US Military versus Israel Firsters

An Important Article

By James Petras
Special to PalestineChronicle.com

"Introduction

As the White House and Congress escalate their economic sanctions and military threats against Iran, top military commanders and Pentagon officials have launched a counter-offensive, opposing a new Middle East War. While some commentators and journalists, like Chris Hedges (Truthdig, November 13, 2007), privy to this high stakes inter-elite conflict, attribute this to a White House cabal led by Vice President Cheney, a more stringent and accurate assessment pits the Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) in the center of the Iran war debate. There is a great deal riding in this conflict – the future of the American empire as well as the balance of power in the Middle East. Equally important is the future of the US military and our already heavily constrained democratic freedoms. The outcome of the continuous and deepening confrontation between top US military officials and the Israel Firsters over US foreign policy in the Middle East has raised fundamental questions over self-determination, colonization, civilian primacy and military political intervention, empire or republic. These and related issues are far from being of academic interest only; they concern the future of America......

Conclusion

The deepening and all-important conflict between the pro-Israel warmongers and the anti-war American senior officers is reaching a bitter climax. As the US military disintegrates under prolonged colonial warfare, the ZPC intensifies its campaign for a third war for Israel and against Iran, a war which will totally shatter the US military forces.

The fundamental question emerging for most senior officers, in private gatherings and informal discussions is ‘Who commands our Commander in Chief?’ The deep animosity of US senior active military officers frequently erupts at the ZPC’s careless and callous disregard for American lives. They disdainfully refer to the Zion-Con policymakers as ‘arm-chair military strategists’ who never fought a war, never shot or been shot. At one level, the senior military officers are appalled by the ignorance of the Zion-Con military ‘experts’ and policy-makers featured by the Zion-Con controlled mass media. One of the most frequent military criticisms is that the Zion-Con policy-makers don’t have an‘exit strategy’ – attributing it to their lack of knowledge or strategic thinking. In reality, the lack of Zion-Con concern for a realistic exit strategy is because the Zion-Cons are concerned (in light of Israel’s priorities) only with an entry policy, namely degrading the invaded countries’ military and economic potential. Secondly the Zion-Cons do not have an exit strategy because they believe the US should stay, colonize, build bases and engage in a prolonged war for a chimerical total victory.

The question of ‘who commands the Commander in Chief’ goes to the entire core of our constitutional order, because it raises the deeper question of ‘who defines the national interests’ for which the military are fighting? If as we have documented, the ZPC has effectively colonized the White House and Legislative Branches (and the Justice Department and the appointment of an ultra-Zionist Attorney General Michael Mulkasey and Israel-First Head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff), to serve the interests of a foreign power (Israel) in what sense does a colonized political system serve the interests of a democratic public? Does there exist a primary condition that makes it possible to speak of a democracy, namely national self-determination, de-colonization necessary for the re-democratization of American political institutions?

So far the only effective resistance to colonization has comes from the US military. The military is a non-democratic, hierarchical institution but an institution representative of the public’s opposition to colonial encroachments.

What would normally be considered the prime movers challenging Zion-Con colonization, namely the President, Congress, the political parties or even the antiwar movements have abdicated their responsibilities -- they have been in part or whole colonized and neutralized.

By default, it has fallen to senior military commanders who reject being commanded by the ZPC at the service of Israel. Paradoxically, it is the military, which has taken over the struggle against an offensive war with Iran, a struggle where the American peace movement has failed. It is the military, which has challenged the Zion-Con agenda, where the Congress has been corrupted and capitulated for reasons of campaign financing, political blackmail and double loyalty.

Where does that leave us, as democrats and anti-colonists?

We should be able to have both an independent de-colonized and democratic America, governed by patriotic Americans. But suppose we have to choose between de-colonization led by the military or a corrupt colonized electoral system – what should be done?

The ideal solution would be a revitalized civil society including secularist citizens, non-fundamentalist Muslims and Christians, and non-Zionist Jews, organized in an anti-war, anti-colonial movement and political parties allied with patriotic officers to ‘re-found the republic’. The purpose would be to establish a republic to ‘defend the heartland’ from fires, floods, economic pillage, terrorists, ecological predators and foreign agents acting on behalf of alien regimes. Can it happen? We shall see. What is becoming clear however is that the anti-colonial imperative is growing stronger by the day, if it doesn’t come from below, it may have to come from above."

Signs of US-Syria Thaw After Summit

".....Syrian delegates received warm handshakes and words of thanks from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose administration has largely shunned Syria since early 2005.

At the close of Tuesday's speeches and meetings focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Rice walked over to the Syrian delegates, according Imad Moustapha, Syria's ambassador to Washington.

"She shook hands with us and thanked us for participating," Moustapha told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. "She also asked us to pass our greetings to Foreign Minister Waleed al-Moallem."

Syria sent a deputy foreign minister instead of al-Moallem, while other invited nations sent their top diplomats. Syria's move was widely viewed as a subtle snub to the U.S. hosts but U.S. officials said they took no offense.

Rice's handshake may have been a small gesture. But coming on top of the U.S. invitation to Syria to attend the one-day session, and Syria's willingness to attend, it could indicate a slight thaw in the diplomatic chill between Washington and Damascus......."

Contributed by Datta


By Mr. Fish

The One State Declaration

CounterPunch

"For decades, efforts to bring about a two-state solution in historic Palestine have failed to provide justice and peace for the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish peoples, or to offer a genuine process leading towards them.

The two-state solution ignores the physical and political realities on the ground, and presumes a false parity in power and moral claims between a colonized and occupied people on the one hand and a colonizing state and military occupier on the other. It is predicated on the unjust premise that peace can be achieved by granting limited national rights to Palestinians living in the areas occupied in 1967, while denying the rights of Palestinians inside the 1948 borders and in the Diaspora. Thus, the two-state solution condemns Palestinian citizens of Israel to permanent second-class status within their homeland, in a racist state that denies their rights by enacting laws that privilege Jews constitutionally, legally, politically, socially and culturally. Moreover, the two-state solution denies Palestinian refugees their internationally recognized right of return.

The two-state solution entrenches and formalizes a policy of unequal separation on a land that has become ever more integrated territorially and economically. All the international efforts to implement a two-state solution cannot conceal the fact that a Palestinian state is not viable, and that Palestinian and Israeli Jewish independence in separate states cannot resolve fundamental injustices, the acknowledgment and redress of which are at the core of any just solution.

In light of these stark realities, we affirm our commitment to a democratic solution that will offer a just, and thus enduring, peace in a single state based on the following principles:
....
....
The struggle for justice and liberation must be accompanied by a clear, compelling and moral vision of the destination ­ a solution in which all people who share a belief in equality can see a future for themselves and others. We call for the widest possible discussion, research and action to advance a unitary, democratic solution and bring it to fruition."

Madrid and London, 2007

Signed:

Ali Abunimah

Naseer Aruri

Omar Barghouti

Oren Ben-Dor

George Bisharat

Haim Bresheeth

Jonathan Cook

Ghazi Falah

Leila Farsakh

Islah Jad

Joseph Massad

Ilan Pappe

Carlos Prieto del Campo

Nadim Rouhana

The London One State Group

UN archives reveal plan to arm Jewish militia

An Explosive Story and A Must Read

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

"It was November 29, 1947. The United Nations General Assembly had just passed Resolution 181 - the Partition Plan, according to which the British Mandate was to be divided into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Civil war broke out between the Jewish and the Palestinian residents, particularly in the mixed cities and on the roads. The UN faced a difficult problem: how to implement the partition resolution together with the economic union of the two states, as specified by the resolution. The UN Secretariat created a Special Committee to deal with what was seen as the first major challenge of the young body.

Dr. Elad Ben-Dror, a historian at Bar-Ilan University, has been studying UN diplomacy after the Partition Plan, at the University Institute for Diplomacy and Regional Cooperation of Tel Aviv University. Last year, he sat in the UN archives and read recently-declassified documents relating to the work of the Special Committee. He made an interesting discovery: The UN had planned to implement the Partition Plan by means of a Jewish militia, trained by the UN and armed, also by the UN, with weapons, combat aircraft and tankettes.

