The prospects for a national unity government are fading fast, reports
Khaled Amayreh from the West Bank
Al-Ahram Weekly
"Another factor militating against recognition of Israel by Hamas is the widespread suspicion that Israel is only using the issue as propaganda tool, something Israel's treatment of the PA during the Oslo years (1994-2000) confirms. Despite the fact that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat formally recognised Israel and agreed to annul the Palestinian National Charter, which called for Israel's destruction, successive Israeli governments continued to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank, effectively killing any prospect for the creation of a viable and territorially contiguous state.
Hamas believes Israel and the US are attempting to undermine the movement's credibility with its supporters by forcing it to walk in the footsteps of Fatah and adopt the very Oslo path that led to more Jewish settlements and now the gigantic apartheid wall which has turned Palestinian population centres in the West Bank into detention camps.
Yet Hamas must deal with the pressing problems facing Palestinian society, the suffocating economic crisis, deepening poverty, and even the threat of starvation that has resulted from the Israeli-American financial blockade. The government has been unable to pay the salaries of more than 160,000 civil servants and public employees, including school teachers, who are now on strike for the fourth consecutive week.
There is, yet still, another, even more disastrous prospect: Abbas, under intense pressure from certain pro-American Fatah quarters, might resort to dissolving the Hamas-dominated Legislative Council and form a national emergency government. And that, most people agree, would lead to the prospect of bloodshed between Fatah and Hamas. The only winner in such a conflict would be Israel."
Thursday, September 28, 2006
THE "LIBERATION" GOES ON
ANOTHER IRAQI FAMILY MASSACRED BY US TROOPS IN BAQOUBA
American troops killed eight people — four of them women — in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Outside the pockmarked house, which relatives said belonged to Mohammed Jassim, bullet casings littered the ground and blood stained the sand. Family members cried and consoled one another as the bodies of the women were taken away.
“This is an ugly criminal act by the U.S. soldiers against Iraqi citizens,” Manal Jassim, who lost her parents and other relatives in the attack, told Associated Press Television News.
Iraq’s major Sunni clerical organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, condemned the raid as a “terrorist massacre.”
***
AS ALWAYS, THE PUPPET GOVERNMENT OF MALIKI AND TALABANI DID NOT SAY A WORD ABOUT THIS MASSACRE, REGISTER ANY PROTEST OR DEMAND ANY INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION.
***
Al-Zaman [Ar.] has more on the bombing of the family in Baqubah. "A young girl said, weeping, 'I was inside preparing the meal to break the Ramadan fast. I heard explosions and gunfire, and I ran. When I returned, I found all of my family killed. My father, four women and three men. All of them, including my brother and his pregnant wife. They took two members of our family, a man and a woman, who were wounded.'"
America Has Just Lost Two More Wars
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
CounterPunch
"For a country which takes excessive pride in flags, uniforms, and marching bands and spends more than the rest of the planet combined on its military, the record of America's forces since World War II is depressing. In dozens of quickie invasions against weak opponents, Americans indeed have prevailed, but when faced with tough and determined enemies, they have remarkably often been defeated or stalemated.
The failure of America's military could be explained by the notion that failure is only what happens when you seek the wrong success. A poorly-governed people, as Americans certainly are, keeps being sent to wars in which they have no vital interest or commitment. Whatever the reason, the record is unmistakable.
Higher casualties don't always mean losing a battle or even a war. The sacrifice of great numbers sometimes improves a strategic or tactical position, as General Grant in America's Civil War well understood. Vietnam's General Giap understood this also, for despite a horrific slaughter of his people, America suffered defeat.
It was an early sign of the coming defeat when body counts began to dominate American news. It is easy to kill large numbers of people, especially when you have complete air superiority and high-tech weapons, but constant killing may mean little progress against a serious opponent. Often, as in the Blitz, bombing people is completely counter-productive.
In recent weeks, body counts re-appeared in Afghanistan, much the same way opium poppies re-appeared after America's claim to victory over the Taleban (who had suppressed opium). The bodies are supposed to be Taleban, but who can tell whether a dead villager is Taleban?
The other lost war is, of course, Iraq. American efforts there have done little but kill civilians and destroy the economy and now threaten to destroy the country itself. Even in Washington, the reality of civil war is dawning. America's real goals in the war are not going to be achieved, the major one of which was to establish a regime friendly to American policy, especially as that policy pertains to Israel. Instead, years of bloody chaos lie ahead. The outcome, who knows? Three separate warring rump states, each willing to do almost anything to gain an advantage, including taking assistance from those most hostile to American policy?"
CounterPunch
"For a country which takes excessive pride in flags, uniforms, and marching bands and spends more than the rest of the planet combined on its military, the record of America's forces since World War II is depressing. In dozens of quickie invasions against weak opponents, Americans indeed have prevailed, but when faced with tough and determined enemies, they have remarkably often been defeated or stalemated.
The failure of America's military could be explained by the notion that failure is only what happens when you seek the wrong success. A poorly-governed people, as Americans certainly are, keeps being sent to wars in which they have no vital interest or commitment. Whatever the reason, the record is unmistakable.
Higher casualties don't always mean losing a battle or even a war. The sacrifice of great numbers sometimes improves a strategic or tactical position, as General Grant in America's Civil War well understood. Vietnam's General Giap understood this also, for despite a horrific slaughter of his people, America suffered defeat.
It was an early sign of the coming defeat when body counts began to dominate American news. It is easy to kill large numbers of people, especially when you have complete air superiority and high-tech weapons, but constant killing may mean little progress against a serious opponent. Often, as in the Blitz, bombing people is completely counter-productive.
In recent weeks, body counts re-appeared in Afghanistan, much the same way opium poppies re-appeared after America's claim to victory over the Taleban (who had suppressed opium). The bodies are supposed to be Taleban, but who can tell whether a dead villager is Taleban?
The other lost war is, of course, Iraq. American efforts there have done little but kill civilians and destroy the economy and now threaten to destroy the country itself. Even in Washington, the reality of civil war is dawning. America's real goals in the war are not going to be achieved, the major one of which was to establish a regime friendly to American policy, especially as that policy pertains to Israel. Instead, years of bloody chaos lie ahead. The outcome, who knows? Three separate warring rump states, each willing to do almost anything to gain an advantage, including taking assistance from those most hostile to American policy?"
Bush and Islam
Words vs. Deeds
By NICOLA NASSER
(Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist in Kuwait, Jordan, UAE and Palestine. He is based in Ramallah, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories)
"However, Muslims and especially Arabs are very well aware that the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the former USSR have made Islam a useful scapegoat for tightening the US grip on the unipolar world. Books by the Orientalist Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations became popular in the west because they promoted the idea that Islam was the main threat to Western "civilization."
They are also aware that this war to establish total and lasting U.S. global hegemony, a sort of modern-day Roman Empire, is spearheaded in the heartland of Muslims and Islam, the Arab world, where all the regimes are targeted sooner or later; it makes no difference whether they are Islamic, Islamist, secular, liberal, or Pan-Arab regimes, monarchies or republics."
By NICOLA NASSER
(Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist in Kuwait, Jordan, UAE and Palestine. He is based in Ramallah, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories)
"However, Muslims and especially Arabs are very well aware that the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the former USSR have made Islam a useful scapegoat for tightening the US grip on the unipolar world. Books by the Orientalist Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations became popular in the west because they promoted the idea that Islam was the main threat to Western "civilization."
They are also aware that this war to establish total and lasting U.S. global hegemony, a sort of modern-day Roman Empire, is spearheaded in the heartland of Muslims and Islam, the Arab world, where all the regimes are targeted sooner or later; it makes no difference whether they are Islamic, Islamist, secular, liberal, or Pan-Arab regimes, monarchies or republics."
AL-JAZEERA ONLINE POLL
The current Al-Jazeera online (Arabic) asks the question:
Do you support Iraqi president Talabani's request for a long-term US military presence in Iraq?
With over 3,500 responding, here are the results.
No----- 91.2%
Yes----- 8.8%
Do you support Iraqi president Talabani's request for a long-term US military presence in Iraq?
With over 3,500 responding, here are the results.
No----- 91.2%
Yes----- 8.8%
Risk of Misreading US-Iran Dispute
By Ramzy Baroud
"It is vital that the Iran-US row, regardless of its future direction or level of escalation, be understood for what it really is: a clash of interests between a superpower no longer so fearsome, and an aspiring regional power with clear objectives and aims. It’s neither about America’s burning desire to safeguard democracy and the human race from mad Iranian mullahs, nor is it exactly about Iran’s quest for a just world. Further misinterpretation of this topic shall yield even more erroneous outcomes, of horror scenarios, of smoking guns, and eventually of one more tragic ‘case for war.’"
"It is vital that the Iran-US row, regardless of its future direction or level of escalation, be understood for what it really is: a clash of interests between a superpower no longer so fearsome, and an aspiring regional power with clear objectives and aims. It’s neither about America’s burning desire to safeguard democracy and the human race from mad Iranian mullahs, nor is it exactly about Iran’s quest for a just world. Further misinterpretation of this topic shall yield even more erroneous outcomes, of horror scenarios, of smoking guns, and eventually of one more tragic ‘case for war.’"
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
خيارات عباس الصعبة والمكلفة
جرت العادة، ان يطوف الزعماء الفلسطينيون بالعواصم العربية لحشد الدعم للمقاومة في مواجهة الاحتلال الاسرائيلي، ولكن السيد محمود عباس رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية، يكسر هذه القاعدة باصرار، ويفعل عكس ذلك تماما.
فالجولة الحالية التي يقوم بها السيد عباس الي كل من مصر وقطر تهدف الي اقناع حكومتي البلدين باستخدام نفوذهما للضغط علي حركة المقاومة الاسلامية حماس لتليين موقفها في مسألتي تبادل الاسري وتشكيل حكومة وحدة وطنية فلسطينية.
بالنسبة الي مسألة تبادل الاسري، يريد السيد عباس ان تفرج حركة حماس عن الجندي الاسرائيلي الاسير جلعاد شاليط دون قيد او شرط، علي ان تترك الباقي لكرم الحكومة الاسرائيلية، اي ان تترك لها قرار الافراج عن اي عدد تريده من الاسري الفلسطينيين في معتقلاتها، اما بالنسبة لحكومة الوحدة الوطنية الفلسطينية فان المقصود من تليين موقف حماس هو اعترافها بالدولة العبرية، وكل الاتفاقات التي وُقعت معها، خاصة اتفاق اوسلو، ونبذ العنف، اي التخلي عن المقاومة.
ولا نعتقد ان كلا من قطر ومصر تملكان اوراق ضغط قوية تؤهلهما لتحقيق التنازلات التي يتطلع اليها السيد عباس من حركة حماس وقيادتها في الخارج.
فالحكومة المصرية بذلت جهودا كبيرة من اجل اقناع قيادة الحركة في الخارج للافراج عن الجندي الاسرائيلي الاسير دون شروط، واوفدت العديد من وفودها الامنية الي القطاع لانجاز هذه المهمة، ولكن جهودها باءت بالفشل لانها حملت التهديدات والشروط الاسرائيلية، وتعاملت مع الفلسطينيين وفصائلهم كمجموعة من الاطفال القصر.
ولعل المثل الابرز في هذا الاطار هو ما نشرته الصحف العبرية حول ارسال السيد عمر سليمان رئيس جهاز المخابرات المصرية رسالة الي قيادة حماس في دمشق تحذرها من اجتياح اسرائيلي شامل لقطاع غزة بعد انتهاء شهر رمضان المبارك، اذا لم يتم الافراج عن الجندي الاسرائيلي الاسير قبل هذه المهلة.
السيد عباس يعيش مأزقا كبيرا، لانه لا يستطيع مخالفة شروط امريكا في التصدي لحركة حماس ، ولا يستطيع تلبيتها في الوقت نفسه، لان المواجهة ستكون مكلفة دمويا وسياسيا.
