Permits From Hell
By Lisa Taraki, Palestine Media Center/Al-Ahram Weekly 2003-07-26
It is a hot mid-July day. By 10am, which is the time I arrive, the place is teeming with hopeful applicants. Most have been there since 8:30 when the gate opened. The Israeli "civil administration" outpost at the edge of the settlement of Beit El near Ramallah consists of a few shacks with corrugated tin roofs topped by sandbags, barbed wire, and an empty watchtower that must have seen better days. No cars are allowed into the compound. Applicants must walk a stretch of the once flourishing Ramallah- Nablus highway on foot after scaling some dirt mounds softened and worn down by countless feet. A concessionaire has been granted permission to dispense coffee, cold drinks and nuts in exchange for sweeping the courtyard. The public toilets are unspeakably filthy, and a healthy swarm of flies enjoys unhindered access to the teeming multitudes. There are four windows with faded signs in Hebrew and Arabic indicating where to apply for, and receive, different kinds of permits. A large crowd of men and a few women wait patiently at the windows marked "magnetic cards". The window I approach is a multi-purpose window for various kinds of permits. There is total chaos. A burly young man who has situated himself at the top of the line by the window acts as a self-appointed translator for the rest of us ignorants. He tries to push the pile of applications gathered from the rest of the crowd through the bars of the "window" so that the soldier-clerk on the other side would begin processing them. By 10:30, he is lucky enough to have the clerk receive applications. I heave a sigh of relief that my application for a permit to use Ben Gurion Airport for a trip abroad is among the papers. Or so I think at the time. I decide to pass the time by doing an ethnographic study. A good cross- section of society is represented here. I note that the gender balance is quite acceptable, and follow intently the politics of the gendered body. How much space is allowed a woman to approach the window? What weight the age factor has here? What are the benefits and drawbacks of the various forms of dress worn by women? Full hijab, modified hijab, token hijab, full western dress with jeans, modified western dress with skirt, and so on.

Time for Israel to Make "Painful Concessions" on Roadmap to Peace
By Steve Niva, Common Dreams 2003-07-25
One thing is clear about President Bush's meetings at the White House with both Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to consult on his faltering Middle East peace initiative, known as the roadmap. Any success in moving the roadmap forward depends upon his ability to press Ariel Sharon to make some of the "painful concessions" he has promised but has yet to deliver. Dramatic Palestinian moves, such as installing Mahmud Abbas as Prime Minister, successfully negotiating a three-month cease-fire against Israeli's by militant groups and cracking down on incitement against Israel, were to be matched by equally dramatic Israeli moves. These have yet to materialize. Israeli inaction has seriously undermined Palestinian support for Abbas and the roadmap. According to most observers, unless Abbas can deliver some concessions from Israel through meeting with Bush, both he and the roadmap are finished. The militant Islamic group Hamas has declared that the cease-fire is over if there is no significant progress and reports indicate that Abbas will face a no-confidence vote by the Palestinian parliament if he returns empty handed. With such high stakes, President Bush must test Sharon's stated willingness to meet Israel's roadmap commitments. But it will be difficult.

Arab-American relations: A new perspective
By Khalid S Al-Khater, Asia Times 2003-07-25
To understand properly Arab-American relations requires a complex analysis that is contrary to the traditionalist belief and its reliance on slogans and illusions. Those who embrace it are forced to swim against the current and bear harsh criticism. For Arabs, considering this issue requires also confronting a number of other issues. Interpretation depends on the intellectual background of the interpreter, as Immanuel Kant pointed out long ago. More recently, Professor Fouad Ajami, a Lebanese-American who is director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, emphasized that the Arab dilemma, regarding this and other questions, depends primarily on an intellectual and cultural mode of thinking.(1).... Archaic slogans and illusions have made the Arabs live daydreams of their own making. These cocoons, which take different masks in the forms of Arab nationalism, one Arab nation, Arab unity, and Palestine being the first cause among Arabs, have little basis or occurrence in reality. Despite being the aspirations of all Arabs, they are closer to dreams than reality. One can liken them to the ambition of someone who is trying to build a pyramid starting from its summit, against the laws of physics. Those aspirations turned to dreams because of the Arabs' inverted schedule of priorities, tending to accept slogans and symbols, despite their terrible consequences. The slogan of Palestine being the priority cause among Arabs has distracted them from their internal issues and problems. This practice has become harmful to the Palestinians themselves because they are deluded by it into believing that the Arab nation - which, as previously stated, is itself an illusion - is standing with them in deed and word despite a half-century of only words and no deeds. The United Nations Development Program's Arab Human Development Report for 2002, which was prepared by a team of top Arab intellectuals, shows without a doubt that the Arabs are no better off than are the Palestinians. The only difference is that the Palestinians are resisting oppression, deprivation, and injustice, and as a price for their resistance, are being trampled by Israel's tanks and their houses demolished by his bulldozers.

