Sharon saved Arafat
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha'aretz, September 23, 2002
Palestinian eyewitnesses in the territories say the demonstrations that have broken out by Palestinians defying curfews in towns and cities across the areas were indeed spontaneous, without any organizing groups behind them. But the truth is that the organization of the demonstrations is not the important issue. More important is that people took to the streets.

Ramallah Diary / Defying the curfew to demonstrate over the attack on Muqata
By Amira Hass, Ha'aretz, September 23, 2002 
Suddenly, at about 11 P.M. on Saturday night, people started calling one another to ask with disbelief if it was true there was demonstrating in the streets. "Is it true what Al Jazeera is reporting - that dozens of young people are demonstrating in support of the besieged Yasser Arafat? Could the tear gas suddenly filling the room and burning the eyes with suffocating tears, and the gunshots drawing closer, all be aimed at dispersing such demonstrations?"

Launching round II
By Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, Al-Ahram Weekly, 19 - 25 September 2002
Is Bush pulling back or gathering support to push forward with his war against Saddam? Tempting as it must have been for the surviving perpetrators of the 11 September attacks to mark the first anniversary of the event with a similarly spectacular act, they must have realised that their chances of success this time around were practically non- existent. If the element of surprise was on their side in 2001, this was not the case one year on with the whole world, and not only the United States, fully mobilised to prevent just such an eventuality. The tightly planned and coordinated attacks launched against America last year were shocking not only for the devastation and loss of life they caused but also because they exposed the magnitude of the threat posed by international terrorism to the post- Cold War world system, otherwise known as the new world order.

Stop the destructive madness! 
By Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center, September 22, 2002 
There is something horrifying in seeing the huge Israeli bulldozer destroying the buildings of the Muqata. Something even more horrifying than seeing the terrible pictures of tens of rotting corpses in the Jenin refugee camp, or of the mutilated bodies after the Israeli attack on Gaza. Horrifying as the bulldozer symbolises unrestrained violence, pointless violence, violence with no opposition. No more ‘defence against terrorism,’ no more ‘retribution,’ no more ‘collateral damage,’ but violence for its own sake and to abuse the corpse of the Palestinian Authority.

Unconvincing explanations
Ha'aretz Editorial, September 23, 2002 
The explanation that the government is giving for the decision to demolish the Muqata - the Palestinian Authority official compound in Ramallah - and to isolate Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in the wake of the murderous terror attacks last week is unconvincing, and it involves the government in contradictions.

Diluting International Law?
By Thomas J. Haidon, Islam Online, September 18, 2002
Sanctions on Iraq have so far killed 1.5 million Iraqi civilians – Iraq Resource Information Site (IRIS). With each passing moment, the likelihood of a unilateral, multifaceted military campaign against Iraq becomes more imminent. Despite this, members of the United Nations Security Council and the Arab World have voiced their objections to such a campaign affirming that any attack on Iraq would violate international peace. Much of the internal debate concerning the impending conflict between the United States and Iraq has been how the United States will effectuate a regime change. The question that has largely been ignored (by the United States and to some extent Great Britain) is: can the United States, legally and unilaterally, effectuate a regime change in Iraq? In other words, what imposed constraints are there by international law and institutions upon a United States military campaign against a sovereign nation, Iraq? Perhaps a subsequent question is of equal significance: does it matter or has it ever mattered? A cursory answer to these questions is negative.

Gates of Hell
By Karamatullah Ghori, Islam Online, September 18, 2002
At the conclusion of the Arab League Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Cairo, September 4, its Secretary General Amr Moussa, warned the Bush administration that if it carried out its threat to invade Iraq, “the gates of Hell” would open in the region. The Arab League may claim to be the umbrella organization of all 22 of the Arab states, but its voice in world affairs can hardly be heard. It carries no weight in major chancelleries of the world. It is, therefore, highly unlikely that Amr Moussa’s categorical warning will have much of an impact on the war lobby that is working overdrive in Washington under Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

The stupidity of this very public humiliation
The Independent, Editorial, September 23, 2002
They have long memories in the Middle East. They can remember insults and atrocities from thousands of years ago, but they are incapable of learning the lessons of a few weeks past. Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, seems to have forgotten the early summer of this year, when there was a suicide bomber every day.