Glitterati at Leviev’s New York Gala Stunned by Palestinian Rights Protest

Leviev’s diamonds fund repression in Angola, and violations of international law in Palestine.


"Over 100 well-dressed, well-heeled New Yorkers attending the invitation-only opening of diamond mogul Lev Leviev’s Madison Avenue jewelry store this evening appeared stunned and aghast to find their evening derailed by a noisy protest against Leviev’s construction of illegal West Bank settlements. Gala attendees set down their champagne glasses and gathered by windows to view the signs and Palestinian flags, and hear protesters’ chants......"

The Dismantling of Pakistani Democracy

Aunt Benazir's False Promises

By FATIMA BHUTTO
CounterPunch

"......Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been the hijacking of the democratic cause by my aunt, the twice-disgraced former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto....

Ms. Bhutto's political posturing is sheer pantomime. Her negotiations with the military and her unseemly willingness until just a few days ago to take part in Musharraf's regime have signaled once and for all to the growing legions of fundamentalists across South Asia that democracy is just a guise for dictatorship.

It is widely believed that Ms. Bhutto lost both her governments on grounds of massive corruption. She and her husband, a man who came to be known in Pakistan as "Mr. 10%," have been accused of stealing more than $1 billion from Pakistan's treasury. She is appealing a money-laundering conviction by the Swiss courts involving about $11 million. Corruption cases in Britain and Spain are ongoing......

By supporting Ms. Bhutto, who talks of democracy while asking to be brought to power by a military dictator, the only thing that will be accomplished is the death of the nascent secular democratic movement in my country. Democratization will forever be de-legitimized, and our progress in enacting true reforms will be quashed. We Pakistanis are certain of this."

Bhutto: the new Chalabi

There's much in common between smooth-talking Benazir and the man once favoured by the White House to succeed Saddam Hussein

Dilip Hiro
The Guardian

"......There are uncanny parallels between Bhutto and Chalabi. The elements that helped Chalabi to portray himself - and be accepted - as the poster boy of the Bush administration are the same that have turned Bhutto into an indispensable ingredient to transform Pakistan's embarrassing dictatorship into a likable democracy ... with her as the chief executive......

In an impromptu speech on Friday, Bhutto warned that Pakistan could turn into another Iraq. "We have seen what happens in Iraq," she said. "There was a dictatorship, the people revolted, and there was a bloody end." The people revolted in Iraq! Such make-believe analysis and interpretation is popular with the Bush White House......

There is still another element in their biographies that Bhutto and Chalabi share. Both face allegations of corruption......"

US, Israel refuse to cooperate with inquest into Syria strike

Larisa Alexandrovna

"The International Atomic Energy Agency - the United Nations nuclear watchdog - has not been able to conduct an investigation into the events surrounding the Sept. 6 Israeli bombing of a Syrian military installation because neither the Bush administration nor Israel are cooperating.

A diplomatic source close to the Vienna based IAEA told Raw Story that both the United States and Israel have been approached by the organization requesting supporting evidence of a nuclear reactor which media sources have cited, based on anonymous sources in both governments, as the reason for the Israeli strike.

The source also explained that the satellite footage, which the IAEA obtained through commercial channels for lack of any “credible evidence,” does not show a nuclear reactor in the early construction phase......."

Former UN Spokesperson Salim Lone: International Community Turning Blind Eye to Worsening Somalia Crisis

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

".....AMY GOODMAN: While the situation in Pakistan is front-page news in the US, across the world, as well, the media has focused little attention on a much more dire humanitarian crisis. In Somalia, at least eighty people have died in the capital of Mogadishu in heavy fighting between US-backed Ethiopian troops and Somali fighters. Most of the dead are believed to be civilians. Ethiopian tanks and artillery battered parts of Mogadishu after an Ethiopian soldier was dragged through the streets. Residents of Mogadishu accused Ethiopian troops of attacking civilians.

ASHA GULED: [translated] We are witnesses to the problems the Ethiopian troops brought for us. They killed every person they saw in the area, and we have now decided to flee the capital, Mogadishu.

AMY GOODMAN: The UN estimates 100,000 people have left Mogadishu in the last two weeks to escape the fighting. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said one-and-a-half million Somalis are now in need of humanitarian assistance. Human Rights Watch says the failure of the international community to end the violence in Somalia reflects a contempt for the value of African life. Meanwhile, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Eric Larouche issued a grave warning about the humanitarian situation......

AMY GOODMAN: The US-backed Somali government has also launched an attack on the media. On Monday, authorities closed Shabelle Radio and briefly detained two of its senior staff. On Tuesday, heavily armed troops raided Radio Banadir. Eight local reporters have been killed in the line of duty in Somalia this year.

Salim Lone is a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya, a former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq. He has been closely following the situation in Somalia, joining us on the line from Nairobi......

SALIM LONE: Well, let's begin, Amy, first, talk about the [inaudible] of Somalia, because the world just does not seem to be interested. You just read out a horrendous list of terrible events and massacres and, you know, violations of human rights, war against -- I mean, crimes against humanity. And yet, this is not news either for the newspapers or the TV or even for Western leaders, who are completely silent. They’re unable to see that the situation has spiraled completely out of control.

And this government, that had been put in there with Western support, it’s comprehensively been defeated. It is only surviving by intimidating and killing scores and scores of people. 400,000 refugees, displaced people, in the last fifteen years, the worst years everybody thought, and then 450,000 more refugees in the last few months, and this as a result of a war waged by the United States and Ethiopia.

And increasingly -- on a smaller scale, obviously, but increasingly -- the situation is beginning to resemble Iraq. You mentioned the soldier dragged through the streets, desecrated, and the resulting massacre of so many innocent people, including an entire family of ten people, although one child is gravely injured but not dead. The same thing happened in Fallujah, that one terrible desecration by a few militants led to the killing of hundreds. We have, as in Iraq, in Somalia now IEDs. We have mortar rounds being launched on government and other forces. And we have mass civilian casualties. It’s only these mass suicide bombings that are to come.

And the world is completely silent. The government has tried everything, from the bombing of civilians in hospitals, killing journalists -- I think it should be clear: this government has killed journalists, not that ten journalists have died. Some of them, or even many of them, have actually been killed by the government. And yesterday, it closed the largest independent media house in Somalia, Shabelle Networks. So this situation has to be arrested somehow, and it can only be arrested by the international community......"

Hamas: Negotiating on "Jewish state" conspiracy to liquidate Palestine cause

"GAZA, (PIC)-- The PA leadership's negotiation with Israel in Annapolis on the basis of accepting a "Jewish state" in return for a Palestinian state would constitute a serious plot to liquidate the Palestine cause, a senior Hamas leader said on Wednesday.

Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, spokesman of Hamas's parliamentary bloc, asserted that the Israeli president's talk about a "Jewish state" was "very serious" because it would practically mean that such a state was entitled to expel one and half million Palestinians living in the 1948 occupied lands.

It also means that none of the six million Palestinian refugees living in the diaspora are entitled to return to their homeland and that Jerusalem would be prohibited before all Palestinians.

Israeli president Shimon Peres had said during an address at the Turkish parliament on Tuesday that negotiations at the Annapolis conference would be based on Palestinian recognition of a "Jewish state" in return for recognizing a Palestinian state.

Bardawil affirmed that Hamas would never allow such a step to materialize, warning the PA leadership that accepting such a condition would be "political suicide"."

The Lobby

Why No American President Will Stand Up to Israel

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch

"Experts in the West and ordinary people in Arab lands have understood for many years that the United States does not have an independent policy toward the Middle East. President Jimmy Carter, a man of good will, tried to use American influence to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the source of dangerous instability in the Middle East. However, Israel was able to block Carter's attempt, while blaming Yasser Arafat. Carter's plan would have given rise to a Palestinian state. Israel did not want any such state, because obvious military aggression is necessary in order to steal the territory of an official state with defined borders. It is much easier to steal land from a non-state......

In America today academics and intellectuals who fail to toe the Lobby's line are unlikely to receive support from conservative or liberal foundations. Even Mearsheimer and Walt's article, "The Israel Lobby," commissioned by the Atlantic Monthly and from which their book evolved, had to be published overseas in The London Review of Books when the Atlantic Monthly's editors' courage failed them.
American patriots who glorify in their country's status as the "sole superpower" have much to learn about the subservience of their country's foreign policy to a tiny state of five million people. There is no better place to begin than with Mearsheimer and Walt's The Israel Lobby."

Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets

Venezuelan Democracy, the Presidency of Hugo Chavez and the Great Majority of Popular Classes Face a Mortal Threat

By JAMES PETRAS
CounterPunch

"Venezuela's democratically elected Present Chavez faces the most serious threat since the April 11, 2002 military coup.

Violent street demonstrations by privileged middle and upper middle class university students have led to major street battles in and around the center of Caracas. More seriously, the former Minister of Defense, General Raul Isaias Baduel, who resigned in July, has made explicit calls for a military coup in a November 5 press conference which he convoked exclusively for the right and far-right mass media and political parties, while striking a posture as an 'individual' dissident.......