خيارات السيد عباس صعبة، علاوة علي كونها محدودة، للخروج من الازمة الحالية. فتشكيل حكومة وحدة وطنية برئاسة السيد اسماعيل هنية، ودون ان تعترف حماس صراحة باسرائيل وتنبذ العنف، سيؤدي الي عدم اعتراف امريكا واوروبا بهذه الحكومة، ورفض التعامل معها. واستخدام صلاحياته في حل هذه الحكومة وتشكيل حكومة طوارئ، او حكومة تكنوقراط سيخلق ازمة سياسية طاحنة، وربما يقود الي حرب اهلية.
وحتي خيار الدعوة الي انتخابات تشريعية ورئاسية مبكرة ليس بالخيار السهل، لان احتمال مقاطعة حماس والفصائل الاخري لها وارد ايضا.
لا بديل امام السيد عباس غير اعداد خطاب استقالته ودعوة المجلس التشريعي للانعقاد واعلان حل السلطة، والذهاب الي الدوحة لقضاء وقت ممتع مع احفاده.
فالجولة الحالية التي يقوم بها السيد عباس الي كل من مصر وقطر تهدف الي اقناع حكومتي البلدين باستخدام نفوذهما للضغط علي حركة المقاومة الاسلامية حماس لتليين موقفها في مسألتي تبادل الاسري وتشكيل حكومة وحدة وطنية فلسطينية.
بالنسبة الي مسألة تبادل الاسري، يريد السيد عباس ان تفرج حركة حماس عن الجندي الاسرائيلي الاسير جلعاد شاليط دون قيد او شرط، علي ان تترك الباقي لكرم الحكومة الاسرائيلية، اي ان تترك لها قرار الافراج عن اي عدد تريده من الاسري الفلسطينيين في معتقلاتها، اما بالنسبة لحكومة الوحدة الوطنية الفلسطينية فان المقصود من تليين موقف حماس هو اعترافها بالدولة العبرية، وكل الاتفاقات التي وُقعت معها، خاصة اتفاق اوسلو، ونبذ العنف، اي التخلي عن المقاومة.
ولا نعتقد ان كلا من قطر ومصر تملكان اوراق ضغط قوية تؤهلهما لتحقيق التنازلات التي يتطلع اليها السيد عباس من حركة حماس وقيادتها في الخارج.
فالحكومة المصرية بذلت جهودا كبيرة من اجل اقناع قيادة الحركة في الخارج للافراج عن الجندي الاسرائيلي الاسير دون شروط، واوفدت العديد من وفودها الامنية الي القطاع لانجاز هذه المهمة، ولكن جهودها باءت بالفشل لانها حملت التهديدات والشروط الاسرائيلية، وتعاملت مع الفلسطينيين وفصائلهم كمجموعة من الاطفال القصر.
ولعل المثل الابرز في هذا الاطار هو ما نشرته الصحف العبرية حول ارسال السيد عمر سليمان رئيس جهاز المخابرات المصرية رسالة الي قيادة حماس في دمشق تحذرها من اجتياح اسرائيلي شامل لقطاع غزة بعد انتهاء شهر رمضان المبارك، اذا لم يتم الافراج عن الجندي الاسرائيلي الاسير قبل هذه المهلة.
السيد عباس يعيش مأزقا كبيرا، لانه لا يستطيع مخالفة شروط امريكا في التصدي لحركة حماس ، ولا يستطيع تلبيتها في الوقت نفسه، لان المواجهة ستكون مكلفة دمويا وسياسيا.
خيارات السيد عباس صعبة، علاوة علي كونها محدودة، للخروج من الازمة الحالية. فتشكيل حكومة وحدة وطنية برئاسة السيد اسماعيل هنية، ودون ان تعترف حماس صراحة باسرائيل وتنبذ العنف، سيؤدي الي عدم اعتراف امريكا واوروبا بهذه الحكومة، ورفض التعامل معها. واستخدام صلاحياته في حل هذه الحكومة وتشكيل حكومة طوارئ، او حكومة تكنوقراط سيخلق ازمة سياسية طاحنة، وربما يقود الي حرب اهلية.
وحتي خيار الدعوة الي انتخابات تشريعية ورئاسية مبكرة ليس بالخيار السهل، لان احتمال مقاطعة حماس والفصائل الاخري لها وارد ايضا.
لا بديل امام السيد عباس غير اعداد خطاب استقالته ودعوة المجلس التشريعي للانعقاد واعلان حل السلطة، والذهاب الي الدوحة لقضاء وقت ممتع مع احفاده.
U.S. Again Denies a Visa to Swiss Muslim Scholar Who Was Barred in 2004
The U.S. State Department has again denied a visa to Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss Muslim scholar who gave up a teaching appointment at the University of Notre Dame two years ago after he was first barred from residing and working in the country, the American Civil Liberties Union announced on Monday.
The ACLU and several other groups that are parties to a lawsuit on Mr. Ramadan's behalf condemned the decision as political censorship.
Faced with a federal court's deadline to issue Mr. Ramadan a visa or explain why it would not, the State Department pointed in its latest decision to donations he had made to French and Swiss organizations that provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians, the ACLU said in a written statement. Those donations, made between 2000 and 2004, totaled about 600 euros, which would be worth about $765 today.
The Bush administration contended that the groups Mr. Ramadan supported gave money to the radical Islamist group Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization, and applied a law that allows the government to exclude individuals whom it believes have provided "material support" for terrorism, the statement said.
Mr. Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies and philosophy, has been a vocal critic of terrorism, Islamism, and U.S. policies in the Middle East. He accepted a position as a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford after the U.S. government's first denial of his visa application, in 2004, and was later named by Prime Minister Tony Blair to serve on a British commission to combat terrorism. He reapplied for a U.S. visa last September, and received word in December that it could take as long as two years to consider that application.
Soon afterward, the ACLU, acting on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors, the PEN American Center, and Mr. Ramadan, sued the government, alleging that the provision of the USA Patriot Act it had used to exclude him was unconstitutional.
In June, a federal court rejected the government's attempt to delay a judgment on Mr. Ramadan's visa application, and ordered the government to grant the visa or explain why it would not do so. The scholar was informed of the State Department's latest decision in a letter he received on Thursday, the deadline set by the court.
In the statement released on Monday, Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer and lead counsel in the case, said that "although the U.S. government has found a new pretext for denying Professor Ramadan's visa, the history of this case makes clear that the government's real concern is not with Professor Ramadan but with his ideas."
"The government is using the immigration laws to silence an articulate critic and to censor political debate inside the United States," he said.
Janelle Hironimus, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said Mr. Ramadan was denied a visa "for providing material support to a terrorist organization," but she could not elaborate on the specifics of his visa application. She said 36,000 students, scholars, and academic figures from the Muslim world have come to the United States this year alone to visit, teach, and study.
"The U.S. welcomes culture and exchange with the Islamic world," Ms. Hironimus read from a prepared statement.
In a written statement on his Web site, Mr. Ramadan said that the organizations to which he donated were humanitarian groups devoted to the health and welfare of Palestinians and were not deemed suspect in Europe.
"I donated to these organizations for the same reason that countless Europeans -- and Americans, for that matter -- donate to Palestinian causes: not to provide funding for terrorism, but because I wanted to provide humanitarian aid to people who are desperately in need of it," he said in the statement.
Mr. Ramadan wrote that while he was glad the State Department has abandoned the allegation that he endorses terrorism, he thinks he is being excluded because of his criticism of American foreign policy in the Middle East, including opposition to the Iraq war.
"While the State Department has found a new reason to deny my visa application, I think it clear from the history of this case that the U.S. government's real fear is of my ideas."
Meanwhile in Lebanon
Halutz: If needed we'll fire at Hizbullah supporters: The army chief made it clear that the IDF had issued a warning to the Lebanese army that any use of military equipment in the area, including intelligence means, would constitute a violation of the ceasefire resolution.
IDF: Troops can shoot Lebanese stone-throwers if lives threatened: Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been instructed to shoot Lebanese stone-throwers along the border if they feel their lives are in danger, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said on Wednesday.
IDF withdrawal stalled till UNIFIL role spelled out: Nonetheless, Defense Minister Amir Peretz promised yesterday that in spite the differences, the IDF withdrawal will be completed in the near future and the "last soldier will leave southern Lebanon by Yom Kippur," which begins on Sunday evening.
Israelis settle in for long stay in village of Ghajar: The once divided Southern town of Ghajar, half occupied by Israel and half within Lebanese territory, appears to have been finally reunited under one flag. "Khalas, it is gone. It is a new Israeli town and they are even repainting it in Israel''s favorite colors, pink and yellow," said 16-year-old shepherd Walid Ain Zat, who along with his two younger brothers regularly tends his flock of goats in the open fields near the border town.
IDF: Troops can shoot Lebanese stone-throwers if lives threatened: Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been instructed to shoot Lebanese stone-throwers along the border if they feel their lives are in danger, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said on Wednesday.
IDF withdrawal stalled till UNIFIL role spelled out: Nonetheless, Defense Minister Amir Peretz promised yesterday that in spite the differences, the IDF withdrawal will be completed in the near future and the "last soldier will leave southern Lebanon by Yom Kippur," which begins on Sunday evening.
Israelis settle in for long stay in village of Ghajar: The once divided Southern town of Ghajar, half occupied by Israel and half within Lebanese territory, appears to have been finally reunited under one flag. "Khalas, it is gone. It is a new Israeli town and they are even repainting it in Israel''s favorite colors, pink and yellow," said 16-year-old shepherd Walid Ain Zat, who along with his two younger brothers regularly tends his flock of goats in the open fields near the border town.
Meanwhile in Iraq
At least 34 Killed in U.S. occupation of Iraq: A U.S. raid and air strike killed eight people, including seven members of one family, and wounded two others in Baquba
U.S. Occupation Forces Kill 4 Civilian Women in a Blood-Soaked Morning: Bodies Strewn About Capital, U.S. Raid Kills 4 "Militants", 4 Civilian Women
'Not enough cash for war' : George Bush received a serious rebuke about his wartime leadership this week when his army chief said he did not have enough money to fight the war in Iraq.
Iraq factions blast call for long-term US bases: The Scholars said that in making the comments during a visit to the US Talabani had done "nothing more than express an American demand to keep Washington from having to do it".
Andrew Bacevich : Chickens are home to roost in Iraq: The Bush administration is running out of troops, money and ideas
Controversial group wins U.S. propaganda contract in Iraq: A public relations company known for its role in a controversial U.S. military program that paid Iraqi newspapers for stories favourable to coalition forces has been awarded another multi-million dollar media contract with American forces in Iraq.
Part of Iraq Intelligence Report Is Released: The Bush administration yesterday released portions of a classified intelligence estimate that says the global jihadist movement is growing and being fueled by the war in Iraq even as it becomes more decentralized, making it harder to identify potential terrorists and prevent attacks. The war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and drawing new adherents to the movement, the assessment says.Kurds and Arabs vie for control of Mosul: "There is no solution except the division of the province," said Khasro Goran, the powerful Kurdish deputy governor of Mosul. He believes that all the Kurds in the province want to join the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which under the federal constitution is almost an independent state.
Meanwhile in Palestine
The return of Palestinian refugees is an existential necessity for Israeli Jews: Elias Davidsson argues that it is in the enlightened self-interest of Israeli Jews to accept the Palestinian refugees' right of return.
Report: Bombing of Gaza power plant war crime: Human rights group B'Tselem determines bombing of power plant in Gaza constitutes war crime and was carried out as 'vengeance.'
No writing on the wall: Mizrahi found the Palestinian construction workers who are building the fence spraying a white liquid on it. After inquiring, he learned it was a graffiti repellent spray apparently developed in satellite labs in the United States. Mizrahi was shocked: is the State of Israel going to spend money spraying graffiti repellent for use in outer space on the giant concrete wall? Is the graffiti a security threat? One of the guards there explained the operation to him: "We won't let them write incendiary remarks against us on the walls.
Israeli settlers in southern West Bank bulldoze Palestinian land: Israeli settlers from Kiryat Arba, known for some of the most violent behavior in the West Bank, spent Wednesday destroying vast areas of Palestinian agricultural land. The southern West Bank city of Hebron suffers at length from the oldest settlement and the Israeli soldiers that work in it. All settlements, expansion, and the settlers, are illegal under international law. The destroyed land belonged to Palestinians from eastern Hebron City.
