There will be a reckoning

The devastation of south Lebanon has echoes of Angola's towns shattered by South Africa in the 80s

Victoria Brittain in Bint Jbeil
Friday April 6, 2007
The Guardian

"From the rocky hills above the south Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil you look down over a valley of wild flowers and goats, where the word Hizbullah is scored into the grass. Three miles away is the border with Israel, and the red-tiled roofs of its settlements which face Bint Jbeil, the symbol of the war that Israel lost last summer. In 18 years of Israeli occupation of 10% of Lebanon, Bint Jbeil was the capital of Hizbullah's resistance, and it was unsurprising that it took the early brunt of Israeli air strikes, tanks, and street fighting in the 34 days of war......

Israelis, too, know about the power of memory, and made an attempt here to rub it out. Another of their prime targets was the hill-top prison of Khiam, northeast of Bint Jbeil, where hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians were held and tortured by Israel's proxy, the South Lebanese Army, during the occupation. Khiam was the symbol of Israel's power, and the prisoners' will to resist it. Today, bleak Khiam is a heap of tangled rubble, watched over by a man who spent four years inside the prison and has been telling its story ever since. All he can show now is one small remaining corridor of cells, and an isolation punishment box which he can just fit his body inside.

But three years ago, when I was last here, the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal was a holiday, and there was an atmosphere of celebration under a forest of Lebanese and Hizbullah flags. Khiam then was a Hizbullah museum, where families were shown round by this same former prisoner. The Angolan government produced a white book detailing every attack by South Africa, and today Lebanese citizens are doing the same, documenting civilian losses, damage to housing, land and the environment in a website: warrecords-lebanon.org.

Memory and history will be served by this, but there will be a reckoning beyond it. South Africa learned to live with its apartheid crimes through its truth and reconciliation commission. Will Israel go down this route too?"

Iraqis hold a British soldier's helmet and pieces of a British military Warrior fighting vehicle as they cheer after a road side bomb on British patrol in Basra, Iraq, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Thursday, April 5, 2007. Four British soldiers and a Kuwaiti interpreter were killed Thursday in an ambush in southern Iraq, the British military said. The patrol struck a roadside bomb and was hit by small-arms fire about 2 a.m. in the Hayaniyah district west of Basra.

A Rational Perspective on Our Present Crises

by Gabriel Kolko

"It is understandable that intelligent people should be preoccupied with the crises reported in the daily press, but they are best comprehended in their historical context. That context, and the crucial causes and motives guiding American foreign policy since 1950, are crucial to understanding the often bewildering and multidimensional events since the year 2000. George W. Bush and his cronies have done incalculable damage and committed terrible follies, but it is a fundamental error to assume that he is somehow original and the genesis of our present crisis.

It is much riskier to focus on particulars as if they have no precedents or are not part of an older, longer historical pattern. Indeed, a major fault of many assessments of US actions abroad is precisely such a disregard for the circumstances that led to them and their historical framework......"

A Provocation Backfires

Were the Brits ginning up a pretext for war in the Gulf?

By Justin Raimondo

".....This entire incident has been extremely odd, alright, but it isn't the Iranians who made it so. The behavior of the captured Brits is what struck me as truly bizarre. After all, two of them went on Iranian television, and, standing in front of a map, pointed out precisely where they were picked up by their captors – in what are clearly Iranian waters. Their televised apologies, it's true, were a violation of the Geneva conventions, but we in the West are hardly in the best position to raise that issue......

In any case, that was some pretty powerful – and convincing – video that the Iranians put out there, with relaxed and completely natural-looking-and -acting British sailors basically backing up what the Iranians said from the beginning. I agree with John McLaughlin: the Brits haven't been "entirely level with the world." Not that this would come as a surprise: as McLaughlin points out, Blair has long been among the chief manufacturers of alibis for the Bush administration.

The statements of the British sailors merely tend to confirm previously expressed doubts as to the actual coordinates released by the Brits. And now we hear the news – just released by Sky News – that they had been withholding an interview with one of the captives, Chris Air, filmed before his capture, in which he said they were indeed gathering intelligence on the Iranians. What it all adds up to, given what we know so far, is an incursion into Iranian waters that was in all likelihood deliberate......

Far from signaling a let up in the escalation of tensions, we are bound to see more such incidents – one of which will prove to be the tripwire for war......

We can stop the next war before it starts – but only if we catch the War Party at their game while they're playing it, and not after the fact, as in the case of Iraq. The Democrats are keen to cut off funding for a war that should never have started and could not have started without their cooperation: will they have the foresight and courage to defund the covert war against Iran before it becomes overt? I am not at all optimistic about this, but I'd be glad to be proven wrong......

The regime-changers, after all, are still in charge: Bush is a lame-duck, but he's still the big duck, and Blair is leaving, but isn't yet gone. Together, these two can do a lot more damage before they're safely out of office – and, given half a chance, they will.

The War Party may be discredited, reeling with defections, and genuinely hated by the majority of the English-speaking peoples, but I wouldn't count them out quite yet. The drama of the fifteen captives was just the beginning: there are plenty more provocations where that came from. This one backfired, it's true, but the danger is not past, or even decreased – because the next one may well succeed in sparking a conflict that will make the Iraq war look like a picnic in the park."

Ma'an readers believe the Arab summit mainly benefited Israel and the USA

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - The electronic weekly poll on the independent Ma'an News Agency's Arabic-language webpage has revealed that the majority of participants believe the results of the Arab summit in Riyadh benefited mainly Israel and the USA.

8,610 readers participated in the poll, representing a sample of readers for one week.

15.77% of the participants thought that the results of the summit benefited the Arabs and Palestinians. On the other hand, 72.86% thought that it benefited Israel and the USA.

11.37% of participants did not specify their point of views in the subject.

The Arab summit in Riyadh was held on 27-29 March. It concluded its activities by adopting the Arab peace initiative as the Arab states' approach for reaching a peaceful reconciliation to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Arab peace initiative comprises of offering Israel normalization of relations with all the Arab states in exchange for a withdrawal from all the territory it occupied in the 1967 war and an agreed, just solution to the Palestinian refugee question."

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Mike Luckovich

Olmert's theatrics

Israel's prime minister is engaged in a public relations exercise. Meanwhile, it is business as usual, as his army plans a wide ranging assault against Gaza

By Khaled Amayreh from East Jerusalem
Al-Ahram Weekly

"......Olmert's words are nothing more than double speak. The Israeli premier knows that without giving up the spoils of the 1967 War and allowing for the repatriation of the refugee, the chances of a durable peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and also with the Arab- Muslim world at large, are next to nil. Yet Olmert thinks that spin can replace true statesmanship. He is unwilling to pay the price for peace but instead indulges in diversionary tactics, extolling the need to hold direct discussions with Arab leaders.

Israel has been engaging in peace talks with the Palestinians for 15 years and with the Arabs for decades to no avail. What point can there be in holding further discussions beyond trying to cajole or bully the Arab side into accepting the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land by Ashkenazi supremists?.....

Olmert doesn't stop at refusing Arab and non-Arab peace overtures. He also wants to ignite a civil war among Palestinians and would like to see Arab states augment Israel's callous blockade of Gaza......