Different Drummers, Same Drum
By Ahmed Yousef, Media Monitors Network 2003-07-24
Last month was a bad month for Attorney General John Ashcroft. The Justice Department’s inspector general reported that the agency had abused 762 immigrants in a frantic post-9/11 push to be seen as "doing something" about terrorism. Not only did it look like he might lose the momentum in his drive for more power to snoop and detain, he might even lose what he had managed to gain courtesy of the Patriot Act.Enter FBI agent Robert Wright of Chicago, who came to his boss’ aid with a media blitz in the days before and after the IG’s report was released—holding news conferences, planting news stories in the media, showing up on television news magazines. His message? Palestinian terrorists walk among us, and not only has the FBI not gone too far, it hasn’t gone nearly far enough.And so last month, once again, the American public was treated to the same old allegations, the same old scare tactics: American Muslim organizations are raising funds for Hamas. Hamas operatives are using the US as a base to plot attacks against Israel. For all the hysteria of the Israeli lobby and authoritarian elements of the Justice Department, it’s a testimony to the weakness of their claims that no one has ever been officially charged or convicted in the US of supporting Hamas.The true story of the role of Hamas in this country, to the extent that it has had one, is the story of the return of Palestinians to Islam, the travel of Palestinian Islamists to the United States and their successful efforts to raise awareness of their cause, and the determination of Israel and US pro-Israel hawks to block all expression of solidarity for the Palestinians.

Peace-loving nuns have become cause célèbre
By Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News 2003-07-24
We like to think of ourselves as a just nation. So if you want to hold onto that thought, you might want to stop reading here. Because today, we go to church, where we can go to school on real injustice. Our story today is of the three nuclear nuns, who, in the name of peace and in the name of Jesus, committed this crime at a Minuteman III site in northeastern Colorado: They cut a chain-link fence; they banged a missile silo with a hammer; they poured some of their own blood on the silo; they waited in their hazmat suits to be taken away. And if your government has its way, the nuns, who have dedicated their lives to saving the lives of others, will spend the next five to eight years in federal prison. Sentencing is set for Friday. Protests are set at 49 nuclear silos statewide for Saturday. I know what you're thinking, that I must not be telling the entire story. We don't really throw three nuns in federal prison for five to eight years for what was basically trespassing. We don't really throw anyone, nuns or otherwise, in federal prison for five to eight years for nonviolent protest, pretending that what they did was sabotage. But we do. And it appears we may. And we are left to ask ourselves where the real crime is and what exactly we're protecting ourselves from by locking away people whose lives are dedicated to not injuring anyone.

Hunting Season Is Now Open on US’ Enemies
By Linda S. Heard, AlterNet 2003-07-26
ALEXANDRIA, 26 July 2003 — Borneo had its headhunters who stuck the heads of their adversaries on poles outside their homes; native Americans used to scalp their enemies, while, despite the superficial civilized veneer of the West, we circulate photographs of the bloodied torsos of our foes throughout the media.Over the last centuries we mistakenly thought we had progressed. We believed that our societies had become more humane, more respectful of the dead; societies which adhered to intricate laws and rules of war, which had evolved over time.Instead, what do we find? America, once the beacon of the new world, a shining light of justice and liberty, has regressed. Not for the US “the world’s lone superpower” the niceties of the Geneva Conventions. Donald Rumsfeld’s boys don’t bother with arrests and trials. They prefer to put bounties on the heads of those on their “Wanted Dead or Alive” list in true Wild-West style before sending out a “posse” not to hang the alleged wrongdoers from the old oak tree but to bomb their homes, not only killing them but also anybody else who happens to be inside. In the case of Saddam Hussein’s sons, Uday and Qusay, a 14-year-old boy and a bodyguard.Perhaps Slobodan Milosevic should consider himself fortunate. His capture happened in those kinder days when we still kept up the pretence of being civilized societies. He got a jail cell in The Hague and a trial, which enumerates and judges his alleged crimes. Whatever the wrongdoing of Uday and Qusay, we will never know, and, more to the point, neither will the long-suffering Iraqis.

