Trembling
Before The Gods Of War
By Laurie King-Irani, ZMag, January 8, 2003
President George W. Bush, like the vast majority of the American
public, knows war primarily through the cinematic lens. "Rambo,"
"Delta Force," and a host of other movies oozing self-righteous
machismo present war as a football match pitting good guys against
bad. The daily misery of war as lived experience does not make
the final editing cut in Hollywood. On screen, the decisive battle
comes and goes in a flash, the hero emerges triumphant, no innocents
are scarred or damaged, and everyone goes home happy and proud.
This is war as fought and won by gods, which most Americans, especially
our leaders, consider themselves to be, particularly after the
collapse of the USSR. Since 1991, we have been the main attraction:
The Superpower, The Sole Leader of the World, The Strongest People
on the Planet. What we say, goes. After living in the Middle East
for most of the last six years, I am continually taken aback by
this characteristically American hubris. Sadly, even those earnest
war protesters waving placards and shouting slogans before the
White House seem supremely self-confident to my eyes, eyes that
have seen war. I envy the protesters' easy assumption that the
values, beliefs, and principles that they hold dear can possibly
halt the gears of war--and war's commerce--already set in motion,
now virtually unstoppable.
Pinocchio
heads for the polls
By Gideon Samet, Ha'aretz, January 10, 2003
The possibility of a surprise outcome in the elections that I
speculated about cautiously two weeks ago has become more realistic
this weekend. There is no miracle behind this plot reversal. It
was simply furthered by the growing length of Pinocchio's nose.
Old Geppetto never arranged for this nose to have a tick. But
Pinocchio's nose has gone down in history, like Cleopatra's, because
it got longer every time Pinocchio lied. The culture of lies in
this country has grown to unforeseen proportions. And the Likud
is going down in the surveys because of it. The Ha'aretz survey
yesterday was the first to announce the dramatic slide. It wasn't
one report in the newspaper about the Sharon family's affairs
that did it. This report joined up with suspected lies that have
not yet been proved, as well as other lies about which we know
for a fact - because some political deceptions don't need a scoop
to be found out. One old lie that is out in the open, for example,
is that Sharon is prepared for serious peace negotiations. Just
wait and see: The new Sharon is about to emerge. Despite occasional
hints, especially after prodding from Washington, nothing of the
kind has ever happened.
After
the bombings
By Ibrahim Nafie, Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 9 - 15 January 2003
Events in Tel Aviv should drive home the truth that armed force
will never solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- Nearly
six weeks of calm were shattered earlier this week when two Palestinians
blew themselves up in a bus station in Tel Aviv, killing 23 and
wounding over a hundred. The incident also took the wind out of
the sails of the Likud government's boast that its aggressive
security policy, being implemented under the supervision of Minister
of Defense Shaul Mofaz, was working successfully. The Palestinian
Authority (PA) immediately denounced the operation in no uncertain
terms. It vehemently condemned the double suicide bombing as a
terrorist act that targeted innocent civilians and foreign workers,
and pledged to take firm and rapid measures to apprehend the perpetrators
and bring them to justice. However, this response made little
difference to the Israeli government, whose reaction was to unleash
a new wave of terror and collective punishment. Once again, it
stepped up its campaign of assassinations and the demolition of
Palestinian houses, instituted measures to restrict the freedom
of movement of Palestinian officials and citizens, prohibited
the meeting of the PLO Central Council scheduled for Thursday
and prohibited the Palestinian delegation from flying to London
to attend the conference on Palestinian reform called by British
Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Skating
on thin ice
By Soha Abdelaty , Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 9 - 15 January 2003
As Cairo works towards inspiring a cease-fire in Palestine, the
biggest obstacle may be Israel's trigger-happy government -- Despite
the twin bombings in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Cairo will continue to
encourage Palestinian factions to agree to a cease-fire. In return,
Egyptian officials are urging the international community to restrain
Israel. In both cases, the message is the same: only via a period
of calm can negotiations resume. For the past two months, Cairo
has hosted talks between key Palestinian factions such as Hamas,
Jihad, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)
and the People's Party to forge a unified position on issues such
as armed operations against Israel. Egyptian officials say that
they are only "encouraging" these factions to seek a cease-fire,
in an attempt to unify their positions. They would also like to
see these factions "restructure" rather than "end" their resistance,
as a way to establish a period of calm during which negotiations
can resume. In essence, this means that Cairo is asking these
groups to agree to a cease-fire for a certain period of time,
during which civilians will not be targeted and violent resistance
can be minimised. "We are helping the Palestinians channel their
resistance" in the right way, said Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher
on Monday.
Behind
the Power Curve: Bush's Epitaph?
By Bill Christison, CounterPunch, January 10, 2003
Lost in the Folds of Iraq and North Korea -- A few decades ago,
a cliché invaded Washington's bureaucracies. It was a cliché that
many of us self-decreed sophisticates in the U.S. foreign-policy
establishment came to use, and then shamelessly overuse, to belittle
anyone (sometimes a superior, more often a competitor in another
agency) who happened to disagree with the one's own views. Low-voiced
comments about this or that #$&* SOB being "way behind the
power curve" filtered into government conference rooms, dining
rooms, and even hallways. Until it succumbed to parody from the
crescendo of overuse, this was truly a multi-purpose cliché. It
sounded so good that some of us would, pompously and with just
the right profession of cynicism and self-deprecation, apply it
in a less insulting way to ourselves. As in, "We can't afford
to fall behind the power curve on this one [i.e., any issue that
seemed important at the moment], so here's what I think we ought
to do." The "power curve" itself normally went undefined, but
the very word "power" elicited, as was intended, knowing nods
and narrowed eyes suggesting that most users or hearers of the
cliché, at least those who valued their positions in the bureaucracy,
wished to be seen as hard pragmatists with a lesser interest in
"unrealistic" ethics, morals, or principles. Not surprisingly,
the dominance of this cliché coincided with the early 1970s, the
last years of the Nixon administration. Today there are grounds
for hope that the Bush administration itself is already falling
irretrievably behind the power curve of its own amoral and unprincipled
pragmatism.
'Racism,
Injustice, Humiliation'
By Hanna Rosin, Washington Post, January 11, 2003
For weeks, Kamal Nawash's clients were asking him: Should I do
it or not? The Immigration and Naturalization Service has been
requiring men who are not green-card holders and who came from
countries regarded as potential sources of terrorists to come
in and be registered, fingerprinted and photographed. But they'd
heard rumors, of the kind that can easily scare a newcomer. In
Southern California, hundreds of immigrants gamely showed up,
only to be arrested and detained. There was talk of sleeping on
concrete, and no food and water. Well, all 10 of his clients came
into the Arlington INS office yesterday and all 10 got arrested.
They were not people suspected of having any connections to terrorism.
They hadn't committed a crime. In this case they were not even
the classic case of immigrants who overstayed their visas. All
of them had applications pending for a work permit and, ultimately,
a green card. But because of Labor Department and INS backlogs,
their papers hadn't been processed yet. So they, like dozens of
other immigrants who showed up at the Arlington office, left it
in shackles.
Happy
Imbeciles At War
Massive U.S. military buildup, billions of dollars, a useless
enemy, and no one seems to know why
By Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle, January 10, 2003
This is not a war. Iraq will not be a war. Do we understand this?
We do not seem to understand this. This is heavily corporatized
power brokers killing each other for oil and capital. Oh yes it
is. Let's be perfectly clear. You cannot have a war when the so-called
enemy has done nothing to provoke you and is absolutely no threat
to your national safety and has no significant military force
and has negligible chance of even setting off a firecracker near
your own overwhelming death machines, and whose only weapons of
minimal destruction are the rusty short-range warheads and biochemical
agents we sold him 20 years ago, and kept selling to him, even
after we knew he was gassing his own people. You cannot have a
war when there is nothing to fight against, when it's essentially
going to be a huge U.S. military stomping/bombing exercise, when,
just like Afghanistan, we stand to suffer zero U.S. casualties
(except for those we seem to kill ourselves), and we just bomb
and bomb and kill and kill and shrug.