Olmert is also very weak politically with a majority of Israeli pundits predicting that his hobbled together government is unlikely to survive to the end of the year. That weakness could hold many problems for the Palestinians as Olmert is tempted to pursue further military adventures and engage in political posturing in a doomed attempt to secure public support. Indeed this week the Israeli chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, said that Israel was planning to launch a far- reaching incursion into the Gaza Strip to "prevent Hamas from growing stronger".....

Olmert is likely to continue to recite his calls for peace and repeatedly express his sincere and heart-felt desire to hold talks with Arab leaders. Meanwhile his government and army continue to rape the Palestinian people and steal chunk after chunk of their homeland. It is a strategy that will continue for as long as world leaders are willing to remain silent in the face of Israeli recalcitrance.

This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made another pilgrimage to Israel to ask for further atonement for the Holocaust. Merkel, who only met non-Hamas members of the Palestinian government, blamed the Palestinians for everything from the stalled peace process to crippling Western sanctions on them. One Palestinian official described Merkel's behaviour as "brazen and shameful".

"This woman, like all German leaders since [Konrad] Adenauer, feels enslaved by the Jews. I believe that even if Israel carried out a fully-fledged holocaust against the Palestinians, German leaders wouldn't even protest... German political whoredom seems to know no limits.""

Back to square one

Tempted by the trappings of statehood, Palestinian leaders forgot they had yet to build a state

By Azmi Bishara
Al-Ahram Weekly

"......The PLO was founded as a movement for refugees striving to liberate their land, not as a movement to fight the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. It was founded in East Jerusalem at a time when that city was under Arab sovereignty and when the creation of a Palestinian entity meant the creation of a liberation organisation embodying the political aspirations and national identity of the Palestinian people. There was never any question of the creation of a state on only a portion of the land; indeed, in order to receive the Jordanian monarch's approval to hold the PLO constitutional assembly in Jerusalem the founders had to assure him this was not the intent......

There is a big difference between a real state and a hypothetical one, even if the latter's representatives can sit around a table imagining themselves equal to the former's representatives, even if Palestinian and Israeli kids can play in the same youth orchestra, conceived of by some European philanthropist as a way to illustrate the possibilities of mutual co-existence and brotherly love, as opposed to the same kids pelting each other with stones, even if Palestinian writers can engage in fruitful debate with their Israeli "counterparts" as an alternative to the "mutual exchange of violence", and even if Palestinians can "liberate" international peace prizes as the symbolic alternative to true liberation. There is a big difference. Unfortunately, today we are witnessing the consequences of the obfuscation of this difference.....

The result was that Israel was rewarded with a liberation movement that had abandoned its original calling, structures and alliances while the Palestinians were still without a state. The second result was that the 1967 boundaries were transformed from the eventual lines of a peace agreement, as was the case with Syria and Egypt, to the ultimate hope in eventual negotiations over a lasting solution to the Palestinian cause. The third is that the Palestinian people became one of "two sides", and now have to prove themselves worthy in order for the occupying power to negotiate with them. It seems even Islamist resistance movements such as Hamas are being lured into the game of proving themselves in an attempt to win the acceptance of the international community, an almost impossible task for any Islamist movement.

These may be the rules of the game of nations but they are not the rules by which national liberation movements should play. For the moment Hamas is hesitating at the threshold. If it steps across it will go down the same slippery path as the liberation movements that preceded it.

The PLO lost the structure, vision, alliances and rights of a liberation movement before it even became a state. Because it wanted the prerogatives of state so prematurely it had to accept the obligations of a state prematurely. This entailed not only calling off the resistance, as nations do once they achieve independence, but also fighting the resistance, now termed "terrorism"......

It was the Palestinian refugees that created the Palestinian national liberation movement. It was from beneath that umbrella that there emerged the anti- occupation resistance movements, on the one hand, and, on the other, the drive to create a Palestinian state as an end in itself.

Who among us has not met that loathsome specimen that is forever trying to shed his connections with the people who gave him the initial leg up on the ladder to success? Such people's sense of self- importance is so great that they suppress all memory of those to whom debts of gratitude are owed. Such inflated egos quickly reveal a propensity for other evil......

When refugees become too much of bother for the Palestinian state enterprise something is terribly askew. A state without the right to return is not just a perversion, it is a burden on the cause of Palestinian refugees, of Jerusalem and of the struggle against Zionism."

Few Americans trust military or media for information on Iraq: poll

"Most Americans have little or no confidence in the information they receive from the military or the media about the situation in Iraq, according to a poll released Thursday.

The survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 52 percent have little or no faith in the military's portrayal of the four-year war, compared with 60 percent who feel the same way about the press reports of the conflict.

The figures are a far cry from the overwhelming confidence Americans had in the military and the media at the outset of the war in March 2003.

At the time, fully 85 percent said they had at least a fair amount of confidence in military information and 81 percent were confident the press was giving an accurate picture of the war.

Michael Dimock, associate director of the Pew Research Center, said the poll findings mirror the public's perception of how well the war is going overall.

"People are questioning whether they are getting good information about how things are going and it's affecting the public's confidence in the government and military as well as the press," Dimock told AFP......"

Pelosi's Misguided Middle East Visit

Dr. Marcy Newman, Electronic Lebanon, 5 April 2007
(Dr. Marcy Newman is a Visiting Professor at the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut and a Fellow at the Initiative for Middle East Policy Dialogue)

"......Twice in the last month Pelosi delivered a speech -- of more or less the same message -- before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conference and before the Israeli Knesset. In these speeches, she unequivocally stated: "When Israel is threatened, America's interests in the region are threatened. America's commitment to Israel's security needs is unshakable." Statements such as this have made Pelosi, along with her traveling companion Congressman Tom Lantos, one of the top ten recipients of AIPAC donations. She received a standing ovation for these sentiments in the Knesset where she linked the U.S. and Israel's "common cause": " a safe and secure Israel living in peace with her neighbors."

Perhaps Pelosi genuinely wants to secure peace in the region. If this were the case, however, we would have seen some indication of balance in her fact-finding mission. While in Israel, Pelosi discussed her visits with the families of Israeli soldiers taken last summer in Gaza and Lebanon, naming them and relaying stories about them. Not once was a Palestinian or Lebanese killed or wounded in Israel's wars dignified with any such humanizing gesture. Instead Pelosi focused entirely on Hezbollah's violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 for failing to disarm. Not once did she mention Israel's almost daily violation of that same resolution with military jets invading Lebanese airspace or recent military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Moreover, she failed to mention Israel's continued occupation of Shaaba Farms and Ghajar, which are also violations of 1701; nor did she engage with serious discussions of the occupation of the Golan Heights or the Palestinian Territories with leaders in the region......."

The Happiest Day in Habila's Life......
He Finally Gets to Sit Down With an Englishman.....
Let the Celebrations Continue....

ماذا يعني تفعيل المبادرة العربية في قمة الرياض؟

ياسر الزعاترة
Al-Jazeera

"..........

هكذا تبدو المنطقة برمتها في وضع انتظار لما سيجري بين الولايات المتحدة وإيران، في حين تبدو بعض الدول العربية المعنية بالخطر الإيراني أكثر من خطر المشروع الأميركي الصهيوني في حال من الاستنفار من أجل تسهيل الضربة العسكرية، ليس فقط بتعزيز الحشد الطائفي ولعبة عزل إيران عن محيطها العربي والإسلامي، وإنما أيضا، وهو الأهم، بتهدئة الملف الفلسطيني.