Hi-tech firm boycotts Israel over 'war crimes': U2U manager Wim Yotrasprot wrote in a statement to Avner obtained by Ynet that "I appreciate your interest in my company, but after the devastating and inhumane war crimes Israel perpetrated in Lebanon, and because of the apartheid regime it rules on Palestine, U2U does not wish to tie itself with Israeli products."
Jerusalem - Irish academics call for EU boycott of Israeli schools: Academics from Ireland are calling on the European Community to place a moratorium on support for Israeli institutions of higher learning 'until Israel abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian territories,' according to a letter published in the Irish Times last Saturday.
Medics: Girl killed, seven hurt in IAF Gaza strike: Israel Air Force air strikes on a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah early Wednesday killed a 14-year-old girl and wounded seven other people, hospital officials said. There were no major injuries in the initial strike, which leveled the house. However, as children gathered to look at the rubble, a second airstrike hit the house, killing a 14-year-old girl and wounded seven other children, hospital officials said.
Israeli Army Invades Hebron, takes prisoners and occupies a home: The Israeli army took prisoner seven residents of the city of Hebron and the nearby Ithna village. Local sources reported that troops stormed the village of Ithna near Hebron and searched and ransacked several homes before arresting seven. Also on Wednesday, the Israeli army took over a house in the West Bank city of Hebron and turned it into a military post.
Army takes eight prisoners and injures two in Qabatia, town south of Jenin: Army vehicles and troops stormed the town from several directions and conducted a wide scale house-to-house search campaign to residents' homes in the town. Eyewitnesses said that troops open fired and fired sound bombs randomly at residents' homes and ransacked families' belongings and damaged them during the search, creating a state of panic among children.
Thousands of Palestinians have been internally displaced due to the Wall: Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes as a direct result of the Wall built by Israel in occupied East Jerusalem, a report by the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights and the Norwegian Refugee Council's International Displacement Monitoring Centre revealed.
Gaza: assistance for displaced Bedouin families: The ICRC is organizing emergency help for Bedouin families who have been forced to move to an open field near Rafah, in the south of the Gaza strip, because of repeated Israeli military incursions. Because the Bedouin want to remain with their livestock, they cannot be accommodated in the schools or apartments normally used to shelter displaced people in the area.
UN blasts Israel for plight of Palestinians: "I hope that my portrayal of hardships experienced by such people will trouble the consciences of those accustomed to turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of the Palestinian people," Dugard told the UN Human Rights Council.
Gaza Strip to remain without full electrical power for a year: Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has accused the Israel Defense Forces of war crimes for bombing the plant, which has left many areas of the Gaza Strip without full electricitical power the last three months. Electricity in many areas is cut off for half of the day, severely hampering hospitals, the water supply and sewage systems, B'Tselem said in a report.
There is US $300 million in the presidential coffers, Refugee Minister reiterates: The Palestinian Minister for Refugee Affairs, Atef Adwan, has defended his statements to Ma''an two days ago in which he accused the presidency of not paying the public sector salaries even though it has the money. These statements provoked a fierce reaction from the presidency and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Palestinian Deputy PM released, wont be allowed to enter Ramallah: Palestinian deputy Prime Minister, Nasser Ed-Deen Al Sha'er, was released on Wednesday after the Israeli Petah Tikva court ordered his release. Yet, Al Sha'er will not be allowed to enter Ramallah, the center of the Palestinian Government offices, and will not be allowed to leave the Palestinian territories until October 15.
Jewish terrorist who murdered four Palestinians gets 4 consecutive life sentences: Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday sentenced a Jewish terrorist to four consecutive life sentences plus an additional 12 years in prison for murdering four Palestinian men.
Spain floats idea of Madrid peace summit: "Perhaps it would be timely for all the interested parties to meet again, at the same level as in 1991, to reaffirm their commitment to a comprehensive solution and to the basic principles on which that should be based," he told Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published Wednesday.
Barghouti believes he will be released in prisoner exchange deal: Marwan Barghouti believes that he will be released from incarceration in Israel as part of a prisoner exchange deal, according to United Arab List MK Talab al-Sana, who met with the jailed Tanzim leader on Wednesday at Nafha prison.
Baruch Spiegel joins list of advisers to leave Amir Peretz: Brigadier General (Res.) Baruch Spiegel has informed Defense Minister Amir Peretz that he will resign as special adviser to the defense minister in mid-October. He is the latest of several advisers to resign from the Defense Ministry recently.
Report: Bombing of Gaza power plant war crime: Human rights group B'Tselem determines bombing of power plant in Gaza constitutes war crime and was carried out as 'vengeance.'
No writing on the wall: Mizrahi found the Palestinian construction workers who are building the fence spraying a white liquid on it. After inquiring, he learned it was a graffiti repellent spray apparently developed in satellite labs in the United States. Mizrahi was shocked: is the State of Israel going to spend money spraying graffiti repellent for use in outer space on the giant concrete wall? Is the graffiti a security threat? One of the guards there explained the operation to him: "We won't let them write incendiary remarks against us on the walls.
Israeli settlers in southern West Bank bulldoze Palestinian land: Israeli settlers from Kiryat Arba, known for some of the most violent behavior in the West Bank, spent Wednesday destroying vast areas of Palestinian agricultural land. The southern West Bank city of Hebron suffers at length from the oldest settlement and the Israeli soldiers that work in it. All settlements, expansion, and the settlers, are illegal under international law. The destroyed land belonged to Palestinians from eastern Hebron City.
Hi-tech firm boycotts Israel over 'war crimes': U2U manager Wim Yotrasprot wrote in a statement to Avner obtained by Ynet that "I appreciate your interest in my company, but after the devastating and inhumane war crimes Israel perpetrated in Lebanon, and because of the apartheid regime it rules on Palestine, U2U does not wish to tie itself with Israeli products."
Jerusalem - Irish academics call for EU boycott of Israeli schools: Academics from Ireland are calling on the European Community to place a moratorium on support for Israeli institutions of higher learning 'until Israel abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian territories,' according to a letter published in the Irish Times last Saturday.
Medics: Girl killed, seven hurt in IAF Gaza strike: Israel Air Force air strikes on a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah early Wednesday killed a 14-year-old girl and wounded seven other people, hospital officials said. There were no major injuries in the initial strike, which leveled the house. However, as children gathered to look at the rubble, a second airstrike hit the house, killing a 14-year-old girl and wounded seven other children, hospital officials said.
Israeli Army Invades Hebron, takes prisoners and occupies a home: The Israeli army took prisoner seven residents of the city of Hebron and the nearby Ithna village. Local sources reported that troops stormed the village of Ithna near Hebron and searched and ransacked several homes before arresting seven. Also on Wednesday, the Israeli army took over a house in the West Bank city of Hebron and turned it into a military post.
Army takes eight prisoners and injures two in Qabatia, town south of Jenin: Army vehicles and troops stormed the town from several directions and conducted a wide scale house-to-house search campaign to residents' homes in the town. Eyewitnesses said that troops open fired and fired sound bombs randomly at residents' homes and ransacked families' belongings and damaged them during the search, creating a state of panic among children.
Thousands of Palestinians have been internally displaced due to the Wall: Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes as a direct result of the Wall built by Israel in occupied East Jerusalem, a report by the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights and the Norwegian Refugee Council's International Displacement Monitoring Centre revealed.
Gaza: assistance for displaced Bedouin families: The ICRC is organizing emergency help for Bedouin families who have been forced to move to an open field near Rafah, in the south of the Gaza strip, because of repeated Israeli military incursions. Because the Bedouin want to remain with their livestock, they cannot be accommodated in the schools or apartments normally used to shelter displaced people in the area.
UN blasts Israel for plight of Palestinians: "I hope that my portrayal of hardships experienced by such people will trouble the consciences of those accustomed to turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of the Palestinian people," Dugard told the UN Human Rights Council.
Gaza Strip to remain without full electrical power for a year: Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has accused the Israel Defense Forces of war crimes for bombing the plant, which has left many areas of the Gaza Strip without full electricitical power the last three months. Electricity in many areas is cut off for half of the day, severely hampering hospitals, the water supply and sewage systems, B'Tselem said in a report.
There is US $300 million in the presidential coffers, Refugee Minister reiterates: The Palestinian Minister for Refugee Affairs, Atef Adwan, has defended his statements to Ma''an two days ago in which he accused the presidency of not paying the public sector salaries even though it has the money. These statements provoked a fierce reaction from the presidency and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Palestinian Deputy PM released, wont be allowed to enter Ramallah: Palestinian deputy Prime Minister, Nasser Ed-Deen Al Sha'er, was released on Wednesday after the Israeli Petah Tikva court ordered his release. Yet, Al Sha'er will not be allowed to enter Ramallah, the center of the Palestinian Government offices, and will not be allowed to leave the Palestinian territories until October 15.
Jewish terrorist who murdered four Palestinians gets 4 consecutive life sentences: Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday sentenced a Jewish terrorist to four consecutive life sentences plus an additional 12 years in prison for murdering four Palestinian men.
Spain floats idea of Madrid peace summit: "Perhaps it would be timely for all the interested parties to meet again, at the same level as in 1991, to reaffirm their commitment to a comprehensive solution and to the basic principles on which that should be based," he told Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published Wednesday.
Barghouti believes he will be released in prisoner exchange deal: Marwan Barghouti believes that he will be released from incarceration in Israel as part of a prisoner exchange deal, according to United Arab List MK Talab al-Sana, who met with the jailed Tanzim leader on Wednesday at Nafha prison.
Baruch Spiegel joins list of advisers to leave Amir Peretz: Brigadier General (Res.) Baruch Spiegel has informed Defense Minister Amir Peretz that he will resign as special adviser to the defense minister in mid-October. He is the latest of several advisers to resign from the Defense Ministry recently.
Palestinians must present united front for peace talks with Israel
NO, THIS IS NOT A JOKE.
GUESS WHO IS URGING PALESTINIAN "NATIONAL UNITY" NOW?
YES, NONE OTHER THAN SHIMON PERES!
"Palestinian leaders must overcome their differences and present a united front if peace talks with Israel are to succeed, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said on Wednesday.
"We are ready to give back land. We are for a Palestinian state beside an Israeli state," Peres told an audience at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs.
But he warned: "They must show a talent to come together. They must have one government. They must have one army. You cannot have a state if you don't have a united people.""
***
LONG LIVE "NATIONAL UNITY" UNDER THE USRAELI BOOT!
GUESS WHO IS URGING PALESTINIAN "NATIONAL UNITY" NOW?
YES, NONE OTHER THAN SHIMON PERES!
"Palestinian leaders must overcome their differences and present a united front if peace talks with Israel are to succeed, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said on Wednesday.
"We are ready to give back land. We are for a Palestinian state beside an Israeli state," Peres told an audience at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs.
But he warned: "They must show a talent to come together. They must have one government. They must have one army. You cannot have a state if you don't have a united people.""
***
LONG LIVE "NATIONAL UNITY" UNDER THE USRAELI BOOT!
Report: Bombing of Gaza power plant war crime
Human rights group B'Tselem determines bombing of power plant in Gaza constitutes war crime and was carried out as 'vengeance'
"The B’Tselem human rights group published Wednesday a report on the implications of the bombing of the power plant in Gaza on June 28th, 2006. Findings show that the majority of residents in the Gaza Strip are only intermittently connected to the power supply and that the power cut has adversely affected medical services throughout hospitals and clinics in the Strip.
The report also found that the majority of the urban population is connected to the water supply for only two to three hours a day and that the sewer system in the Strip has virtually collapsed. In addition, the mobility of many of the residents has been hindered following disruption to the elevator service and the inability to refrigerate food supplies, thus exposing many to risk of food poisoning.
According to B’Tselem, the power cut has caused severe damage to small businesses dependent on the electrical supply, and the report foresees an increasingly grave situation in the wake of the severe economic crises prevalent in the Gaza Strip.
The B’Tselem organization has determined that the IDF operation was illegal and that according to international humanitarian law it is deemed a war crime as it constitutes an attack on a clear civilian target, as well as being "a banned collective punishment." "
"The B’Tselem human rights group published Wednesday a report on the implications of the bombing of the power plant in Gaza on June 28th, 2006. Findings show that the majority of residents in the Gaza Strip are only intermittently connected to the power supply and that the power cut has adversely affected medical services throughout hospitals and clinics in the Strip.
