sunni or a shia, will they fuck across a wall...? Like mind fuck across the sectarian wall that you have erected ? Or should they get an authorization from the Al Sadr rapists, or from Maliki the dual ass licker or maybe from your smelly ugly "brave boys"?

Since you cannot erect anything else, you erect walls...A sign of your impotence maybe? Which reminds me of your anglo-saxon brothers, the Brits. They "sexed up" the lies about WMD's. The word "sexed up" was used on a daily basis in your media prior to the "liberation". Must have been a real turn on, bombing an innocent country.
What can one expect from rapists but this kind of thrill?

So what's the story of hotbeds and erected walls? Something missing in your bedrooms maybe...a misplaced sexual frustration transposed across the ocean? The judeo-christian mind set must have had you right below the belly...

And now we have the enlightened "experts" on Iraq, telling us that soooneees were favored in the past...to the detriment of others. Bang your heads against the wall like your jewish brethren...and keep talking to that wall.

A wall in Palestine and a wall in Baghdad...And you fuckers are so stupid, you can't even see the similarities...and those of you who do see...Oh well, Ahmadimidget has promised you some inflatable dolls, more inflatable dolls to tintillate your fantasies...But do me a favor, don't use the real sufferings of the Iraqis to balloon your plastic dolls will you?......

I wake up every day and wonder, who is dead who is alive today...I wonder will I be alive or dead today...and how much more can I take without imploding, exploding.
But you want me to explode and you want me to implode. This is your aim.

And I tell you, I am here to stay to remind you of your impotence and your failure. Not only have you failed like your jewish zionist neurotic complexed frigid friends who erect walls in the name of Zion covering up for their fake divine orgasms, you are also defeated you motherfuckers...DEFEATED. You may want to erect a hundred walls...you are already history. And tell your friends from EYE RAN, that they are defeated too......

My oh my, dual occupations. Nay, triple occupations. Nay, quadruple occupations. And they are mighty hard. But true Iraqis are hard too...as hard as your walls. You know hard? That thing you cannot get, so you build cement instead...

And I still can't get over the fact, you are incapable of pronouncing the damn words correctly...Mediocrity is your motto. You absolutely adore mediocrity. You love it, thrive on it and revel in it. Mediocrity is safe. Very safe. And you America are a mediocre people. I don't give a fuck about your technological progress, nor about your discoveries, or your so called scientific advancements. In my eyes, you have always been and remain mediocre...You lost the essential and this is what matters most but it seems not to matter to you......"

Hamas urges Palestinians to be ready to confront Israeli forces

"Gaza - Ma'an – The Hamas movement called for Palestinians to be ready for another round of confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces.

In a press release the spokesman of the Hamas movement, Fawzi Barhoum, said "the blood of our people is not cheap, that is why we urge the Al Qassam Brigades and other resistance factions to act in a united way and abandon their differences. The factions must use all means to retaliate to the Israeli massacres in a way that satisfies the Palestinians, especially the families of martyrs, prisoners and the Mujahideen [fighters]."

Barhoum called on Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to stop all the meetings with Israeli leaders and to remain on the Palestinians' side, with the resistance.

Resistance

He also called for the government and the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and other Palestinian establishments to strengthen the Palestinian people's steadfastness, to strengthen the internal front and support resistance in all available ways.

Barhoum called on the Arab and Islamic world on both official and personal levels to "ensure the necessary financial, political and moral support, and not to be deceived by Israeli lies." He said. "This enemy knows nothing except the language of force and resistance".

Barhoum also said "the occupation with the support of the American administration is trying to make Palestinians concede and abandon their rights in Palestine, Jerusalem, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the right to return." "

***

I hate to repeat myself, but these Hamas declarations are best described by the common Palestinian expression, "fart on a tile floor (thrat 'ala al-balat)".

By Uri Avnery

"What would we say if an American institution, holding a seventh of all the land in the United States, adopted statutes that allowed it to sell or rent land only to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants?

We would not believe it. And it is, indeed, impossible.

But that's the way things are in Israel. This us now the subject of a stormy public debate.

These are the facts: The Jewish National Fund (in Hebrew Keren Kayemet le-Israel - KKL) holds 13% of all the land in Israel. Its statutes explicitly prohibit the sale or rental of land to non-Jews. This means that every Jew in the world, living anywhere from Timbuktu to Kamchatka, can get land from the KKL, without even coming to Israel, while an Arab citizen of Israel, whose forefathers have lived here for hundreds - or even thousands - of years, cannot acquire a house or an apartment on its land.

The debate arose after a recent ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court which proscribed discrimination between citizens in the distribution of land. On the strength of this, the KKL has been sued. Now the Attorney General has decided that the Government cannot discriminate against Arab citizens, even while distributing land belonging to the KKL.

This is all very nice, but there is a "but". The best legal brains looked for a way out: How to keep the discrimination alive in spite of the court's decision? No Problem. The Attorney General simply proposes that for every dunam (1000 square meters, a Turkish measure still applied in Israel) that the KKL will have to distribute - God forbid - to Arabs, the government will compensate it with another dunam somewhere else. The alternative land will be in the "peripheral" areas, the Negev and the Galilee, where it is much more profitable. And for good measure, the government will guarantee that the annual revenues of the KKL will reach half a billion Shekels. Thus the cake will be divided but remain whole.......

This is not the state that we promised ourselves in the Declaration of Independence. We have a tough struggle ahead of us, until Israel becomes a democratic, liberal, secular, pluralist and egalitarian state.

A step in this direction would be the abolition of the KKL and the transfer of its lands to the state."

The Palestinians Refuse to Learn

These are the faces of Palestinians who will be murdered next by Israel. It is more important for the "resistance" groups to show off than to carry on a true clandestine resistance. As a result, the resistance in the West Bank has been almost extinguished.

The leaders of the resistance should be required to be educated about what guerrilla war is all about, before being handed a gun. They should study Vietnam, Algeria, Cuba, Hizbullah and modern Iraq. They should read about those who conducted successful mass-based revolutions such as Mao, Guevara, Giap, Castro, etc. Even this classic "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, written more than 2,000 years ago would teach the Palestinians a lot, if they decide to learn instead of dying in vain.

Palestinian Refugees in Iraq Stranded With Arab Borders Closed to Them