وما من شك في أن إيران بسلوكها الأرعن في العراق مازالت تساهم في تعزيز عزلتها، في وقت ينبغي عليها فيه أن تدرك أن الجماهير لا تأتمر بأمر أنظمتها، ولو لم يكن الموقف مقنعا بشكل من الأشكال، لما كان عزلها يسيرا بحال.

هنا يمكن القول إن القضية الفلسطينية ستدفع ثمن هذه اللعبة بإدخالها في متاهة جديدة تشبه متاهة أوسلو السابقة، في حين أن الجميع يدرك حقيقة النهاية القادمة في ظل معادلة إسرائيلية ترى فيما عرض في كامب ديفد عام 2000 تنازلا لا يمكن احتماله.

في المقابل يبدو من حق الكثير من المحللين أن يكونوا واثقين من أن المخطط الأميركي الإسرائيلي لن يمر، لأن الشعوب وقواها الحية التي أفشلت مشروع الغزو في العراق وأفغانستان وفي لبنان، هي ذاتها التي ستفشل هذا المخطط، بينما سيشكل العدوان الأميركي على إيران ورطة جديدة بما سيترتب عليه من تداعيات سيئة على المصالح الأميركية.

ولن يطول الوقت قبل أن تعود الساحة الفلسطينية إلى فعلها المقاوم من جديد، وبالطبع على وقع تكريس الهزيمة الأميركية في العراق، تلك التي لن تؤثر جوهريا في ميزان القوى الإقليمي فحسب، بل في ميزان القوى الدولي أيضا."

PMO denies peace message to Assad

"The Prime Minister's Office issued a rare "clarification" Wednesday that, in gentle diplomatic terms, contradicted US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's statement in Damascus that she had brought a message from Israel about a willingness to engage in peace talks.

According to the statement, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert emphasized in his meeting with Pelosi on Sunday that "although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the Axis of Evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East."....."

By Martin Rawson, The Guardian.

Basra blast kills four UK troops

"Four British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb attack in southern Iraq last night, the Ministry of Defence said today.

A Kuwaiti interpreter was also killed, and a fifth British solider seriously wounded in the incident, which happened during a patrol west of Basra.

The latest fatalities bring the British death toll in Iraq for the last few days to six, making it the worst week for British casualties since 10 British personnel died when an RAF Hercules plane crashed outside Baghdad on January 30 2005.

Today's casualties were the worst loss in a single incident since four British service personnel were killed in an attack on a coalition boat patrol last November.

Captain Katie Brown, a spokeswoman for the British military in Basra, said the patrol was attacked at about 2am local time in the Hayaniya district, west of Basra.

In London, an MoD spokeswoman said: "It is with deep regret that we can confirm that four British soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in a roadside bomb attack against a Warrior patrol west of Basra this morning. Next of kin are being informed and no further details will be released until this process is complete."

The total death toll of British service personnel in Iraq since hostilities began now stands at 140......"

Two Iraqi Children
By Emad Hajjaj

In the heart of Little Fallujah

The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria have created their own enclaves, from Little Fallujah to Little Mosul, where many have set up businesses. They pay in US dollars, dance to the tune of their own music and share one desire: to return to an Iraq free of occupying forces. Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have learned a lot if she had taken a stroll in Little Fallujah.

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

""Today's "zero point" returns Iraq to its own history, a history written with the ashes of incendiary fires, with its sons fleeing in all directions on the one hand, and its exiles returning to their own homes on the other. I truly do not know if distance today can be defined through the experiences of refugees, or the masses of displaced people, or the exiles returning to burning cities to live out a sense of loss. Distances begin to take on the forms of lines which have been drawn on ashen roads, resembling the traces of people who have lost their way and have never arrived." - Mohamed Mazloom, Baghdad poet, born 1963, exiled in Syria......

This proliferation of Little Iraqs accounts for the biggest exodus in the Middle East since the Palestinians were forced to abandon their own lands in 1948 as the State of Israel was being created. In every single month in Iraq at least 40,000 people are displaced. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there may be as many as 50,000 a month. Were that rate to continue, before 2020, all the population of Iraq would have been "liberated" from its own country.....

Whichever Iraq one picks in Damascus, the mantra is recited in unison. Any glimmer of hope for the future hinges on the Americans leaving - and the establishment, by Iraqis, with no foreign interference, of a non-sectarian government......

Ammar is emphatic: "There is no Sunni against Shi'ite. The Americans provoked it. Since the beginning they started talking about separate areas. In Baghdad most marriages are mixed." That's exactly his case. He is Shi'ite, his wife is Sunni. He says that "in all Arab countries we feel comfortable", but anyway he has entered a demand for a long-term visa to Australia. "We don't want to put pressure on the kindness of the Syrian people.".....

It's easy to forget that Hafez Assad's Syria and Saddam Hussein's Iraq had no diplomatic relations whatsoever from 1980 to 1997. Now every Iraqi showing up at the Syrian border automatically gets a one-month visa; they then apply for a three-month resident visa. Visa runs are common. Unlike in "liberated" Iraq, in Syria there's virtually no unemployment for Iraqis. Overqualified, young, educated Iraqis at least survive with dignity as Internet-cafe managers or restaurant waiters. Iraqis are admitted to Syrian schools and universities with no special prerequisites. The Syrian state pays half of their medical bills. No wonder there is also a boom in mixed Syrian-Iraqi marriages......

Syria recognizes - formally - that Iraqis are refugees who need to be protected. The administrations of George W Bush and Tony Blair, on the other hand, could never admit to the world they are the source of all this - "the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world" as defined by Kenneth Bacon, president of Refugees International.

Pelosi would have learned much more about the effects of the war on Iraq - and what Syria is actually doing about it - if she had traded the historic wonders of the Old City for a stroll in all-too-real Little Fallujah."

The Farce Known as "Palestinian Government"

Israeli army invades Tulkarem after ordering all Palestinian security forces off the streets

"Tulkarem - Ma'an - The Israeli forces have returned to their policy of prohibiting Palestinian security forces from deploying in the streets during their military operations in the occupied West Bank.

On Wednesday evening, the Israeli army invaded the West Bank city of Tulkarem, and broke into several neighbourhoods, following orders to the Palestinian security services to withdraw from the streets.

Our Tulkarem correspondent reported that a number of Israeli patrols passed through the streets of Tulkarem, provoking the citizens. No arrests or storming of houses were reported.

This incursion into the city came after the Israeli army informed the Palestinian side in Tulkarem of its intention to conduct a security operation in the city. The Israeli side demanded that no members of the Palestinian security wearing military uniform or carrying arms appear in the streets of Tulkarem. They were ordered to stay in their bases.

Earlier on Wednesday evening, a Palestinian security force stopped a civilian Mercedes Benz minibus near the Iktaba road junction in east Tulkarem and was shocked to discover six Israeli Special Forces members in the vehicle. It appears that the Israeli soldiers were on a special undercover mission and had sneaked into Tulkarem disguised in civilian dress. The driver of the car showed an ID card revealing that he was from the 'Israeli Defence Forces' (IDF) and left the scene quickly.

Subsequently, the Israeli army informed their Palestinian counterparts to prevent Palestinian security men from appearing in the streets and informed them of their intention to carry out a security operation in Tulkarem.

