"Rage, Rage, Against the Dying Light" -- Civil Liberties Since September 11th
By Jennifer Van Bergen, truthout, September 9, 2002
Anniversaries of trauma are hard for survivors. Ceremonies, planes flying in formation, people gathering, news media chattering on. It is hard to hear the incessant voices of ghosts, of thousands of innocent people dying, of heroes who saved some or died trying, of survivors commenting, of people suffering, of brave souls who set forth to protect and defend us, of those who rule or those who are ruled, willingly or not -- all saying so much and so little. What makes this anniversary harder is that since 9/11 our government has, in the name of democracy and freedom, repeatedly encroached on the one thing that makes this country worth fighting for: civil liberties.

Israel: A monument to anti-Semitism
By Greg Felton, August 1, 2001        
Soon, delegates to the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will assemble in Durban, South Africa, and possibly debate a resolution equating Zionism with racism. That we should have to debate this issue in 2001 is regrettable, for the General Assembly has already decided the matter. On Nov. 10, 1975, it passed Resolution 3379, which, among other things, reaffirmed the UN's condemnation of the "unholy alliance between South African racism and Zionism," (Resolution 3151G, 1953), and further condemned "any doctrine of racial differentiation or superiority [to be] scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous," (Res. 1904, 1963). Even more regrettable is the reticence of Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to revisit the issue: "If there is an attempt to revive the idea of Zionism as racism we will not have a successful conference." (Toronto Globe and Mail, July 28). I submit that a conference that willfully ignored the worst sustained human rights violation of the last 60 years is irredeemably compromised. By this willful sin of omission it will tacitly condone the very kind racism it purports to abhor.

This is a war on Islam
By Khalil Shikaki, The Guardian, September 11, 2002
From the Arab and Muslim perspective, the American reaction to September 11 has been a catastrophe :Osama bin Laden may have lost a battle in Afghanistan, but one year later he may yet win a war - a war some call a "clash of civilisation". Initially, the Bush administration sought to distinguish between Islam, the religion, and Muslim extremists such as those who committed the terror on September 11. The enemy was not Islam, but al-Qaida and Bin Laden, declared President Bush.

6 Israeli Myths
By Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish, Electronic Intifada, S 
Myth 1: There is no moral equivalence between suicide bombings on the one hand, and Israel's killing of Palestinians on the other
Myth 2: Israel's invasion of Palestinian cities and refugee camps is self-defence against suicide bombings
Myth 3: Arafat Refuses to Condemn Suicide Bombings in Arabic
Myth 4: Arafat has not done enough to stop terrorism
Myth 5: Arafat Spurned Barak's generous offer at Camp David and broke off negotiations with Israel
Myth 6: Arafat started the Intifada

Repercussions from disaster
By Ibrahim Nafie, Al-Ahram Weekly, 5 - 11 September 2002
Islam  examines the unravelling of events following 11 September:
Wednesday marks the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. I happened to be in the US that fateful day and experienced first hand the horror, confusion and alarm. What strikes me most, a year later, is how many questions remain unanswered, both with regard to how the attacks were carried out and their long range consequences.

The Kagan thesis: A Three Part Series
By Mohamed Sid-Ahmed
(1) Of basic dissimilarity: Al-Ahram Weekly, 22 - 28 August 2002
(2) History and post-history interrelated: Al-Ahram Weekly, 29 August - 4 Sept. 2002
(3) Beyond Fukuyama and Huntington?: Al-Ahram Weekly, 5 - 11 September 2002
In this third and final instalment, Mohamed Sid-Ahmed compares Robert Kagan's conceptualisation of present-day international relations to other schools of thought dealing with the same subject. This concluding article in the series on Robert Kagan's thought-provoking essay will not attempt to assess the validity of this theory that power, or the lack thereof, defines our respective locations in history, but, rather, test its usefulness as a tool in foreseeing future developments and casting light on events that would otherwise be difficult to predict, or even identify. From this viewpoint, it would be interesting to compare the Kagan thesis to other theories which have provoked wide debate in recent years. Although Kagan's theory is distinct from Fukuyama's end-of-history theory and Huntington's clash-of-civilisations scenario, his conceptual construct is related to both in a variety of ways.

This day a year ago
Hasan Abu-Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 11 September 2002
(AMMAN, JORDAN -- Sept. 11, 2002) THIS DAY a year ago, the United States was struck by a devastating and scarcely believable tragedy, the shockwaves of which instilled deep apprehension and panic in every soul in every corner of the world. Just like in the immediate aftermath of a fearsome earthquake, we waited to see when, where and how aftershocks would add to the unfolding horror. Until the skies of the United States were cleared of thousands of airborne planes, each of them was seen as a potential lethal missile, and anything on the ground seemed like it could be a target. Amidst the fear, we tried to maintain hope that the determined search for survivors would not be in vain. Yet, no sooner had one fear had been allayed than others arose. How would a deeply injured superpower avenge itself? Who would be the target and how would they be hit?

Twilight Zone / Grapes of wrath
By Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, September 11, 2002
"The purity of arms is our guiding principle," the brigade commander said, concluding his briefing after his soldiers opened fire on an innocent family with flechettes - shells that disperse nails to make them more lethal - and killed a mother, her two children and a cousin, and wounded several more youths and a toddler who were just about to settle down to sleep for the night in huts in their vineyard.

One year on: A view from the Middle East
By Robert Fisk, September 11, 2002
The September 11 attacks were an undoubted outrage. But, says The Independent's Middle East correspondent, they were an inevitable result of the great gulf between the Arabs and the US: September 11 did not change the world. Indeed, for months afterwards, no one was allowed even to question the motives of the mass murderers. To point out that they were all Arabs and Muslims was fair enough. But any attempt to connect these facts to the region they came from – the Middle East – was treated as a form of subversion; because, of course, to look too closely at the Middle East would raise disturbing questions about the region, about our Western policies in those tragic lands, and about America's relationship with Israel. Yet now, at last, President Bush's increasingly manic administration has spotted the connection – and is drawing all the wrong conclusions.

Liberating America From Israel
By Former US Representative Paul Findley,  Palestine Chronicle, September 10, 2002 
Nothing can justify 9/11. Those guilty deserve maximum punishment, but it makes sense for America to examine motivations promptly and as carefully as possible: Nine-eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president during the past 35 years had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The U.S. lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president-even President Bush this very day-could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people: Israel's present government, like its predecessors, is determined to annex the West Bank-biblical Judea and Sumaria- so Israel will become Greater Israel.

September 11th & The Politics of Memory
By Jennifer Loewenstein, Palestine Chronicle, September 10, 2002  
(PC) - I just want to buy groceries. I don’t want to be whipped into a patriotic frenzy in which the dead of September 11th, 2001 are used to generate hatred towards entire peoples and to prepare the nation for another bloody war. But it’s not possible. There are flags and “God Bless America” signs everywhere; patriotic cookies and cakes; books and newspapers stacked at the entrance of the store announcing 9/11 memorials, the Iraqi nuclear threat, and the sponsors of world terror; there are American flag-pins on the aprons of the check-out counter workers and bouquets of red-white-and-blue carnations for sale and reminders in the windows that We’re American and Proud. And this is just a local midwestern grocery store.

Is Oslo Dead or Alive?
By Khalid Amayreh, Palestine Chronicle, September 10, 2002  
Sharon’s unilateral annulment of the Oslo agreement drew virtually no objections or criticisms from the sponsors of the peace process, including the United States, the European Union and even the United Nations: HEBRON - This week, the extremist Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared the Oslo agreement with the PLO “dead” and “nonexistent. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv on the eve of the Hebrew new year on 6 September, a euphoric Sharon declared that “Oslo doesn’t exist, Camp David doesn’t exist, Taba doesn’t exist; we are not going back to those places.” On the same day, he told the Israeli state-run radio that “no settlements, even the rouge ones, will be dismantled,” arguing that this would be seen by the Palestinians as a sign of weakness.

The Tenth Crusade
By Alexander Cockburn, Dissdent Voice, September 8, 2002
Amid the elegies for the dead and the ceremonies of remembrance, seditious questions intrude: Is there really a war on terror; and if one is indeed being waged, what are its objectives? The Taliban are out of power. Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, blooms once more in Afghan pastures. The military budget is up. The bluster war on Iraq blares from every headline. On the home front the war on the Bill of Rights is set at full throttle, though getting less popular with each day as judges thunder their indignation at the unconstitutional diktats of Attorney General John Ashcroft, a man low in public esteem. On this latter point we can turn to Merle Haggard, the bard of blue collar America, the man who saluted the American flag more than a generation ago in songs such as the Fighting Side of Me and Okie from Muskogee. Haggard addressed a concert crowd in Kansas City a few days ago in the following terms: "I think we should give John Ashcroft a big hand ...(pause)... right in the mouth!" Haggard went on to say, 'the way things are going I'll probably be thrown in jail tomorrow for saying that, so I hope ya'll will bail me out."

The Children of Ibdaa: To Create Something Out of Nothing
Middle East Children's Alliance
"The Children of Ibdaa: To Create Something Out of Nothing" is a 30-minute documentary about a Palestinian children's dance troupe from Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank. The children use their performance to express the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people, specifically the right to return to their homeland. Through interviews and documentation of the children, ages 12 to 14, the video offers insight into their families' displacement from their villages in historical Palestine, the physically and emotionally stressful aspects of life in a refugee camp, and the unique experience of participating in the politically motivated dance troupe. The story culminates in a visit by the children for the first time to demolished villages from which their grandparents were expelled in 1948.