Put
to the test
By Jean-Hervé Bradol, President of Médecins
Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)
Humanitarian agencies are being asked
to choose sides. They must preserve
their independence: In the old
city of Jerusalem, a Palestinian colleague
showed me around beneath the pale winter
sunshine. Our first problem was to decide
which shrine to visit. Israeli police
do not allow non-Muslims inside the
mosque. Kids in uniform were instructing
visitors to state their faith. They
would then decide whether or not the
visitors could go in. Souvenir stores
advertised posters for sale next to
the rebuilt temple that stands on the
site of the Al-Aqsa mosque. In the name
of history and religion, extremists
on both sides justify the use of violence,
foreseeing a world made free of their
adversaries.
When
the world is beside the point
By Fawaz Turki, Arab News, September
5, 2002
The century was not quite a year old
when the terrorists struck on Sept.
11, stabbing at the two mightiest emblems
of American power and leaving more than
3,000 people dead. The dreadful event
resulted in an outpouring of sympathy
and a flurry of support for the US from
nations around the world, whose leaders
immediately made it clear that they
would readily assist Washington in whatever
course of action it chose to take in
order to pursue the perpetrators. The
sympathy is still there. The support,
however, may have evaporated. The reason
for that may be America’s increasing
penchant, since Sept. 11, to see the
world through the distorted lens of
the war on terrorism and, in a unilateral
sense, to be dismissive of the international
consensus on issues of primary concern
to what is now effectively the global
village.
Israel
and its almighty military
By Michael Jansen, Jordan Times, September
4, 2002
WHILE THE US is suffering from a surfeit
of civilian chickenhawks determined
to wage war simultaneously on “terror”
and Iraq, Israel is plagued with a pack
of military hawks vowing to do the same
thing. The warmongering of Washington's
chickenhawks, men with no military experience,
is exceeded only by the warmaking of
Israel's hawks, men with too much military
experience.
Perfecting
the Violence of Curfew
By Sam Bahour, Electronic Intifada,
September 3, 2002
writing from Al-Bireh/Ramallah: The
sophistication in the methods used by
Israel in its systematic destruction
of Palestinian society today struck
a raw cord with every Palestinian parent
and child.
Prince
Zeid Bin Shaker: Confidant to Jordan's
kings steering his country through battles
and confrontation
By Lawrence Joffe, The Guardian, September
2, 2002
The politician and soldier Prince Zeid
bin Shaker who has died of a heart attack
aged 67, was a stalwart of the Hashemite
royal family's rule in Jordan, and a
conservative who turned into an unlikely
liberaliser, He was twice head of the
royal court, prime minister in 1989,
1991-93 and 1995-96 and for 12 years
commander-in-chief of the kingdom's
armed forces.
Your
Duplicity is Killing Us
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle,
September 5, 2002
After all of this, can Palestinians
ever trust the United States’
government as an honest broker in the
peace process? Can they line up in the
streets with wavering flags to meet
the Danish Foreign Minister and his
new peace proposal? Can they put there
faith in the United Nations and its
double standards once more? - Few are
those in the “international community”
who fail to condemn Palestinian attacks
against Israeli targets, whether civilians,
soldiers or armed settlers. But many
are those who find it less urgent and
compelling to condemn the killing of
Palestinians, whether civilians, Palestinian
police officers or armed activists.