President Chavez is correctly 'evaluating the high command' and states that he 'has full confidence in the national armed forces and their components.' Yet the best guarantee is to strike hard and fast, precisely against Baduel's followers and cohorts. Rounding up a few dozen or hundred military plotters is a cheap price to pay for saving the lives of thousands of workers and activists who would be massacred in any bloody seizure of power.

History has repeatedly taught that when you put social democracy, egalitarianism and popular power at the top of the political agenda, as Chavez has done, and as the vast majority of the populace enthusiastically responds, the Right, the reactionary military, the 'Centrist' political defectors and ideologues, the White House, the hysterical middle classes and the Church cardinals will sacrifice any and all democratic freedoms to defend their property, privileges and power by whatever means and at whatever cost necessary. In the current all-pervasive confrontation between the popular classes of Venezuela and their oligarchic and military enemies, only by morally, politically and organizationally arming the people can the continuity of the democratic process of social transformation be guaranteed.

Change will come, the question is whether it will be through the ballot or the bullet."

حرب الاحتلال والسلطة على حماس في الضفة

ياسر الزعاترة

".....معالم حرب الاستئصال في الضفة
في هذا السياق المتعلق بمعالم حرب الاستئصال يبدو من الصعب التوقف كثيرا عند الحوادث الخاصة، اللهم إلا في سياق ضرب الأمثلة، إذ إننا إزاء حرب تجاوزت كل الحدود والأعراف والأخلاق، ولا قيمة هنا للمقارنة مع قطاع غزة الذي لا يعرف إلى الآن الاعتقال السياسي، حيث يتجول قادة فتح فيه بحرية، ويتحدثون إلى وسائل الإعلام من دون رقيب ولا حسيب.

أما التذكير بما جرى أيام الاقتتال فلا قيمة له، لأن حزب دحلان هو السبب وليس حماس التي احتفلت بحكومة الوحدة الوطنية ولم ترد أكثر منها رغم ما انطوت عليه صيغتها من تنازلات.

بحسب إحصاءات حماس، وفي شهر رمضان وحده اختطف 140 عنصرا من عناصرها، ودوهم 21 مسجدا، في حين اقتحمت 26 مؤسسة لأصحابها صلة ما بالحركة، ومعظمها صلات شخصية، مع العلم أن عدد الاعتداءات التي أحصيت على الأفراد والمؤسسات منذ الحسم العسكري في قطاع غزة وحتى بداية رمضان قد بلغ 1324 اعتداء، أما الأهم فهو أن وتيرة الاعتداءات بعد عيد الفطر المبارك قد تصاعدت على نحو ملفت، وإن لم تتوفر لنا إحصاءات حتى كتابة هذه السطور.

المعلم الأول من معالم العدوان على حركة حماس في الضفة الغربية يتعلق باعتقال عناصرها، الأمر الذي تجاوز سائر الخطوط الحمراء، إذ لم يجر الإبقاء على أي قيادي أو رمز شعبي، بما في ذلك الأسرى المحررون وعلماء الدين والخطباء، فضلا عن الطلبة والطالبات.

عندما يداهم بيت الشيخ سعيد بلال، أحد أهم أعيان نابلس ويعتقل ابنه البكر (بكر) الخارج لتوه من المعتقل الصهيوني بعد قضاء خمس سنوات، والذي يقضي إخوته القساميون الثلاثة أحكاما رهيبة بالسجن (معاذ 27 مؤبدا، وعثمان الضرير، نعم الضرير 11 عاما، والثالث مؤبدان) نجد أنفسنا أمام اعتداء يستفز مشاعر الناس، مع العلم أن بكر قضى أسبوعين رهن الاعتقال ولم يفرج عنه إلا بعد وساطات كثيرة.
.....
.....
وسائل الإعلام والتعتيم
هذه الحرب التي تشنها السلطة على أكبر حركة في الشعب الفلسطيني لا تجد صداها في وسائل الإعلام، والسبب هو خوف أصحابها من بطش السلطة، فضلا عن انحياز بعضها الطبيعي ضد حماس.

مع العلم أن الإعلام يعمل بحرية في قطاع غزة، بما في ذلك صحف السلطة التي توزع في القطاع رغم تفننها في هجاء الحركة، بينما تمنع صحيفتي الرسالة وفلسطين التابعتين لحماس من الطباعة والتوزيع في الضفة، بل يطارد أي متعاون أو حتى متحدث في بعض الأحيان إلى فضائية الأقصى التابعة للحركة.
.....
....."

Hamas Sniper Wounds Israeli Soldier at Gaza Border

Al-Manar

"14/11/2007 A Hamas resistance sniper shot and wounded an Israeli occupation soldier on Wednesday near the border with the Gaza Strip, sources on both sides said. The shooting took place near the main Erez crossing point between the occupied territories and the Gaza Strip, an Israeli spokesman said, without specifying on which side of the border the soldier was hit.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic resistance Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the attack.
Israel has been launching frequent raids and air strikes across the Gaza Strip in a bid to halt rocket fire launched by Palestinian resistance fighters on the occupied territories."

Torturing Palestinian Detainees

by Stephen Lendman

Global Research, November 14, 2007

"B'Tselem is the conservative Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories with a well-deserved reputation for accuracy. A group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists and Knesset members founded the organization in 1989 to "document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel" to convince government officials to respect human rights and comply with international law.

Its work covers a wide range of human rights issues that include detentions and torture. In May, 2007, it prepared a detailed 100 page report titled "Absolute Prohibition: The Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees" that's now available in print for those who request it. This article summarizes its findings that represent a joint effort by B'Tselem and HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual that was founded in 1988 to support Palestinian rights during the first intifada in the late 1980s........"

Benazir vs. Musharraf is Punch vs. Judy

By Tony Karon

"Shlent was the marvelous onomatopoeic term we used in my student activist days, as verb or noun, to describe the stage managing of an event or process in a manner that allowed its appearance to camouflage a power play. (The sound shlent to me always evoked heavy pieces falling smoothly into place.) And I can think of no better term to describe the bogus “showdown” we’re being sold involving Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. In fact, appearances aside (although they camouflage very little), it’s plain that Bhutto and Musharraf are still involved in an elaborate U.S.-brokered negotiation process to divide the spoils of power in what might be called Pakistan’s Team America. Musharraf’s police may periodically prevent her from leaving her house, but they’re largely doing her the favor of providing her an excuse for refraining from leading her supporters in confrontation with the regime......

.......It’s probably no coincidence that Pakistan’s most sustained period of civilian rule came during the 1990s, when the Cold War was over and the U.S. simply had no need for Pakistan or interest in its domestic affairs. The fact that the civilian leadership in this period, both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, was not only incompetent, but also incorrigibly kleptocratic is not a result of U.S. agendas. It may simply be a by-product of decades of authoritarian rule — and Pakistan’s military, itself, is said to own about a third of the economy. Musharraf’s overthrow of Nawaz Sharif was greeted with a shrug in Washington. It was only after 9/11 that Pakistan came back in fashion, and with it the idea of Musharraf as an “indispensable” ally. Yes, it may be true that the extremists that threaten the U.S. also threaten Musharraf. But not in the same way. And nor is that likely to make Musharraf follow the U.S. agenda, for the simple reason that he’s well aware that most Pakistanis take a dim view of Washington’s “war on terror.”......"

Pakistan, Bush and the bomb

By Jonathan Schell
Asia Times

"......If the Bush doctrine laid claim to the values of democracy, its man Musharraf now has the distinction, rare even among dictators, of mounting a second military coup to maintain the results of his first one. In a crowning irony, his present crackdown is on democracy activists, not the Taliban, armed Islamic extremists, or al-Qaeda supporters who have established positions in the Swat Valley only a few hundred kilometers from Islamabad.

Most important, the collapsed doctrine has stoked the nuclear fires it was meant to quench. The dangers of nuclear terrorism, of proliferation and even of nuclear war (with India, which is dismayed by developments in Pakistan as well as the weak Bush administration response to them) are all on the rise.

The imperial solution to these perils has failed. Something new is needed, not just for Pakistan or Iraq, but for the world. Perhaps now someone should try to invent a solution based on imperialism's opposite, democracy, which is to say respect for other countries and the wills of the people who live in them."

US eyes Pakistan's nuclear arsenal

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"......Contacts close to the power circles in Pakistan told Asia Times Online that there is a feeling that the US is prepared to take "hurricane" measures to ensure the safety of the country's nuclear arsenal. The thinking goes that by changing horses and supporting Bhutto, the US could exploit the current unrest by dictating new terms to Pakistan in the "war on terror" and coerce it into allowing the US to safeguard its nuclear stockpile.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is due to travel to Pakistan this week to meet with senior officials and call for free and fair elections, echoing Bhutto's stance......