The report also found that the majority of the urban population is connected to the water supply for only two to three hours a day and that the sewer system in the Strip has virtually collapsed. In addition, the mobility of many of the residents has been hindered following disruption to the elevator service and the inability to refrigerate food supplies, thus exposing many to risk of food poisoning.
According to B’Tselem, the power cut has caused severe damage to small businesses dependent on the electrical supply, and the report foresees an increasingly grave situation in the wake of the severe economic crises prevalent in the Gaza Strip.
The B’Tselem organization has determined that the IDF operation was illegal and that according to international humanitarian law it is deemed a war crime as it constitutes an attack on a clear civilian target, as well as being "a banned collective punishment." "
Where Are the Mass Protests?
The Antiwar Struggle, UFPJ and the Democrats
By JOE ALLEN
CounterPunch
"By every conceivable measure, the antiwar movement in the United States should be a vibrant, mass movement.
When one adds this list to the mounting social cost of paying for the war with increasing cuts in social welfare programs, one has to ask: why is our antiwar movement so passive?
The reasons for this are many. The Democrats--the so-called "opposition" party in the U.S.--have provided crucial support for the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. There's also the hold of liberalism--which from the time of FDR through Clinton has always supported an aggressive U.S. foreign policy--on the U.S. left. The low level of class struggle, despite the huge inequalities of U.S. society and workers' growing alienation from the political establishment, is another factor.
Another crucial reason for the weakness of the antiwar movement is the political course chosen by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), the largest and most visible antiwar coalition in the U.S.
UFPJ's response to the major crisis points for U.S. policy since the invasion--the leveling of Falluja, the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, the threats to attack Iran, the recent Israeli-U.S. assault against Lebanon--has been feeble in terms of protest, while its emphasis on building support for the so-called antiwar Democrats in Congress has grown more distinct.
ONE FACTOR in this strategic orientation is the influence of the Communist Party (CP) USA, which plays an important part in shaping the direction of UFPJ.
For the past 70 years, with few exceptions, the CP has argued that it is essential for progressive movements hoping to win social change in the U.S. to support the Democratic Party against the Republicans.
But Webb and the Communist Party's support for Kerry in 2004 went beyond the traditional "lesser evil" reasoning of the U.S. left. Webb demanded that the left present Kerry as a "positive choice"--as he put it.
The Democrats--who, before and since the 2004 election, ducked every opportunity to challenge the Bush administration's policies--got the unswerving support of a large section of the left, including the Communist party, to the detriment of the struggle against the Bush agenda.
NOW, TWO years later, with Bush's policies sinking still lower in public support--when the anti-war movement should be pressing both parties for immediate withdrawal from Iraq--Webb is arguing against it."
By JOE ALLEN
CounterPunch
"By every conceivable measure, the antiwar movement in the United States should be a vibrant, mass movement.
When one adds this list to the mounting social cost of paying for the war with increasing cuts in social welfare programs, one has to ask: why is our antiwar movement so passive?
The reasons for this are many. The Democrats--the so-called "opposition" party in the U.S.--have provided crucial support for the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. There's also the hold of liberalism--which from the time of FDR through Clinton has always supported an aggressive U.S. foreign policy--on the U.S. left. The low level of class struggle, despite the huge inequalities of U.S. society and workers' growing alienation from the political establishment, is another factor.
Another crucial reason for the weakness of the antiwar movement is the political course chosen by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), the largest and most visible antiwar coalition in the U.S.
UFPJ's response to the major crisis points for U.S. policy since the invasion--the leveling of Falluja, the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, the threats to attack Iran, the recent Israeli-U.S. assault against Lebanon--has been feeble in terms of protest, while its emphasis on building support for the so-called antiwar Democrats in Congress has grown more distinct.
ONE FACTOR in this strategic orientation is the influence of the Communist Party (CP) USA, which plays an important part in shaping the direction of UFPJ.
For the past 70 years, with few exceptions, the CP has argued that it is essential for progressive movements hoping to win social change in the U.S. to support the Democratic Party against the Republicans.
But Webb and the Communist Party's support for Kerry in 2004 went beyond the traditional "lesser evil" reasoning of the U.S. left. Webb demanded that the left present Kerry as a "positive choice"--as he put it.
The Democrats--who, before and since the 2004 election, ducked every opportunity to challenge the Bush administration's policies--got the unswerving support of a large section of the left, including the Communist party, to the detriment of the struggle against the Bush agenda.
NOW, TWO years later, with Bush's policies sinking still lower in public support--when the anti-war movement should be pressing both parties for immediate withdrawal from Iraq--Webb is arguing against it."
Rice expects assassinations against March 14 figures and division of "Shiite Bloc" in Lebanon; Berri replies
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted that Israel faced a very difficult problem in its war against Lebanon, indicating the Islamic Resistance of Hezbollah. She expressed optimism that the Shiites in Lebanon will be divided and expected that assassination attempts to target February 14 figures. Rice also refused reports that the recent Israeli war had weakened the Lebanese government of Premier Fouad Saniora, a key February 14 figure. Rice made her comments to the "New York Post", "The New York Times" and the "Wall Street Journal." She said that "moderate" Arab nations have become aware of the dangers of what she called "the mounting Iranian influence" in the region. She was signaling Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia which had anti-resistance positions, at least at the beginning of the Israeli war against Lebanon. Rice said that the Lebanese government voted twice over the UNIFIL, what means according to the US official, that the Amal Movement had split from Hezbollah. For his part, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri described Rice's expectation of a Shiite division as "mere dreams", stressing the alliance and understanding between Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have grown bigger than ever. Berri added that the position of both parties regarding the UNIFIL deployment has always been supportive, as long as the UN forces carry out their missions as stipulated in UN resolution 1701. Speaker Berri said he had hoped to hear a position by Rice, other than supporting Israeli violation of Lebanese sovereignty and occupation of the Shebaa Farms. The Speaker warned that the US administration is continuously trying to camouflage its intentions and real goals behind the so called "New Middle East", through democracy and moderation, however this administration, Berri added, has laid the foundations for a conflict between those seeking control over the riches of the region and those who resist aggression and "state terrorism" represented by Israel.
Flourishing trade between Saudi Arabia and Israel?
The Israeli daily "Yediot Aharonot" said Tuesday that the exchange of trade between Israel and Saudi Arabia has dramatically risen in the past five years, reaching 30%. The daily added that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had encouraged the trade between both countries, now worth tens of millions of US dollars. According to Yediot, dozens of Israeli companies are taking part today in several projects in the Saudi Kingdom, particularly through European companies. One of the major projects Israel is taking part in is the "Hosbat al-Madares in Saudi Arabia", and it's being executed by a Hi-Tech company from Remat Hasharon. The daily added that the Saudis are highly valuing Israeli achievements, particularly in agriculture. An Israeli agricultural consultant, Yediot said, had stayed for two weeks in the Kingdom, with the knowledge of the Saudi authorities. The project is to build a tomato and hot pepper farm. The daily also said that for more than two years, the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture has been in contact with a company from the Netherlands, which is also a subsidiary of an Israeli firm, to develop Saudi agricultural sectors. The contact was made via the Israeli-Arab Friendship Society. Yediot said that relations with Israeli businessmen through the Society, were established in 1991 by "oil emperor" Adnan Khashekji.
Ignorance is Strength
by Michael Carmichael
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
-- George Orwell, "1984"
Bush is President.
"The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was compiled in April 2006, but its release was suppressed when the White House learned of its contents. Worse, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Madame Secretary Condoleezza Rice continued to lie about the results of their failed policy. Now that the NIE report titled "Trends in Global Terrorism" has been leaked, we know that they have been lying, and they have been lying the big, big lie.:
This pathetic regime has been unmasked as the spitting image of the dystopian tyranny in George Orwell's prophetic novel, 1984, a fascist dictatorship organized under three sacred dictums
Ignorance is strength.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery."
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
-- George Orwell, "1984"
Bush is President.
"The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was compiled in April 2006, but its release was suppressed when the White House learned of its contents. Worse, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Madame Secretary Condoleezza Rice continued to lie about the results of their failed policy. Now that the NIE report titled "Trends in Global Terrorism" has been leaked, we know that they have been lying, and they have been lying the big, big lie.:
This pathetic regime has been unmasked as the spitting image of the dystopian tyranny in George Orwell's prophetic novel, 1984, a fascist dictatorship organized under three sacred dictums
Ignorance is strength.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery."
Why Hamas Resists Recognizing Israel
By TONY KARON
Time
"The premise of the siege strategy appears to be that by increasing Palestinian misery, domestic pressure will mount on Hamas to submit or quit. But such collective punishment may be as misguided as it is cruel; even if it did work, any "recognition" achieved this way would mean little in the pursuit of peace.
Clearly, it's not simply some extreme Islamist fringe that favors withholding recognition — it's a majority consensus that includes many of the voters of President Mahmoud Abbas's own Fatah party. In part, as Israeli commentator Danny Rubinstein notes, that reflects a widely held belief among Palestinians that "Yasser Arafat and the PLO recognized the State of Israel in the Oslo agreement and what did they gain from that? Only suffering and misfortune." In fact, as Rubinstein notes, the settler population in the West Bank actually doubled during the Oslo years.
The question of recognizing Israel is difficult for Hamas or any other Palestinian organization, ultimately, because of the meaning of Israel in the Palestinian national story. In the Western and Israeli narrative, Israel's creation is seen as redress for centuries of Jewish suffering in Europe culminating in the Holocaust. In the Palestinian and Arab narrative, Israel's creation meant the violent displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
The idea of the triumph of one people being the tragedy of another is eloquently captured in Sandy Tolan's book, The Lemon Tree — essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the difficulty in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tolan chronicles the true story of Dalia Eshkenazi, whose family flees post-Holocaust Bulgaria in 1948 to live the Zionist dream of building a Jewish state in the Holy Land. The new Israeli government provides them with an abandoned Arab house in the town of Ramla, in which she grows up. One summer morning in 1967, she's sitting in the garden near the old lemon tree, when Bashir Khairi knocks on the gate. Khairi is the son of the man who planted the lemon tree; he was born in the house and lived there until age 4, when he and his family, and hundreds of others, were forced onto buses by Israeli soldiers and driven to the West Bank, where they have lived as refugees ever since. The fraught and complex friendship that ensues between Dalia — a committed Zionist who wants justice for the Palestinians — and Bashir, a Palestinian militant who insists on his right of return to his home, allows for a rare frank dialogue based on mutual respect and an honest acknowledgment of the past, and of the difficulty of resolving the present. There's no happy ending or resolution, but their mutual recognition offers some sort of hope.
Many intelligence professionals eschew torture because they know that it tends to yield the answers that the suspect thinks his interrogators want to hear — not necessarily the truth. In some respects, there may be a similar effect in trying to throttle the Palestinians into submission. It's not inconceivable that at some point Hamas might find a formula for recognizing Israel in order to put food on Palestinian tables. But such a recognition would speak more to the boot on their necks than to any change in their hearts."
Time
"The premise of the siege strategy appears to be that by increasing Palestinian misery, domestic pressure will mount on Hamas to submit or quit. But such collective punishment may be as misguided as it is cruel; even if it did work, any "recognition" achieved this way would mean little in the pursuit of peace.
Clearly, it's not simply some extreme Islamist fringe that favors withholding recognition — it's a majority consensus that includes many of the voters of President Mahmoud Abbas's own Fatah party. In part, as Israeli commentator Danny Rubinstein notes, that reflects a widely held belief among Palestinians that "Yasser Arafat and the PLO recognized the State of Israel in the Oslo agreement and what did they gain from that? Only suffering and misfortune." In fact, as Rubinstein notes, the settler population in the West Bank actually doubled during the Oslo years.
The question of recognizing Israel is difficult for Hamas or any other Palestinian organization, ultimately, because of the meaning of Israel in the Palestinian national story. In the Western and Israeli narrative, Israel's creation is seen as redress for centuries of Jewish suffering in Europe culminating in the Holocaust. In the Palestinian and Arab narrative, Israel's creation meant the violent displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
The idea of the triumph of one people being the tragedy of another is eloquently captured in Sandy Tolan's book, The Lemon Tree — essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the difficulty in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tolan chronicles the true story of Dalia Eshkenazi, whose family flees post-Holocaust Bulgaria in 1948 to live the Zionist dream of building a Jewish state in the Holy Land. The new Israeli government provides them with an abandoned Arab house in the town of Ramla, in which she grows up. One summer morning in 1967, she's sitting in the garden near the old lemon tree, when Bashir Khairi knocks on the gate. Khairi is the son of the man who planted the lemon tree; he was born in the house and lived there until age 4, when he and his family, and hundreds of others, were forced onto buses by Israeli soldiers and driven to the West Bank, where they have lived as refugees ever since. The fraught and complex friendship that ensues between Dalia — a committed Zionist who wants justice for the Palestinians — and Bashir, a Palestinian militant who insists on his right of return to his home, allows for a rare frank dialogue based on mutual respect and an honest acknowledgment of the past, and of the difficulty of resolving the present. There's no happy ending or resolution, but their mutual recognition offers some sort of hope.
Many intelligence professionals eschew torture because they know that it tends to yield the answers that the suspect thinks his interrogators want to hear — not necessarily the truth. In some respects, there may be a similar effect in trying to throttle the Palestinians into submission. It's not inconceivable that at some point Hamas might find a formula for recognizing Israel in order to put food on Palestinian tables. But such a recognition would speak more to the boot on their necks than to any change in their hearts."
Missing the government of thieves
A WELL-WRITTEN PIECE:
By Amira Hass
"Slogans shouted at rallies sound better when they rhyme. "Not Ismail, not Haniyeh, we want back the government of haramiyeh." Haramiyeh means thieves, and the protesters in Ramallah - Palestinian Authority workers who have not received their salaries for the last seven months - shouted what can be heard in conversations in the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: Hamas may be clean, but the Fatah thieves are preferable. After all, the reasoning goes, when Fatah was in power, our salaries were assured.
The Fatah governments bequeathed to the Hamas government a dependence on the funds of donor nations. This year, the donor states decided that they would not let the Hamas movement get the best of both worlds: refraining from recognizing agreements that formally made the establishment of a "government" possible, while receiving the fixed donations. That is logical.
But while Fatah is demanding that Hamas recognize the negative balance of its brief tenure, the Fatah movement and its leaders - from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on down - are refusing to draw the relevant personal and political conclusions from the negative balance of their extensive time in power when it comes to the extremely important issue of the struggle for independence and liberation from Israeli occupation. On the basis of these promises, most of the Palestinian public supported the Oslo process. But the logic of "the gradual liberation from occupation," on which the Oslo Accords were based, has utterly failed.
Under the Oslo Accords, 60 percent of the territory (including the settlements) which was classified Area C, meaning under Israeli security and civil control, essentially became disputed territory, with the world allowing Israel to use its military, economic and diplomatic supremacy to annex significant portions of it in the framework of the final-status agreement.
During the Oslo period, it was proved to Israelis that "peace is possible even with settlements." The settlements expanded and developed without end, while the elected Palestinian leadership negotiated with the Israeli government, and was unable to prevent the construction of even one settlement house.
The Fatah government will be remembered as one that collaborated with the severe and comprehensive damage to the basic right of freedom of movement. The Palestinian leadership and PLO leaders accepted a system whereby they and their business, personal and political associates were granted the freedom of movement that the rest of the population did not enjoy. They owe their personal financial standing, their relative comfort and their feeling of "freedom" to a privilege that the Israeli occupation regime granted them. Under those circumstances, they could not lead a political struggle against the severe and highly destructive Israeli method of control over the Palestinians' time and freedom of movement."
By Amira Hass
"Slogans shouted at rallies sound better when they rhyme. "Not Ismail, not Haniyeh, we want back the government of haramiyeh." Haramiyeh means thieves, and the protesters in Ramallah - Palestinian Authority workers who have not received their salaries for the last seven months - shouted what can be heard in conversations in the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: Hamas may be clean, but the Fatah thieves are preferable. After all, the reasoning goes, when Fatah was in power, our salaries were assured.
The Fatah governments bequeathed to the Hamas government a dependence on the funds of donor nations. This year, the donor states decided that they would not let the Hamas movement get the best of both worlds: refraining from recognizing agreements that formally made the establishment of a "government" possible, while receiving the fixed donations. That is logical.
But while Fatah is demanding that Hamas recognize the negative balance of its brief tenure, the Fatah movement and its leaders - from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on down - are refusing to draw the relevant personal and political conclusions from the negative balance of their extensive time in power when it comes to the extremely important issue of the struggle for independence and liberation from Israeli occupation. On the basis of these promises, most of the Palestinian public supported the Oslo process. But the logic of "the gradual liberation from occupation," on which the Oslo Accords were based, has utterly failed.
Under the Oslo Accords, 60 percent of the territory (including the settlements) which was classified Area C, meaning under Israeli security and civil control, essentially became disputed territory, with the world allowing Israel to use its military, economic and diplomatic supremacy to annex significant portions of it in the framework of the final-status agreement.
During the Oslo period, it was proved to Israelis that "peace is possible even with settlements." The settlements expanded and developed without end, while the elected Palestinian leadership negotiated with the Israeli government, and was unable to prevent the construction of even one settlement house.
The Fatah government will be remembered as one that collaborated with the severe and comprehensive damage to the basic right of freedom of movement. The Palestinian leadership and PLO leaders accepted a system whereby they and their business, personal and political associates were granted the freedom of movement that the rest of the population did not enjoy. They owe their personal financial standing, their relative comfort and their feeling of "freedom" to a privilege that the Israeli occupation regime granted them. Under those circumstances, they could not lead a political struggle against the severe and highly destructive Israeli method of control over the Palestinians' time and freedom of movement."
Partially Declassified NIE
By Juan Cole
"I want to make 4 basic points about this controversy, and also provide the declassified text in HTML at the end.
1) The real scandal is that the NIE was classified at all.
2) The NIE clearly says that the Iraq War is now the main generator of terrorism against the US and its allies.
You can see the rise of anti-US sentiments under Bush most starkly in non-Arab countries such as Turkey and Indonesia which used to like us, believe it or not.
3) Critics have pointed out that although the NIE said that Bush's Iraq War has generated more terror against the US and its allies, not less, it also does not urge an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. But the NIE does not in fact urge "staying the course" as Bush and others imply.
4) Bush repeated at the news conference his statement that the US was not in Iraq in the 1990s when the US embassies in Africa and the USS Cole were hit by al-Qaeda or in 2001 when al-Qaeda hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
This meme is so stupid and even Bush should be ashamed for trotting it out.
But that al-Qaeda had these grievances does not mean that Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq cannot now generate more terrorism. If a few thousand Muslims were upset about the al-Qaeda grievances of 1996 through 2001, many millions of Muslims are upset about US actions in Iraq."
"I want to make 4 basic points about this controversy, and also provide the declassified text in HTML at the end.
1) The real scandal is that the NIE was classified at all.
2) The NIE clearly says that the Iraq War is now the main generator of terrorism against the US and its allies.
You can see the rise of anti-US sentiments under Bush most starkly in non-Arab countries such as Turkey and Indonesia which used to like us, believe it or not.
3) Critics have pointed out that although the NIE said that Bush's Iraq War has generated more terror against the US and its allies, not less, it also does not urge an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. But the NIE does not in fact urge "staying the course" as Bush and others imply.
4) Bush repeated at the news conference his statement that the US was not in Iraq in the 1990s when the US embassies in Africa and the USS Cole were hit by al-Qaeda or in 2001 when al-Qaeda hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
This meme is so stupid and even Bush should be ashamed for trotting it out.
But that al-Qaeda had these grievances does not mean that Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq cannot now generate more terrorism. If a few thousand Muslims were upset about the al-Qaeda grievances of 1996 through 2001, many millions of Muslims are upset about US actions in Iraq."
Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout, Polls Show
Leaders' Views Out of Step With Public
"BAGHDAD, Sept. 26 -- A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.
In Baghdad, for example, nearly three-quarters of residents polled said they would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign forces left Iraq, with 65 percent of those asked favoring an immediate pullout, according to State Department polling results obtained by The Washington Post.
Another new poll, scheduled to be released on Wednesday by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, found that 71 percent of Iraqis questioned want the Iraqi government to ask foreign forces to depart within a year. By large margins, though, Iraqis believed that the U.S. government would refuse the request, with 77 percent of those polled saying the United States intends keep permanent military bases in the country.
The stark assessments, among the most negative attitudes toward U.S.-led forces since they invaded Iraq in 2003, contrast sharply with views expressed by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Last week at the United Nations, President Jalal Talabani said coalition troops should remain in the country until Iraqi security forces are "capable of putting an end to terrorism and maintaining stability and security.""
"BAGHDAD, Sept. 26 -- A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.
In Baghdad, for example, nearly three-quarters of residents polled said they would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign forces left Iraq, with 65 percent of those asked favoring an immediate pullout, according to State Department polling results obtained by The Washington Post.
Another new poll, scheduled to be released on Wednesday by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, found that 71 percent of Iraqis questioned want the Iraqi government to ask foreign forces to depart within a year. By large margins, though, Iraqis believed that the U.S. government would refuse the request, with 77 percent of those polled saying the United States intends keep permanent military bases in the country.
The stark assessments, among the most negative attitudes toward U.S.-led forces since they invaded Iraq in 2003, contrast sharply with views expressed by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Last week at the United Nations, President Jalal Talabani said coalition troops should remain in the country until Iraqi security forces are "capable of putting an end to terrorism and maintaining stability and security.""
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Meanwhile in Iraq
At least 22 killed in occupied Iraq: Police also found 12 bound and tortured corpses.
US soldiers criticize their Iraqi counterparts: Some US soldiers say the Iraqis serving alongside them are among the worst they've ever seen -- seeming more loyal to militias than the government.
Iraq, Overstretched Army Bring Bush New Grief: With the U.S. intelligence community agreed that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have made this country less safe from terrorist threats, President George W. Bush appears now to be facing a growing revolt among top military commanders who say U.S. ground forces are stretched close to the breaking point.
Army chief tells Bush: there's not enough money for Iraq war : George Bush suffered a serious rebuke of his wartime leadership yesterday when his army chief said he did not have enough money to fight the war in Iraq.
Iraq MPs row over federalism bill : Some MPs objected angrily to a map drawn up by Kurds in northern Iraq, which showed the disputed city of Kirkuk as part of the Kurdish area.
Arrest warrants issued for 88 former Iraqi officials on corruption charges : The agency has documented the loss of US$7.5 billion (about €6.0 billion) through corruption over the past three years.
White House admits Iraq fuels extremism: The White House acknowledged that Iraq was among several factors that "fuel the spread of jihadism" but said that winning the war would dishearten potential terrorists.
Report’s Startling Conclusion: Bombing People Really Pisses Them Off
Top Generals Hint U.S needs another 60,000 Troops: The reason senior Army leaders want to go to a bigger Army is that they are worried about their ability to fight future threats.
Meanwhile in Palestine
Israel Air Force air strikes on a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah early Wednesday: 14-year-old girl killed and wounded seven other people
Relentless Israeli attacks leave occupied Gaza reeling : In a village in southern Gaza, an old Palestinian woman stood surveying the wreckage of her life, and her home - bulldozed by the Israeli occupation army.
Displaced by the Wall: Forced displacement as a Result of the West Bank Wall and its Associated Regime
Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes as a direct result of the Wall built by Israel in the occupied West Bank, according to a study published today by the Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and BADIL Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. In East Jerusalem alone, tens of thousands of people have been forced to change their place of residence as a direct result of the construction of the Wall, concludes the study which for the first time comprehensively documents displacement caused by the West Bank Wall in the Jerusalem area.
UN human rights envoy says Gaza a prison for Palestinians: Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is "intolerable, appalling, tragic" and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday. "If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, [it] must not be surprised if the people of the planet disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights," he said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Dugrad: Israel has admitted "Wall" has political purpose to draw boundaries: The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) John Dugard said Tuesday that the Israeli government has confirmed that its separation wall under construction has a political purpose and that is drawing the new boundaries of the Israeli state to include very fertile Palestinian agricultural land and 76 percent of the settler population.