Chutzpahgate
By William Hughes, Palestine Chronicle, January 11 2003
BALTIMORE (PalestineChronicle.com) - Maybe, there is a God. How
else can you account for the fact that Ariel Sharon might lose
the January 28th election? He might even go to jail, or at least
pay a fine, if the state can prove its case against him for electoral
hanky panky. The Israeli Prime Minister is finally on the ropes.
And, it’s not for his invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and the
carnage and death that left in its wake. He’s under a fierce
attack. And, it has nothing to do with his sordid part in the
slaughter of 69 innocent civilians at the Arab village of Qibya
in 1953. It’s the tenth round of a slugfest and he is wearing
out fast. And, it’s not because the World Court has called
him to account for his supporting role in the massacre at Sabra
and Shatila, the sacking of Jenin, or for running his death squads
in the West Bank and Gaza. No! It’s the local Israeli prosecutor,
Elyakim Rubinstein, who is doing the pounding away at the old
sheep farmer, Sharon. Rubinstein is going for his jugular. It’s
all because of an election fundraising brouhaha - a measly $1.5
million loan - supposedly transferred from a South African business
man, to Israel, to pay off the campaign debts of Sharon. You see:
Foreign campaign contributions are illegal in Israel. Talk about
being brought down by the absurd. And, of course, those troublemaking
sons of Sharon; Omri and Gilad. didn’t help his cause either.
Both of their names appear on the disputed bank account, according
to published reports. Omri Sharon is also involved in an alleged
vote-buying scheme in last November’s primary election.
Well, the fruit never falls far from the tree, does it?
Why
support terrorism?
By Nima Kasraie, YellowTimes, January 9, 2003
(YellowTimes.org) – It has been a little over a month since
one hundred and fifty congressmen came out in support of the Iranian
Mujahideen Khalq (MKO), an opposition group both the Bush and
Clinton administrations have called a terrorist organization.
The lawmakers, more than one third of the 432 current members
of the House of Representatives, claimed that the Mujahideen were
a legitimate resistance movement and should be removed from the
State Department's list of "foreign terrorist organizations."
To make matters worse, recently released White House documents
show a top commander in President Bush's war on terrorism to also
have been among the supporters of the notorious MKO: Attorney
General John Ashcroft, who became involved with the MKO while
a Republican senator from Missouri. The Attorney General liked
to call them "Freedom Fighters." Just to be clear, MKO/NCR are
not nice people. And they are not freedom fighters. The MKO, which
originally fought to overthrow the Shah of Iran, were linked to
the murder of several U.S. military officers in Iran in the 1970s
and have "an extremely bloody history" according to one U.S. counter-terrorism
official. The goal of "removing a tyrannical regime from power"
is one thing, supporting terrorism to accomplish that task is
another.
Collective
Punishment is A War Crime
By Daoud Kuttab, Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre, January
6, 2003
The long line at the Qalandia checkpoint on Monday (January,6)
was one of the first signs of the added collective punishment
that the Israeli army was now instructed to impose on the Palestinian
population. When my turn finally arrived, I drove up to the soldiers
hoping finally to be allowed into Ramallah. A woman soldier was
preparing some type of sandwich and her colleague ordered me to
return. I tried to plead with him that my papers were in order
but he kept insisting that I return. I backed my car up and after
a wait, I decided to walk by foot with my Israeli issued press
card and my travel documents in hand. The young Israeli soldier
again screamed at me to return. When I insisted to know why he
pointed to his female partner eating away at her sandwich. Wait
till she is done with her breakfast he replied. The answer surprised
me because in 35 years of living under Israeli occupation I don’t
remember ever being delayed because a soldier was munching on
a sandwich. I know many other places were you might be asked to
wait in line while staffers had their tea or breakfast, but this
was a first for me. Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint
were clearly fulfilling new orders coming from the Sharon administration.
To hurt Palestinians in any way shape or form. A delegation that
was invited to London was not allowed to travel to the United
Kingdom. A PLO central council meeting that was supposed to discuss
the Palestinian constitution was not allowed to convene, even
Palestinians invited to an Israeli-Palestinian conference about
Palestinian elections, in Jerusalem sponsored by the American
University were told that there permits have been rescinded.