"The plan to establish a militia was the most surprising material I found at the UN," Ben-Dror says. "As part of the Partition Plan, both states were to create militias - a military force under government control and charged mainly with domestic policing duties."

But because the Palestinian leadership viewed Resolution 181 as a pro-Zionist plan and did everything possible to foil it, the UN focused only on establishing the Jewish militia.

"From quite an early stage, due to a lack of cooperation, the UN dropped half of the Partition Plan - the idea of establishing an Arab state," Ben-Dror explained.

"The idea was to implement at least part of the plan - that is, the Jews would create the Jewish state, on the assumption that eventually the UN Security Council would implement the creation of the Arab state," Ben-Dror continued. "As soon as the Partition Plan was adopted, UN Secretary General Trygve Lie and senior UN officials became identified with the idea of the Jewish state. The Arab assault was interpreted as an assault on the UN resolutions, and the UN trusted that the Jews would carry out the partition and not do anything beyond that."

According to the plan, the main role of the Jewish militia was to impose the authority of the Jewish state over its Arab residents; under the partition map, the Arab population within the Jewish state was nearly the same as the Jewish population. The militia command was to be supervised by the UN, which would also appoints its commanders. In practice, however, the Special Committee intended to base the Jewish militia on the Haganah [the pre-state underground Jewish militia].

"It was clear to them that there was no need to create an army out of thin air, and that they could rely on the Haganah," Ben-Dror said. "All that was left to do was to give the UN seal of approval to the Haganah and to provide arms. Among others, there was the question of how to control the Negev Bedouin, who would oppose being under Jewish sovereignty. So they planned to supply the militia with combat aircraft, using British military techniques. At that stage, they didn't think the militias would engage each other."

The story of the Special Committee, in particular its failure to implement the plan created by UN diplomats, is similar to that of many other plans in the following decades that remained on paper only. Ben-Dror attributes the failure of the Partition Plan primarily to opposition from the Palestinians and the Arab states as well as lack of cooperation from Britain......."

Bombs Away?

Arms expert Scott Ritter says the U.S. plans to attack Iran. Metro Times asks why he’s so sure.

by Curt Guyette and W. Kim Heron

A Good Interview

"......To learn what he thinks the future holds for Iran, and the consequences of a U.S. invasion, we recently sat down for a 90-minute phone interview with Ritter. What follows is a condensed version of that conversation.

Metro Times: A year ago, when your book Target Iran came out, you were sounding the alarm about war being imminent. Why do you think that attack hasn’t occurred?

Scott Ritter: Let’s remember that this is an elective war, not a war of necessity. A war of necessity would be fought at the point and time a conflict is required, if somebody is threatening to invade you, to attack, etc. But an elective war is one where we choose to go to war. It will be conducted on a timescale that’s beneficial to those who are planning the conflict.

As far as why it hasn’t happened, there’s any number of reasons. One, the Bush administration has not been able to stabilize Iraq to the level they would like to see prior to expanding military operations in the region. Two, the international community has not rallied around the cause of Iran’s nuclear program representing a casus belli to the extent that the Bush administration would like. They were hopeful that there would be more action from the [United Nations] Security Council. It took a long time to get the issue shifted from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s headquarters to the Security Council. And even when it got shifted to the Security Council, the Council took very timid steps, not decisive steps. The Bush administration sort of tied its hands at that point in time. I think you are seeing increasing frustration today at the slow pace.

Also, the need to redefine the Iranian threat away from exclusively being focused on nuclear activity, because now you have the difficulty of both the IAEA saying there is no nuclear weapons program and the CIA saying pretty much the same thing. So the Bush administration needs to redefine the Iranian threat, which they have been doing successfully, casting Iran as the largest state sponsor of terror, getting the Senate resolution calling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command a terrorist organization, and creating a perception amongst the American people, courtesy of a compliant media, that talks about the reason why things are going bad in Iraq is primarily because of Iranian intervention.

They have been working very hard to get back on track. I still believe that we are seeing convergence here. The Bush administration is moving very aggressively toward military action with Iran.


MT: Is your conclusion that an attack is imminent based on the administration’s statements and actions, like labeling Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, or do you also have sources within the intelligence community and the military and the administration telling you what’s going on?

Ritter: I don’t have any current sources of the sort you just spoke of. I was plugged in back in 2006 to good quality current information. But I haven’t been plugged in recently, so I have to use some sort of analytical methodology as opposed to saying, “Aha, I got it from the horse’s mouth.” But there’s nothing that has occurred that leads me to believe the Bush administration has changed its policy direction. In fact there has been much that’s occurred that reinforces the earlier conclusions that were based on good sources of information. We take a look at items in the defense budget, the rapid conversion of heavy bombers to carry bunker-busting bombs on a specific time frame, the massive purchasing of oil to fill up the strategic oil reserve by April 2008. Everything points to April 2008 to being a month of some criticality. It also matches my analysis that the Bush administration will want to carry this out prior to the crazy political season of the summer of 2008......."

Israeli army forcibly evacuate at least 200 Palestinians from Kherbet Qessa to build the Apartheid wall

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

"At least 200 Palestinian residents of Kherbet Qessa in the Hebron district were left homeless after being forcibly evacuated by the Israeli army in order to establish the annexation wall in their place.

On October,29, 2007 Israeli military expelled 200 Palestinians from their homes in Kherbet Qessa, a town established in the fifties and largely inhabited by refugees who came from Beit Jebreen village.

An illegal Israeli checkpoint called Tarqumia checkpoint was established near the town. Residents of the town had lived in tents and caves and earned there living from livestock.

The illegal wall separated the town from the rest of the West Bank causing misery to the residents as they found themselves isolated from other West Bank areas.

A year and a half earlier the Israeli army had threatened to demolish the villagers' homes, claiming that they were not in possession of a valid construction license.

On 25/10/2007 the army placed housing demolition orders under stones at the entrance to the village.

Four days later, bulldozers supported by Israeli patrols broke into the area and started demolishing tents and caves before giving the occupants the chance to collect their belongings.

According to testimonies presented by residents to B'Tselem, one resident was attacked and assaulted by an Israeli soldier as he tried to protect his livestock which were inside one of the caves.

The army confiscated farming equipment and dumped it to the eastern side of the wall.Most of the residents' property was left buried under the rubble.An Israeli officer forced residents to evacuate the area threatening to arrest them and confiscate their livestock.

The following day a car belonging to the Parks and nature authority came to the area and forced the residents to leave their homes.

Currently most of the village residents are homeless and forced to rent temporary housing in the nearby village of Ethana."

Hamas: Palestine could not be partitioned by resolutions or agreements

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

"GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement on Thursday held the UN fully responsible for the tragedies that befell the Palestinian people as a result of the "oppressive" resolution 181 that sanctioned the partitioning of Palestine and allowed the creation of the Hebrew state.

It said in a statement on the 60th anniversary of that resolution that the implementation of that decision had led to the displacement of hundreds of thousand of Palestinians and replaced alien invaders in their place.

"We call on those who sanctioned this historic oppression to amend their mistake," Hamas said.

It also said that all those attending the Annapolis conference will shoulder the historical and national responsibility for their participation in a conference that was held under the condition that Palestine is a Jewish homeland.

The Movement urged the Arab and Islamic countries to be aware of the conspiracy that is being hatched against the Palestinians' presence in their own land and to renew political, material and moral support for the Palestinians to bolster their steadfastness.......

In 1947 the UN passed its ominous 191 resolution that allowed the partitioning of Palestine between its indigenous people and the Zionist invaders and even gave those aliens 56% of historical Palestine and left 46% for the Palestinians and internationalized Jerusalem."

Catholic leader calls for return of Palestinian refugees

"An official from the Vatican, representative of the Catholic Church’s leader the Pope, stated on Wednesday that the Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their homeland in what is now Israel. Cardinal Renato Martino said he was encouraged by Tuesday’s peace talk in Annapolis, in the U.S., adding that he heoped that significant measures would be underway by next year.