Introduction to the Struggle Continues! Oct 6-8 Conference: In fact the global campaign to boycott Israeli Apartheid has a firm basis in international law. Apartheid is defined in Article II of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (UN General Assembly Resolution 3068 of 1976), which calls upon all states to "adopt any legislative or other measures necessary to suppress as well as to prevent any encouragement of the crime of apartheid and similar segregationist policies or their manifestations and to punish persons guilty of that crime" (Article IV-a).
UK company supplying arms to Israel blockaded: EDO MBM manufactures weapons components for the Israeli army, who slaughtered over a thousand Lebanese civilians this summer and who are engaged in a murderous assault on the people of Gaza . Andrew Beckett, press spokesperson for the campaign said ‘we have shut down this factory so that it cannot go on producing armaments to be used against the people of Gaza. We will keep on causing disruption to the factory until it closes down permanently'.
The law as roadkill on Highway 443: Few are aware that for six years now, ever since the outbreak of the intifada, the highway has been serving Israelis only. Palestinians are forbidden to travel even along the segment that is nine and a half kilometers long and passes through West Bank territory, including lands that have been confiscated and where trees have been cut down "for public needs." Israel Defense Forces soldiers ensure that only lucky people who have been granted a temporary permit can enjoy the shortcut.
Resident injured in Nablus invasion: For the third consecutive day, Israeli troops continued their military invasion to the Old City of Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, broke into dozens of homes, shot and injured one resident, local sources reported. The resident was identified as Amjad Anabtawi, 22. He was shot in his chest and was transferred to a local hospital.
Hamas and Fatah call off talks: Hamas has refused to recognise Israel and Fatah have said that such ideological differences impede the formation of a unity government. Fatah, under the late Yasser Arafat, recognised Israel and conducted several rounds of peace talks, resulting in partial agreements. However, a full peace treaty eluded the two sides.
Zahhar: “Hamas will not recognize Israel, meeting with Abbas was delayed not canceled”: Palestinian Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Zahhar, from the Hamas party, said that Hamas will not recognize Israel since it is an occupying country, and will not stop resisting the occupation. Referring to the meeting between Abbas and the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya, Zahhar said that the meeting was delayed and not cancelled.
Hamas legislators to remain behind bars: One of the detainees, Palestinian parliament speaker Aziz Duaik, called the decision a political one. He and 20 of his colleagues living in the southern West Bank were arrested and charged with belonging to Hamas following the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Official: Palestinian employees to get partial salary: Acting Minister of Finance Abu Aisha told reporters that public and military servants who earn less than 450 U.S. dollars would be able to get complete salary for one month. This group is estimated at 61,000 employees out of 165,000.
Gaza is hungry - and not because of Ramadan: Only last week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh promised that by Ramadan some of the PA employees' salaries would be paid. But on Sunday came the announcement that this month, too, the PA did not have the money to pay its workers. The despair is visible in the people's eyes, as irritable drivers get into fights with each other at every traffic jam.
Christian Politicians Show Solidarity With Israel: Christian politicians from different countries will meet with Israeli Members of Knesset Wednesday to show their support for Israel. The Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus will host 50 Christian politicians from Europe, South America, Asia and Africa in the Knesset Members' Lunchroom as part of their program to develop ties with the international Christian community.
Poll: 67% of Israelis want talks with PA gov't including Hamas: A majority of Israelis would support holding negotiations with a Palestinian unity government that includes the Islamic Hamas movement, according to the results of a joint Palestinian-Israeli poll released on Tuesday. The survey, which polled some 1,270 Palestinians, 500 Israeli Jews and 401 Israeli Arabs, was conducted as a coordinated effort between the Truman Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Khalil Shikaki, of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.
Rights group: Israel abducting civilians: The Khiam Rehabilitation Center for the Victims of Torture said Monday that Israel continues to abduct Lebanese citizens from Lebanese territories in a "clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 1701." The center said in a statement that "the convention prohibits the taking of hostages who have no active role in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those put out of action by sickness, wounds, detention or any other cause."
Israeli, Palestinian officials meet to discuss Rafah crossing: The meeting was attended by high ranking officials on both sides, including Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, Defense Ministry officials Barch Spiegel and Hagai Alon and U.S. representatives Dick Jones and Keith Dayton.
Poll: Most Palestinians back Hizbullah: According to the survey, which was carried out after the end of fighting in Lebanon, a solid 65 percent majority of the Palestinian public believes terror organizations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank should adopt Hizbullah’s tactics and shell Israeli towns with rockets. Only 35 percent were opposed to such a move. The survey noted that these numbers were parallel to Hizbullah support measured in June 2000, after the IDF’s withdrawal from south Lebanon.
Straw: U.K. should push U.S. to help achieve Israeli-Palestinian deal: Straw, who spoke at a forum held on the sidelines of Labor's annual conference, said Britain must work with Washington on the Mideast, not pull away from it. London should "push the Americans to put pressure on the Israelis," he said. "We have to have the Americans."
12 Israeli firms exporting to Saudi Arabia: The direct Israeli exports to Arab countries totaled USD 57 million in the first quarter of 2006, a sharp rise of 34.5 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The data do not include Israeli exports to the Palestinian Authority, which is Israel's second largest trade partner, after the United States, and purchases from Israel goods worth billions of US dollars.
Israelis, Palestinians team up to make fatter fish: As part of a project with Hebrew University and Germany's University of Hohenheim, Qutob and his colleagues will inject compounds from plants found in the occupied West Bank and often used as seasonings into food fed to newborn Nile Tilapia fish. "This will have an effect on the fish's metabolic (structure) -- it may shift from female to male," said Qutob, a chemist at al-Quds University in East Jerusalem.
Relentless Israeli attacks leave occupied Gaza reeling : In a village in southern Gaza, an old Palestinian woman stood surveying the wreckage of her life, and her home - bulldozed by the Israeli occupation army.
Displaced by the Wall: Forced displacement as a Result of the West Bank Wall and its Associated Regime
Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes as a direct result of the Wall built by Israel in the occupied West Bank, according to a study published today by the Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and BADIL Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. In East Jerusalem alone, tens of thousands of people have been forced to change their place of residence as a direct result of the construction of the Wall, concludes the study which for the first time comprehensively documents displacement caused by the West Bank Wall in the Jerusalem area.
UN human rights envoy says Gaza a prison for Palestinians: Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is "intolerable, appalling, tragic" and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday. "If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, [it] must not be surprised if the people of the planet disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights," he said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Dugrad: Israel has admitted "Wall" has political purpose to draw boundaries: The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) John Dugard said Tuesday that the Israeli government has confirmed that its separation wall under construction has a political purpose and that is drawing the new boundaries of the Israeli state to include very fertile Palestinian agricultural land and 76 percent of the settler population.
Introduction to the Struggle Continues! Oct 6-8 Conference: In fact the global campaign to boycott Israeli Apartheid has a firm basis in international law. Apartheid is defined in Article II of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (UN General Assembly Resolution 3068 of 1976), which calls upon all states to "adopt any legislative or other measures necessary to suppress as well as to prevent any encouragement of the crime of apartheid and similar segregationist policies or their manifestations and to punish persons guilty of that crime" (Article IV-a).
UK company supplying arms to Israel blockaded: EDO MBM manufactures weapons components for the Israeli army, who slaughtered over a thousand Lebanese civilians this summer and who are engaged in a murderous assault on the people of Gaza . Andrew Beckett, press spokesperson for the campaign said ‘we have shut down this factory so that it cannot go on producing armaments to be used against the people of Gaza. We will keep on causing disruption to the factory until it closes down permanently'.
The law as roadkill on Highway 443: Few are aware that for six years now, ever since the outbreak of the intifada, the highway has been serving Israelis only. Palestinians are forbidden to travel even along the segment that is nine and a half kilometers long and passes through West Bank territory, including lands that have been confiscated and where trees have been cut down "for public needs." Israel Defense Forces soldiers ensure that only lucky people who have been granted a temporary permit can enjoy the shortcut.
Resident injured in Nablus invasion: For the third consecutive day, Israeli troops continued their military invasion to the Old City of Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, broke into dozens of homes, shot and injured one resident, local sources reported. The resident was identified as Amjad Anabtawi, 22. He was shot in his chest and was transferred to a local hospital.
Hamas and Fatah call off talks: Hamas has refused to recognise Israel and Fatah have said that such ideological differences impede the formation of a unity government. Fatah, under the late Yasser Arafat, recognised Israel and conducted several rounds of peace talks, resulting in partial agreements. However, a full peace treaty eluded the two sides.
Zahhar: “Hamas will not recognize Israel, meeting with Abbas was delayed not canceled”: Palestinian Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Zahhar, from the Hamas party, said that Hamas will not recognize Israel since it is an occupying country, and will not stop resisting the occupation. Referring to the meeting between Abbas and the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya, Zahhar said that the meeting was delayed and not cancelled.
Hamas legislators to remain behind bars: One of the detainees, Palestinian parliament speaker Aziz Duaik, called the decision a political one. He and 20 of his colleagues living in the southern West Bank were arrested and charged with belonging to Hamas following the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Official: Palestinian employees to get partial salary: Acting Minister of Finance Abu Aisha told reporters that public and military servants who earn less than 450 U.S. dollars would be able to get complete salary for one month. This group is estimated at 61,000 employees out of 165,000.
Gaza is hungry - and not because of Ramadan: Only last week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh promised that by Ramadan some of the PA employees' salaries would be paid. But on Sunday came the announcement that this month, too, the PA did not have the money to pay its workers. The despair is visible in the people's eyes, as irritable drivers get into fights with each other at every traffic jam.
Christian Politicians Show Solidarity With Israel: Christian politicians from different countries will meet with Israeli Members of Knesset Wednesday to show their support for Israel. The Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus will host 50 Christian politicians from Europe, South America, Asia and Africa in the Knesset Members' Lunchroom as part of their program to develop ties with the international Christian community.
Poll: 67% of Israelis want talks with PA gov't including Hamas: A majority of Israelis would support holding negotiations with a Palestinian unity government that includes the Islamic Hamas movement, according to the results of a joint Palestinian-Israeli poll released on Tuesday. The survey, which polled some 1,270 Palestinians, 500 Israeli Jews and 401 Israeli Arabs, was conducted as a coordinated effort between the Truman Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Khalil Shikaki, of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.
Rights group: Israel abducting civilians: The Khiam Rehabilitation Center for the Victims of Torture said Monday that Israel continues to abduct Lebanese citizens from Lebanese territories in a "clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 1701." The center said in a statement that "the convention prohibits the taking of hostages who have no active role in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those put out of action by sickness, wounds, detention or any other cause."
Israeli, Palestinian officials meet to discuss Rafah crossing: The meeting was attended by high ranking officials on both sides, including Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, Defense Ministry officials Barch Spiegel and Hagai Alon and U.S. representatives Dick Jones and Keith Dayton.
Poll: Most Palestinians back Hizbullah: According to the survey, which was carried out after the end of fighting in Lebanon, a solid 65 percent majority of the Palestinian public believes terror organizations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank should adopt Hizbullah’s tactics and shell Israeli towns with rockets. Only 35 percent were opposed to such a move. The survey noted that these numbers were parallel to Hizbullah support measured in June 2000, after the IDF’s withdrawal from south Lebanon.
Straw: U.K. should push U.S. to help achieve Israeli-Palestinian deal: Straw, who spoke at a forum held on the sidelines of Labor's annual conference, said Britain must work with Washington on the Mideast, not pull away from it. London should "push the Americans to put pressure on the Israelis," he said. "We have to have the Americans."
12 Israeli firms exporting to Saudi Arabia: The direct Israeli exports to Arab countries totaled USD 57 million in the first quarter of 2006, a sharp rise of 34.5 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The data do not include Israeli exports to the Palestinian Authority, which is Israel's second largest trade partner, after the United States, and purchases from Israel goods worth billions of US dollars.
Israelis, Palestinians team up to make fatter fish: As part of a project with Hebrew University and Germany's University of Hohenheim, Qutob and his colleagues will inject compounds from plants found in the occupied West Bank and often used as seasonings into food fed to newborn Nile Tilapia fish. "This will have an effect on the fish's metabolic (structure) -- it may shift from female to male," said Qutob, a chemist at al-Quds University in East Jerusalem.