Palestinian security sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, accused the Israeli occupation authorities of working to frustrate the Palestinian security forces' security campaign in the city. He added that he fears the Palestinian forces will not be able continue their law and order campaign in this atmosphere and in light of this Israeli decision."

***

"Palestinian forces will not be able continue their law and order campaign"

Some law and order! The law is Israel's law and the order is Israel ordering the Palestinian "security forces" to stay in their base; Whose security is it anyway?

If the Palestinians have any self-respect left, they should be in the streets demanding the termination of this collaborating "Palestinian government." This would be another occasion for Habila to smile and wave to the crowds.

The Heroic Abbas Forces Turn the Other Cheek

Palestinian policemen inadvertently stop a minibus full of Israeli Special Forces in Tulkarem

"Tulkarem - Ma'an - As part of the ongoing Palestinian security campaign to impose the law in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, Palestinian policemen stopped a civilian vehicle, a Mercedes minibus, on Wednesday. The incident took place in the Iktaba suburb in east Tulkarem. The policemen were stunned when they discovered that the minibus was full of Israeli Special Forces.

Our Tulkarem correspondent quoted a security source as saying: "The Palestinian security forces who stopped the car gave the driver permission to pass because he showed an ID card which said that he belongs to the Israeli army. Then the car left swiftly."

The reporter added that the Israelis informed the Palestinian side following the incident that they intend to undertake a security operation in Tulkarem. Consequently, the Palestinian security forces withdrew from the streets."

***

"IOF, Have a nice day!"

Stop The Dirty War

Why Should American Blood and Taxes Be Spent on Propping Up a Sectarian Shi’a State Engaged in Ethnic Cleansing and Daily Human Rights Abuses?

A Time For Congressional Hearings

by Tom Hayden

"The time has come to understand the new de facto US policy in Iraq: to support, fund, arm and train a sectarian Shi’a-Kurdish state, one engaged in ethnic cleansing, mass detention and murder of Sunni Arabs.

If this description seems harsh, it is only because our minds are crowded with false or outdated paradigms. First was the dream of Baghdad as an exemplary democratic domino. Then the kumbaya notion of a unitary neo-liberal state with proportional representation and revenue-sharing among Shi’a, Kurds and Sunnis. All along, the US has described itself as a neutral arbiter among warring factions, a promoter of the rule of law and human rights in the Iraqi jungle.

Even as former US ambassador Khalilzad left Baghdad, he was struggling to clinch deals over oil revenue-sharing, reversal of de-Baathification laws, and inclusion of Sunni interests in constitutional reform and local governance. The Shi’a, muttering that Khalilzad was a Sunni apologist, seemed uninterested in anything but window-dressing reforms.


Whether by accident or design, the reality since 2006 is that the Shi’a, with Kurdish approval, are carrying out a sectarian war against the Sunni population with American dollars and trainers......

In short, the problem of sectarian police violence cannot be detached from the Frankenstein state that US policies have fostered in the vacuum after Saddam Hussein. More professional training and human rights seminars will never stop the Shi’a parties from taking their revenge made possible by American money, weapons, and political support. Only a US withdrawal deadline coupled with the urgent diplomatic offensive proposed by the ISG, can possibly save Iraq “from rapid decline to rapid deterioration with grave humanitarian, political, and security consequences” as forecast in the NIE document.

The Congress should investigate just what kind of regime American troops are being ordered to defend with American dollars. If cutting off tax funding for the overall war is too much for our lawmakers at present, how can they justify the funding of secret prisons, official militias, ethnic cleansing of a US-sponsored dirty war? When did that become the authorized mission of our forces in Iraq?

There is a reason for the establishment’s fear of that the story of the dirty war will come out. The American people won’t stand for it....."

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

The Arab puppet is carrying a sign which reads, "down with America!"

Missing the Point: Colonialism, Not an Intellectual Squabble

By Ramzy Baroud

"In a spacious yet fortified United Nations compound in Rome, members of a Palestine committee at the General Assembly repeated old mantras: They vowed support for Palestinians, issued a press release and went for lunch.

The committee consisted of several UN ambassadors; all well-intended, sympathetic and concerned; nonetheless, they also knew too well that their efforts were, more or less, futile. One of the ambassadors, of a country not so friendly by American standards, exclaimed: “No matter how hard we try, America blocks our efforts.”....

These are not mere symbolic problems that can be addressed via a well-articulated Arab peace initiative or that can be solved via dialogue. Israel understands well that a Jewish state can only be established in a domain that is free from anyone who fails to subscribe to such a quality. Joseph Weitz, who was appointed by the Jewish Agency to head transfer committees in 1948 captured the underlying essence of the Israeli project since day one: “Between ourselves it must be clear that there is not room for both peoples together in this country. ...We shall not achieve our goal of being an independent people with the Arabs in this small country. The only solution is a Palestine without Arabs.”

From the early days of Ben Gurion’s transfer to Vladimar Jobotinsky’s “Iron wall” to today’s Separation Wall and purely Jewish colonies, the impetus of the Israeli project has never lost momentum. Meanwhile, Palestinians are in a constant state of transfer and re-transfer. It is undoubtedly clear that Israel will not achieve peace out of benevolence and through unconditional dialogue; it can only be pressured to do so. It neither needs Arab initiatives nor joint parliamentary meetings in which misunderstandings are smoothed over. We must either begin to think on that front, or quit wasting precious time in extravagant conferences, symposiums and NGO meetings."

Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of Terror (Part 1)

Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007

"Dr. Sami Al-Arian, Palestinian political prisoner, is being held in a prison hospital, after a debilitating 60-day hunger strike seeking to draw the attention of the nation and the world to the injustice visited upon him, jailed for his commitment to justice and dignity for his homeland. This is not a scene from an Israeli jail, however, but from a U.S. prison in North Carolina. Al-Arian's hunger strike ended at the pleas of his family -- yet without justice for Al-Arian, whose imprisonment is part and parcel of a U.S. government policy of targeting Palestinian activists, as well as the broader Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities, in an internal "war of terror" whose policies run parallel to that being waged abroad.

The case of Sami Al-Arian is a story of persecution, perseverance, and, ultimately, the determination of those in power to criminalize resistance and punish Palestinian activism, subverting not only the principles of justice but also their own criminal justice system in order to do so. Sami Al-Arian, 49, is a Palestinian refugee who has lived in the United States for over thirty years and has, for the last decade, alongside his prominent role as an activist and leader in the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities in the Tampa Bay, Florida area and nationally, his work as a professor of computer science at the University of South Florida, and his personal life as a husband and father to five children, waged a prominent battle to protect fundamental rights within the U.S. from an assault through secret evidence, racist detention policies, and an all-out assault on community organizing and solidarity work within targeted communities. Al-Arian has lived with over a dozen years of surveillance, and eight years of FBI agents shadowing his movements. Today, he is imprisoned, despite the fact that he was convicted of nothing by a jury, despite a parade of witnesses and years of harassment......"

Click Here for Part Two of this Article

Read It in the Israeli Press

What separates Israel from its neighbors is not democracy or respect for human and civil rights: it is the discriminatory fashion by which these rights are denied.

By Miko Peled
Special to PalestineChronicle.com

"Thanks to the Israeli press, people in Israel are informed regularly about their government's mistreatment of the 4.5 million Palestinians under their rule. Most of the information regarding the occupation of Palestine and the oppression of its people is well documented and accurately reported in the Israeli press. But even the most serious offenses are given a “kosher” stamp, so to speak, once the word “security” is attached to them.

