A Grandiose Folly
By Robert Fisk, CounterPunch 9/11/2003
The Political Capital of 9/11-- When the attacks were launched against the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon two years ago today, who had ever heard of Fallujah or Hillah? When the Lebanese hijacker flew his plane into the ground in Pennsylvania, who would ever have believed that President George Bush would be announcing a "new front line in the war on terror" as his troops embarked on a hopeless campaign against the guerrillas of Iraq?
Who could ever have conceived of an American president calling the world to arms against "terrorism" in "Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza"? Gaza? What do the miserable, crushed, cruelly imprisoned Palestinians of Gaza have to do with the international crimes against humanity in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania?
Nothing, of course. Neither does Iraq have anything to do with 11 September. Nor were there any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, any al-Qa'ida links with Iraq, any 45-minute timeline for the deployment of chemical weapons nor was there any "liberation".
No, the attacks on 11 September have nothing to do with Iraq. Neither did 11 September change the world. President Bush cruelly manipulated the grief of the American people--and the sympathy of the rest of the world--to introduce a "world order" dreamed up by a clutch of fantasists advising the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld.
International community supports a deluxe occupation
Ha'aretz 9/11/2003
"The Palestinians managed to survive thanks to the international aid, but as usual in these cases, the beneficiary of the international community's rallying to the rescue was their Israeli enemy. Moreover, the contributing states' humanitarian enlistment became a safety net, enabling Israel to impose a deluxe occupation in the West Bank - total military domination with no responsibility for running the life of the occupied population, and no price tag attached."
The publication of Amnesty International's report on the humanitarian crisis in the territories this week would not have attracted attention even without the latest bloody events. The fact that about 60 percent of West Bank residents live below the poverty line, and the conclusion that the economic and humanitarian crisis was caused by the blockades and the sieges, would not have shocked anyone, even less so when the headlines scream, "We'll smash them."
Indeed, the lack of drama in the situation is reflected in the report's own title: "Surviving under siege." If they're "surviving," apparently the crisis isn't so bad and the fluid and violent - but stable - status quo can continue and nobody will have to take some dramatic step to break the endless, bloody cycle. According to the Amnesty report, most Palestinians in the occupied territories depend on contributions of food and other basic products, at least to a certain extent. The World Bank report published in May 2003 describes the huge volume of international aid to the territories, which is "on an unprecedented level of international financial commitment."
The Silent Transfer: The Case of El-Nu'aman Village
Tayuush 7/11/2003
After the 1967 War, Israel annexed some 70 sq. km to the municipal boundaries of West Jerusalem and imposed Israeli law on this area. These annexed territories included not only the part of Jerusalem which had been under Jordanian rule, but also an additional 64 square kilometers, most of which had belonged to 28 villages in the West Bank and part of which belonged to the municipalities of Bethlehem and Beit Jala. Most of the inhabitants of the annexed villages were registered by the Israeli civil administration as residents of Jerusalem.
Located on a hilly terrain on the southern edge of the Jerusalem municipal border is Mazmuriah. The villagers' ancestors have lived on the land for over 150 years, and the inhabitants have titles testifying to their ownership of the land. Today they comprise approximately 200 people (20 families).
Unlike the inhabitants of the 27 other villages, the inhabitants of Mazmuriah were registered as residents of Umm Al-Tal'a, a village located 2 km away, a place were their village elder ("mukhtar") lived. Umm Al-Tal'a, however, does not fall within the Jerusalem municipality borders and, accordingly, the residents of Mazmuria did not receive Israeli identity cards which East Jerusalemites hold. Instead, they were given West Bank identity cards.
The absurd result is that the residents and their houses belong to different legal and administrative systems: the houses and land are part of the (annexed) Jerusalem municipality, while the inhabitants are residents of the West Bank.
The lights are on but is anyone home?
By William Bowles, Information Clearing House 9/8/2003
Bush the smaller made his pitch to the nation over the weekend to "save civilisation" from terrorism and told us that the "frontline" was now Iraq. So Saddam disappears not only literally but also figuratively to be replaced by the generic ‘threat’ that has been the real core of the propaganda since 9/11. And in a complete volte face, Bush the smaller now wants the UN to take on its "responsibility" to pay for the war unleashed on the world by the USUK imperium.
And indeed, as with everything else that’s happened in the past months, the media daren’t utter the truth about the situation, namely that it’s unravelling faster than anyone dared predict.....
....The insistence for example, that the Palestinian and Israeli sides are somehow equal, that ‘if only’ the Palestinians would ‘reign in their terrorists’, sanity will prevail. That ‘if only’ Arafat had ‘allowed’ Abu Massen to sellout to the US, the ‘road map’ stood a chance of success.
Yet reluctantly, they have to admit that the ‘road map’ never stood a cat in hell’s chance of success from the very beginning. The Independent’s editorial (08/09/03) tells us as much when it says,
"His [Mazen’s] resignation is not so much a setback for the peace process as an acceptance that this route petered out some weeks ago.’
Interesting choice of phrase, ‘petered out’. Sufficiently vague as to be meaningless but sufficiently loaded as to suggest that it never stood a chance....
Terror doesn't need Hamas leaders
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha'aretz 9/11/2003
The Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida recently published a cartoon of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin sitting in his wheelchair, waving his hands in a victory sign toward the Israeli helicopter which fired the missile that missed him. The meaning was clear: Sheikh Yassin, a paraplegic, brazenly defies powerful Israel, taunting "you can't get me."
Starting with the failed attempt to assassinate the figure considered to be Hamas' second most powerful leader on the Gaza Strip, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Israel has tried several times to kill Hamas leaders. The only success was the assassination of the "engineer," Ismail Abu Shanab. Attempts to strike against other members of what is called Hamas' political leadership - including yesterday's attack on Mahmoud al-Zahar - failed. Leaders of the militant Islamic groups say they aren't frightened by Israeli declarations of intent to liquidate terrorist leaders. Yesterday, after the two terror attacks at Tzrifin, near Tel Aviv, and in Jerusalem, Hamas issued a circular stating that members of its military wing have mobilized en masse to "strike against all Zionist targets." The two terror attacks, Hamas stated, "are the beginning of the price which the Zionists are to pay for their crimes."
....the liquidation of these leaders will significantly heighten the motivation harbored by militants in Hamas' military wing to seek revenge. Thirst for revenge and the desire to retaliate after assassinations are themselves highly important factors in what is called the terror infrastructure. Even without Hamas' political leaders, terror wrought by suicide strikers is liable to continue - and it might even accelerate.
Fear of the sky
By Elizabeth Holt, Electronic Intifada 9/10/2003
6 September 2003 -- Yesterday was so beautiful. It was the second time in the two-and-a-half months in which I've been here that I wasn't hot. The sky had full grey and white clouds, just like home. There was a perfect breeze and the air was clean.
In Rafah, we went to have lunch with a family that has a big ugly metal wall for a back yard and a side yard of twisted re-bar and concrete, a pile that used to be a neighbor's house. We ate lunch on the porch and if I squinched down to just the right height I could look out and see just the sky and the clouds -- no wall -- and pretend that it didnt exist, that we were just hanging out, having lunch on a beautiful Gaza autumn day.
The day before, in a different part of town -- Tel Al-Sultan -- a three-unit apartment building had been demolished, some surrounding olive trees knocked down and part of a wedding hall also ruined. The house had stood very near the Gaza-Egyptian border and also right underneath the most hideous, active sniper tower in Rafah. I was fully aware that we were being watched the whole time. Knowing this fact and that this was the tower that had shot Ablas' leg off one day as she was shopping with her 8-year-old neice Rula, made it impossible for me to feel okay away from a protective wall.
Can EU Become the Balancing Superpower?
By Hassan Tahsin, Arab News 9/1/2003
The EU’s political maneuvering has taken on a new and remarkable form. Europe has failed in many of the most important international issues: It failed in unifying its position over the invasion of Iraq — the UK and Spain went against what was almost a consensus and subsequently the EU failed to prevent the US and UK from invading and occupying Iraq. It also failed over the last few years to play an effective role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, even though Germany is the godfather of the road map which Washington is trying to implement. All these failures are accelerating European efforts to find a mechanism for creating a unified policy.
Therefore the EU moved rapidly to create a constitution for the 15-member body, to appoint a foreign minister with a special council to unify EU foreign policy and create an independent military command for European defense operations outside the scope of NATO.
The German leadership, with wisdom and foresight, demanded the implementation of a reform of the union’s principles in order to deal with the anticipated expansion of EU membership from 15 to 25 states and to get rid of many of the roadblocks it has faced.
The World's Largest Open Air Prison
By Darren Ell, Electronic Intifada 9/11/2003
Jamal Juma' is a busy man. As coordinator of PENGON, the organization spearheading the campaign to stop the construction of the Israeli Wall rapidly surrounding the future Palestinian 'state', he is constantly scrambling to reach as many people as he can, independent journalists and heads of state alike. If Mahmoud Abbas and the United Nations have publicly condemned the wall, it's in no small part due to PENGON's meetings with them. Diplomacy aside, however, troubling facts continue to appear on the ground across the West Bank which do not bode well for peace.
Forget the fact that I was in the West Bank during a cease-fire, for the "ceasefire" had a technical meaning only. It meant simply that there would be no horrific bus bombs in Israel. All the rest continued unabated. Firefights between the IDF and Palestinian fighters carried on. Several Israeli civilians were killed and injured. Israel continued to murder and illegally detain civilians, destroy homes, issue demolition orders, close communities, stifle transportation, and construct a massive wall around the entire West Bank. Thanks to Jamal Juma's contacts, I completed a tour of this wall in July and August. The facts are grim: 650 km of massive concrete slabs, trenches and electric fences, images which make the Berlin Wall look like a white picket fence.
|