Indeed, the US belief that it could in some way get its hands on Pakistan's "red" nuclear buttons, by exploiting unrest for which it is partly responsible, sends alarm bells ringing in Islamabad.

Enter, therefore, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, whom Musharraf is expected to meet "soon" in Riyadh for what the official Pakistani media describe as "important discussions".....

He elaborated that Muslim ruling elites are as a result becoming marginalized from their people and thus the masses could not be controlled. He clearly warned the pope to advise Western leaders that their policies would create an explosive situation in Palestine in the very near future and nobody, not even he (Abdullah), would be able to control it......."

Canada, Hizballah and terrorism: An interview with Tariq Ali

Stefan Christoff, Electronic Lebanon, 14 November 2007

"In 2002 Canada unveiled an official list of "terrorist" organizations, strikingly similar to that of the the US government. Today the Lebanese political movement Hizballah -- both the military and political wing -- is officially considered a "terrorist" organization by the government of Canada, a policy endorsed by only two additional countries internationally -- the US and Israel......

In an interview conducted in Montreal, novelist, historian and political campaigner Tariq Ali discusses the history of Hizballah as a political force in Lebanon and the Middle East, as well as Canada's designation of the movement as "terrorist" in the post-9/11 political environment.......

ALI: The goals [of] this categorization are to totally isolate the resistance organization and try to show the population that it's not acting in their interests. However, Israel failed miserably to do this in the case of Lebanon. Hizballah won enormous respect from all layers of Lebanese society as a result of what it did to resist Israel........"

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister

The Turks Were Protesting the Visit of the War Criminal Peres....
While the Stooge Abbas Was Embracing Him, Shaking His Hand and Signing Agreements With Him (to set up an industrial zone in the W.B.)!
Israel is Riding Abbas as an Ass to Open Up the Entire Middle East to Israeli Interests.

Hamas Debates the Future - Palestine’s Islamic Resistance Movement Attempts to Reconcile Ideological Purity and Political Realism

A Conflicts Forum Monograph, by Khalid Amayreh

"Palestine’s Islamic Resistance Movement — Hamas — won a surprising electoral victory in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections. Almost immediately, Hamas leaders, movement activists, and Islamist academics began to debate the future course of the movement. Under what conditions would Hamas recognize Israel? What was its place as a movement in the Middle East? How should it approach the question of governance of the Palestinian territories? And finally, and most importantly, how would it balance its need to remain an Islamist party while adopting more pragmatic political programs?....."

Abbas bamboozled again

A Great Piece
By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem

"While Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is acting tough toward Hamas, probably in order to impress Israel and her guardian-ally, the United States , the way he has been running the “peace show” with the Zionist occupiers is characterized by utter flaccidity, striking naivety and excessive stupidity.

Indeed, after months of high-pitched and seemingly cordial meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a man known more for his deceitfulness and criminality than for his proneness to peace, Abbas has apparently decided to revert to the dormant “roadmap,” the American-sponsored plan for “peace” between the Zionist state and the Palestinians.

A few weeks ago, Palestinian officials in Ramallah, from Abbas to his un-elected Prime Minister Salam Fayadh to the numerous other spokespersons and hangers-on, issued a plethora of statements warning that the PA wouldn’t attend the Annapolis conference, slated to take place in Maryland later this month, unless Israel agreed to a detailed timetable for the creation of a Palestinian state. Now, surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, the PA leadership has forgotten all of these conditions and warnings and seems to have settled for the implementation of the deformed hodgepodge known as the roadmap.

For those who have forgotten or don’t know, the roadmap speaks of the creation of a viable Palestinian state but makes no mention of a full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. The plan, which some pundits claim was originally envisaged by Israel and her American Jewish operatives in Washington, called for the creation of a temporary state, with temporary borders, with no right of return and with major Jewish colonies in the West Bank, especially in E. Jerusalem, eventually annexed to Israel . In other words, the roadmap is a corrupted carbon copy of the originally corrupt and vague Oslo Accords. And as was the case with the Oslo agreement, the roadmap is suffering from the same monumental vagueness which is usually manipulated in favor of the powerful party, e.g. Israel .

In fact, a fleeting examination of the roadmap reveals that there are two roadmaps, not one: The one adopted and interpreted by the PA, which is seen as a scheme that would lead to ending the Israeli occupation and creation of a viable and genuine Palestinian state on 100% of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. And then there is the Israeli roadmap, which would perpetuate Israeli occupation, control and apartheid while giving the appearance of a mutually-accepted peace. So, one would wonder which roadmap whose implementation PA officials have agreed would be the basis of future peace talks with Israel? I have struggled to obtain a credible answer from the Ramallah-based officials, but to no avail.

So, what is that supposed to suggest? Are these people in Ramallah inebriated, or under the influence of something? Forget what they say in their bombastic speeches and fiery statements to the largely pliant Palestinian media, since they say quite the opposite to the Israeli and western media. These people simply can’t be trusted.

As we all know, Israel has been insisting that the pledges George Bush made to Ariel Sharon in 2004, that Israel would have the right to annex major settlements in the West Bank in the context of a final-status solution, are part and parcel of the roadmap. And how about the 14 reservations Israel appended to its formal acceptance of the roadmap in 2003? Are they also part of it?

So, we ask our Palestinian leaders and negotiators: Are these infamous pledges part of the roadmap? If yes, then you are no better than cheap stupid quislings working, knowingly or unknowingly, for the enemy, which qualify you for a treatment and a fate befitting traitors. And if not, then why are you embracing a plan you don’t know what it is and what it means and implies?

Finally, Abbas has been telling Arab and western media that he would be willing to trade large parts of East Jerusalem, covered by Jewish colonies such as Ma’ali Adomim, Har Homa, Pisgat Ze’ev, etc, for land of the same area and quality? Well, this is stupidity bordering on treason. Who in his right mind would trade the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque for a real estate elsewhere? Are Abbas and his followers out of their minds? Are they adopting the old adage “feed me today, and slaughter me tomorrow”?"

دايتون يعبث بالدم الفلسطيني

بقلم : د. عبد الستار قاسم

".....
....هذا الشخص هو الذي يعبث بالدم الفلسطيني الآن في الضفة الغربية، وهو الذي يتدخل مباشرة بالنشاطات الأمنية، وهو الذي يقدر كيفية دعم الأجهزة الأمنية الفلسطينية وكيفية توجيهها نحو الأعمال التي ترضي إسرائيل وأمريكا أمنيا. إنه يجلس في مكتبه يخطط، ويقوم بزيارات ميدانية ليطلع مباشرة على أداء الأجهزة الأمنية الفلسطينية. إنه هو صاحب الكلمة المسموعة في واشنطون حول السلاح الذي يجب تقديمه للسلطة الفلسطينية، ونوعيته، وحول الأموال المطلوبة لدعم النشاطات الأمنية الفلسطينية، وهو يتدخل أيضا في توصيات تعيين مسؤولين أمنيين فلسطينيين. يشكل مع جيكوب واليس، القنصل الأمريكي، في القدس أقوى بؤرة تأثير الآن في الضفة الغربية من نواحي اجتمعاية وسياسية وأمنية واقتصادية ومالية. إنهما يتحملان مسؤولية كبيرة في إدارة شؤون الفلسطينيين.

ماذا يريد دايتون؟ دايتون يريد التأكيد على أمن إسرائيل لكي يتم إحراز أي تقدم في العملية التفاوضية. أمن إسرائيل أولا، وأمنها آخرا، وبدون ذلك لا يمكن أن تأذن إسرائيل بتقدم تفاوضي، ولا يمكن أن تناقش حقوقا وطنية بجدية. إنه يؤكد على البنود الأمنية الواردة في اتفاق أوسلو وما بني عليه من اتفاقات مثل اتفاقية طابا، وعلى ما ورد في خريطة الطريق. تقضي خريطة الطريق بضرورة قيام السلطة الفلسطينية بمهام أمنية مثل تجريد المقاومة الفلسطينية من السلاح وملاحقة المقاومين، وتدمير البنى التحتية للإرهاب. وعلى ذلك، يجب دعم السلطة الفلسطينية ماليا وتسليحا وتجهيزا لكي تتمكن من القيام بالمهام المطلوبة منها.

هذا أمر ليس غريبا حيث قامت السلطة الفلسطينية منذ عدة سنوات باعتقال فلسطينيين وزجتهم بالسجون، وأفشلت عمليات عسكرية لفصائل فلسطينية، واستولت على مواقع قالت إنها مخصصة لصناعة المتفجرات أو تستعمل نزليا (لوجستيا) من قبل مقاومين فلسطينيين. مطلوب من السلطة الآن تجديد النشاط ولكن بصورة أكثر قوة وعنفا.

ولد هذا السلوك من قبل السلطة الكثير من الكراهية والبغضاء في المجتمع الفلسطيني وصنع الأحقاد التي يتم التعبير عنها بوسائل وأساليب مختلفة. ووصل الحد إلى درجة الاقتتال الفلسطيني، وقتل مئات الفلسطينيين. لقد دفع الشعب الفلسطيني ثمنا باهظا جدا في محاولة السلطة تطبيق الشق الأمني من الاتفاقيات المبرمة، وقد فاق الضرر أي فائدة يمكن جنيها من هذا التطبيق. مات الفلسطينيون ولم تتولد في القضية الفلسطينية حياة. تذبل فلسطين مع كل خصام فلسطيني داخلي.

المفروض أن يشكل الماضي عبرا للجميع لكي يُستفاد منها. أثبت الزمن أن المقاومة الفلسطينية تأخذ أشكالا مختلفة وفق ظروف المرحلة، وأن كل محاولات القضاء على المقاومة سواء من قبل إسرائيل أو الأنظمة العربية أو السلطة الفلسطينية قد فشلت. الشعب الفلسطيني مشرد وواقع تحت الاحتلال، والمنطق التاريخي يؤكد أن أعمال العنف ضد القوة المحتلة ستستمر مهما كانت عظمة وجبروت الجهات المقابلة. ليس من المتوقع إطلاقا أن تنتهي المقاومة الفلسطينية تحت وطأة الضربات، وكل من يظن غير ذلك لن يحصد غير الخيبة.

لا ألمح هنا بأن المقاومة الفلسطينية مستعرة وقوية، لكنني أقول إن فكرة المقاومة ستبقى قائمة، وإن محاولة القضاء على المقاومة مهما كانت ضعيفة لن تنجح. جربت دول كثيرة مارست الاستعمار والاحتلال هذا، ولم تنجح.

فشلت السلطة الفلسطينية في جولتها السابقة ضد المقاومة، ولا يوجد الآن أي سبب يدفعنا إلى الظن بأنها ستنجح. وضعت السلطة الفلسطينية نفسها في السابق موضع الشك، وهي الآن تضع نفسها في ذات الخانة. إنها تحاول تغطية رغبات دايتون الآن بمحاربة الفلتان الأمني الذي صنعته هي، ولكي تكسب ود الناس. لكن ماذا بعد القضاء على الفلتان؟ نحن نستطيع القضاء على الفلتان بدون "عبقرية" دايتون، والمسألة تحتاج فقط إلى جهود بسيطة من قبل السلطة وبعض التحرك الشعبي المنظم الذي يمكن أن ترعاه السلطة. أما استعمال الحرب على الفلتان من أجل تبرير جمع السلاح من أيدي حماس والجهاد والمقاومين من شهداء الأقصى فلن يجدي السلطة نفعا، وسيرتد عليها.

كان من الأولى للسلطة الفلسطينية أن تتعلم من تجربة غزة، وأنا أقول لمن يحملون لواءها الآن بأن استمرار الجري وراء دايتون سينتهي بهم مشردين خارج البلاد، ولن يلتفت إليهم عندئذ دايتون ولن يقدم الإسعاف. الحل الأمثل هو أن نعود إلى أنفسنا لنفكر معا بمعزل عن أمريكا وإسرائيل، وأنا واثق بأننا قادرون على إيجاد المعادلات التي تمكننا من التغلب على الأزمة.

سبق أن تم نصحكم مرارا وتكرارا منذ مؤتمر الجزائر عام 1988 مرورا بمدريد وأوسلو، ولم تستمعوا لنصيحة. ورطتم أنفسكم ومعكم الشعب الفلسطيني، وأدخلتم زناة عملاء ساقطين يخدمون أعداءنا إلى مخادعنا. نرجو أن تدركوا أن نصيحة الفلسطيني تبقى أهلية مهما كانت ساذجة، أما مواعظ دايتون وأشكاله وزبائنهم من الفلسطينيين والعرب لن تكون إلا وبالا على رؤوس الجميع. "

Pakistani Lawyers vs. American Lawyers

Where are the Demonstrations?

By RALPH NADER
CounterPunch

"One of the most noticed photographs in the newspapers last week was that of a well-dressed Pakistani lawyer on the streets hurling back a tear gas canister toward the soldiers who were suppressing a demonstration by lawyers protesting the martial law (called "emergency rule") of Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Can anyone remember anywhere in all of modern history, large numbers of lawyers leading the resistance as they did on the streets of Pakistani cities way ahead of the workers, peasants and even the university students?

Pakistani police and troops rounded up the mass protests of lawyers and pushed hundreds of them into trucks on the way to the prison. Lawyers were willing to go to prison and endure beatings, while demanding the re-establishment of the rule of law and the independence of judges right up to the Supreme Court, a rare display of professional courage and duty.

What about lawyers in the United States standing up to the Bush regime's regular violation of our Constitution, the imprisonment of thousands of people without charges and without attorneys, the assault on due process, probable cause, habeas corpus, the spying on Americans without court approval and the defiant, illegal use of torture?

No demonstrations yet. No resolutions by bar associations saying that Bush and Cheney should resign or be impeached......"

The Pakistan Fuel Connection

Logistical Vulnerabilities and the Afghanistan War

By ROBERT BRYCE
(managing editor of Energy Tribune)
CounterPunch

"When it comes to America's relationship with Pakistan, remember one thing: it's all about the fuel.

The Bush Administration's muted reaction to the new dictatorial rule of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf can be traced to the American military's logistics problems in Afghanistan. Without the cooperation of Musharraf's government, the 24,000 U.S. troops who are stationed in Afghanistan would likely run out of fuel within a matter of days......

Greg Wilcox, a retired Army officer who has written extensively on military tactics and operations, says that if the fuel from Pakistan gets cut off, the U.S. would have to try flying fuel into its bases in Afghanistan and that, he believes, would be "mission impossible." Wilcox told me that when it comes to the Pakistan, "We don't have any choice. We got kicked out of Uzbekistan so we don't have any bases there. We can't survive in that region without Musharraf. We are tied to him whether we like it or not."....."

Incidents of Infiltration Into Israel Are Happening Daily
By Hamed Najeeb

Video: Gazans: Palestinians detained by IDF return naked

"Palestinians residing near the Kissufim crossing in the central Gaza Strip say Israel Defense Forces troops have been conducting raids in the area, during which residents are taken away for lengthy questioning and returned without their cloths.

Dozens of such testimonies from the residents of nearby villages indicate young Palestinians return naked from questioning that lasts 24 hours or more....."

In the Mideast, America Casts an Imperial Shadow

By Rashid Khalidi

"......So it may come as a bit of a shock to learn that the United States has had an uninterrupted military presence in the Middle East for 65 years, dating to 1942. Most Americans would also bristle at the idea that this presence, from the arrival of GIs in North Africa onward, has essentially become a continuation of nearly a century and a half of European military adventures in the region. But history shows a disturbing continuity between what the European colonial powers did in the Middle East, starting with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798, and what the United States is now doing in Iraq and elsewhere. Indeed, the United States has managed in a few short years to do more damage in the region than did the hated colonial powers that were finally driven out only a few decades ago.

Of course, the European powers did not stint in their use of force in the Middle East. As Juan Cole of the University of Michigan has shown, Napoleon's troops savagely repressed Egyptian resistance even while the French proclaimed the ideals of their Revolution. Aerial bombing of civilians was pioneered by the Italians in Libya in 1911, perfected by the British in Iraq in 1920 and used by the French in 1925 to level whole quarters of Syrian cities. Home demolitions, collective punishment, summary execution, detention without trial, routine torture -- these were the weapons of Europe's takeover....."

The Deadly Dance for Peace

By Sonja Karkar
Special to PalestineChronicle.com

"......History should give everyone pause to reflect. Past peace talks have never amounted to anything and there is nothing to suggest that this summit will achieve anything either. One has only to recall the failures of Oslo, Camp David, Taba, the Saudi Peace Plan, the Road Map and the Geneva Accord. Yet, the Palestinians are again allowing themselves to be swept up in the diplomatic contredanse, with America confidently waving on the show.......

All in all, the current moves towards peace are looking very much like the empty promises US President George W Bush made about a Palestinian state in 2001 in the hope that those promises would draw Arab public opinion into his anti-terrorism coalition. If that were indeed the case, a third intifada would be more than likely. No doubt Israel would again announce that it has no partner for peace and with US backing would move very quickly to try and quell such an uprising. However, it would not win the hearts and minds of the Arab populations. While it might put paid to US plans for an Arab-Iranian conflict, who knows what other conflagration not imagined in the neo-con “constructive chaos” scenario, might be ignited if Israel’s deputy prime minister Avigdor Liebermann has his way and packs Palestinians onto buses for collective transfer out of East Jerusalem. [3] Such incendiary ideas should spur on the parties to negotiate a fair settlement of all the issues before any racist “solutions” take hold......

.....If Abbas really wants to deliver on Palestinian hopes for a better future, he must show that he has a commitment to seeing justice done not just paying lip-service to it. Any more concessions from the Palestinian negotiators before final status issues are agreed upon, will end up redefining the conflict, a situation that would be untenable to the Palestinian people.......

And so the peace dance goes on – one shuffle forward and two quick steps back with a lot of swaying from side to side in between. The deadliness of this show is never revealed behind the smiles, the performers hoping the spectacle will be enough to lull everyone into believing that this peace is worth having. It may have worked with Oslo, but onlookers are a lot wiser now. We have yet to see if the participants are too – Palestine’s future depends on it."

By Mike Luckovich

The Last Refuge

(Courtesy of antiwar.com)

By Uri Avnery

".....Machiavelli said that it is preferable for the prince to be feared rather than loved. In the same vein, it can be said that it is preferable for a president to be hated rather than derided.

And derision is what George W. is attracting. He has asserted in the past that his main task was to bring democracy to the Muslim world, and has assured us that the implementation of this aim was well under way. That is a laughable pretense.......

As in a Hollywood comedy, George Bush is standing there with a custard pie splattered all over his face. He looks ridiculous.

NO PRESIDENT likes being ridiculous. Scary - OK. Evil - OK. Dumb - OK. But ridiculous - never!

That may have a direct bearing on a question that is worrying the whole world, myself included: Will he attack Iran?......

The German language has the expression "Flucht nach vorne" - an escape forwards. If you don't know what to do any more, attack your nearest enemy. Thus Napoleon invaded Russia, followed years later by Hitler. Bush may attack Iran for similar reasons.

I suspect that the decision has already been made and that the preparations are already rolling. There is no proof of that, but Bush behaves as if he has decided on war.......

It has been said that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". For a failed politician, the last refuge is war."

And Now Elliott Abrams and Condoleezza Rice Bring You The Latest Color-Coded “Revolution”

The Yellow “Revolution” of Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammad Dahlan


(AFP)

By Tony Sayegh

It has been a while since the last US-sponsored, color-coded “revolution.” But that does not mean that Elliott Abrams and Condoleezza Rice have stopped trying.

Just a few days ago, several trucks made their way into the Gaza Strip with the help of Israel. On board supposedly were food supplies for the starving population. However, upon inspection the cargo turned out to be 45,000 yellow Fatah flags and an equal number of baseball caps with Fatah logo on them and kafiyyahs to complement the ensemble.

Hamas could have confiscated these supplies, since it knew what they were intended for. But it decided to let Fatah receive the implements of what was intended as a yellow color-coded mass rally against Hamas. The occasion chosen was the third anniversary of Arafat’s death.

Two observations are in order. In the past two years, when Fatah controlled the Gaza Strip, nothing comparable was organized in Arafat’s memory. The other point is that this organized rally was much larger than any rallies in the West Bank, which Abbas and his cohorts still control.

To Hamas’ credit it gave permission to hold the rally, even though Hamas is totally forbidden from holding even a rally of two dozen people in the West Bank. When Hamas supporters attempted to organize a small protest in Al-Najah University in Nablus, they were beaten up by Abbas’ thugs, some were imprisoned and many expelled from the university.

The Gaza rally almost ended peacefully as was agreed upon with the police. But this was not the plan all along. The plan was to provoke Hamas and instigate violence, and this was what happened. A few supporters of the former Fatah warlords in Gaza opened fire on some of the civilians and on the Hamas security. The idea was to create chaos and to blame the killing on the Hamas police; classic USraeli tactics. Several Hamas policemen were injured and six or seven civilians were killed.

At this point it is important to step back and to look at the bigger picture instead of trading blame. In that bigger picture we see a level of collaboration between Abbas and his regime and the Israeli occupiers unprecedented in Palestinian history. We see a regime that has declared any Palestinian resistance to the occupation as illegal and has equated it with terrorism. We see a regime whose UN representative has been preparing a UN resolution which in effect would declare most Palestinians as terrorists and which would provide legal cover for Israel’s daily killings in Gaza and its threatened total invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The mendacity of this regime in Ramallah is that it uses Arafat’s memory to suit its own designs even though Arafat would never agree to the collusion of the regime and the Israeli occupiers and the total abandonment of Palestinian rights which the Ramallah regime is prepared to do in the Annapolis meeting. It is a cynical use of Arafat’s memory as a smokescreen to cover up the treason of Abbas and company.

What is even more contemptible is that the Abbas team, including Mohammad Dahlan, were involved in the poisoning of Arafat. The very same people who are shedding tears, erecting monuments and organizing rallies for Arafat, were those who worked to remove Arafat from the scene since he became an obstacle to USraeli plans to liquidate the Palestinian cause. It was none other than Dahlan who wrote a letter to Shaul Mofaz (Israel’s defense minister at the time) telling him to, “leave it to us to get rid of Arafat in our own way.” Dahlan received special training in Britain in handling small amounts of radio-active poison (most likely polonium) and how to introduce it in Arafat’s food. The poison is very slow acting and is very hard to detect.

Abbas, Dahlan and the rest of the gang, until this day, have prevented the medical report about Arafat’s death from being released.

If we look at the bigger picture we see that George W. Bush has personally demanded that Dahlan be in the Palestinian delegation to Annapolis. More importantly, he will be a pivotal player in subsequent “negotiations” on final issues. In other words he is most trusted by Bush and Israel to sacrifice all of the Major Palestinian rights from Jerusalem to the right of return, and the end of the occupation. It is not far fetched, and in keeping with the US tradition, to remove Abbas from the scene at a given point (polonium anyone?) and to install Dahlan as the Palestinian dictator-in-chief.

What is at stake for the Palestinian people is huge, and it is nothing less than the liquidation of their rights for which they have been fighting for 90 years. The level of collaboration and treason by the regime in Ramallah is unprecedented in Palestinian history, and the worst is to come.

Seeing this bigger picture and the real goals behind what is being fabricated should be the focus of most Palestinians. Let us not be distracted and sucked in a color-coded campaign of organized chaos, killing and revenge killing. Let us prove that we are more educated, intelligent and perceptive than to fall for this. If we fall in this trap, there will be no second chance and future generations will not forgive us such stupidity and shortsightedness.

سقطت الأقنعة وظهرت الحقيقة

سقطت الأقنعة وظهرت الحقيقة

د. محمد صالح المسفر

".....في الوقت الذي تتعاظم فيه تضحيات الشعب الفلسطيني الجبار في مواجهة الاحتلال، نجد فريقا من القيادات الفلسطينية يتفاني لخدمة مصالح العدو وأهدافه بل ذهب إلي ابعد من ذلك وهو إشهار السلاح في مواجهة العمل الفدائي ضد الكيان المغتصب لفلسطين وملاحقة المناضلين الشرفاء والنيل منهم أو الوشاية بهم عند العد من اجل اصطيادهم في مقابل كسب مادي زهيد لا يتناسب حتي مع مستوي الجريمة التي يرتكبونها ضد أهلهم ووطنهم.
أشهر هذه الطائفة، يساريون سابقون كانوا اكثر راديكالية واكثر تشنجا وطنيا، وعندما غيروا جلودهم اصبحوا اكثر راديكالية. فالسيد رياض منصور مثلا وقف أمام ممثلي المجتمع الدولي في الأمم المتحدة بمشروع قرار طلب من ممثلي 193 دولة تبنيه واعتماده كقرار من قرارات الشرعية الدولية ذلك المشروع ينص علي اعتبار المقاومة الفلسطينية حماس مليشيات خارجة عن القانون ، معني ذلك أن حركة المقاومة الوطنية الإسلامية حماس حركة إرهابية بموجب تصنيف فلسطيني. لم يقف الأمر عند ذلك الحد بل تعداه بالخروج عن ممارسات المجموعة العربية في مثل هذه المواقف ليتقدم بمشروعه عبر المجموعة الأوروبية وليس العربية الأمر الذي تصدت له المجموعة العربية المكونة من المندوبين الدائمين في الأمم المتحدة وأفشلت مشروعه.
السيد رياض منصور نفسه افشل مشروع قرار تقدمت به كل من قطر واندونيسيا إلي مجلس الأمن يعتبر قطاع غزة منطقة منكوبة ويطلب ذلك المشروع رفع الحصار عنه. السؤال الذي يطرح نفسه، هل رياض منصور ينفذ تعليمات صادرة من رام الله، أم انه يمثل الفصيل التنظيمي الذي ينتمي إليه؟
إن كان السيد منصور ينفذ أوامر صادرة من رام الله أي من السيد محمود عباس وفياض بمشروعه ذلك فان المصيبة أعظم وأكثر إجراما في حق الشعب الفلسطيني الذي يدعون بأنهم يناضلون لصالحه وهنا علي السلطة القابعة في رام الله تقديم اعتذار إلي الشعب الفلسطيني عن تلك الجريمة ويجب أن يخضع من اصدر تلك التعليمات لمساءلة من قبل كل الفصائل التي يعتبرون أنفسهم شركاء في منظمة التحرير لان هذه سابقة خطيرة في مسيرة العمل الوطني الفلسطيني. أما إذا كان تصرفه ذلك صادرا عن اجتهاد شخصي فالمساءلة هنا تكون مزدوجة رسميا من سلطة محمود عباس وتنظيميا من الجبهة الديمقراطية التي ينتمي اليــها إن كان مــازال عضوا بها والجزاء في هذه الحالة يكون مزدوجا.
في كل الحالات إذا كان رياض منصور ما برح عضوا في الجبهة الشعبية الديمقراطية فعلي التنظيم ابعاده من ذلك التنظيم عقابا لما اقترفه في حق الأمة العربية والشعب الفلسطيني.
.....
....."

A Question to 10 Million Palestinians:
Do You Approve of This Crook and Mossad Agent Negotiating Away Your Rights?
He Will if You Don't Protest and Prevent Him From Speaking in Your Name!

Dr. Mona El-Farra in Gaza: what was going inside thier tiny heads ?i wander

"Bilal and Nihad Nabaheen
Age 14 and 15years old
Date 10th of November
East of Beirige refugee camp -Gaza Strip

I don’t know exactly, what was going, inside the little heads, of the kids who were preparatory school children, of Al Buriege boys preparatory school
But the two tiny bodies were shot ,with many bullets, as I was told by my colleagues of the ER at the AlAqsa hospital.
Life of kids in Gaza is very intolerable, poverty, violence. Lack of security no entertainments, in simple one sentence, LACK OF NORMAL LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION AND INSIDE THE REFUGEE CAMP, populatiion of Gaza is 1.4 million 60%are children under 17 years old , two thirds are refugees .
On that day,when the dreams of two tiny kids has stoped forever ,
The two boys were very close to the fence that separate Gaza from Israel , they were very close, and for sure , they were very obvious to the soldiers, inside the Israeli supervising military tower , those soldiers are equipped with highly sophisticated binoculars and high tec ways ,that enables them to see 2 boys playing by the fence , in a green meadow , I don’t know aim not sure if they were playing, or trying to cross the border to the other world outside the big prison
.I don’t know what was going inside the tiny heads of 2 skinny dreaming .Palestinian boys by the borders,
Their sad adventure turned into tragic death, by soldiers who know for sure very well how to distinguish, between militia men and kids,
The soldiers as well as the boys are victims of occupation, the occupation that deprives the soldiers of their humanity, when under the false pretence of Israel security; daily crimes are committed in my country. And against my people."

Iraq: A Tale of One City, Now Two

Beneath Rosey Assessments Bitter Truths

by Ali al-Fadhily

"BAGHDAD - The separation of religious groups in the face of sectarian violence has brought some semblance of relative calm to Baghdad. But many Iraqis see this as the uncertain consequence of a divide and rule policy.....

“I would like to agree with the idea that violence in Iraq has decreased and that everything is fine,” retired general Waleed al-Ubaidy told IPS in Baghdad. “But the truth is far more bitter. All that has happened is a dramatic change in the demographic map of Iraq.”......

“Those Americans and their Iraqi collaborators in the Green Zone talk of five or ten bodies being found everyday as if they were talking of insects,” Thamir Aziz, a teacher in Adhamiya told IPS. “We know they are lying about the real number of martyrs, but even if it’s true, is it not a disaster that so many innocent Iraqis are found dead every day?”

Most people blame the Iraqi police for the sectarian assassinations, and the U.S. military for doing little to stop them.

“The Americans ask (Prime Minister Nouri al) Maliki to stop the sectarian assassinations when they know very well that his ministers are ordering the sectarian cleansing,” Mahmood Farhan from the Muslim Scholars Association, a leading Sunni group, told IPS.

A UN report released September 2005 held interior ministry forces responsible for an organised campaign of detentions, torture and killings. It said special police commando units accused of carrying out the killings were recruited from the Shia Badr and Mehdi militias.

Retired Col. James Steele, who served as advisor to Iraqi security forces under former U.S. ambassador John Negroponte, supervised the training of these forces.

Steele had been commander of the U.S. military advisors group in El Salvador in 1984-86; Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to neighbouring Honduras 1981-85. Negroponte was accused of widespread human rights violations by the Honduras Commission on Human Rights in 1994. The Commission reported the torture and disappearance of at least 184 political workers.

The violations Negroponte oversaw in Honduras were carried out by operatives trained by the CIA, according to a CIA working group set up in 1996 to look into the U.S. role in Honduras.

The CIA records document that “special intelligence units”, better known as “death squads”, comprised CIA-trained Honduran armed units which kidnapped, tortured and killed thousands of people suspected of supporting leftist guerrillas.

Negroponte was ambassador to Iraq for close to a year from June 2004."

Video: E. J'lem family gives homeless Jewish family shelter after authorities fail to help

A Video Contributed by Falastini

"Ilanit and her four children were evicted from an apartment they had illegally occupied for lack of any other place to stay.

After the family members found themselves and all their belongings out on the street on a cold Jerusalem night, only one person offered assistance.

Khader Ramadan Dabash of East Jerusalem took the five into his home, where they have been living for the last two weeks."

Pinochet in Palestine

Looks at the similarities between regime change in Chile and Palestine and condemns the collaboration between Fatah and Palestine's enemies

A Repost of a Very Relevant Article

By Professor Joseph Massad

"Before the United States government subcontracted the Chilean military to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in 1973, it carried out a number of important missions in the country in preparation for the coup of 11 September. These included major strikes, especially by truck owners, which crippled the economy, massive demonstrations that included middle-class housewives and children carrying pots and pans demanding food........

Whatever fig leaf still covered the Fateh leadership's complete collaboration and subservience to Israeli interests has now fallen off. As a result, there is very little left that can restrain Fateh's actions. The next few weeks will be decided by how much Fateh leaders are itching for a fight to save their skins and fortunes, and how much patience Hamas can muster in the face of so much thuggery. In the meantime, what has been unfolding in the Palestinian territories is nothing short of the Chilean script.

Pinochet is in Palestine. His success however remains far from certain. "

One Of Latuff's Latest Cartoons

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

At the Mercy of the Military

By Chris Hedges

"The last, best hope for averting a war with Iran lies with the United States military. The Democratic Congress, cowed by the Israel lobby and terrified of appearing weak on defense before the presidential elections, will do nothing to halt an attack. The media, especially the electronic press, is working overtime to whip up fear of a nuclear Iran and tar Tehran with abetting attacks against American troops in Iraq. The American public is complacent, unsure of what to believe, knocked off balance by fear and passive. We will be saved or doomed by our generals....."

Death by the light of a silvery moon

RISE OF THE NEO-TALIBAN, Part 1

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"A revitalized Taliban stage daily operations in the Kunar Valley in Afghanistan, either with suicide bombers, guerrilla attacks or Russian-made rockets. Deep in their mountain hideaway, they tell Syed Saleem Shahzad why they have to wait for moonlit nights, and about the importance of donkeys in a struggle they increasingly believe they can win. This is the first part of a two-part report....."

Arab ministers to meet in Cairo ahead of Annapolis conference

"Arab foreign ministers will meet in Cairo in the last 10 days of November to decide a common Arab position for the Middle East peace meeting the United States is trying to arrange in Annapolis, Arab officials said on Monday.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Chairman Mahmoud Abbas would attend the meeting in person to brief the Arab ministers on the latest developments in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a joint document......"

(AP photo)

They Rally in Large Numbers for a Dead Leader.....
Yet, They Are Silent About a Living Leader Who is Implicated in the Poisoning of the Dead Leader.....
Worse Still, That Living Leader is Selling Away Their Homeland and Their Rights.....
Such is the Madness of the Herd!

U.S. and Israel Play Down Hopes for Peace Talks

"JERUSALEM, Nov. 10 — The American-sponsored Middle East peace conference expected by the end of the month looks to be thin on content, mostly serving as a stage to begin formal negotiations on a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli and American officials have been so busy dampening expectations that they are not even calling the event a conference anymore, instead referring to it merely as a “meeting.”......"

Palestinian, Israeli scholars to advance one-state solution in London

Report, The Electronic Intifada, 12 November 2007

"Leading Palestinian and Israeli scholars and activists will be among the speakers at an unprecedented conference to explore a one-state solution, at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London on 17-18 November.

Organized by the London One State Group and the SOAS Palestine Society, the conference, "Challenging the Boundaries: A Single State in Israel/Palestine," will explore new models for a just peace including binationalism, secular democracy, a 'state of all its citizens' and federalism......

Those scheduled to participate include Nur Masalha, Ghada Karmi, Ilan Pappe, Joseph Massad, Ali Abunimah, Haim Bresheeth, Ghazi Falah, As'ad Ghanem, Leila Farsakh, Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Nadim Rouhana, Omar Barghouti, Tikva Honig-Parnass, Louise Bethlehem, Kathleen O'Connell, Gilbert Achcar, Sumantra Bose, Haidar Eid, Eitan Bronstein, Eyal Sivan, Yousef Faker el Deen and Rajaa Omari.

The two-day conference includes sessions on aspects of a one-state solution including its rationale and historical context, geography, geopolitics, citizenship and identity, and rethinking the nation-state. Speakers will provide a comparative perspective on conflicts in Ireland, India-Pakistan, South Africa and Lebanon.

Sessions on grassroots activism will bring together one-state advocates from all over Palestine and the Diaspora including the One State Group based in Gaza, according to the published program.

Conference organizers cite as one of their inspirations the late Palestinian scholar Edward Said....."

Who Will Be The First To Blink?

Pakistan Teeters On The Edge While Bhutto, Musharraf Plot Out Next Moves

by Eric Margolis
The Toronto Sun

"Pakistan’s grave political crisis is now entering the red zone. I’ve been in regular contact with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. She calls the situation “grim.” On Friday, she was put under house arrest, preventing her from leading a mass demonstration in Islamabad......

Bush and Mush

This week, the self-appointed apostle of democracy, George W. Bush, underlined his continued support for his ally, Musharraf. Bush called on Mush to doff his uniform and hold elections. Musharraf dutifully agreed to do so early next year and to hold elections.

But Musharraf has won every previous elections by blatant vote-rigging and bribery — we can expect more of the same.

He would lose any fair vote by a landslide.....

Anyone who still wonders why so many in the Muslim world hate the West needs look no further than Pakistan, where, in the name of “democracy” and “counter-terrorism,” Washington and London are stirring a witches brew of dictatorship, intrigue and violence."

هرولة فلسطينية اردنية بحاجة للجم

هرولة فلسطينية اردنية بحاجة للجم

"تشهد المنطقة العربية حراكا سياسيا نشطا هذه الايام محوره القاهرة. فقد عرج العاهل السعودي الملك عبد الله بن عبد العزيز علي شرم الشيخ في ختام جولته الاوروبية التي شملت بريطانيا وايطاليا والمانيا وتركيا، والتقي الرئيس حسني مبارك، وبعد اقل من يوم من مغادرته حل العاهل الاردني الملك عبدالله الثاني والرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس في المنتجع المصري نفسه ضيفين علي الرئيس مبارك في زيارة مفاجئة.
هناك تفسيران اساسيان لمثل هذا الحراك من حيث اهميته واهدافه وتوقيته، الاول يتعلق بمؤتمر انابوليس للسلام الذي دعت الادارة الامريكية لعقده في الخريف، لحل القضية الفلسطينية، والثاني له صلة مباشرة بالخلاف المصري ـ الاسرائيلي من ناحية، والمصري ـ الفلسطيني من ناحية ثانية، ونحن نتحدث هنا عن الشق المتعلق بسلطة الرئيس محمود عباس في رام الله علي وجه الخصوص.
فاللافت ان محورا سعوديا مصريا بات يتبلور في مواجهة محور فلسطيني ـ اردني فيما يتعلق بمؤتمر السلام. فالجانبان السعودي والمصري ابديا تحفظات علي هذا المؤتمر والاهداف التي تكمن خلف انعقاده بهذه الطريقة المتعجلة. ابرزها ضرورة التحضير الجيد، وبحث قضايا الوضع النهائي، وتوفير فرص النجاح الاساسية لتجنب فشل، قد تكون عواقبه وخيمة للغاية علي المنطقة بأسرها.
في مقابل هذه التحفظات المصرية ـ السعودية هناك هرولة اردنية ـ فلسطينية نحو المشاركة في مؤتمر السلام، ودون الحد الادني من التشاور مع الاطراف العربية الاخري. وبات واضحا ان الرئيس عباس يميل الي التنسيق الكامل مع الاردن والاسرائيليين والامريكان، ودون اي اعتبار للاطراف العربية الاخري. وعبر رياض منصور مندوب فلسطين في الامم المتحدة عن هذا التوجه الجديد لسلطة عباس عندما تشاور مع الطرف الاوروبي حول مشاريع قرارات كان سيتقدم بها الي الجمعية العامة للامم المتحدة ودون اي تنسيق او تشاور مع زملائه مندوبي الدول العربية، وبلغ غضب هؤلاء ذروته عندما قال لهم السيد منصور ان موافقة الاوروبيين ودعمهم اهم بالنسبة اليه من دعم الدول العربية. ولا يمكن ان يجرؤ السيد منصور مندوب فلسطين علي اتخاذ موقف كهذا دون تلقيه توجيهات صارمة من الرئيس عباس نفسه. ودون ان تكون هذه التوجيهات في اطار سياسة رسمية للسلطة الفلسطينية.
الرئيس عباس بدأ يستند ايضا علي علاقاته المتنامية مع الطرفين الامريكي والاسرائيلي ايضا، واعتمادها كبديل عن علاقاته مع الدول العربية، خاصة ان مصر امتعضت من تصلبه تجاه اي حوار مع حركة حماس بعد سيطرتها علي قطاع غزة في حزيران (يونيو) الماضي، لان هذا التصلب جاء استجابة لاملاءات امريكية ـ اسرائيلية.
الامر المؤكد ان العاهل الاردني وزميله الفلسطيني استشعرا خطر هذا العتب، ان لم يكن الغضب المصري، فقررا القيام بهذه الزيارة الخاطفة لوقف التدهور في علاقاتهما مع مصر التي بدأت تتحدث بصوت عال عن رغبتها في استعادتها لدورها، والحفاظ علي امنها القومي الذي تشكل فلسطين، وغزة علي وجه التحديد، جزءا اساسيا منه.
ومن غرائب الصدف ان توقيت الزيارة جاء بعد الاهانة التي تعرض لها الوفد الفلسطيني المفاوض بقيادة احمد قريع (ابو العلاء) امام احد المعابر الاسرائيلية في الضفة الغربية، وهم في طريقهم الي القدس المحتلة لملاقاة السيدة تسيبي ليفني وزيرة خارجية الدولة العبرية، حيث تعرض الوفد للايقاف لمدة نصف ساعة من قبل جندي اسرائيلي عامل اعضاءه بطريقة استفزازية تنطوي علي الكثير من الاحتقار، مما دفعهم الي العودة من حيث اتوا غاضبين.
المحور السعودي ـ المصري يستطيع، بما يملك من امكانيات ضخمة، وقف هذه الهرولة الاردنية ـ الفلسطينية، والاصرار علي توفير ضمانات لانجاح مؤتمر الخريف في حال انعقاده، لان انعقاد المؤتمر وفق الشروط والاملاءات الاسرائيلية ـ الامريكية يشكل تفريطا بالحقوق العربية المشروعة، خاصة ان هناك في الطرف الفلسطيني من هو مستعد للتنازل عن ثوابت اساسية تحت ذرائع الواقعية وكسب الطرف الامريكي الذي يملك معظم اوراق اللعبة.
المأمول ان يركز الرئيس المصري في لقاءاته مع ضيفيه علي كيفية ترميم البيت الفلسطيني، واعادة اللحمة الي الضفة وغزة، كمنطلق لترتيب البيت العربي وفق اسس الحد الادني لتقليص الخسائر اذا لم يتأت منع الضرر. وهو ضرر ناتج عن سياسة امريكية متهورة، وانهيار عربي بلا قاع"

Bush Invites Dahlan to the Annapolis Meeting بوش يدعو دحلان لمؤتمر أنابوليس

بوش يدعو دحلان لمؤتمر أنابوليس

"غزة ـ القدس العربي ـ من أشرف الهور: علمت القدس العربي من مصدر مطلع ان القيادي البارز في فتح محمد دحلان سيكون ضمن الوفد الفلسطيني المشارك في مؤتمر أنابوليس للسلام المتوقع عقده نهاية الشهر الجاري في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية بدعوة من الرئيس جورج بوش. وذكر المصدر ان الرئيس محمود عباس طلب من دحلان عقب عودته من رحلة علاجه المشاركة في الوفد الفلسطيني . واكد المصدر ان دحلان سيشارك عقب انتهاء المؤتمر في الوفد الفلسطيني الذي سيجري مفاوضات مع نظيره الإسرائيلي حول القضايا الجوهرية في عملية السلام ."

Al-Quds Al-Arabi has learned from a knowledgeable source that Mohammad Dahlan will be included in the Palestinian delegation to the Annapolis meeting at the end of this month, upon the invitation of president Bush. The source stated that Abbas asked Dahlan after his return from medical treatment to be a member in the Palestinian delegation. The source confirmed that Dahlan will take part in the negotiations with Israel about key issues, upon his return from Annapolis.

***

I feel better now knowing that the future of 10 million Palestinians is in the hands of Dahlan the thug. I know that Bush likes him a lot (Bush once said, "I like that young Palestinian, Dahlan"), so does Israel; after all he has been their agent all along.

PA sources: Israel told the PA of its intention to occupy the Gaza-Egypt borderline

"RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The IOA informed the PA leadership in Ramallah about its intention to invade the Salahuddin borderline between the Gaza Strip and Egypt at the pretext of preventing the smuggling of arms and funds to Gaza, and destroying alleged tunnels deployed along the border, according to Palestinian sources.