Dancing On The Bodies
By Abdulwahab Badrakhan, Al-Hayat 2003-07-26
After the U.S. Defense Department made up its mind to publish the photos of the bodies of Udai and Qusai, the sons of Saddam Hussein, American official and media quarters made certain that Arab media will publish the photos as well. Thus, many phone calls were made. They knew that they had taken an immoral decision, and they would be relieved to know that others will share the burden of the filth that was so skillfully expressed by Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. Just as the presence of Udai and Qusai, together with their father free, the continued presence of these two officials in the American administration and their counterparts in Britain means that morality in international politics will remain in danger.It must be clear that the death of two criminals like Udai and Qusai was hardly mourned and did not stir a single tear. But the debate over publishing pictures of their bodies and the justifications that were made to cover the publication not only heightened concern, but also caused disgust. Governments that once respected themselves can no longer be counted upon remain a moral beacon. And if the Americans found it expedient, or a new "victory" in showing the bodies on American and British TV stations first, it is unexpected from other TV stations and newspapers that are expected to conceal it. But publishing the photos yesterday turned into a media carnival to which the media were invited to be entertained.What is the difference between showing pictures of dead American soldiers on a decision taken by the former Iraqi regime and publishing the photos of Udai and Qusai on a decision taken by the Pentagon? In practice there is hardly any difference. The mentality is the same and so are the objectives. But the American mind differentiates between one person and another, and even between two rights. What the Pentagon may do no one else may do. That is why American officials and journalists objected to the extent of demanding that Arab satellite TV station be penalized, perhaps by bombing them. But yesterday, they were as if in a wedding, celebrating and dancing on the bodies. They ignored the Geneva Conventions, which, thanks to many, mainly the Israelis, had been depleted of their value as a modern moral accord.

Muslim Communities In The West
By Mona Makram Obeid, Al-Hayat 2003-07-26
The Muslim minorities in the West, whether in the European countries or in the U.S., represent a significant extension to the Arab and Islamic nations, given that the Islamic culture is an essential component of Arab civilization. Herein derives their significance as strengthening the bridge between the Arab relations and the West. The Muslim minorities' presence in the West dates back to the Umayyads era in Andalusia, which witnessed the first migration wave of Muslims to Europe from its South Western parts. Then, the Muslims arrived to South of France, then to Eastern Europe as the Ottomans reached Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire back then. As a result, a large number of Balkan residents converted to Islam. Later on, they were to form the core of the Muslim minorities currently present in Eastern Europe, which is an early indication of the historical interaction between the Islamic culture and the West. The Islamic community gradually grew in the West over the past years, with the increasing number of Islamic minorities and their growing activity in the fields of culture and information.In this regard, statistics show that there are at least seven million Muslims in the U.S., with several Muslim organizations and cultural centers established in the past few decades, and which have been playing a major role on the American scene. There are about 35 million Muslims in the EU and the Muslims are expected to form about 10% of Europe's population by 2020. According to statistics, there are 7,000 Islamic associations, centers and mosques in the EU, at the service of 16 million Muslims.The Muslim minorities in the West have benefited from the political and cultural freedom present there to establish themselves in the societies they lived in. However, this was accompanied by problems specific to the Islamic communities abroad.

Memo to Bush: Palestine and Iraq are inseparable
Editorial, Daily Star 2003-07-26
The Palestinian-Israeli peace process faces numerous obstacles, not least of which is the fact that serious doubts remain as to just how determined the White House is to stay the course. With an election looming next year and powerful interests warning him not to pressure the Jewish state, George W. Bush has to be considering the possibility that he could lose his job. But now is no time for hesitation. Moving forcefully to achieve a lasting peace in this troubled part of the world would make him invincible at the ballot box, and not just because it would end violence in the Holy Land: It would also make the US experience in Iraq a far easier one for all concerned. Bizarre as it is, the Middle East is exactly like more fortunate parts of the globe in that even here, nothing happens without a reason ­ and that reason usually has much to do with the plight of the Palestinians. Bush and his advisers must never allow their musings to stray from that fact. The resistance US forces are encountering in Iraq is no exception to this rule: Regardless of who is orchestrating it, the guerrillas who have to do the fighting and the dying are motivated in least in part by a profound lack of trust in anything American. That credibility gap stems largely from the failure of successive US presidents to be even-handed in the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians.