Fictions Embraced by an Israel at War
By David Grossman, New York Times, October 1, 2002
A dangerous and deceptive plot line has become superimposed on the story that Israeli society tells itself about its conflict with the Palestinians. Since the outbreak of the current intifada two years ago, it is as if the Israeli mind has turned to a new page in the chronicle of the conflict and, at the same time, erased many of the pages that preceded it. It's as if the 33 years of repression, occupation and humiliation that Israel imposed on the West Bank and Gaza between June 1967 and September 2000 vanished with the wave of a magic wand. The majority of Israelis take comfort today in believing that the horrifying deeds committed by Palestinian terrorists in the last two years somehow "balance the books" for those long years of subjugation and that all the guilt for the current state of affairs rests on Palestinian shoulders. Furthermore, they believe, the suicide bombings, and the broad support they have received from the Palestinian population, have revealed things about the Palestinians that ex post facto justify the injustices of the occupation. In a contorted way, many Israelis believe that the new wave of Palestinian terrorism has granted their country absolution for its problematic past.

US suspicions
Arab News Editorial, October 2, 2002
America’s suspicion of everyone beyond its borders seems to reaching absurd proportions. The clearest demonstration of this has come with its treatment of its visitors, specifically its guests from Muslim countries. Washington has now announced new guidance for immigration authorities, which makes it almost certain that this discrimination will become a regular fact of life for Muslim arriving at US borders.

A popular movement in Palestine: The case for education
By Toine van Teeffelen, The Electronic Intifada, October 2, 2002
Against the backdrop of the siege of Arafat's compound we could hear these weeks about some remarkable initiatives in Palestine. They remind of the popular movements of some decades ago against dictatorships in Eastern Europe or South-America: impressive mass prayers by peasants in a field near Nablus, the deafening noise of pots and pans in Ramallah, and courageous parents and teachers in various cities breaking curfews to guide their kids to school. In fact, some months ago plans of breaking curfews were already circulating and debated but it now seems that Palestinians under occupation have reached a point that many collectively want to act and join emerging forms of popular non-violent resistance. The reasons for this beginning change in attitude may be traced to two circumstances: the changing nature of the occupation and changes in the general political environment.

Qalqilya and the wall
By Susan Brannon, The Electronic Intifada, October 2, 2002
Qalqilya is nestled in a flat rural agricultural area, surrounded by settlements and isolated from other West Bank towns. It borders the green line between Israel and the West Bank. In the past week, Qalqilya has been under 120 hours of curfew leaving the residents only 28 hours to shop, work and visit with families. The people of Qalqilya have faced hardship for many years, quietly sitting obedient to the continual occupation that comes in waves on the town.

Looking Behind Ha'aretz's Liberal Image
By Ran HaCohen, The Electronic Intifada, October 2, 2002 (from AntiWar.com 9-30-02)
A new Israeli web-site, supported by two major settlers' sites from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, is dedicated to the holy cause of "encouraging and supporting the employment of Jews only". It is already listing dozens of Israeli firms that do not employ "Gentiles". In the first months of the Intifada, Israeli racists initiated a boycott of Arab shops and restaurants; now, employment of Arabs is targeted. Let's keep the inevitable historical analogies for another time; the point I want to make now is, that most of you haven't heard of this web-site. Right? The site is neither confidential nor is it my discovery: I simply read about it in the Hebrew Ha'aretz a few days ago (24.9.02). But most of you could not. Why? Because this item was left out of Haaretzdaily.com, the English version of Ha'aretz.

The Full Story of Resolution 242: How the US Sold Out the Palestinians
By Kathleen Christison, Global Exchange, June 29, 2002
Henry Kissinger writes in his memoirs that when, upon entering the Nixon administration as national security adviser in 1969, he first heard the phrase "a just and lasting peace within secure and recognized borders", he thought the incantation so platitudinous that he accused the speaker of pulling his leg. But Kissinger quickly learned that this central tenet of UN Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied during the 1967 war in return for an Arab pledge of full peace and recognition, was deadly serious. The resolution had been adopted more than a year before Kissinger arrived on the scene, but he played a key role in setting it, and the land-for-peace doctrine that is its centerpiece, into concrete as the basis for U.S. policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict. For 25 years, the resolution remained the bedrock of all efforts to forge a peace agreement through every subsequent U.S. administration--until President Bill Clinton arrived on the scene and until, ironically, the peace process revved up in earnest.

Criminalizing 20 percent of law-abiding Arab citizens
By Aryeh Dayan, Ha'aretz, October 2, 2002
The move to ban the Islamic Movement is as old as the movement itself. In the two decades since Sheikh Abdallah Nimr Darwish set up the first branch in Kfar Qasem, various right-wing figures have raised the idea repeatedly. As the movement has become increasingly dominant in the political and social landscape of the Arab citizens of Israel, calls for a ban have been heard more often. Since the start of the intifada two years ago, the momentum for a ban has intensified, particularly given the fact that the Israel Police and the Shin Bet security service have increasingly pointed to movement activists as terror suspects though no formal tie between such activity and the movement has ever been proven. Public discussion of a ban on the Islamic Movement, however, has always faded away as rapidly as it arose.

Israel is winning the land war
By Amira Hass, Palestine Media Center (from Ha'aretz 10-02-02)
The sense of humiliation and submission supposedly felt in Israel when the siege on the Muqata compound in Ramallah ended was exaggerated. So was the Palestinian feeling of victory. This Muqata affair represented a symbolic dimension of the dispute, one which obscures the fact that Israel notches up one victory after the other in the substantive struggle. The dispute between the two peoples is about land, and not about the personality of Yasser Arafat or Ariel Sharon. And in this battle for control of land on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it is Israel that has the upper hand.