The right of return of the over 3 million Palestinian refugees was not addressed in Annapolis, and George Bush, who called the meeting, did not make any reference to that internationally-recognized right. Israeli officials have continually called on the Palestinian leadership to give up the right of return of the refugees before Israel would even consider beginning a peace talk. Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said Tuesday that Israel refuses the right of return to Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in what is now Israel. The Palestinians who were disenfranchised during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 remain in refugee camps, along with their children and grandchildren, to this day. Martino spoke at a news conference to launch Pope Benedict XVI's annual message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which the Catholic Church marks on Jan. 13. The Cardinal is the head of the Vatican’s program on migrants."

Same Old, Same old – Israel Wins Again

While negotiations drag on, while more land is settled, while the brutality of the occupation continues, the Palestinians lose, Israel wins.

By Jim Miles
Special to PalestineChronicle.com

"As I sit and read the announcements from today’s first discussions from Annapolis, all I can see is another dismal failure for peace and another year long “negotiation” process that like Oslo, Camp David, the ‘road map’ all lead to the same place. That place, as so clearly denoted by the late Tanya Rinehart, is nowhere......

What the actual outcome of all this is of course an unknown, but my best guess is – not much. Israel is where it has liked to be over the past several decades, allowing itself to be perceived as the victim of terror while at the same time occupying and terrorizing the citizens of Palestine. While negotiations drag on, while more land is settled, while the brutality of the occupation continues, the Palestinians lose, Israel wins. "

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

الهرولة نحو السلام

Bolivar reborn

The Chávez revolution remains the most original and democratic experiment in Latin America, and is clearly here to stay

By Richard Gott
The Guardian

"In an unusually large open space, in a poor area of the city of Caracas where ramshackle houses built from breeze blocks and concrete columns occupy every available piece of ground, and where narrow streets wind up the hillside filled perpetually by throngs of people, one of the many thousands of cooperative enterprises created in the last few years has been securely established.

Two large hangars house workshops, and close by is a large well-equipped clinic and a government food store selling cheap food, known as a Mercal. It sells a limited range of basic foodstuffs but would hardly justify the title of supermarket. Today, as everywhere throughout Caracas, powdered milk is in short supply, although no one knows for certain if this is the result of opposition manoeuvre and malice, or of government incompetence.

The clinic is clean and well organised, with modern equipment and a stream of patients throughout the day. Unusually, it is manned by Venezuelan doctors rather than by the Cubans who, in their thousands, have run the medical outposts in the poorest parts of the country over the past three years....

.....Quite apart from the extraordinary mobilisation of the people in the poorest areas, benefiting from new schools and clinics, there has been a huge expansion of public works all over the country, with new railway lines and motorways and well-designed sports facilities in almost every major city. Even the road from the airport has finally acquired a new motorway bridge, and many shacks on the surrounding hillsides have been freshly painted in gaudy colours, blue and orange, yellow and pink. Doubtless these could be denounced as Potemkin villages, yet they demonstrate an organising power on the part of the people that augurs well for the future. The Chávez revolution remains the most original and democratic experiment in Latin America, and is clearly here to stay."

A different venue, but the pious claims and promises are the same

By Robert Fisk

".....And what am I to make of the following quotation from the full text of the joint document: "The steering committee will develop a joint work plan and establish and oversee the work of negotiations (sic) teams to address all issues, to be headed by one lead representative from each party." Come again?

We went through all these steering committees before – and they never worked. True we've got a date of 12 December for the first session of this so-called "steering committee" and we have the faint hope from Mr Bush, embroidered, of course, with all the usual self-confidence, that we're going to have an agreement by 2008. But how can the Palestinians have a state without a capital in Jerusalem? How can they have a state when their entire territory has been chopped up and divided by Jewish settlements and the settler roads and, in parts, by a massive war?.....

....Mr Olmert promised that "negotiations will address all the issues which thus far has been evaded". Yet the phrase "withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territories" simply doesn't exist in the text.

Like most people who live in the Middle East, I would like to enjoy these dreams and believe they are true. But they are not. Wait for the end of 2008."

Final Status Negotiations
By Naser Jafari

Mission accomplished

Osamah Khalil, The Electronic Intifada, 29 November 2007

".....US President George W. Bush offered his best Bill Clinton imitation presiding over a ceremonial handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, like an approving father or Roman emperor. However, rather than remind observers of the halcyon days of September 1993, the oft repeated handshake between Israeli and Palestinian leaders leads many to paraphrase Karl Marx: "History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce." Indeed, a farce has been carried out in the last week of November, where the conference was symbolically and cynically timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' vote to partition Palestine.....

.... Rice's decision to reengage late last year was driven by Washington's attempt to contain Iran's growing influence in the Middle East. The need for containment was further reinforced by Israel's failed invasion of Lebanon and Gaza in 2006 and with it, the Bush Administration's vision, as enunciated by Rice, of a "new Middle East."......

.....In spite of his rhetoric before and during the Annapolis conference, Abbas is beholden to both the US and Israel for support and lacks any effective strategy of his own, leaving him little choice but to accede to Washington's new "process." Thus, placing Palestinians in an unenviable position as they watch while an unelected and unrepresentative clique claim to negotiate on their behalf, but in reality pursue their own narrow self-interests.....

Historically, successful diplomatic summits have resulted in a peace treaty not a "process" or a "framework for negotiations." This is due to the presence of senior government officials and the momentum and trust built from negotiations that are actively facilitated by a major power. It is not a photo-op with a disengaged and indolent president who promises to be active in the future.....

.....In launching this new "peace process," the Bush Administration continues to provide Israel's ongoing colonization of Palestinian land with the requisite time to create further facts on the ground and stifle Palestinian aspirations for a viable, independent state. In order for this to be successful, Washington and Tel Aviv need a Palestinian leadership that will actively participate in such a charade in return for US funding and the title of President or Prime Minister. Abbas and his appointed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are perfectly suited for this role and are in the process of obtaining the necessary political, economic and military support from the US and Israel to maintain their positions against internal opponents, including Hamas and other members of Fatah.

Like the old "peace process," the new one will not end in a Palestinian state in 2008. The strategy adopted by Abbas and his cronies of relying on the United States for salvation is doomed to fail. Palestinians in the Diaspora and inside Palestine must decide what will take its place. Will they allow their century of struggle to end with permanent confinement and rule by a US-backed thugocracy, or mobilize to retake and revive their national movement? Only by reclaiming and remaking into an organization representative of all Palestinians can they determine their future. There is no alternative."

PA forcefully disperses peaceful demonstrations, killing one

Report, PCHR, 28 November 2007

"PCHR strongly condemns the excessive use of force by Palestinian security forces to disperse peaceful demonstrations and assemblies in several West Bank governorates yesterday. The security forces used gunfire in dispersing these gatherings, resulting in the death of one person and the injury of 25 others. The Centre calls upon the Palestinian government in Ramallah to seriously investigate the circumstances of the death of Hisham Baratha'a in Hebron and other attacks, including attacks on several journalists as they were covering the events. The Centre calls upon the government in Ramallah to prosecute the perpetrators and to take effective steps to prevent the recurrence of such attacks......."

Israeli Arabs: Abbas lacks mandate to make concessions

Poll conducted by Arab Center for Practical Social Research finds that the majority of Israeli Arabs distrust Palestinian negotiators to settle on core issues in peace talks with Israel; 65.6% of respondents state that negotiators lack the authority to recognize Israel as a sovereign state; staggering 81% of Israeli Arabs say negotiators cannot concede the rights to Jerusalem

"A poll conducted among Israeli Arabs finds them unwilling to recognize Mahmoud Abbas' authority to negotiate with Israel on their behalf.

A survey conducted by the Mada-El- Carmel Institute, or the Arab Center for Practical Social Research, found that most Israeli Arabs feel that Palestinian negotiators lack the mandate to make concessions on key issues in peace talks with Israel, including the right of return, the future of Jerusalem, formal recognition of the state of Israel, as well as other territorial concessions.