Rice wants other nations to put sanctions on Syria
"The United States would like other nations to join it in imposing sanctions on Syria, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview published on Tuesday.
The Bush administration accuses Syria of failing to stop anti-US guerrillas from crossing its border into Iraq, supporting terrorism generally and pursuing weapons of mass destruction - charges denied by Damascus.
"What we'd really like to do is we'd like to get some others to join us in other kinds of sanctions," Rice told the New York Times according to a State Department transcript released on Tuesday.
"I think as Syria continues to show its stripes and isolate itself from its Arab friends, that may be somewhat easier to do," she added. "We're going to have to look at tougher measures if Syria continues to be on the path that it's on.""
***
"I think as Syria continues to show its stripes and isolate itself from its Arab friends, that may be somewhat easier to do"
so, she is concerned about Syria's isolation from its "Arab friends." In plain English she is telling Syria to join the axis of the puppets: Egypt-KSA-Jordan-Abbas allied with Israel against Iran.
Egypt demands Hamas release Israeli soldier
THE PUPPET EGYPTIAN REGIME CARRYING OUT USRAELI ORDERS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Egypt has demanded that Hamas immediately release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to avoid a worsening crisis in the violence-battered Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials and Arab diplomats said Tuesday. The Egyptian demand came in a "strongly worded letter" From Egypt's powerful intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to the Syrian-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, they said.
The letter also demanded Hamas cooperate fully with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in forming a national unity government, a step that has been stalled by the group's refusal to form an administration that recognizes Israel.
Israeli Channel 10 television reported earlier Tuesday that the letter carried a warning that if Shalit was not released by the end of the month Israel would launch a series of deep incursions into Gaza aimed at Hamas organizational targets and at high ranking Hamas figures."
Kebab Philosophy
By Gilad Atzmon
"Though the British Government, the Home Office and the security forces do everything they can to split the British society by spreading fear, maintaining intense pressure on British Muslims through legislation, raids, and the creation of some phantasmic terror alerts, the British people remain totally apathetic to Blair’s call. If anything, the Brits are now convinced that there is something wrong with Blair and that he is actually the dangerous one. They want Blair out of the picture. Interestingly enough, it was Blair’s fateful support of Israel’s murderous attack against the Lebanese people that happened to be the last nail in the Prime Minister’s coffin.
One may ask why the Brits fail to follow their Ziophilic PM.
Kebab is my answer, as simple as that. In the wee small hours, all you can eat in Britain is Kebab: Chicken Shish, Lamb Shish, Lamb Doner, Chicken Doner and Shwarma. Seemingly, it is at the Kebab places as well as small corner shops where Brits encounter the Muslim community. In most places it is a young Mediterranean or Asian male with a foreign accent who is there to take care of one’s needs. Medium or Large? He will ask, salad? Garlic sauce, chili sauce?
Kebab, on the other hand, is now scattered all over Britain. You will find it in every high street. If you happen to visit a Kebab shop located in an Arab-populated quarter such as Edgware Road, you may even be lucky enough to get invited for a Shisha session. And this is basically it. Once you have had your Kebab settling in your belly, your mind embraces the Orient. It has actually nothing to do with the taste or the nutritional value of Kebab. It is actually the outcome of a fundamental metaphysical principal: ‘human beings happen to trust people who put food on their table’. You don’t trust, you don’t eat. And this is something that even Tony Blair hasn’t managed to change."
واشنطن تحرض على انقسامات بحماس لنجاح السلام
عولت وزيرة الخارجية الأميركية كوندوليزا رايس على خلافات داخل حركة المقاومة الإسلامية (حماس) لتحريك عملية السلام بين إسرائيل والفلسطينيين.
وفي مقابلات أجرتها مع صحف أميركية كبرى بنيويورك، ونشرت وزارة الخارجية نصوصها اليوم، أشارت رايس إلى تباينات بين من وصفتهم بمتشددي حماس المقيمين في دمشق برئاسة رئيس المكتب السياسي للحركة خالد مشعل وزعماء حماس بالداخل.
وقالت الوزيرة الأميركية إن مسؤولي حماس بدمشق كانوا وراء إقناع رئيس الوزراء الفلسطيني إسماعيل هنية بتغيير موقفه من البرنامج السياسي لحكومة الوحدة التي اتفق عليه مع رئيس السلطة محمود عباس.
وأضافت رايس لصحيفة وول ستريت جورنال "من غير الواضح بالنسبة لي مدى الهامش التي تتمتع بها حماس بالأراضي الفلسطينية مقابل حماس بدمشق، وأعتقد أن الأدلة تتزايد باتجاه أن هذا الهامش ليس كبيرا".
وفي مقابلة أخرى مع صحيفة نيويورك بوست قالت رايس "عليك أن تقاوم حماس دمشق وتوجد وضعا بالأراضي الفلسطينية يساعد على ظهور المعتدلين". وتابعت "على مر الوقت، نأمل جميعا أن تقوم حماس بالتحرك باتجاه موقف أكثر عقلانية من هذا الأمر(الاعتراف بإسرائيل) حتى لو لم يتم ذلك خلال يوم واحد".
من ناحيتها استنكرت حركة حماس ما ورد على لسان رايس. واعتبر بيان للحركة أن تصريحاتها هذه هي التي دفعت الرئيس عباس للقول إن الحوار مع حماس عاد إلى نقطة الصفر.
***
A VERY BRIEF TRANSLATION
The Princess of Darkness Rice in interviews with several US papers in New York made it clear that the US is counting on instigating a split within Hamas. She said that the US wants to encourage the so-called moderates in the occupied areas, symbolized by Haniyah. However, she claimed that the "moderates" have little room to maneuver because of the hard line of the leadership in Damascus. She claimed that the leadership in Damascus was behind forcing Haniyah to change his position towards an agreement with Abbas concerning a national unity government.
However, Hamas denied the existence of such a split and said that Rice's dictates to Abbas are behind his contention that the national unity talks are back to square one.
***
MY OPINION
I think there is some truth to the fact that Haniyah, through the influence of his American adviser and public relations consultant Ahmad Yousef, was becoming too slippery and was doing an Arafat imitation. Hamas, as a movement, is more disciplined than Fatah and it acted in time to put an end to this. Hamas, hopefully, doesn't want to become the second Palestinian movement to sell out and become irrelevant.
Going to War to Save His Own Ass?
Bush and Iran
By DAVE LINDORFF
CounterPunch
"War talk is in the air again, and because of the looming November election, it has to be taken extra seriously.
The latest to warn about a Bush War III is former Democratic senator and failed presidential contender Gary Hart, long an expert on national security issues, who says that targeting drones and special forces targeting specialists are already operating over and inside Iran, sizing up and locating as many as 400 targets for U.S. cruise missiles and bombers. This is in anticipation of an aerial strike which my own investigating suggests could come as early as late October.
But the actual sending of Special Forces units into harm's way in Iran, and the preparation of Navy battle groups for deployment to the Iran Theater, make it more probable that an actual attack is in the offing. Word that regular military units are being prepared for third tours to the region, that the administration is changing the guidelines to make longer call-ups of National Guard units for longer and more frequent overseas tours of active duty, and that units in Iraq are being given stop-loss orders to delay their return home also suggest something major may be in the offing. Otherwise logic would lead to the expectation that the administration would be announcing a reduction in troop levels in Iraq before Election Day, as was past practice.
We need only note how Bush, in his address at the UN General Assembly last week, was careful to describe the leaders of Iran as "supporters of terror." Be warned: this was a deliberately chosen linguistic construct which means he is asserting his right to attack them as part of that phony "war" on terror, based upon the long-outdated and grossly misrepresented 2001 AUMF.
Why would Bush be willing to do such a thing, against the advice of his generals, against the wishes of the American people, and against all logic and decency?
Clearly he is afraid--afraid that a Democratic Congress will finally start calling him to account for his accumulated crimes against the nation and the American People. That's why he is desperately trying to get the Republican-led Congress--while it still can--to pass legislation retroactively exonerating him and his subordinates for their criminal violations of law and Constitution. That's why he is racing around the country raising money for candidates--even including liberal Republicans whose positions he privately abhors.
At this point, all this president cares about is saving his own sorry ass."
By DAVE LINDORFF
CounterPunch
"War talk is in the air again, and because of the looming November election, it has to be taken extra seriously.
The latest to warn about a Bush War III is former Democratic senator and failed presidential contender Gary Hart, long an expert on national security issues, who says that targeting drones and special forces targeting specialists are already operating over and inside Iran, sizing up and locating as many as 400 targets for U.S. cruise missiles and bombers. This is in anticipation of an aerial strike which my own investigating suggests could come as early as late October.
But the actual sending of Special Forces units into harm's way in Iran, and the preparation of Navy battle groups for deployment to the Iran Theater, make it more probable that an actual attack is in the offing. Word that regular military units are being prepared for third tours to the region, that the administration is changing the guidelines to make longer call-ups of National Guard units for longer and more frequent overseas tours of active duty, and that units in Iraq are being given stop-loss orders to delay their return home also suggest something major may be in the offing. Otherwise logic would lead to the expectation that the administration would be announcing a reduction in troop levels in Iraq before Election Day, as was past practice.
We need only note how Bush, in his address at the UN General Assembly last week, was careful to describe the leaders of Iran as "supporters of terror." Be warned: this was a deliberately chosen linguistic construct which means he is asserting his right to attack them as part of that phony "war" on terror, based upon the long-outdated and grossly misrepresented 2001 AUMF.
Why would Bush be willing to do such a thing, against the advice of his generals, against the wishes of the American people, and against all logic and decency?
Clearly he is afraid--afraid that a Democratic Congress will finally start calling him to account for his accumulated crimes against the nation and the American People. That's why he is desperately trying to get the Republican-led Congress--while it still can--to pass legislation retroactively exonerating him and his subordinates for their criminal violations of law and Constitution. That's why he is racing around the country raising money for candidates--even including liberal Republicans whose positions he privately abhors.
At this point, all this president cares about is saving his own sorry ass."
Seeing the forest for the trees
Rima Merriman, The Electronic Intifada, 26 September 2006
Kidnapped Palestinian Hamas lawmakers wait during the hearing of their case at the Ofer Israeli military court next to the West Bank city of Ramallah, 25 September 2006.
"In fact, Palestinians had been faced with the exact same general stalemate that characterizes the situation today long before the January 2006 elections. The only difference between then and now is that people could eat better then and fewer of them had been killed.
Exactly six years ago this month, the Palestinians rose up in arms while a unilateral Israeli plan to determine the final status of the region (Ehud Barak's plan) was swirling around them. It was the plan rejected by the Palestinians at Camp David, a plan that "called for cantonization of the territories that Israel had conquered in 1967, with mechanisms to ensure that usable land and resources (primarily water) remain largely in Israeli hands while the population is administered by a corrupt and brutal Palestinian authority," as Noam Chomsky summed up.
Nevertheless, this plan is now in its final stages of implementation. The only tenet the Israelis are still engineering is the establishment of a "corrupt and brutal Palestinian authority" to aid it in stamping out Palestinian resistance to this and other variations on the plan.
Israel's actions along the lines described above are all illegal under international law and acknowledged as such by the international community. But the international community has been reduced as a spectator that exercises its muscles only by pressuring Palestinians and putting sanctions on the Palestinian population even as Israelis advertise for tenders to build more illegal settlements and the illegal wall.
The international community has criminally failed the Palestinian people, an occupied people who started their resistance having to use stones to protect their rights. They have failed where it counts - in exerting legal discipline on Israel through their civilized international regime, the regime they are so eager for the "uncivilized" world to join.
Since the occupation, Israel has consistently and demonstrably harmed the Palestinian population in a way disproportionate to its security needs. That is because Israel hasn't been after security as much as it has been after establishing "facts on the ground" demographically and geographically at the expense of the Palestinian population in pursuit of a peace agreement that would force these "facts on the ground" down Palestinians' throats."
Kidnapped Palestinian Hamas lawmakers wait during the hearing of their case at the Ofer Israeli military court next to the West Bank city of Ramallah, 25 September 2006.
"In fact, Palestinians had been faced with the exact same general stalemate that characterizes the situation today long before the January 2006 elections. The only difference between then and now is that people could eat better then and fewer of them had been killed.
Exactly six years ago this month, the Palestinians rose up in arms while a unilateral Israeli plan to determine the final status of the region (Ehud Barak's plan) was swirling around them. It was the plan rejected by the Palestinians at Camp David, a plan that "called for cantonization of the territories that Israel had conquered in 1967, with mechanisms to ensure that usable land and resources (primarily water) remain largely in Israeli hands while the population is administered by a corrupt and brutal Palestinian authority," as Noam Chomsky summed up.
Nevertheless, this plan is now in its final stages of implementation. The only tenet the Israelis are still engineering is the establishment of a "corrupt and brutal Palestinian authority" to aid it in stamping out Palestinian resistance to this and other variations on the plan.
Israel's actions along the lines described above are all illegal under international law and acknowledged as such by the international community. But the international community has been reduced as a spectator that exercises its muscles only by pressuring Palestinians and putting sanctions on the Palestinian population even as Israelis advertise for tenders to build more illegal settlements and the illegal wall.
The international community has criminally failed the Palestinian people, an occupied people who started their resistance having to use stones to protect their rights. They have failed where it counts - in exerting legal discipline on Israel through their civilized international regime, the regime they are so eager for the "uncivilized" world to join.
Since the occupation, Israel has consistently and demonstrably harmed the Palestinian population in a way disproportionate to its security needs. That is because Israel hasn't been after security as much as it has been after establishing "facts on the ground" demographically and geographically at the expense of the Palestinian population in pursuit of a peace agreement that would force these "facts on the ground" down Palestinians' throats."
UN human rights envoy says Gaza a prison for Palestinians
By Reuters
"Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is "intolerable, appalling, tragic" and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday.
Special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory John Dugard said that the suffering of the Palestinians was a test of the readiness of the international community to protect human rights.
"If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, [it] must not be surprised if the people of the planet disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights," he said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
"Israel violates international law as expounded by the Security Council and the International Court of Justice and goes unpunished. But the Palestinian people are punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the U.S. and the EU," Dugard said.
Palestinians living between the barrier and the Green Line, the frontier at the end of the 1967 Six Day War, could no longer freely access schools and places of work and many had abandoned local farms, he said.
"In other countries this process might be described as ethnic cleansing but political correctness forbids such language where Israel is concerned," Dugard said."
***
OUCH!
"Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is "intolerable, appalling, tragic" and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday.
Special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory John Dugard said that the suffering of the Palestinians was a test of the readiness of the international community to protect human rights.
"If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, [it] must not be surprised if the people of the planet disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights," he said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
"Israel violates international law as expounded by the Security Council and the International Court of Justice and goes unpunished. But the Palestinian people are punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the U.S. and the EU," Dugard said.
Palestinians living between the barrier and the Green Line, the frontier at the end of the 1967 Six Day War, could no longer freely access schools and places of work and many had abandoned local farms, he said.
"In other countries this process might be described as ethnic cleansing but political correctness forbids such language where Israel is concerned," Dugard said."
***
OUCH!
Poll: 67% of Israelis want talks with new PA gov't
HAARETZ
"A majority of Israelis support holding negotiations with a Palestinian unity government that would include the Islamic Hamas movement, according to the results of a joint Palestinian-Israeli poll released on Tuesday.
Sixty-seven percent of Israeli respondents said such a step could be a necessary requisite for achieving a peace agreement with Palestinians.
The survey, which polled some 1,270 Palestinians, 500 Israeli Jews and 401 Israeli Arabs, was conducted as a coordinated effort between the Truman Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Khalil Shikaki in Ramallah. The survey was conducted in two parts, at the end of August and last week.
Some 56 percent of Israeli said they would support negotiations with the current Hamas government, while 46 percent of Israelis said they would oppose such a move.
Support within the Palestinian sector for negotiations with Israel have dwindled, however, with 59 percent of Palestinians in support of negotiations between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian government and 38 percent opposed. This represents a marked decline from a June survey, in which 70 percent of Palestinian respondents said they support Hamas negotiations with Israel.
Sixty-three percent of Palestinian respondents support Palestinians adopting Hezbollah methods of attacking Israeli towns with rockets, while 38 percent said they were opposed to this type of action. Some 57 percent of Palestinian respondents said they supported bombing attacks against Israeli civilians, and another 75 percent said they supported kidnapping Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
Still, 74 percent said it would not be worthwhile to rely on violence alone and that a political solution would have to be reached."
"A majority of Israelis support holding negotiations with a Palestinian unity government that would include the Islamic Hamas movement, according to the results of a joint Palestinian-Israeli poll released on Tuesday.
Sixty-seven percent of Israeli respondents said such a step could be a necessary requisite for achieving a peace agreement with Palestinians.
The survey, which polled some 1,270 Palestinians, 500 Israeli Jews and 401 Israeli Arabs, was conducted as a coordinated effort between the Truman Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Khalil Shikaki in Ramallah. The survey was conducted in two parts, at the end of August and last week.
Some 56 percent of Israeli said they would support negotiations with the current Hamas government, while 46 percent of Israelis said they would oppose such a move.
Support within the Palestinian sector for negotiations with Israel have dwindled, however, with 59 percent of Palestinians in support of negotiations between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian government and 38 percent opposed. This represents a marked decline from a June survey, in which 70 percent of Palestinian respondents said they support Hamas negotiations with Israel.
Sixty-three percent of Palestinian respondents support Palestinians adopting Hezbollah methods of attacking Israeli towns with rockets, while 38 percent said they were opposed to this type of action. Some 57 percent of Palestinian respondents said they supported bombing attacks against Israeli civilians, and another 75 percent said they supported kidnapping Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
Still, 74 percent said it would not be worthwhile to rely on violence alone and that a political solution would have to be reached."
CARTOON OF THE DAY
The Puppet Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, (in the pocket of the US occupation) Demands Permanent US Military Basis in Kurdistan.(Hamed Atta, 9/26/06).
Courtesy of Aljazeerah.info.
A cat reaches out from its crate after arriving from Lebanon by cargo jet at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas September 26, 2006.(REUTERS)
A rescued cat from Lebanon waits to be loaded on a truck after arriving by cargo jet at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas September 26, 2006.(REUTERS)
THE LEBANESE THE U.S. CARES ABOUT
U.S. Gets ‘Sovietized’
by Eric Margolis
Toronto Sun
"I still shudder recalling Lubyanka’s underground cells, grim interrogation rooms, and execution cellars where tens of thousands were tortured and shot. I sat at the desk from which the monsters who ran Cheka (Soviet secret police) — Dzerzhinsky, Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria — ordered 30 million victims to their deaths.
Prisoners taken in the dead of night to Lubyanka were systematically beaten for days with rubber hoses and clubs. There were special cold rooms where prisoners could be frozen to near death. Sleep deprivation was a favourite and most effective Cheka technique. So was near-drowning in water fouled with urine and feces.
I recall these past horrors because of what this column has long called the gradual “Sovietization” of the United States. This shameful week, it became clear Canada is also afflicted.
Canadians had a shocking view of similar creeping totalitarianism as the full horror of Maher Arar’s persecution was revealed. Thanks to false information from the RCMP, the U.S. arrested a Canadian citizen and sent him to Syria. Arab states and Pakistan were being used by the Bush administration for outsourced torture. Syria denies the charges.
I never thought I’d see the United States — champion of human rights and rule of law — legislating torture and Soviet-style kangaroo tribunals. I never thought I’d see Congress and a majority of Americans supporting such police state measures. Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln must be turning in their graves.
To me, Canada has always been a haven of moderation, decency, and rule of law — until the Maher Arar affair shockingly showed this country could also quickly fall into police state behaviour."
Toronto Sun
"I still shudder recalling Lubyanka’s underground cells, grim interrogation rooms, and execution cellars where tens of thousands were tortured and shot. I sat at the desk from which the monsters who ran Cheka (Soviet secret police) — Dzerzhinsky, Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria — ordered 30 million victims to their deaths.
Prisoners taken in the dead of night to Lubyanka were systematically beaten for days with rubber hoses and clubs. There were special cold rooms where prisoners could be frozen to near death. Sleep deprivation was a favourite and most effective Cheka technique. So was near-drowning in water fouled with urine and feces.
I recall these past horrors because of what this column has long called the gradual “Sovietization” of the United States. This shameful week, it became clear Canada is also afflicted.
Canadians had a shocking view of similar creeping totalitarianism as the full horror of Maher Arar’s persecution was revealed. Thanks to false information from the RCMP, the U.S. arrested a Canadian citizen and sent him to Syria. Arab states and Pakistan were being used by the Bush administration for outsourced torture. Syria denies the charges.
I never thought I’d see the United States — champion of human rights and rule of law — legislating torture and Soviet-style kangaroo tribunals. I never thought I’d see Congress and a majority of Americans supporting such police state measures. Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln must be turning in their graves.
To me, Canada has always been a haven of moderation, decency, and rule of law — until the Maher Arar affair shockingly showed this country could also quickly fall into police state behaviour."
Why Bush Will Nuke Iran
by Paul Craig Roberts
"The neoconservative Bush administration will attack Iran with tactical nuclear weapons, because it is the only way the neocons believe they can rescue their goal of U.S. (and Israeli) hegemony in the Middle East.
The U.S. has lost the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Generals in both war theaters are stating their need for more troops. But there are no troops to send.
That Musharraf would volunteer this information on American television is a good indication that Bush has lost the war. Musharraf can no longer withstand the anger he has created against himself by helping the U.S. slaughter his fellow Muslims in Bush's attempt to exercise U.S. hegemony over the Muslim world.
Bush's defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel's defeat by Hezbollah in Lebanon have shown that the military firepower of the U.S. and Israeli armies, though effective against massed Arab armies, cannot defeat guerillas and insurgencies.
Neocons believe that a nuclear attack on Iran would have intimidating force throughout the Middle East and beyond. Iran would not dare retaliate, neocons believe, against U.S. ships, U.S. troops in Iraq, or use their missiles against oil facilities in the Middle East.
Neocons have also concluded that a U.S. nuclear strike on Iran would show the entire Muslim world that it is useless to resist America's will. Neocons say that even the most fanatical terrorists would realize the hopelessness of resisting U.S. hegemony. The vast multitude of Muslims would realize that they have no recourse but to accept their fate.
It is possible that Bush will be blocked by Europe, Russia, and China, but there is no visible American opposition to Bush legitimizing the use of nuclear weapons at the behest of U.S. hegemony. It is astounding that such dangerous fanatics have control of the U.S. government and have no organized opposition in American politics."
"The neoconservative Bush administration will attack Iran with tactical nuclear weapons, because it is the only way the neocons believe they can rescue their goal of U.S. (and Israeli) hegemony in the Middle East.
The U.S. has lost the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Generals in both war theaters are stating their need for more troops. But there are no troops to send.
That Musharraf would volunteer this information on American television is a good indication that Bush has lost the war. Musharraf can no longer withstand the anger he has created against himself by helping the U.S. slaughter his fellow Muslims in Bush's attempt to exercise U.S. hegemony over the Muslim world.
Bush's defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel's defeat by Hezbollah in Lebanon have shown that the military firepower of the U.S. and Israeli armies, though effective against massed Arab armies, cannot defeat guerillas and insurgencies.
Neocons believe that a nuclear attack on Iran would have intimidating force throughout the Middle East and beyond. Iran would not dare retaliate, neocons believe, against U.S. ships, U.S. troops in Iraq, or use their missiles against oil facilities in the Middle East.
Neocons have also concluded that a U.S. nuclear strike on Iran would show the entire Muslim world that it is useless to resist America's will. Neocons say that even the most fanatical terrorists would realize the hopelessness of resisting U.S. hegemony. The vast multitude of Muslims would realize that they have no recourse but to accept their fate.
It is possible that Bush will be blocked by Europe, Russia, and China, but there is no visible American opposition to Bush legitimizing the use of nuclear weapons at the behest of U.S. hegemony. It is astounding that such dangerous fanatics have control of the U.S. government and have no organized opposition in American politics."
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