There are ample examples of this, but few are as striking as the one provided in the March 23rd issue of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. In this issue, there is an interview with the retired Chief Interrogator of the Shabak, Israel's internal secret security service, 79-year-old Arieh Hadar. Mr. Hadar admits to acts taken by the Israeli internal secret security service that have never before been revealed publicly.

Were Israel to be the democracy it claims to be, this man would be put on trial, or at least beg for amnesty in exchange for the damning testimony he provided. If Israel had the least amount of respect for human and civil rights, this interview would lead to an investigation and perhaps even arrests. But in the Israeli democracy men and women of this kind are above the law, and beyond incrimination. In Israel, the security apparatus is a sanctified system that no one dares to question, it is world of shadowy heroes to whom Israelis are made to believe they owe their lives. Mr. Hadar is interviewed as a hero who served his country instead of a villain that brought it shame......"

Zionism, Puppet Regimes and Political Allies

US attack against Iran goes in the short run, ultimately the US loses: The military losses will be felt throughout Iraq, the oil catastrophe will reverberate throughout the world.


An Excellent Article and Recommended Reading

By James Petras
PalestineChronicle.com

"An understanding of US imperial policy in the Middle East requires an analysis, which centres on four points:

1) The power and influence of Israel and the Zionist power configuration over US political institutions (Congress, the Executive branch, the mass media, the two major political parties and electoral processes), their economic leverage on investment and financial institutions (state and trade union pension funds, investment banks), their cultural domination of journals, the performing arts, magazines, films and newspapers. Zionist political, economic and cultural power is directed exclusively toward maximizing Israel’s military, economic and political expansion and superiority in the Middle East even when it conflicts with other US imperialist interests.

2) The capacity of the US Empire to construct and instrumentalize Middle East client states and mercenary forces to implement US policies. The most prominent and important current instruments of US policy in the Middle East include the puppet regime in Iraq, the Abbas-Dahlan group in Palestine, the Kurds in Iraq, the Sinoria-Harari-Jumblat regime in Lebanon, the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organisation, Kurds and Sunni tribalists in Iran and the puppet Somali ‘regime’ backed by Ethiopian-Ugandan mercenaries.

3) An alliance with right-wing regimes and rulers in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Israel to provide military bases, intelligence and political backing for the colonial occupation in Iraq, the division of Iraq, economic sanctions and war against Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and any other clerical-nationalist and leftist movements in the Middle East.

4) The capacity to contain, repress and limit the opposition of the majority of the US public and a minority of Congress members to the current war in Iraq and a future war against Iran . The key problem for US imperialism is the discrediting of the civilian-militarists in the White House and their increasing tendency to resort to new political ‘adventures’ and ‘provocations’ to recover support and to concentrate dictatorial powers in the President’s office.

These ‘vectors’ of US Middle East policy are increasingly challenged from within and without, are subject to sharp contradictions and face the probability of failing. Nevertheless the ‘machinery’ of imperial power is still operating and defining the nature of US Middle East policy.....

For the first time in the history of world empires, a tiny ethnic-religious minority, representing less than 2% of the population is able to shape US policy in the Middle East to serve the colonial interests of a foreign country (Israel), which represents less than 1% of the population of the Middle East. The Zionist power configuration in the US with several hundred thousand fanatical activists, throughout the country, can mobilize close to 98% of the US Congress on any legislation favoring Israel , even when their approval prejudices major US oil multinationals. AIPAC (the America-Israel Political Affairs Committee) with one hundred thousand members and 100 full time agents writes over 100 pieces of Congressional legislation affecting US trade, military aid and sanctions policies favoring Israel every year. In March 2007, the leaders of both political parties, Congress and the Senate and over 50% of all members of the Congress attended and pledged allegiance to the state of Israel at the most recent AIPAC convention in Washington . This was despite the fact that two leaders of AIPAC are currently on trial for spying for Israel and face twenty years in prison!.....

However a US attack against Iran goes in the short run, ultimately the US loses: The military losses will be felt throughout Iraq, the oil catastrophe will reverberate throughout the world, the political consequences will be greater polarization against the US-Israel axis throughout Europe, Asia and of course, the Middle East. The result will be the final demise of the Bush regime and the total discredit of the Zionist-controlled Democratic Party. A major economic recession will incite open class and national conflicts. Once again, an imperialist war may be the midwife of revolutions: the Russian Revolution followed World War I, the Chinese Revolution followed World War II; will World War III lead to a new revolutionary cycle?"

Pimping for War

Israelis want rematch in Lebanon

"It seems as though some Israeli military and political leaders are champing at the bit for a rematch with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon after the bloody nose the Israeli Defense Forces got there last summer.

The difference this time around? The IDF will go into Gaza, too -- and it is all part of a plan to neutralize Iranian proxies on Israel`s borders, one element of a strategic effort to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons and overthrow the mullahs in Tehran.

The plan was laid out in Washington last month by Effie Eitam, a hawkish former general and darling of the orthodox hard right who now leads a small religious splinter group in the Knesset.

But Eitam is also head of the Knesset subcommittee overseeing the IDF`s lessons-learned exercise following the disastrous IDF operation in southern Lebanon last year, and on this issue, some analysts say, he speaks for a significant current of opinion within the Israeli military.......

Islamic militants equipped with anti-tank weapons and surface-to-surface missiles like those being stockpiled in Gaza and south Lebanon, he said, were 'something like Iranian missile batteries and Iranian infantry divisions.'

He called Gaza and south Lebanon 'two arms of Tehran closing around us.'

'The question is when and how those arms will be dealt with,' he said, adding it would be answered 'in the context of how we are going to defeat the whole ideological system' the Iranian revolution had spawned.

'If we don`t defeat this regime, this ideology,' and Iran is able to develop nuclear weapons, 'there will not be even one safe place' in the whole world.

For this reason, he said, the question was 'not only an Israeli one, although we are at the front line.'

The mullahs 'have to know that, if diplomacy fails, the alternative of a nuclear Iran is not acceptable.'

'Within the planning for that' confrontation, 'we will have to give consideration to their proxies here.'

Eitam said that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq 'before defeating the Iranian regime ... (would have) enormous strategic consequences.'

'We would witness a total collapse of U.S. credibility,' he predicted.

'The only way to bring about strategic change in the region is to defeat the Ayatollahs,' he said, advocating 'use (of) all means' including diplomatic measures and economic sanctions. But 'some military action is almost inevitable,' he warned......"

Security quartet formed to address issue of arms smuggling into Gaza, Abbas receives 5,500 new weapons

"......Now a new 'security' quartet has been formed to deal solely with the issue of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The 'security' quartet consists of representatives from Israel, Egypt, the United States and the Palestinian Authority. Last weekend delegations from each of the quartet nations met in Cairo, the meeting was chaired by U.S. Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, the security coordinator between Israel and the Palestinians.

Tunnels

According to sources, the quartet expressed dissatisfaction with Egypt's attempts to wipe-out arms smuggling through tunnels into the Gaza Strip.

Israeli security sources stated that Egypt has pledged to intensify security cooperation with Israel with regard to arms-smuggling from Rafah to the Gaza Strip.

According to Haaretz, Egypt will also clamp down on Palestinian fugitives that reach the Sinai side of the Rafah crossing......

Haaretz claimed that Jordan transferred 3,000 M-16 rifles to Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, through the sheikh Hussein crossing between Jordan and Israel. Egypt transferred 2,500 AK-47 rifles to Abbas loyalists through the Rafah crossing. Egypt and Jordan also donated 3 million bullets for the rifles.

Security bodies loyal to Abbas bought heavy machine guns from an undisclosed source and managed to bring them into the territories......"

***

Long live PA-Israeli-Egyptian "security" cooperation. This should keep PM Habila smiling and waving.

The legacy of Fallujah

The western rhetoric of apathy must not blind us to our obligation to challenge atrocities

Jonathan Holmes
(Jonathan Holmes is a writer, director and academic; his play Fallujah opens at the Old Truman Brewery, London, on May 1)

Wednesday April 4, 2007
The Guardian

"Rana Al-Aiouby was risking her life delivering essential medicine to the wounded in the Iraqi city of Fallujah when she witnessed first-hand the effect of chemical weapons deployment by US troops. Despite their prohibition under several international treaties and by the Geneva conventions, white phosphorus and a napalm derivative were used without discrimination on the civilian population of a city the size of Edinburgh throughout 2004.......

In the face of repeated independent verification, US forces have now acknowledged the use of chemical weapons, and yet there remains no sustained international outcry and no official response (let alone condemnation) from any government or the United Nations. The US has overthrown a regime while supposedly searching for phantom weapons of mass destruction, only to use such weapons on the newly "liberated" civilian population. The cold hypocrisy of such actions is outweighed only by its extravagant viciousness.

Seventy articles of the Geneva conventions were breached in the two separate months of siege warfare. Despite calls to abolish the conventions by the past and present Conservative leaders Michael Howard and David Cameron among others, they remain an essential bulwark against the bullying tactics of the powerful, and a poignant index of the increasing impunity of the neo-colonial project. Their ethos is that the innocent, the weak, the defeated and the injured be afforded all the protection possible in times of conflict. The ethos of the US government is that the weak and innocent are a hindrance to the acquisition of power and, occasionally, an opportunity for the expansion of profit.

In writing my play Fallujah, which weaves together eye-witness accounts from Rana and many others present during these attacks, what astonished me was the symmetry between the testimony of American soldiers and that of their victims: "Yeah, we napalmed those bridges," said Colonel Randolph Alles, of Marine Air Group 11, in an interview with James Crawley of the San Diego Union-Tribune. "The generals love napalm." The guys on the ground no longer bother dissembling, so confident are their masters that protest, should it happen, will be muted and ineffectual......"

The "Independent" European Stance

Bushitler

First They Came for the Spies

Why is the Wall Street Journal in favor of espionage?

By Justin Raimondo

"The title of Dorothy Rabinowitz's Wall Street Journal screed defending two accused spies, "First They Came for the Jews," telegraphs the strategy apologists for Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman will be using when the two AIPAC officials' trial on charges of espionage, scheduled for June 4, finally begins. It is also a smear so outrageous it almost defies belief. What that headline communicates is the warped conception that the U.S. government, in prosecuting two prominent lobbyists on behalf of Israel for handing over sensitive classified information to Israeli officials, is the equivalent of the Nazi regime.......

The defenders of Rosen and Weissman argue that this is a First Amendment case, but there is no First Amendment right to engage in espionage – or else why aren't the Rosenbergs considered martyrs to the principle of "free speech"? This isn't just about passing information to Israel. Franklin is an associate of neoconservative guru Michael Ledeen and fellow Pentagon analyst Harold Rhode, with whom he traveled to Rome in 2001 to attend an unauthorized meeting with Iranian "dissidents" and the scamster Manucher Ghorbanifar, of Iran-Contra fame (which Ledeen also played a key role in, as Israel's go-between). The Senate Intelligence Committee was supposed to be looking into this, along with the FBI, but somehow that investigation got stalled. Will the Democratic majority now take it up with alacrity? Don't bet the farm on it. The Lobby is a bipartisan powerhouse, and any hopes that the Democrats will take time out from embarrassing Alberto Gonzales to pull some really grisly skeletons out of the closet are dim, at best. Besides which, this is a nonpartisan scandal, one that – as we examine the unusually long timeline of the investigation into the Lobby's underground activities – implicates Democrats as well as Republicans.

It seems hardly surprising that the War Party would team up with agents of a foreign power in order to advance the cause of "regime change" throughout the Middle East. Especially in the case of Iran, Israeli patriots with American citizenship could easily convince themselves that Washington's interests and Tel Aviv's are perfectly consonant, even identical. That's why we get this odd "patriotic" theme from Rabinowitz – so blinded by ideology that she sees reason where there is only treason.

Franklin is being touted as a man who was simply ahead of his time: he saw the alleged danger to American soldiers in Iraq from Iranian operatives and went to AIPAC in order to do something about it. That he and his confreres in Feith's policy shop were engaged in provoking such a confrontation, and otherwise setting up a series of tripwires aimed at Tehran, is what will come out at the trial. Before they could do that, however, the Israelis had to gather as much intelligence about the U.S. government's internal deliberations – and the state of our own intelligence on Iran – as possible. Then and only then could they win the internecine war taking place between the neocons and the State Department "realists" – basically the same configuration of forces that fought it out in the prelude to war with Iraq.

It now appears that, having won, the neocons are reaping the fruits of the AIPAC spy ring's treason, as accusations fly of Iranian interference in Iraq and the next border incident could provoke an all-out conflict. The June trial (scheduled for the same day that, in 1986, Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard entered a guilty plea) will reveal much about how we got to this point – and, perhaps, open up the possibility of halting our headlong rush to war. That is, if the shooting hasn't already started…"

Ilan Pappe to quit Israel for UK

"Ilan Pappe, a senior lecturer in the University of Haifa's Department of Political Science, says he is moving to the UK because it is "increasingly difficult to live in Israel" with his "unwelcome views and convictions."

In an interview in The Peninsula, Qatar's leading English-language daily, during a visit last week to Doha as a guest of the Qatar Foundation, Pappe said: "I was boycotted in my university and there had been attempts to expel me from my job. I am getting threatening calls from people every day. I am not being viewed as a threat to the Israeli society but my people think that I am either insane or my views are irrelevant. Many Israelis also believe that I am working as a mercenary for the Arabs."

Pappe is to join the History Department at Exeter University, in southwest England. He is active in anti-Israel academic boycott efforts.

Referred to in the Peninsula article as "the only
Jewish academic in Israel who is vehemently critical of Zionism," Pappe said the only solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was the creation of a single state, shared by Jews, Arabs and others. He said that two independent states cannot coexist in "the land of Palestine."

He also said there was "no immediate solution to the crisis and only international pressure can force Israel to end the occupation and the continuing atrocities against the Palestinians." "Over the past six years, the Israeli government has become more oppressive, thanks to the strong support from the Bush administration. They now feel that they can do anything they want," he said.

The interviewer in Qatar admitted to being "a bit surprised" by Pappe's support for Hamas.

"A bit surprisingly," the paper wrote, Pappe said: "I support Hamas in its resistance against the Israeli occupation, though I disagree with their political ideology. I am for separating state from religion."

Pappe also questioned Israeli democracy: "Any state that perpetrates occupation cannot be called a democratic state," he said, adding that Israeli democracy was meant "only for Jews" and there is "no space for other communities."

The interview then looks at what has shaped Pappe's opinions: "Pappe's transformation from a 'typical Jew' to a strong critic of Zionism started in the 1980s while studying in the UK," it wrote.

"I reexamined the events of 1948, which changed my perceptions, and I realized how the Israeli state was formed at the expense of the Palestinians. I don't subscribe to the view that a community which has a claim to a land that goes back thousands of years had the right to occupy it by dispossessing indigenous communities," Pappe said......."

400 Die in Mogadishu's Worst Fighting in 15 years

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

"Nearly 400 civilians have been killed and over 550 wounded in fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian-backed troops in the Somali capital Mogadishu since Thursday, according to a local human rights group.
The toll, from the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation, was the first comprehensive count of casualties from what aid agencies are calling the worst fighting in Somalia in 15 years.

Nearly 50,000 people have fled Mogadishu in the last 10 days, according to the United Nations refugee agency. A total of 96,000 people left their homes during February and March.

Ethiopian tanks, artillery and helicopter gunships have fought against guerillas armed with machine guns, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. The guerrilla forces comprise fighters allied to the Somali Council of Islamic Courts and clan militias who are opposed to the transitional government and the Ethiopian occupation.

A lull in fighting on Monday gave residents a chance to pull several hundred bodies from the streets. Local hospitals have been overwhelmed with casualties......

AMY GOODMAN: A small African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia of some 1,200 Ugandan soldiers has failed to stem the violence. While the four days of fierce fighting subsided after a truce was negotiated Sunday, hundreds more Ethiopian troops have been seen arriving in Mogadishu over the weekend.

Salim Lone is a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya and a former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq. We’re going to go to break. When we come back, we’ll talk about what’s happening in Somalia, also in Iraq......

SALIM LONE: You know, you describe the terrible scenes that are going on in Mogadishu. I just want to add that this is not only a terrible war, but also the most lawless war. It violates clearly -- the invasion by Ethiopia -- the UN Charter. The support of the US on the attacks by the US violated the UN Charter. But, in addition, there are two explicit UN resolutions by Security Council that this violates. The UN Security Council resolution in December said there should be no troops from regional -- neighboring countries going into Somalia as part of a peacekeeping force. And yet we have Ethiopian troops there, not as part of a peacekeeping force.

It’s also turned the whole region into a giant Guantanamo Bay. Human Rights Watch reported that over 100 people were kidnapped in Kenya. Kenya, the most stable and a very law-abiding country in Africa, was forced to kidnap suspected supporters of the ICU, the Islam Courts, and to hand them over to Somalia, which in turn handed most of them over to Ethiopia, where they have disappeared. So this is really a terrible war.

And another reason it’s so terrible is because for six months last year, from June to December, as reported by Democracy Now!, as reported by the New York Times, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Xinhua News Agency, every media in the world reported that the Islamic Courts Union had brought a high level of stability to Somalia, and they had done so without the massive use of force. So this is just, you know, a classic example of the US overreaching, relentless drive for domination, rather than caring for the stability and security of small nations......"

Click Here to Watch, Listen or Read Transcript of This Excellent Interview

Whose boycott is it anyway?

With Jewish intellectuals attacked as anti-Semitic by supporters of Israel, Israeli filmmaker and academic Haim Bresheeth* makes the case for a cultural boycott of his home country

A Very Good Article Contributed by Lucia

By Haim Bresheeth

"Over the last few months a campaign of vile propaganda has been waged, not for the first time, against liberal Jewish intellectuals who have angered the dominant Jewish communities of the main Western countries.

The charge? Anti-Semitism, no less. In different communities, an accusatory finger is pointed at those Jewish thinkers and artists who have dared to criticise Israel and its illogical, barbaric and counter- productive policies and actions. Anyone who strays from the simple line of full support for whatever Israel chooses to do, however infuriating, is tarred with the brush of anti-Semitism, used as a magical incantation against heretics outside the Zionist faith.

In Paris, the Philosopher Alain Finkielkraut found it acceptable to blame an Israeli filmmaker, Eyal Sivan, with more than anti-Semitism -- incitement to murder of Jews -- just for making a film, Route 181, with Palestinian Filmmaker Michel Khleifi. The film, a sophisticated expose of conditions for Palestinians within Israel and in the occupied territories, questions Israel's record of brutality and lawlessness. Nowhere in the film do they call, or condone calls, for any harm against Jews or Israelis. The film was widely shown in Israel itself, where the filmmaker works and teaches......

Across the pond, the American Zionist lobby, not known for its subtlety or adherence to simple facts, has found new victims, having managed to isolate the Linguist Noam Chomsky so that he cannot find an outlet on US media to voice his criticism of Israel. The new targets are Playwright Tony Kushner and prominent Historian Tony Judt. The charge? The same -- they have dared to disagree with Israel and its inalienable right to bomb, destroy and detain just about anything and anyone, anywhere in the Middle East. Apparently, as reported in the Observer in January, organised Jewry plans to "confront" such Jews with accusations of anti- Semitism, and much more besides......

All the above are part of a wider phenomenon: the closing of ranks within Jewish communities against the increasingly prevalent voice of Jewish critics of Israeli atrocities, both in Palestine and beyond. It was not such a long time ago that Israel, in one of its many reoccupations of the Gaza Strip, not only killed many Palestinian civilians, destroyed their only source of electricity, stopped the passage of food into the Strip, but also sealed the border, not allowing medical supplies through, exactly at the time they were most needed.....

In many communities, Jews have realised that it is time to stand up and be counted, exactly because of the abuse of the Holocaust and its use in defending that that is indefensible. Many have joined the growing boycott of Israel -- the trade, academic and cultural boycotts -- as non-aggressive options for public and international action against Israel and its continued aggression against Palestine and other Arab countries. That is the real source of worry for organised Zionist institutions; this growing snowball is starting to move, at last, collecting force and momentum along the way and swaying public opinion in a number of countries against Israel and its uncritical protection by Western powers.

The results of such protest actions can be foreseen. We witnessed the growth of the anti-apartheid movement from a small group of radicals and activists to worldwide action that swept away the South African regime and its injustices. This is what Israel and its allies in crime fear most -- a genuine popular movement that will force international involvement in finding a peaceful and just solution to the conflict after all Western-led attempts have failed miserably due to their total commitment to the Israeli cause and their implicit support for the continued occupation and its iniquities......."

Beyond Quagmire

A panel of experts convened by Rolling Stone agree that the war in Iraq is lost. The only question now is: How bad will the coming explosion be?

Contributed by Datta

"The war in Iraq isn't over yet, but -- surge or no surge -- the United States has already lost. That's the grim consensus of a panel of experts assembled by Rolling Stone to assess the future of Iraq. "Even if we had a million men to go in, it's too late now," says retired four-star Gen. Tony McPeak, who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. "Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again."

Those on the panel -- including diplomats, counterterror analysts and a former top military commander -- agree that President Bush's attempt to secure Baghdad will only succeed in dragging out the conflict, creating something far beyond any Vietnam-style "quagmire." The surge won't bring an end to the sectarian cleansing that has ravaged Iraq.......

How bad will things get in Iraq -- and what price will the world ultimately pay for the president's decision to prolong the war? To answer those questions, we asked our panel to sketch out three distinct scenarios for Iraq: the best we can hope for, the most likely outcome and the worst that could happen.

The Rolling Stone Panel

Zbigniew Brzezinski
National security adviser to President Carter

Richard Clarke
Counterterrorism czar from 1992 to 2003

Nir Rosen
Author of In the Belly of the Green Bird, about Iraq?s spiral into civil war, speaking from Cairo, where he has been interviewing Iraqi refugees

Gen. Tony McPeak (retired)
Member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War

Bob Graham
Former chair, Senate Intelligence Committee

Chas Freeman
Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War; president of the Middle East Policy Council

Paul Pillar
Former lead counterterrorism analyst for the CIA

Michael Scheuer
Former chief of the CIA?s Osama bin Laden unit; author of Imperial Hubris

Juan Cole
Professor of modern Middle East history at the University of Michigan

........"

Freedom Fight Against 'Freedom Champions'

A Good Article

By Dahr Jamail

"DOHA, Apr 2 (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, leading media figures say.

"I support al-Jazeera because al-Jazeera has done more to propagate democracy in the Middle East region than anybody else, certainly more than the American government has done," media specialist Hugh Miles told IPS. "It's strange to me that people refer to al-Jazeera as a 'terrorist network' because that couldn't be further from the truth."

Miles spoke to IPS at the third annual al-Jazeera forum at Doha in Qatar Mar. 31 to Apr. 2. The forum highlighted the successful recent expansion of the network while also addressing difficulties that reporters face in the Middle East hot spots.

Miles, author of 'Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World' and an award- winning freelance journalist said former U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld had got it wrong on al-Jazeera.

"Al-Jazeera has been called a 'terrorist network' or 'the voice of (Osama) bin Laden', but this just demonstrates deep ignorance of its history and the channel," Miles said......

Other leading voices at the forum spoke in support of the channel, that has been under frequent attack of all kinds. The forum, titled 'Media and the Middle East: Going Beyond the Headlines' brought journalists, international media leaders and scholars from around the world to discuss critical issues facing the media, with a focus on in-depth journalism.....

"There has been a four, five, six-year campaign against al-Jazeera," said Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists at a panel discussion. "This is a prejudice we cannot ignore."

Abdul Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Quds al- Arabi told IPS that "journalists should unite and raise our voices to say no to this kind of brutal treatment by the leader of the free world, by people who are representing freedom. We should stand united against the new wave of embedded journalism because this is censorship.

"Freedom of expression is said to be a part of Western values," Atwan added. "The American administration is destroying Western values by shooting journalists, by killing the messenger."

"The largest perpetrators of murdering journalists are governments," Frank Smyth, Washington representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said at the forum.

Many other journalists are detained without fair trial. Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, a Sudanese national, was detained by the U.S. military in Afghanistan in December 2001. He has yet to be charged, and continues to be held as "enemy combatant" at Guantanamo Bay.

On Aug. 7, 2004, the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government led by former CIA asset Iyad Allawi shut down the Iraq office of al-Jazeera, claiming that it was presenting a negative image of Iraq, and charging the network with "fueling anti-coalition hostilities."

Much of the difficulties governments have had with al-Jazeera have arisen because it gets stories other channels do not have. That makes it similar to the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, said IPS director-general Mario Lubetkin. Al-Jazeera has much in common with IPS because the Arab network "goes for the news behind the news," and "because they cover the south," he said......"

***

The current online Aljazeera poll is relevant. It shows that less than 10% of Arabs think that Western media are fair or balanced.

Israeli "Democracy" At Work

Treatment of Israeli official spurs look at airport security

Contributed by Fatima

"JERUSALEM - By almost any measure, Rania Joubran is an Israeli role model. At 26, she's the youngest daughter of a sitting Supreme Court justice and an established lawyer who works for Israel's Foreign Ministry and speaks three languages.

She's also Christian Arab, not Jewish.

That distinction hit home for her a few weeks ago when she set off for a short vacation to Spain. What was supposed to be five days of fun began with a grilling by Israeli airport security and ended with a personal apology from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who pledged to look into long-standing complaints that the country condones a racist policy of treating all Arab travelers as possible terrorists.

"There is no doubt that the time for the current policy ran out a long time ago and has no place in an Israel which has raised the banner of equality between Arab and Jewish citizens," Joubran wrote to Olmert after being singled out for extra questioning by security when she left and when she returned to Israel. "It is not enough for the country to recruit Arab citizens to its service; the real test of the state's democracy is the treatment and respect it gives these citizens."

Her experience was hardly unusual. Even before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, security at Israel's Ben-Gurion airport was among the toughest in the world. It's difficult to find Palestinians or Arab-Israelis who don't have at least one story about a humiliating airport security check. For many, the screening, which can include strip searches and security escorts to the gate, is seen as an unavoidable inconvenience......."

Our Own Poll on Iran

This poll, which asks our readers if they think the U.S. and/or Israel will attack Iran in 2007, has been open since December of last year. Until about a month ago the percentage of those who said yes stayed under 50%, even though it outpaced those who said no. But currently, with 314 taking part in the poll, here are the opinions:

Yes, Iran will be attacked.......60%

No, Iran will not be attacked...29%

I don't know.......................12%

Therefore, by more than two to one, the feeling is that an attack is coming. The question is whether our readers are actually predicting events or are simply reacting to news headlines. It is probably both. Time will tell and we will not have to wait long, probably.

Bush, Iran & Selective Outrage

One of the least endearing features of Washington’s political/media hierarchy is its propensity for selective outrage, like what is now coming from George W. Bush about the “inexcusable behavior” of the Iranian government in holding 15 British sailors whom Bush has labeled “hostages.”

By Robert Parry

"This is the same President Bush who often mocks the very idea that international law should apply to him; he’s fond of the punch line: “International law? I better call my lawyer.” But Bush becomes a pious defender of international law when it suits his geopolitical interests.

The major U.S. news media predictably follows along, getting into an arms-crossed harrumph over foreigners trampling on the inviolate principles of international law, the same rules that should never constrain U.S. actions.

So, when British sailors were captured on March 23 after they may or may not have crossed over an ill-defined demarcation between Iraqi and Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf, the assumption in the U.S. media was that Iran must be wrong. After all, Bush has listed Iran as a charter member of the “axis of evil”; its leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a notorious hothead; and everyone knows the Brits always play by the rules.

Of course, left outside this narrow frame of reference was the gross violation of international law – the bloody invasion of Iraq in 2003 – that put the Brits there in the first place.

Back then, international law was deemed little more than a nuisance getting in the way of what President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to do, i.e. conquer Iraq, install a compliant government, "privatize" its resources, and threaten other countries in the region to get in line.

Bush regarded the United Nations Charter and its ban on aggressive war as some goofy experiment in multilateralism. Blair actually knew better. Though he recognized that the Iraq invasion would violate this fundamental tenet of international law, Blair went along anyway......

Suddenly, it was a new day with Bush and Blair fully committed to international law. Even a relatively minor Geneva transgression, such as filming captives eating, became a justification for unrestrained outrage.

Without any acknowledgement about their own abrogation of international law, the British and U.S. governments lifted these principles from the gutter, dusted them off and put them on a pedestal. The grand human rights defender, George W. Bush, lectured other countries about “inexcusable behavior” – and no prominent Western journalist called him to account for his contradictions."