Professor Nadim Ruchana, who conducted the poll, said: “These results essentially imply that Israeli Arabs are telling Abbas and the PA that they have no right to make decisions that impact upon their future.”....."

Lies from Annapolis

Comment by Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

"The peoples of the world are being subjected to a fresh dose of lies, this time coming from Annapolis, Maryland, in the United States.

George Bush, the Fuehrer of the White House, who has destroyed two nation-states and killed a million human beings, and then had the chutzpa to claim that the Almighty told him to do so, displayed some of his characteristically morbid magic this week.......

After all, the Palestinians, who have almost miraculously survived in spite of history, are the main victim of this sinister lingering outrage which allows Israel to constantly steal more Palestinian land for the purpose of creating more lebensraum for Jewish settlement expansion. But Palestinian national survival can’t really be taken for granted no matter how many “peace” conferences are organized and how many foreign dignitaries are invited and how many nice-sounding speeches are given.......

Let us be frank and honest about this. Israel is not about to make peace with the Palestinians. Israel has not made a strategic decision to make peace with the Palestinians. Israel is not about to give up the spoils of the 1967 war. Israel is not about to give up occupied East Jerusalem......

And above all of this, Israel is insisting that it be recognized as an exclusively Jewish state whereby Israel’s non-Jewish citizens (25% of the population) would be treated not only as lesser citizens with more or less transient and uncertain status, but actually as children of a lesser God.

So, how can we possibly expect peace with attitudes like these, and with the outrageous willingness on the part of the West to entertain Israel’s racist whims?......

Israel wants any prospective settlement with the Palestinians to reflect Israeli military supremacy, political hegemony and Jewish predominance over American politics and policies......

For these reasons, I am certain that this endeavor will meet the same failure that previous endeavors ultimately met. And then, another American administration might invite the “sides,” along with another multitude of false witnesses, to a new peace conference.

But then, it might be too late for a Palestinian state, or even for peace."

وقد هدم المسجد الأقصى بسبب الزلزال!!

بقلم: سري سمور

"شعرت كغيري بالهزة الأرضية التي “قيل” بأنها ضربت منطقة البحر الميت وشعرنا بها في مناطق الضفة الغربية،وعندما أقول:قيل ،فلأنني لا أستطيع الجزم بأن ما شعرنا به هزة أرضية أم تفجير نووي،رغم ما قاله الخبراء في الكيان العبري وحذروا في سياقه من زلزال مدمر سيضرب المنطقة عما قريب.

كي لا أتهم بأنني من مروجي نظرية المؤامرة؛ فإنني فقط أتمنى إلقاء نظرة على حقيقية ما يجري للمسجد الأقصى ،وهل أساسات المسجد تحتمل زلزالا أو هزة أرضية حقيقية أو مفتعلة؟

أغلب الظن أن الصهاينة سيستخدمون هذه الطريقة لتحقيق حلمهم بهدم المسجد الأقصى المبارك،وعند ذلك ستبث وكالات الأنباء خبر انهيار المسجد الأقصى بسبب الزلزال،ويتم إخراج الأمر كحادث عادي قضاءً وقدرا!

وربما لتكتمل حلقات مسلسل التخلص من هذا المعلم المقدس سيعلن عن دعم بالملايين بل المليارات من شتى خزائن الدول المختلفة لإعادة بناء وإعمار المسجد الأقصى،وطبعا لاحقا لن يتم ذلك ،إلا إذا تحوّل الوضع في المسجد الأقصى إلى ما هو عليه الحال في الحرم الإبراهيمي في خليل الرحمن؛حيث أنه وبعد 11 شهرا من المجزرة داخله بقي الحرم مغلقا ليعاد افتتاحه وقد قسم وفق إرادة حاخامات كريات أربع ويمنع المسلمون من الصلاة وإقامة الأذان بقرار أمني ما بين الفينة والأخرى!

وأيضا لزيادة الاطمئنان أتوقع أن يعلن عن انسحابات وإخلاء لبعض المستوطنات،وإطلاق سراح عدد من الأسرى وقد يكون بينهم أسرى من ذوي الأحكام المرتفعة،والسماح بدخول بعض العمال،والموافقة على حالات لم شمل،وأمور أخرى،كي يصبح الأقصى نسيا منسيا!

هذا السيناريو قد يبدو خياليا في نظر البعض،وأدعو الله أن يكون كذلك فعلا،ولكن المؤشرات والصمت المطبق تجاه ما يتعرض له المسجد الأقصى ،تدفع المرء إلى تخيل هذا السيناريو المخيف،ولا أحسب كثرة الحديث عن الزلزال المتوقع من فراغ بهذا الخصوص،ولو كانت التوقعات حقيقية فإن الحفريات والهجمة الشرسة على المسجد الأقصى وتزامنها مع هذه التوقعات تدق ناقوس الخطر.
.....
......"

Fifty-seven injured as Lahad (PA security) forces attack Hebron funeral

"Fifty seven Palestinians were injured, several of them seriously, on Wednesday when Palestinian Authority security forces opened fire during a funeral for a civilian killed during Tuesday's anti-Annapolis protests in Hebron, eyewitnesses and medical sources reported.

Mourners indicated that members of the Palestinian police force opened fire in the air and at the funeral procession after several stones were thrown at security forces in the area.

19 people were treated at the governmental hospital in Hebron after being injured in clashes at the funeral, medical sources said......

Several people are also reported to have been arrested.

The violence follows yesterday's attacks against an anti-Annapolis rally in the city in which one man, thirty-seven year old Hisham Barad'i, died after being shot in the chest by PA security forces.

The police later denied responsibility for the man's death."

The Israeli "Peace" Process Never Stops

Ah.....Annapolis is already paying "peace" dividends.....
This fresh blood is that of two Palestinian policemen murdered and five wounded by the IOF today.....
On the coast of Khan Younis, Gaza.....
This deserves a toast from Abbas to Olmert, no?

Have They No Shame?

By Amy Goodman

".....The Democrats had a chance to draw a line in the sand, to absolutely require Mukasey to denounce waterboarding before his elevation to attorney general. Now they have chosen as their spokesman a discredited general, linked to the most egregious abuses in Iraq. The Bush administration passed Sanchez over for a promotion, worried about reliving the Abu Ghraib scandal during the 2006 election year. Now it’s the Democrats who have resuscitated him. Have they no shame?"

Counterattack as Fateful Referendum Looms

COUNTERPUNCH EXCLUSIVE!

CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces
By JAMES PETRAS

"On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday, December 2, 2007.

The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was addressed to the Director of Central Intelligence, Michael Hayden. The memo was entitled 'Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer' and updates the activity by a CIA unit with the acronym 'HUMINT' (Human Intelligence) which is engaged in clandestine action to destabilize the forth-coming referendum and coordinate the civil military overthrow of the elected Chavez government. The Embassy-CIA's polls concede that 57 per cent of the voters approved of the constitutional amendments proposed by Chavez but also predicted a 60 per cent abstention.......

The outcome of the Referendum of December 2 is a major historical event first and foremost for Venezuela but also for the rest of the Americas. A positive vote (Vota 'Sí') will provide the legal framework for the democratization of the political system, the socialization of strategic economic sectors, empower the poor and provide the basis for a self-managed factory system. A negative vote (or a successful US-backed civil-military uprising) would reverse the most promising living experience of popular self-rule, of advanced social welfare and democratically based socialism. A reversal, especially a military dictated outcome, would lead to a blood bath, such as we have not seen since the days of the Indonesian Generals' Coup of 1966, which killed over a million workers and peasants or the Argentine Coup of 1976 in which over 30,000 Argentines were murdered by the US- backed Generals.

A decisive vote for 'Sí' will not end US military and political destabilization campaigns but it will certainly undermine and demoralize their collaborators. On December 2, 2007 the Venezuelans have a rendezvous with history."

In the Fox's Lair

Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm?

