On
Being Dealt the Anti-Semitic Card
By Tom Paulin, The Guardian, January 8, 2003
The first answer is Beckett's / in another context - to "Mr Beckett
/ they say that you are English?" / he answered "au contraire"
/ - he didn't say "I am not dot dot" / which plays their game
/ - in this case the ones who play the a-s card - / of death threats
hate mail talking tough / the usual cynical Goebbels stuff / so
I say the same / and say that peace it must be talked / re Palestine
and re Iraq / - Israel has got the bomb / but that's not why /
no one in their right mind / says Israel should be swept into
the sea / - historic guilt / is and must be always with us / -
it knows the railway line to Auschwitz / went unbombed / it counts
the refugees turned back / and sees that Nacht und Nebel track
/ they called the Himmelfahrt / the long unthinkable - must be
always thought - / - go back / see England and Ireland / force
the Jews out / watch the Crusaders / those mailclad terrorist
invaders / making rivers of blood / in Palestine
Liberman's
Supreme Soviet
By Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom, January 4, 2003
I have received a lot of curses in my lifetime, and here and there
some compliments, too. But I have never received a compliment
like this one: an important party, represented in the Knesset,
has mentioned my name in its official election platform. Under
the heading "Legislation and strict supervision of organizations
and activists of the extreme left", the National Union party's
program says: "We shall anchor in legislation more severe measures,
including the cancellation of citizenship, against people like
Uri Avnery, Leah Tsemel and refuseniks of all kinds, who are defaming
the country abroad." I don't know whether to be proud, laugh or
be angry. To be proud, because my name is used to symbolize the
whole peace camp. And also because I appear side by side with
Leah Tsemel, the valiant lawyer who defends Palestinian prisoners,
and the refuseniks, who represent the conscience of Israel. To
laugh, considering the abysmal Chutzpa of this sentence. The leader
of the National Union party is Avigdor (Ivette) Liberman, a person
brought up in the Bolshevik education system of Stalin and who
has absorbed - as we can see - the racist and power-hungry attitudes
of the red tyrant. He has come here when everything was ready,
to a state that we have created (literally) with our blood, and
now demands, no more no less, to cancel our citizenship. To be
angry, because Liberman, together with National Religious leader
Effi Eytam and some of the Likud leaders, is in the vanguard of
the dirty column that is besieging Israeli democracy. Last week
they succeeded in inducing the majority of the politicians in
the General Election Committee to disqualify two Arab Knesset-members
(Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara) and an Arab election list (Balad)
from participating in the elections, expelling in practice 20%
of Israel's citizens from the political arena.
Our
twenty-five years
By James Zogby, Arab News, January 8, 2003
It was twenty-five years ago that I first came to Washington to
begin working full-time on behalf of my community. During the
past two and a half decades so much has changed. As we begin a
New Year and prepare to deal with the many pressing issues that
crowd our agenda in 2003, it is important to make note of the
progress we’ve made and how that progress has enabled us
to meet the demanding challenges we will face. On reflection,
perhaps the most significant development that marks Arab American
progress over the past 25 years has been the very establishment
of the community itself. When I moved to Washington in 1978 to
run the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC), I was one of but
a handful of Arab Americans working in a few small Arab American
organizations. The combined membership of all of those organizations
was only a few thousand. And most Americans of Arab descent did
not identify themselves as Arab Americans. To a degree this was
due to the newness of the concept. The bulk of the community,
were descendants of the early 20th century immigrants from Syrian
and Lebanon. Their departures to America had predated the development
of the modern Arab national movement. Other factors, which complicated
the emergence of an "Arab American" identity were the devastating
civil war in Lebanon and the post-Camp David rupture, both of
which took a toll on community building.
Another
blow
Editorial, Arab News, January 8, 2003
Those who were responsible for latest bombing in Tel Aviv, in
which 22 people were slain, have once again played into the hands
of Israel’s hard-liners. Among other things, it has provided
Israel with the excuse to withdraw permission for Palestinian
officials to go to Tony Blair’s London peace conference.
Torpedoing any possibility of a peaceful end to the confrontation
is the core of Israel’s long-term strategy. In the Zionist
scheme of things, we are in the end game. The authority and capability
of the Palestinian Authority has been destroyed. Yasser Arafat
is shut up in his headquarters. The nascent infrastructure of
a Palestinian state has been crushed by the tracks of Israeli
tanks. Humiliated and violated on a daily basis, every Palestinian
has been turned into an indomitable enemy of Zionism. From the
ranks of the despairing, extremists groups draw a steady supply
of those willing to sacrifice their own lives to blast apart the
lives of others. Each new attack leaves dead bodies on both sides.
However, to the Zionist-managed gallery of world opinion, it is
the Israeli dead who are counting more. Every new human bomb adds
to the Zionist fiction of a savage Palestinian population who
must be treated like wild animals and caged up in their homes.
Life
Story of the Olives
By Annie Higgins, The Electronic Intifada, January 7, 2003
"Oh, Mom, are you going to tell the life story of the olives?"
asked Fatima as her mother put a plate on the table, wondering
if I wanted to know where they came from. Her mother was serious
and sincere in offering the story, and I had come to take a special
interest in olives. I had asked if these were from the recent
olive harvest, as they had a lovely uniform color and unspotted
texture. When she replied that they were three years old and had
a story, her daughter laughingly broke in. Preserving these olives
was one of the last deeds of the sister of 'Imad Hardan. He was
in prison and, as is the custom of many prisoners, would communicate
regularly with his family by mobile phone. His jailer's custom
is to forego the inconvenience of a trial, and instead to assassinate
people it feels are threats to its domination. His jailer is always
able to find an accomplice from the dominated populace, some willing
to sell a fellow dispossessed citizen for as little as a pack
of cigarettes, a small relief from constant degradation. But 'Imad
Hardan was not suspicious when a fellow prisoner handed him the
mobile phone. He took the call. An operative detonated the charge,
and he was blown to bits. Israeli justice uses the telephone to
strike harder than the gavel.
Britain
is only the appetizer
By Raul Teitelbaum, Globes, January 8, 2003
The US will serve the main course and with them, there’s
no free lunch, even for friends. -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
gave his Washington delegation an impossible mission: get a positive
answer from the US to Israel’s request for loan guarantees
and special military aid before the elections, while putting off
a list of the accompanying conditions until afterwards. The US
decided not to separate the two, and delayed the answer until
after the elections and a resolution of the confrontations with
Iraq. Nevertheless, Sharon’s election advisers put their
own spin on the matter by leaking that there was an agreement
in principle on aid and guarantees for Israel, which would be
forthcoming in March. Why the spin? Because things are far from
being guaranteed. There will be many more trips between Jerusalem
and Washington before the fate of the request for $8 billion in
loan guarantees and $4 billion in special military aid becomes
clear. Washington is reportedly making special aid to Israel conditional
on specific stipulations. Not only must Israel refrain from using
a single dollar for the territories, the Jewish settlements there,
or Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deployment there, but Israel must
also accept President George W. Bush’s road map in full.
The
battle for a 'state of all its citizens'
By Gideon Samet, Ha'aretz, January 8, 2003
The Supreme Court will deliver an unusually important verdict
tomorrow. It will either accept or reject the Central Elections
Committee's position on the right of Baruch Marzel, Ahmed Tibi,
Azmi Bishara and the Balad party to run for Knesset. The heart
of the decision lies in the interpretation of two articles in
the Basic Law for the Knesset that fell victim to the politicians'
demagoguery, nationalistic passions, distortions and ignorance.
Even if the CEC had some good intentions, the adoption of its
position could pave the way to a small hell for this conflicted
country. Article 7a (a3) prevents a list or candidate from participating
in the elections if their goals or deeds "support the armed struggle
of an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel." Bishara,
Tibi and Balad filed a pile of evidence meant to disprove the
allegations against them based on this article. The 11 justices
will decide according to the evidence. And there is also their
decision regarding the charges of incitement to racism against
Baruch Marzel, according to Article a2. But unlike those two articles,
article a1 does not only deal with facts. It goes to the root
and essence of the state. It touches on Israel's future in a way
that very few articles of the law have ever come close to. The
grounds referred to in this article for banning a candidate or
party are "negating the existence of the state of Israel as a
Jewish democratic state."
Campaign
Broadcasts / Likud turns to Arafat again
By Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz, January 8, 2003
Yasser Arafat again plays a starring role in the Likud's campaign
commercials that began to air last night. During the past four
elections, the Palestinian leader has carried the Likud's ads
on his back - his face distorted, lips trembling, now with Amram
Mitzna, in 1999 and 2001 with Ehud Barak and in 1996 with Shimon
Peres. There are endless variations of shattering glass in these
commercials, produced under the direction of Arthur Finkelstein.
Against this background, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appears,
promising again to bring peace and security, suggesting that Palestinian
resistance is starting to crack. With the exception of a brief
appearance by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, the rest of the Likud
Knesset list is nowhere to be seen. In fact, in the third of its
commercials broadcast last night, Sharon finds it necessary to
say: "Whoever wants to choose me, must vote Likud. Whoever votes
Likud, is voting for me." Sharon seems to be saying: I know that
it's hard for you to vote for the Likud list, but you have no
alternative - Take a pill against nausea and place your ballot.
Pop
Quiz on the Middle East (Revised)
By James J. David, Palestine Chronicle, January 8, 2003
The original Middle East Pop Quiz was published by Charley Reese
back on February 8, 1998. Since then, there have been many additions
to the quiz which I have added. With many thanks to Charley Reese
and hoping he makes a full recovery from his recent illness, I
present the updated version. -- "Q. Which country in the Middle
East had its Prime Minister announce to his staff not to worry
about what the United States says because 'We control America?'.."
The
Israeli poison gas attacks: A preliminary investigation
By James Brooks, Media Monitors Network, January 8, 2003
I. 'New' Israeli gas causes mass convulsions in the Gaza Strip
/ II. Gas attacks continue despite protests / III. Doctors ask,
'What am I treating?' - Nerve Gas? / IV. Israel's chemical weapons
capability / V. Documenting the suffering of the Palestinian gas
victims / VI. Victims' symptoms point to a troubling diagnosis
/ VII. Consistent with the diagnosis: Nerve gas / VIII. Were the
gas canisters designed to attract? / IX. The decision to use banned
gas weapons against civilians / X. A grave breach of international
law -- After a few minutes, the gas started to smell. "Like mint,"
several people said. One resident later recalled that, "the smell
was good. You want to breathe more. You feel good when you inhale
it." A girl reported that "its taste was like sugar. The smell
was sweet."(4) "First..the smoke was white, then yellow, then
black," a teenage victim recalled later. Another victim said that
the smoke changed colors "like a rainbow." But mostly the smoke
was black, and very sooty. When the gas canisters landed on homes,
black smoke billowed so thickly that neighbors rushed to the scene,
believing the houses had caught fire. Soon, however, people began
to realize that the gas wasn't harmless after all. One man recalled:
"..ten - fifteen minutes later I got severe stomach cramps. I
felt that my stomach was being torn apart. And a burning sensation
in my chest. I couldn't breathe." People began to vomit, and go
into seizures and spasms, then collapse and lose consciousness.
