To the People of Gaza: From the Family of Rachel Corrie
Palestine Chronicle, April 25, 2003
"Our family wants very much to come to Rafah. We plan to do so as soon as we are able. When we come, we hope to meet the children who taught Rachel Arabic words, the grandmother who watched out for her health, and the families with whom she shared meals and tea .." -- Greetings to all of our friends in the Occupied Territories: We, the parents, sister and brother of Rachel Corrie, want to thank you for all you did for Rachel while she was working in Rafah and for all you have done to honor her memory since she died on March 16. We understand that you will be remembering her especially on the fortieth day anniversary of her death. Know that we will be thinking of all of you. We are grateful to those of you who became Rachel’s friends and who welcomed her into your homes and shared your tea and food with her. She wrote to us about you and about your wonderful families. She admired how you supported one another even as you struggled against the cruelties of the occupation. Writing about you, Rachel told us, “ I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity—laughter, generosity, family-time—against the incredible horror occurring in their lives and against the constant presence of death……I am also discovering a degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances…. I think the word is dignity.” We are grateful to those of you who cared for Rachel as she died and after. We will always remember the respect and love with which she was treated in life and in death by the people of Gaza. We are grateful to all of you who have honored Rachel’s memory during these past weeks. It lifts our spirits to hear of the Rachel Corrie Children and Youth Cultural Center in Rafah and the Rachel Corrie Center for Women’s Empowerment. We know there are now newborn babies named Rachel and streets that bear her name, too. We cannot find adequate words to tell you how much these things mean to us. Thank you for the many ways in which you have honored our daughter and sister.

Palestinian Leaders Disgrace Themselves While Israel Gets a New Victory For Free
By Dr. Agustνn Velloso Santisteban, Palestine Chronicle, April 25, 2003
MADRID, Spain (PalestineChronicle.com) - While rank and file Palestinians of the resistance against the occupiers of their land are risking their lives everyday in an unequal war; while Palestinian civilians, many children amongst them, are striving for survival; while many non Palestinian people are carrying out solidarity actions in favor of the Palestinian cause all around the world, Palestinian political leaders in the Authority and in the Legislative Council waste their time picking up a new speaker to talk on their behalf with the other “partner in peace”, that is, Israel, and the “honest broker”, that is, the United States. Do not they have anything better to do for the struggle of national liberation, while their constituents are being killed by the hundreds? Could Abu Mazen protect a single child from being shot at by a sniper–soldier or settler, in any event both largely equipped, supported and financed by the US- since the second Intifada began? Did he say he is going to do it from now on? But, wait a minute, several mistakes have slipped in. The authority stopped fighting for liberation some time ago. What they have been doing lately is trying to find an accommodation between the Zionist movement and its aims and the Palestinian people and their aspirations. Perhaps, one of the signs of this –although not the only one- is that Israel kills children and freedom fighters, but not Authority representatives. Incredible as it may seems, Arafat and Co. are still unaware that Zionist and Palestinian goals are totally conflicting. What any stone-thrower under 18 years of age knows, Arafat does not know. That is why that child goes to the Gaza streets to confront the Merkavas, and Arafat goes to Camp David to shake hands with the one who sends the tanks to Gaza.

Obviously Israel
By Sarah Whalen, Palestine Chronicle, April 25, 2003 
"Iraqis, with help from their new best friends the U.S. military, are toppling statues of Saddam Hussein. It's America's favorite image of burgeoning democracy .." -- (PalestineChronicle.com) - The U.S. has decided that restrictive international law is not for all-powerful leviathans like itself, but only for the "little states" to obey because, being small and weak, they have no other choice. And because small and weak states can do little to either punish or influence the U.S. in its present belligerent mood, U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has made clear (after denials) that Syria is next on the U.S.’s "things to do" list if so much as a firecracker crosses the Syrian border. And there need not even be a real firecracker to get things going again. Mere rumor of a firecracker is sufficient under the new hegemony. And right now, rumor is all there is. Having failed utterly to find either Saddam Hussein or any weapons of mass destruction, it’s playtime now. Iraqis, with help from their new best friends the U.S. military, are toppling statues of Saddam Hussein. It's America's favorite image of burgeoning democracy. In 1776, a colonial mob's enthusiastic knocking over of King George III in masonry was the harbinger of the American Revolutionary War. And Americans watched the cold war end with Eastern Europeans decapitating monoliths of Lenin. So where the people push and statues fall, Americans reason, democracy is sure to follow. But not always, if one looks closely. Democracy's riotous prelude in Iraq (what Rumsfeld describes as an "untidy" wave of looting, mayhem, and even murder) is similar to strife in the dissolving former U.S.S.R. which, left unchecked, evolved not into egalitarian democracy but rather institutionalized gangsterism. But the U.S. is unconcerned that either anarchy or tribalism will assert themselves in Iraq.

Heading Toward an Historic Mistake 
By Haroon Siddiqui, CommonDreams/Toronto Star, April 24, 2003
Following the fall of the Taliban, Afghans started shaving their beards. Following the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqis are growing theirs. The sudden and unmistakable assertion of majority Shiite religious and political identity is the least expected outcome for America of the Iraq war. The remarkable pilgrimage by about 1 million faithful, including women, to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala is the first real symbol of  post-Saddam Iraq. It is of far more import than the photo-op toppling of his statue in Baghdad. What made it even more potent was its anti-American undercurrent. But its message was no different than the one emerging from the other segments of the diverse Iraqi nation: "Thank you for freeing us from Saddam but now, please, go home." Can anyone recall a time in history when the liberators of an oppressed people outlived their welcome in so short a period? Sure, some of the anti-Americanism is the ideological flag of one or the other of the Iraqi factions competing for power. Some may even be the work of the agents or supporters of Iran. But there is no mistaking the indigenous unease against the foreign occupation. Long before the bombs fell, Iraqis knew that their country would not have been targeted had it been a major producer of, say, corn rather than oil. What they have seen since, and like even less, are the early manifestations of the American agenda. They see sufficient troops and tanks protecting the oil fields of the south and the north, even the oil ministry in Baghdad — a reasonable precaution in itself — but none for the national museum and rare libraries. They see the Pentagon airlifting the Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, its puppet, as their next ruler. They see American troops guarding him and training his hastily assembled militia of 600; but none for the most basic policing for urban areas. They see President George W. Bush rule out the United Nations as a neutral referee to usher in the dawn of the promised democracy. Various groups, not Shiites alone, have therefore been grabbing what turf they can and asserting their political presence.

New Palestinian Leadership May Dim Hopes for Peace 
By Ira Chernus, CommonDreams, April 25, 2003 
If you follow the news casually, you know that there was a big power struggle in the Palestinian leadership last week. Yasser Arafat, a typical power-hungry politico, resisted a challenge from the new prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu-Mazen). Arafat's tender ego was bruised, but he finally saw reason and agreed to share power. That's the way our media oversimplified a very complicated story. Egos were involved, no doubt. More importantly, though, it was a struggle between Arafat's somewhat independent stance toward Israel and Abbas' preference for acquiescent compromise. According to renowned Israeli analyst Uri Avnery, Abbas and his followers "have no solid base among their own people, but do have connections with powerful players, most importantly the United States and Israel." They want an end to armed struggle, believing that "the Palestinians can achieve more in negotiations with the U.S. and in a political process with Israel." The U.S., Britain, and Israel played a key role in Abbas' rise to power. Lebanon's Daily Star reported that Arafat accepted the power-sharing deal only "under massive international pressure." A Palestinian official told the Washington Post, "By having the Americans and European Union insisting that [Abbas] was the only acceptable leader, it made him look like their write-in candidate." The appearance may well be the reality.

Respect, not awe
By Daoud Kuttab, Jordan Times, April 25, 2003
THE ROAD from Jerusalem to Ramallah, especially near Qalandia refugee camp, is still full of potholes. But the Qalandia checkpoint, which used to take sometimes hours to cross, was a breeze, last week. I drove right up to the checkpoint without any delay and the Israeli soldier quickly let me pass through. The same thing happened on the way back. A similar situation was reported at the dreaded Surda checkpoint connecting Ramallah to Bir Zeit. Palestinians in other locations are also reporting easing at the checkpoints. In Ramallah, life seems to have gone back to the relative normality that had disappeared since the Israeli incursions last April. Restaurants are open late at night. A friend of mine told me that he and his friends were unable to find a place in any of the city's restaurants some time ago. The Palestinian governor of the Ramallah-Al Bireh district, Issa Liftawi, appeared on Al Quds Educational Television (at his own initiative) in order to talk about the need to better organise traffic in the centre of Ramallah. Life has not become easy for Palestinians in far away locations like Gaza and Jenin. On April 8, the Israelis brutally attacked Palestinians killing eight, among them innocent bystanders. While in general the situation in Palestine, especially in Gaza, has not eased, most of the West Bankers are feeling a change. Some are simply asking why Ramallah is so quiet. Did the Israelis decide unilaterally to ease their tough policies? Or was it a Palestinian decision to reduce anti-Israeli attacks? Is there some kind of mutual agreement to de-escalate the conflict? Is the quiet a result of the temporary lack of interest on the part of the international media in the Intifada? Is it the result of the war against Iraq? Some have more specific questions? Is this part of the US attempts to reduce tensions in the area as long as the war is going on in Iraq? Is this an early present to the new Palestinian prime minister? Is it supposed to prepare the ground for the upcoming American involvement in Palestine, using the roadmap proposals? But many Palestinians do not acknowledge that any important change has taken place. They point out to the fact that Israeli assassination and settlement policies have not changed at all as proof that nothing has changed. At best, some say, this lull is temporary and not significant.