Another Insightful Reading
By WILLIAM S. LIND
CounterPunch

".......Here's a hypothesis. What if the Iranians had determined, rightly or wrongly (and I suspect rightly), that the Bush administration has already decided to attack Iran before the end of its term? Two actions would seem logical on their part. First, try to maneuver the Americans into the worst possible position on the moral level by denying them pretexts for an attack. Telling their allied Shiite militias in Iraq to cool it would be part of that, as would reducing the flow of Iranian arms to Iraqi insurgents and improving cooperation with the international community on the nuclear issue. We see evidence of the latter two actions as well as the first.

Second, they would tell their allies in Iraq to keep their powder dry. Back off for now, train, build up stocks of weapons and explosives and work out plans for what they will do as their part of the Iranian counter-attack. Counter-attack there will certainly be, on the ground against our forces in Iraq, in one form or another. In almost all possible counter-attack scenarios, it would be highly valuable to Iran if the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias could cut the Americans' supply lines running up from Kuwait and slow down their movements......

Again, I cannot say this is what lies behind the Mahdi Army's stand-down; Zeppelin reconnaissance over Iran has been inconclusive. But it is consistent with three probabilities: that the Bush administration has decided to bomb Iran, that the Iranians plan in response to roll up our army in Iraq and that Muqtada al-Sadr and other Iraqi Shiite leaders coordinate their actions closely with Tehran.

In past wars, quiet periods at the front have often preceded a "big push" by one side or both. Such may prove to be the case in Iraq as well, at least as far as Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army are concerned. If so, in view of the situations in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Lebanon and the almost certain failure of the Tea Lady's Annapolis initiative, 2008 may see the Islamic world in flames from the Himalayas to the Mediterranean. To paraphrase Horace Greeley, buy gold, young man, buy gold."

Israel's Strategy for Permanent Occupation

When the Roadmap is a One Way Street

An Excellent Article
By JEFF HALPER
CounterPunch

"......Our power, our all-encompassing concern for security and the plain fact that the Arabs just don't count (except as a nuisance factor) limit any peace process to, at best, a willingness to grant them a tiny Bantustan on four or five cantons, all encircled by Israeli settlements and the military. Israeli control of the entire Land of Israel, whether for religious, national or security reasons, is a given, never to be compromised....

....Negotiations must take place once in a while, if only to project an image of Israel as a country seeking peace--Annapolis being merely the latest charade--but they can never lead to any real breakthrough because two-thirds of the Jewish public support a permanent Israeli presence in the occupied territories, civilian and military, that forecloses a viable Palestinian state. How, then, does Israel retain its major settlements, a "greater" Jerusalem and control over territory and borders without appearing intransigent? How can it maintain its image as the only seeker of peace and the victim of Arab terrorism, effectively concealing its own violence and, indeed, the very fact of occupation in order to shift the blame to the Palestinians?.....

....Now look at the pre-conditions Israel has imposed just in the two weeks before Annapolis:

Redefining Phase 1 of the Road Map. The first phase of the Road Map, the very basis of negotiations, calls for Israel to freeze its settlement construction. That is something Israel will obviously not do......Thus, unilaterally, Israel (and the US apparently) reduced the territory to be negotiated with the Palestinians from 22 per cent to a mere 15 per cent, and that truncated into fragmented cantons.....

.....Now comes a fresh demand: that before any negotiations they recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Not only does that introduce an entirely new element that Israel knows the Palestinians will not accept, but it prejudices the equal status of Palestinian citizens of Israel, a full 20 per cent of the Israeli population. This leads the way to transfer, to ethnic cleansing. Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, recently told a press conference that the future of Israel's Arab citizens is in a future Palestinian state, not in Israel itself.....

.....If all else fails--actually negotiating with the Palestinians or relinquishing the occupation not being an option--the US, at Israel's behest, can manage to skip Phase 1 of the Road Map and go directly to Phase 2, which calls for a "transitional" Palestinian state before, in Phase 3, its actual borders, territory and sovereignty are agreed upon. This is the Palestinians' nightmare.....

The end result, towards which Israel has been progressing deliberately and systematically since 1967, can only be called apartheid, which means "separation" in Afrikaner, precisely the term Israel uses to describe its policy (hafrada in Hebrew). And it is apartheid in the strict sense of the term: one population separating itself from the rest, then dominating them permanently and institutionally through a political regime like an expanded Israel locking the Palestinians into dependent and impoverished cantons......why, ask the Israeli Jewish public and the government it elects, should we concede anything significant? We enjoy peace with Egypt and Jordan, and Syria is dying to negotiate. We have relations with most Arab and Muslim states. We enjoy the absolute and uncritical support of the world's only superpower, supported by a compliant Europe. Terrorism is under control, the conflict has been made manageable, Israel's economy is booming. What, ask Israelis, is wrong with this picture?

No, the issue for Israel is rather how to transform its Occupation from what the world considers a temporary situation to a permanent political fact accepted by the international community, de facto if need be or, if apartheid can be finessed in the form of a two-state solution, then formally. And here's the dilemma, and the source of debate within the Israeli government: does Israel continue with the strategy that has served it so well these past 40 years, delaying or prolonging negotiations so as to maintain the status quo, all the while strengthening its hold over the Palestinian territories or, at this unique but fleeting moment in history when George Bush is still in office, does it try to nail it all down, forcing upon the Palestinians a transitional state within the framework of the Road Map?

.....Annapolis? We'll try cautiously for apartheid, hoping that Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas], prodded by Quartet envoy Tony Blair, will play the role of collaborator. If that doesn't work, well, status quo is always a reliable default.

.....Given this political landscape in Israel, in the territories and abroad, it's hard for Israeli leaders to conceal their ebullient feeling that, whether formally or not, "we've won"."

Israelis, Palestinians Open U.S.-Backed Conference With Vague Statement on Timeline, Goals

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

A Good Interview

"......For more on the Annapolis conference, we're joined by two guests. Mustafa Barghouti is an independent Palestinian lawmaker and democracy activist. He is the former information minister of the Palestinian Authority. In 2005, he ran for president, finishing second to Mahmoud Abbas. Daniel Levy is a former Israeli peace negotiator. He served as adviser to the governments of Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin. He is currently a senior fellow of the Middle East Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation. They join us both from Washington, D.C......

AMY GOODMAN: Mustafa Barghouti, your response to the summit at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis?

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Well, the only official thing that came out of this is the statement, the joint statement, and in that statement, the Palestinian delegation failed to present any of the Palestinian demands. Basically, the Palestinian delegation, being very weak and with great doubts about how representative it is, made one concession after the other. And everything they promised the Palestinian people, they failed to achieve. They didn’t mention the issue of Jerusalem; the issue of borders; the freeze of settlements, which we’ve been asking for. And basically the whole document and the whole outcome of the meeting has practically met every Israeli need or demand. What Livni promised has happened, which is that security comes before negotiations, and it becomes a condition of negotiations. What is most drastic is that after all this big gathering and all these expenses on such a conference, or a meeting, all we get is the same road map that was there back in 2003 and that was never implemented.

And in my opinion, what happened was very risky, because instead of discussing the real issues, the Israeli side managed to mobilize the American side; to marginalize completely the Quartet, which has no role from now on; to completely ignore and omit any mentioning of the basis and reference of negotiations, like UN resolutions, United Nations decisions --

AMY GOODMAN: The Quartet being -- Mustafa Barghouti, the --

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: everything that used to be mentioned, like international law, international humanitarian law. Everything was dismissed. The only reference that remains is what Israelis accept and what they don’t accept. And the whole issue becomes an issue of how the Palestinian Authority will be transformed to become a security subagent for occupation. And that is a condition. If the Palestinian Authority does not fulfill that, which is objectively impossible, then there will be no progress on any field. In my opinion, that is very dangerous. And it is really quite dangerous that the Israelis managed to get everything they want without any balance.......

But I think all the Arab countries will probably walk out of this conference feeling very bad about how they were treated, about ignoring the Arab initiative. And I know that the Israelis consider this as a big achievement, because they think this gives them a green line now for -- a green light now for normalization with Arab countries without solving the Palestinian issue....... "

Targeting Iran

David Barsamian interviewed by
Foaad Khosmood

"While on his Northern California book tour, David Barsamian spoke to Foaad Khosmood about his 2007 trip to Iran and his latest book Targeting Iran. The book features discussions with Noam Chomsky, Ervand Abrahamian and Nahid Mozaffari. Two short excerpts from the book are reproduced at the end of the interview by permission from the publishers......"

President Assad, The Americans Said That I Could Keep The Camera!

Latest Latuff Cartoon

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

The Puppet Arab Regimes at the Fall (Annapolis) Meeting:
To Normalize (with Israel) or Not....Normalize....Not.....Normalize.....)
By Hamed Najeeb

Road to Empire

An illegal treaty with Iraq seals our fate

By Justin Raimondo

"Is the U.S. going to occupy Iraq indefinitely, or will we withdraw our troops within the next year or so, as the majority of Americans would have it? President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki don't care what Americans – or Iraqis – think or want: they've already settled the question by signing a "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship Between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America" that commits American soldiers to the task of defending the present Iraqi government against internal enemies, as well as foreign-based threats to its sovereignty, either real or imagined. As the Declaration declares, the U.S. is tasked with:

"Supporting the Republic of Iraq in its efforts to combat all terrorist groups, at the forefront of which is al-Qaeda, Saddamists, and all other outlaw groups regardless of affiliation, and destroy their logistical networks and their sources of finance, and defeat and uproot them from Iraq. This support will be provided consistent with mechanisms and arrangements to be established in the bilateral cooperation agreements mentioned herein."

It's in this context that the Kyl-Lieberman resolution, enthusiastically supported by Hillary Clinton as well as the Bush administration, takes on special importance: having targeted the Iranian security force known as al-Quds, or the Revolutionary Guards, as an officially designated "terrorist" group, the American garrison is already authorized to take on Tehran. The road to war with Iran is paved, and we're ready to roll no matter who sits in the driver's seat......."

The Algebra of Occupation

By Conn Hallinan | November 27, 2007
Foreign Policy in Focus

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

"......In each case, a great army won a decisive victory only to see that victory canceled out by what T.E. Lawrence once called the “algebra of occupation.” Writing about the British occupation of Iraq following the Ottoman Empire’s collapse in World War I, Lawrence put his finger on the formula that has doomed virtually every military force that has tried to quell a restive population.

Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk has cited Lawrence to this effect: “Rebellion must have an unassailable base…it must have a sophisticated alien enemy, in the form a disciplined army of occupation too small to dominate the whole area effectively from fortified posts. It must have a friendly population, not actively friendly, but sympathetic to the point of not betraying rebel movements to the enemy. Rebellions can be made by 2 percent active in a striking force, and 98 percent passive sympathy. Granted mobility, security…time and doctrine…victory will rest with the insurgents, for the algebraical factors are in the end decisive.”......"

Annapolis Statement: "Palestinian Bantustan"

by Francis A. Boyle
(Professor Francis A. Boyle served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations and its Chair, Dr. Haidar Abdul Shaffi from 1991 to 1993 and is the author of "Palestine, Palestinians and International Law" )

Global Research, November 28, 2007

"The mass mobilization against Annapolis by Palestinian civil society around the world and especially in occupied Palestine prevented the Palestinian Delegation from selling out the rights of the Palestinian People under international law to Israel and the United States as some of these same delegates had previously done during the Oslo, Norway negotiations of 1993.

For once Palestinian People Power triumphed over Israeli/American power politics. But the Palestinians and their supporters must remain ever-vigilant against a permanent sell-out as these so-called "final status" negotiations unfold during the next year.

Based upon the Oslo Agreement, the "final status" contemplated by Israel and the United States is a Palestinian Bantustan. To be sure, the Palestinians must expect no meaningful assistance from those quisling governments and organizations that dignified the Annapolis photo-op with their presence."

American Arms Are Put to Use to Prop Up Their Stooge: PA security men open fire at W.Bank funeral, wounding one

"A Palestinian was seriously wounded in the West Bank on Wednesday when President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces opened fire at a funeral for a man killed in a protest against Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, medics
said.

Witnesses said that Abbas's forces fired into the air to disperse the crowd of thousands after mourners began throwing stones at the security officers.

Medical workers said the man was shot in the neck and several others were wounded. Dozens were arrested and security officers confiscated the flags of Islamist groups including Hamas, witnesses said.

The crowd gathered for the funeral of a demonstrator killed on Tuesday at a rally held by a small Islamist group against the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis peace conference. Witnesses at Tuesday's rally said the man was shot by security forces but police denied responsibility......."

Palestinian politicians condemn attacks on journalists

"The Palestinian National Initiative member, Al Mubadar, and the PLO executive committee member, Tayseer Khalid, on Tuesday condemned the actions of the Palestinian Security forces in forciby dispersing a series of anti-Annapolis demonstrations in the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem and Nablus.

Both men also criticized the attacks on Palestinian journalists and media crews, including assaults on the director of Watan TV, Mo'amar Orabi, Al Jazeera reporter Wael al-Shoyoky, IMEMC photographer Ghassan Bannoura, and a number of others, and called for an immediate investigation into the violence.

Khalid stated that the Ministry of the Interior should be held directly responsible for the attacks, and called on the body to lift the police ban on demonstrations, a call echoed by the al-Haq organisation."

Video: Facts About Israel

An Excellent Video
Contributed by Lucia in Spain

انابوليس: القادم اعظم

انابوليس: القادم اعظم
عبد الباري عطوان

".....اخطر ما جاء في هذا الخطاب هو اعلان الرئيس بوش، وامام سبعة عشر وزير خارجية ومسؤول عربي، ان الولايات المتحدة الامريكية ملتزمة التزاما مطلقا بان اسرائيل دولة يهودية، ووطن قومي لليهود جميعا، وهذا يؤسس لمستقبل مظلم ليس بالنسبة الي ستة ملايين لاجئ فلسطيني فقط، وانما لمليون ونصف المليون آخرين يعيشون داخل ما يسمي بالخط الاخضر.
فالرئيس بوش المتعصب دينيا يريد العودة بنا الي زمن الحروب الصليبية والدول الدينية التي ازدهرت في العصور الوسطي، وارتكبت مجازر دموية مرعبة في حق كل من خالفها في الدين او المذهب،....
......
اولمرت خصص الجزء الاكبر من خطابه للحديث عن الارهاب الفلسطيني، ومعاناة الاسرائيليين من جرائه طوال الاعوام الماضية، ولكن السيد عباس لم يستغل هذه الفرصة الاعلامية الهامة للحديث عن معاناة الفلسطينيين اليومية من الارهاب الاسرائيلي، وعن وجود مليون ونصف مليون فلسطيني من ابناء شعبه يتضورون جوعا تحت حصار وحشي في قطاع غزة.
كنا نتمني لو ان السيد عباس وقف وقفة شجاعة، ووضع خطابه الانشائي المكتوب بطريقة باهتة وغير مؤثرة، وتحدث عن لقاءاته الثمانية مع اولمرت وكيف انها لم تحقق مليمترا واحدا من التقدم علي وثيقة او بيان مشترك بسبب تعنت الزميل الاسرائيلي. فقد كان السيد عباس مجاملا ويتعامل مع الاسرائيليين وكأنهم اصدقاء، بينه وبينهم سوء فهم بسيط يمكن تطويقه بسهولة.
المقربون من الرئيس عباس يؤكدون في تصريحاتهم الاعلامية، وما اكثرها هذه الايام، بأن اي اتفاق يتم التوصل اليه سيعرض علي الشعب الفلسطيني في استفتاء شعبي حر. هذا كلام جميل، ولكنه يكشف نوايا وممارسات تنقضه كليا، وتثبت عكسه، فاذا كان ابناء الشعب الفلسطيني لا يستطيعون تنظيم مظاهرة سلمية في رام الله او الخليل او نابلس يعبرون فيها عن معارضتهم لمؤتمر انابوليس، ويواجهون بالرصاص الحي ناهيك عن هراوات قوات القمع المسلحة من قبل الاحتلال، والممولة امريكيا، فكيف سيستطيع هذا الشعب ان يعبر عن رأيه في اي استفتاء علي اتفاق يقدم للاسرائيليين كل ما يتطلعون اليه من تنازلات.
اسرائيل خرجت فائزة من هذا المؤتمر الذي يتمثل نجاحه في انعقاده، فقد ظهرت امام العالم كدولة وديعة محبة للسلام لا تملك اكثر من ثلاثمئة رأس نووي، وتحتل ارض الغير بالقوة، وتحتجز اكثر من احد عشر الف اسير علي الاقل نسبة كبيرة منهم دون اي محاكمات قانونية.
التطبيع الذي يتطلع اليه ايهود اولمرت وكل القادة الاسرائيليين الآخرين تحقق كليا او جزئيا، وهذه هي المرة الاولي في تاريخ المؤتمرات التي يتم التحكم فيها بالتغطية الاعلامية، ولا يسمح للمصورين بنقل الوقائع حية علي الهواء دون رقابة. فلم نعرف من يجلس الي جانب من، وكيف كانت طاولة الاجتماع، ولكن ما لاحظناه من اللقطات القليلة ان وزراء الخارجية العرب كانوا يقفون كتفا بكتف مع ايهود باراك وزير الدفاع الاسرائيلي، وتسيبي ليفني وزيرة الخارجية الاسرائيلية، ومن غير المنطقي وفي قاعة صغيرة ضيقة كالتي شاهدناها انه لم تحدث مصافحات او ابتسامات او حتي لقاءات جانبية.
المشاركة العربية في هذا المؤتمر كانت فضيحة بكل المقاييس. وزراء الخارجية العرب والسيد عمرو موسي امين عام الجامعة العربية كانوا مجرد كومبارس، او شهود زور علي مؤتمر انعقد من اجل تفريغ القضية الفلسطينية من جوهرها والتنازل عن اهم ما فيهــــا وهو حــق العودة للاجئين الفلسطينيين.
الرئيس جورج بوش الأب حقق سابقة تكوين جبهة عسكرية امريكية ـ عربية مشتركة لتدمير بلد عربي اسمه العراق وقتل مئات الآلاف من ابنائه تحت شعار تحرير الكويت ، والرئيس بوش الابن يمهد لتحقيق سابقة اخطر، وهي تكوين تحالف عربي ـ اسرائيلي تحت مظلة امريكية لتدمير بلد اسلامي آخر اسمه ايران.
لا نستغرب مشاركة دول عربية معتدلة في مؤتمر يؤسس لمثل هذا التحالف الجديد، ولكننا نستغرب مشاركة سورية احدي الدول المستهدفة من انشائه، وهي التي كانت من اكثر الاصوات المعارضة لانابوليس والعرب المشاركين فيه.
لا نعتقد ان المشاركة السورية في انابوليس ستعيد الجولان، وان كنا نتمني ذلك، ولكنها قطـــعا ستفقد سورية الكثير من مصداقيتــــها امام الكثـــــيرين من العرب وربما السوريين انفسهم، في وقت هي بحاجة اليها اذا قررت اللجوء الي خيار التعبئة لمواجهة استهدافها اسرائيليا وامريكيا بل وعربيا ايضا.
يبدو ان نموذج افواج الصحوة العشائرية الذي نجحت الولايات المتحدة في اقامته في العراق، واستخدمته في شق صفوف المقاومة، واغراقها في حرب استنزاف داخلية دموية يبعدها عن هدفها الاساسي وهو مقاومة الاحتلال وقواته، بات علي وشك ان يتكرر في فلسطين المحتلة. فالاموال الامريكية بدأت تعطي ثمارها، فالرئيس محمود عباس تعهد في كلمته بمحاربة الارهاب الفلسطيني دون هوادة في الايام المقبلة."

PA Police assault peaceful demonstrators against Annapolis conference

A taste of the American promise

From Khalid Amayreh in Al-Khalil (Hebron)

"At least one Palestinian man was killed and dozens others injured when poorly-trained and utterly undisciplined Palestinian Authority (PA) policemen ganged up on peaceful demonstrators protesting the American-hosted Annapolis conference.

The worst incident occurred in southern West Bank town of Hebron when crack PA policemen, some of them wearing black masks, opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, killing 37-year-old Hisham Al-Barad’ei. Al-Bard’ei died instantly after a bullet penetrated his heart, according to eyewitnesses and medical sources.

Several other protesters were injured during the rally, organized by the local branch of Hizbul Tahrir (Islamic Liberation Party), a generally non-violent group advocating the re-institution of the Islamic Caliphate. The Party is the second most popular Islamic group in Palestine after Hamas.

As many as 3000 people took part in the rally. The protesters shouted slogans and carried placards warning against selling out inalienable Arab rights in Palestine , including the right of return.

A spokesman for Hizbul Tahrir condemned the “cold-blooded murder,” accusing the PA security personnel of behaving and acting like the Israeli occupation army does. “I don’t see any difference. They are acting like the Israeli occupation army, they are quislings and traitors, this is why the Zionists and the Americans armed them and brought them here.”

The appointed Governor of Hebron, Husein al Araj, held Hizbul Tahrir responsible for what happened.“I warned the leaders of Hizbul Tahrir yesterday against holding any rally. I told them that the Palestinian leadership wouldn’t relinquish Palestinian rights. “We told them there would be no rallies. But they challenged us and held the rally.”

Local sources in Hebron said the police were looking for journalists and cameramen who covered the demonstration and that at least one journalist, Bassam Duweik, was arrested Tuesday evening.

The bloody repression of the rally drew angry reactions from the citizens of this city, the largest in the West Bank .

Muhammed Natshe, who said he had no specific political affiliation, said the Palestinian people should “get rid of this treacherous gang before fighting Israel .” “These people are killing us on Israel’s behalf. They are enemy number-1, and Israel is enemy number-2. They want to kill every man or woman who says no to selling out our rights. They want to silence every voice against the Israeli occupation.”

Violent clashes between demonstrators and the police also occurred in Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem as well as in a number of other Palestinian towns.

In Ramallah, policemen ganged up on demonstrators protesting the Annapolis conference, injuring dozens of them. Moreover, the police reportedly beat up journalists and cameramen, badly injuring al-Jazeera correspondent Wael Shoyoukhi. A second journalist, Mua’amar Urabi, from the Maan News Agency, was also beaten up by the police.

A police spokesman in Ramallah, Adnan Tmeizi, said the assault on journalists was “unintended and isolated.”

In Bethlehem, the PA police ganged up on a peaceful demonstration against the Annapolis conference.

Eyewitnesses and local sources said they saw masked security personnel beat up protesters savagely, using clubs and the butts of their rifles. Some of the people injured were taken to hospital for treatment.

In Nablus , the police also beat up anti-Israeli and anti-American protesters, many of them allied with the Islamic Liberation Party.

The governor of Nablus , Jamal Muheisen, denounced the demonstration as “unlicensed” and “provocative.”

Earlier on Tuesday, thousands of people took to the streets throughout the Gaza Strip, carrying sings reading “we will not recognize Israel ” and “yes, to the right of return” (for Palestinian refugees.).

Leading the large protest were the leaders of various Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad organization.

Ahmed Bahr, deputy speaker of the Palestinian Parliament (the Legislative Council) addressed the huge multitude, saying that “we will not let our people down, we will not compromise our national constants.” “Jerusalem is a red line, the right of return is a red line, the resistance is a red line.”

Similarly, Hamas hard-line leader Mahmoud al Zahar, said “no Palestinian leader or organization was authorized to give up the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights.”“We are here to stress and assert the national constants. We are here to assert that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, that Jerusalem is a red line and that the right of return to Haifa and Jaffa is a fixed and inalienable right that nobody under the sun is authorized to give up.“Let them hold a thousand conferences. But we here say to all and sundry that we will not authorize anybody to sign a document that would compromise our national constants, and anyone doing that would be condemned as a traitor until the Day of Judgment.”

According to Palestinian commentators, the PA regime has been surprised by the huge opposition to the Annapolis conference.

Earlier, pro-Fatah opinion pollsters showed that a majority of Palestinians supported the American-backed Mahmoud Abbas.

However, now with the Annapolis conference looking like a poor imitation of the Oslo process, Palestinian frustration with the Abbas leadership is likely to grow, especially if scheduled Palestinian-Israeli talks lead nowhere as most Palestinians expect."

Judaization of Jerusalem and All of Palestine.....
That's What Annapolis is All About

Syria defends decision to attend summit

"DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria on Tuesday defended its decision to attend the Mideast peace conference and said it was choosing the path to peace after its close ally Iran expressed surprise at the decision.

In Iran, several officials and media condemned the U.S.-hosted conference and urged Arab countries not to compromise with the Israelis.

Syrian state-run media said the country hoped the conference could bring real peace to the region. Syria is attending the Annapolis, Md., conference "because peace is its choice and because it has made strides in previous negotiations to achieve it," the daily Tishrin said in an editorial. "Though we are hopeful that the region would move toward a real peace, yet this doesn't mean that the conference would achieve this goal," the editorial said......

Iran's criticism and Syria's statement seemed to indicate at least some tension between the two allies over the issue, although it was unclear how serious it was.

Hossein Shariatmadari, an adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told a pan-Arab daily based in London, Asharq Al-Awsat, that Iran was surprised by Syria's decision to take part in the conference, which is trying to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. "We were surprised by the Syrian position, and we said that we do not support the conference. We expressed our opinion clearly and openly," Shariatmadari told the paper, adding that the conference was a "a plot against the Palestinians."......

On Monday, dozens of hard-line Iranian students gathered in front of the Jordanian Embassy in Tehran to protest the summit after Khamenei said in a speech broadcast on state TV that the summit was a failure meant to salvage America's reputation and not designed to help the Palestinians. "Those who recognize Israel commit treason against Muslims and Palestinians," the protesters said in a statement in an apparent reference to Arab leaders who attended the conference......

The official Iran daily newspaper also condemned the conference. "Will Arab leaders be ready to compromise over rights of Palestinian nation against Palestinians?" Iran said in an editorial. "The Annapolis conference is nothing more than a ridiculous intervention maneuver in and inter-Palestinian dispute."......."

Iran to Host Meeting to Counter Annapolis Conference

Al-Manar

"27/11/2007 Iran said on Tuesday that it had invited Palestinian resistance factions to a meeting in Tehran aimed at countering a US-hosted Middle East conference seeking to kickstart the settlement process."These groups are planning to come to Tehran within the next week or two and they are all the Palestinian groups that are struggling for the freedom of their land," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

Iran is one of the most vocal backers of Palestinian resistance groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad and pledged millions of dollars in 2006 to the then Hamas government crippled by a Western aid cut. The Islamic republic does not recognize Israel. Elham indicated the Tehran meeting would be a riposte to the conference bringing together Israeli and Palestinian leaders which started in Annapolis outside Washington on Tuesday. "It means that the Annapolis conference is not representing the Palestinians and not talking on their behalf, but on the contrary is moving against their rights," he said."

Abbas's security violently disperses anti-Annapolis rally

"RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- PA security apparatuses in the West Bank, under the command of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas, on Tuesday brutally dispersed a peaceful anti-Annapolis conference rally called for by the PFLP in Ramallah city.

Witnesses reported that the security elements fired teargas and beat up dozens of citizens who gathered in downtown Ramallah hoisting Palestinian flags and placards championing insistence on Palestinian constants and rights.

They added that Abbas's security forces violently attacked the citizens using batons and rifle butts in addition to spraying the demonstrators with teargas and firing in the air.

Local sources said that a number of civilians were arrested on the spot and severely beaten up and humiliated in front of hundreds of citizens who expressed utter dismay at the sight.

The security apparatuses threatened cameramen and correspondents via loudspeakers that their cameras would be smashed if they took photos of the event.

The unconstitutional government of Salam Fayyad had issued a decision banning any protest marches or demonstrations against the Annapolis conference on the part of Palestinian factions at the pretext of "protecting national unity"."

Hamas leaders denounce attacks on Anti Annapolis protests

"Sheikh Husien Abu Kweik and Faraj Rumanah, senior leaders of the Hamas movement, on Tuesday denounced the attempts by the Palestinian authority to prevent the non-violent demonstrations and the attacks carried out by the PA security forces on protests in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Abu Rumanah, who was attacked and detained by Palestinian security forces at the rally in Ramallah, branded the attacks as a violation of human rights, adding that the demonstration included many from different political factions and organisations and had been non-violent until PA forces attacked. Abu Rumanah warned that such policies would harm the efforts being made to Bridge the gap between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.

Sheikh Abu Kweik called for the Palestinian security departments to reassess their West Bank policy.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on Tuesday took to the streets in protest against the Annapolis peace conference across the West Bank.

In Bethlehem, security forces attacked a peaceful protest and prevented journalists from covering the event, detaining and injuring IMEMC correspondent Ghassan Bannoura in the process. "

IMEMC’s Photographer beaten and detained by PA Security in Bethlehem

"Palestinian Security forces assaulted and detained IMEMC’s photographer and news producer Ghassan Bannoura as he was covering an anti-Annapolis demonstration in Bethlehem on Tuesday afternoon.

Bannoura was stopped by an officer who was not in a uniform, and was asked not to take photos, then he was pushed against the wall and was beaten by a number of security men, some of them were masked.

He was then forced into a car that belongs to the Palestinian Authority and was severely beaten with the bottoms of the guns and with batons and attempted to take his camera. His cell phone was confiscated.

Bannoura said that he was taken to the headquarters of the military intelligence and where his camera was taken from him at gun point.

He was released four hours later and was checked into the hospital for treatment. He suffered severe bruises in his back and neck and a light fracture in his right arm.

Several media sources reported that the Palestinian Authority security forces assaulted a number of journalists in Bethlehem and Ramallah and other areas while they were covering anti-Annapolis conference rallies.

In Hebron, Hisham Barad’i, 37 was killed when the security forces dispersed a demonstration called for by the Liberation Party, an Islamic group in Palestine."

Haniyeh: Palestinians will not abide by Annapolis statements

"In a speech delivered Tuesday, Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed Palestinian Prime Minister, indicated that Palestinians would not abide by the outcome of the Annapolis conference, indicating that the summit had no "relevance on the ground."

Haniyeh vowed that his government "would stand firmly against any procedures or policies that work against the weapon of the Palestinian resistance," adding that the conference was designed to "legitimize the Zionist entity" and cover America's failure in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

Haniyeh also criticized the West Bank-based administration for making decisions without the approval of the majority of Palestinians, both within the occupied territory and abroad.

Turning his attention to those Arab countries attending the summit, Haniyeh argued that they had no mandate to approve Palestinian compromises, adding that his government would reject any such agreements."

Gaza residents stage demonstration against Annapolis

"Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on Tuesday took to the streets of Gaza city in protest against the Annapolis peace summit, currently taking place in the United States.

The rally, the largest, since Hamas established power in the region in in June, was called for by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements.

Protesters chanted slogans against the Washington-sponsored conference, saying, "we wont recognize Israel, we never concede the right of return, we never give up an inch of our lands."

One of the protesters told IMEMC that "we don’t care about our conditions, we need no more alleged peace conferences."

Dr. Ahmad Bahar, speaker of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council, told the crowds, "today, the Palestinian people tell those meeting in Annapolis that they refuse to concede their inalienable rights."

Bahar also revealed that the PLC had recently passed a new bill prohibiting concession of the Palestinians' right to return to Palestine as well as the right to Jerusalem and resistance, stating that, "This bill is intended to protect Palestinian rights from those who collaborate with the Israeli entity."......"

AP









(REUTERS)




Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians gather during a protest against the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis meeting in Gaza City, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007. (AP Photo)

Annapolis Meeting