The sources confirmed that the Israeli government also told some countries of the region about its intention to wage a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip after the autumn conference.

According to the same sources, the PA leadership in Ramallah was informed about the Israeli intention to invade the borderline from the Rafah crossing to Khan Younis in the first stage and later the Israeli military operation will expand to the central and northern Gaza Strip.

The sources pointed out that Israeli delegates were sent to several countries during the past few weeks to justify Israel's possible military operation in Gaza, which may extend to a full year, at the pretext of eradicating what they described as terrorism, calling on the visited states not to engage in diplomatic activities to pressure Israel to halt its aggressions against the Gaza people.

The sources opined that the Zionist scheme will lead to the call for international troops to Gaza in the event of withdrawal of the IOF troops after completing their operation......."

By Naser Jafari

From Popper to Rove - and back

Despite evidence that misrepresenting the truth for political ends backfires, the American public remains susceptible.

By George Soros
The Guardian

"......One influential technique - which Republican pollster Frank Luntz says that he learned from 1984 - simply reverses meanings and turns reality on its head. Thus, Fox News calls itself "fair and balanced," and Karl Rove and his acolytes turn their opponents' strongest traits into their achilles' heels, using insinuations and lies to portray opponents' achievements as phoney.......

Another technique is transference: accusing opponents of having motives or using methods that characterise the accuser himself. For example, David Horowitz, who accuses me of being "the Lenin of the anti-American conspiracy," is a former Trotskyite for whom opponents are never adversaries to be debated, but rather enemies to be crushed.

The American public has proven remarkably susceptible to the manipulation of truth, which increasingly dominates the country's political discourse. Indeed, a whole network of publications, some of which manage to parade as mainstream media, is devoted to the task. Yet I believe that it is possible to inoculate the public against false arguments by arousing resentment against Orwellian Newspeak. What is needed is a concerted effort to identify the techniques of manipulation - and to name and shame those who use them.

Now is an ideal time to begin that effort. Americans are now awakening, as if from a bad dream. What we have learned from recent years' experience - what we should have known all along - is that the supremacy of critical thought in political discourse cannot be taken for granted. It can be ensured only by an electorate that respects reality and punishes politicians who lie or engage in other forms of deception.

Showing a Stooge And a Traitor The Contempt He Deserves

PA negotiators forced to call off talks after blocked at checkpoint

"......Palestinian officials said chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia and other members of the negotiating team were stopped by Israel Defense Forces soldiers near Jerusalem while on their way to meet their Israeli counterparts to try to draft a joint statement ahead of the Annapolis, Maryland conference scheduled for in late November.

Qureia said his team was held at the West Bank checkpoint for 25 minutes and was asked to keep waiting, but the negotiators refused. They were expected in Jerusalem for a meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the head of the Israeli negotiating team.

"The Palestinian delegation is very angry," Qureia said. "We don't go to negotiate with them in order to be humiliated. We represent the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause this is a humiliation we can't accept. We will propose never to conduct negotiations in Israel again."

"We cannot carry out negotiations like this," Qureia said. An aide said Qureia informed Israel that he wanted to move the talks to another country......"

***

The stooge will be back in Jerusalem, meeting with his Israeli handlers again and again; of that I am certain. He needs Israeli favors that made him a very wealthy man, such as buying cement from his company to build the Israeli apartheid wall.

Resistance Capable of Achieving Historic Victory

Al-Manar

"11/11/2007 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech through a large screen Sunday marking the Martyr's Day in Beirut's southern suburb.

Sayyed Nasrallah said that Israel's recent military training maneuvers near the Lebanese border were intended to prepare for a new war on Lebanon, adding that Hezbollah's own drills in southern Lebanon were in direct response to the Israeli exercises, intended to send out ''a clear message'' to the Israeli leadership that Hezbollah was ready to fight.

''The (Israeli) enemy has been conducting military maneuvers for months. The latest maneuvers occurred a few weeks ago near the Lebanese border in which 50,000 Israeli officers and soldiers participated,'' Sayyed Nasrallah said. ''These maneuvers are to prepare for an attack on Lebanon,'' he said.

"I tell the (Israeli) enemy that these maneuvers were real, serious and big. I am not going to give details. There is a great deal of readiness (by Hezbollah) which the enemy must understand," his eminence said in his speech Sunday.

"These maneuvers were intended to send out a clear message to the world which is besieging us and to this enemy that that the resistance in Lebanon possesses determination, men and the necessary and sufficient weapons to defend Lebanon," Sayyed Nasrallah said drawing cheers from the crowd.

Without elaborating, he added, "The resistance is ready to make a victory for Lebanon that will change the region's face."

Concerning the presidential poll in Lebanon, Hezbollah's Secretary General thanked President Emile Lahhoud for his steadiness and his support for the resistance calling on him to assume responsibility in accordance with the Lebanese laws and constitution.

His eminence said that the presidential elections spell out the shape up of the new government and the role of the Lebanese army. Sayyed Nasrallah called for early parliamentary elections, saying the one who wins with majority would bring a president for the republic. "

وهذا النص الكامل لكلمة سماحة الأمين العام لحزب الله في الاحتفال المركزي الذي أقامته مؤسسة الشهيد في مجمع سيد الشهداء(ع) في الرويس في 11-11-2007

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Khalil Bendib

Dr. Mona El-Farra in Gaza: While the siege continues and the world watches with disbelief

"While the siege continues and the world watches with disbelief

From Gaza I write to let you know that , , at least 7 patients reported to die while waiting permit to leave Gaza ,for treatment inside Israeli hospital , many patients die slowly while waiting for referral for further treatment outside Gaza , we don’t have good reporting system to report the actual number of patients , who eventually will die due to lack of their treatment in Gaza ,if we have this proper reporting facilities ,the patients will die , good reporting will not end the cruel siege against Gaza .

The referral process of patient indeed for treatment is long, time consuming, demoralising and distressing for the patients and their families, many died while waiting for referral, I remember the death of my friend MrMansour. Thabet ,who was helped by Physicians for human rights Israel, to get the referral to one of the Israeli hospitals, mansour suffered of cancer , he waited long 59 days before he was allowed to enter Israel for treatment , on his second trial to enter Israel to continue his treatment , his health condition deteriorated, he has passed away, before getting the permit, to travel for treatment inside one of the Israeli hospitals , the list is too long , to count ,at the moment the health situation inside Gaza is disastrous .. Especially after Israel declared Gaza hostile territory, tens of essential medications are lacking, few weeks ago On 21 of October 2007 Hospitals throughout Gaza Strip have shut down their operating Rooms due to a lack of essential anaesthetic drugs, lives of thousands of patient’s inneed for emergency operations were threatened.

we live inside our home ,while unsafe ,under home arrest lack most of our basic needs ,
from Gaza with love
Mona"

Chief Israeli Propagandist Calls Annapolis Summit an 'Historic Opportunity' for Mideast

".....Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas used a rally commemorating the deceased Palestinian leader Sunday to call the approaching U.S.-sponsored peace summit an "historic opportunity" and to suggest to supporters that Palestinian statehood is within reach......"

The Real Karzai and The Hamid Karzai of Palestine....
Arafat Used That Title to Describe Mahmoud Abbas; How Prescient!

Deja Vu All Over Again: Fabricating Intelligence Against Iran

Iraqi fighters 'grilled for evidence on Iran'

Interrogator says US military seeks evidence incriminating Tehran

David Smith in Baghdad
Sunday November 11, 2007
The Observer

"US military officials are putting huge pressure on interrogators who question Iraqi insurgents to find incriminating evidence pointing to Iran, it was claimed last night. Micah Brose, a privately contracted interrogator working for American forces in Iraq, near the Iranian border, told The Observer that information on Iran is 'gold'.......

Brose, 30, who extracts information from detainees in Iraq, said: 'They push a lot for us to establish a link with Iran. They have pre-categories for us to go through, and by the sheer volume of categories there's clearly a lot more for Iran than there is for other stuff. Of all the recent requests I've had, I'd say 60 to 70 per cent are about Iran.

'It feels a lot like, if you get something and Iran's not involved, it's a let down.' He added: 'I've had people say to me, "They're really pushing the Iran thing. It's like, shit, you know." '

Brose said that reports about Washington's increasingly hawkish stance towards Tehran, including possible military action, chimed with his experience. 'My impression is they're just trying to get every little bit of ammunition possible. If we get something here it fits the overall picture. The engine needs impetus and they're looking for us to find the fuel - a particular type of fuel......

He denied ever being asked to fabricate evidence, adding: 'We're not asked to manufacture information, we're asked to find it. But if a detainee wants to tell me what I want to hear so he can get out of jail... you know what I'm saying.'......"

Palestinian Rights and the Effects of Oslo, Sharm El-Sheikh and the Upcoming Annapolis Meetings