Sharon Flattens Another Bump in the Road
By Ahmad Bouzid, Miftah 10/3/2003
THE RESIGNATION of the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, and the up-to-now unthinkable attack on the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin, are clear signals that we are entering a new phase, long planned by the Sharon war machine in its relentless war against the Palestinian people.
The Aqaba summit of June 5 was nothing more than an annoying little bump in the road for Ariel Sharon - a bump he dealt with in the only way he knows, which is by bulldozing any possibilities of starting political negotiations with the Palestinians while, at the same time, providing minimal gestures (and making maximum noise over them) that President George Bush could sell at home as signs of real progress, with the media making more than most out of the little scraps.
No doubt, Sharon was prepared to play that old and favourite game of his for at least a few more months, possibly up to the 2004 US presidential elections or up to the time when it became clear that Bush was unbeatable in the polls, whichever came first. But as it became patently clear that Bush was getting not stronger but weaker by the day, as he faced the Iraq mess and a ghost economic recovery, it became equally obvious to Sharon that Bush was quickly losing his stomach for shaking a finger at the Israelis for making a mockery of the roadmap. And so, Sharon is now pouncing on the opportunity to quickly move forward with his slightly delayed plans and dispatch the little annoying roadmap to the same grave where the Mitchell Report and the Tenet Plan were buried not long ago.
Don't be fooled. The Iraqi maelstrom won't save Iran
By Jonathan Steele, The Guardian 10/3/2003
Much of the pressure is coming from the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and the same neo-conservative friends of his in Washington who drove the war on Iraq. They recently formed a "Coalition for democracy in Iran", which advocates the overthrow of Iran's regime. It includes well-known hawks like Michael Ledeen and Morris Amitay, a former executive director of the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee. -- European support for US threats against Tehran will lead to disaster -- The cloud is still no larger than George Bush's hand but the storm of concern which the US is orchestrating over Iran is beginning to show uncomfortable similarities with the row over Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
A deadline has been set for Iran to make a full declaration of its nuclear energy programme by the end of this month. There is a demand for international inspectors to go in and examine any site to check for a possible hidden weapons project. Punitive measures are threatened in the case of non-compliance.
Many British and American critics of the last war take comfort in the view that the mess the United States and Britain have got into in post-war Iraq has the benefit that Bush and Blair will not repeat their adventure. Do not be fooled. That, increasingly, looks complacent.
America Froze The Roadmap, Israel Is Devouring Land With The Wall… And Arabs Have No "Alternatives"
By Raghida Dergham, Al-Hayat 10/3/2003
A deeper analysis of the Arab Foreign Ministers' speeches at the General Assembly reveals fears, sadness and conflicted ideas about how to deal with the current and coming situation in the Middle East. Some of them was afraid to recognize the dangerous collapse on the Palestinian-Israeli scene, so they hung to the illusionary strings of an optimism spider net. Others raised unusual ideas. And they all agreed on headlines such as the necessity to hold Israel accounted for possessing weapons of mass destruction while threatening Arab and Muslim countries, accusing them of owning this kind of weapons; however, no one suggested a built strategy to deal with this issue. A number of them spoke of a schedule for the American troops to leave Iraq, but most of them discussed a schedule to hand sovereignty to a doubted ruling council, especially since its current president has pointed out that the main idea was to give the American presence a different name than "occupation," hence asking it to remain. Nevertheless, they all shared, deep down inside, the fear of occupying the first rows in confronting the U.S., and hence waiting.
Oman's Foreign Minister, bin Alawi, was as honest as always in talking to Al-Hayat (September 27) regarding both Palestinian and Israeli issues, and he was fascinating in diagnosing the Arab peoples' point of view in this matter.
He said, "no one thought there was only reform in the West" within the Arabs, and added: "As for the Arab world, people are convinced that things could not have been better."
Is The Arab System Dead?
By Patrick Seale, Al-Hayat 10/3/2003
The Arab system has often been pronounced dead - and this time it may indeed be true. What do I mean by the Arab system? Ideally, I mean a reasonably stable regional order, seemingly dedicated to Arab interests, managed by sovereign Arab states, accepted by many of its citizens, and able to keep external enemies at bay, if not defeat them.
No one would recognize this as a description of today's decimated and divided Arab world, bereft of all nationalist pride, lacking any solidarity or self-confidence, more subject to foreign domination than at any time since the Second World War, and at war with its own angry citizens.
The most telling features of the Arab scene are the two colonial occupations - of Iraq by the United States, and of the Palestinian territories by Israel. In the name of the 'security' of the U.S. and Israel - but, in fact, in pursuit of naked strategic and material interests - two Arab societies have been occupied by armed force and brought to total breakdown. Life in the Palestinian territories is now a living hell, and things are hardly more bearable for Iraqis, the unhappy citizens of a broken country, reduced to chaos and penury by the sanctions and the Anglo-American invasion, which was once the richest and most advanced of all Arab states. For both Palestinians and Iraqis, violent death has become a daily occurrence. Their countries have been shattered, joining the lamentable list of earlier casualties of the Arab system, such as Lebanon, Algeria and Sudan.
Mr. Asper, You Owe Me an Apology - MacDonald
By Neil MacDonald, Palestine Chronicle 10/3/2003
A few years ago, a future Israeli cabinet minister, irritated with U.S. policy but evidently unwilling to discuss it substantively, called then American ambassador Martin Indyk a "Jew boy."
It was a nasty label, and it stung. The politician was basically calling a Jewish-American ambassador an Uncle Tom. Mr. Indyk reportedly replied that the last time someone called him that, he'd punched his antagonist in the nose. I sympathize with Mr. Indyk's sentiments.
This week, in a speech in Winnipeg, as excerpted in the National Post, Leonard Asper, head of the CanWest newspaper and television chains, denounced my reporting from the Middle East, linking it to "hints of anti-semitism in the Canadian media." His father, Israel Asper, made a similar connection in a speech last year. It's a dreadful accusation, one loaded with hateful, historical baggage. During my time in the Middle East for CBC, I heard it tossed at reporters a lot, usually by angry people who couldn't be bothered to marshal facts in support of their arguments. Leonard Asper marches in that tradition.
Mr. Asper said many news reporters are anti-Semites, an attitude he attributes to their 'Marxist' mindset. He then singled me out, and cited a passage from a story I filed on Hezbollah last year from Beirut.
Live from Palestine: An Interview with Nancy Stohlman
By Mark Schneider, Palestine Chronicle 10/3/2003
Live from Palestine: International and Palestinian Direct Action Against the Israeli Occupation is brand new book published by South End Press. Over the last three years thousands of internationals have traveled to Palestine and joined Palestinians in nonviolently resisting Israel's illegal military occupation. Live from Palestine presents this story, in words and actions of the people who made it happen. Nancy Stohlman is the co-editor of Live from Palestine and was interviewed around the time of the third anniversary of the current Palestinian Intifada.
Mark: Why this book?
Nancy: Co-editor Laurieann Aladin and I thought that what was going on in Palestine was so horrific—and supported by the U.S. government—that this story needed to be told. We thought that it was important for international activists to share their own experiences in Palestine.
Mark: Recently I opened up my newspaper and the headline said that, “the recent Palestinian ceasefire is over.” The story is all about a Palestinian suicide bombing which means the supposed end of the ceasefire. How do international activists who go to Palestine come to view this situation?
Nancy: Internationals have observed that, contrary to the normal spin we get from the media, these “ceasefires” are somewhat laughable.
Israel’s policy of assassinate-and-ask-later tank and helicopter attacks of homes, apartments, schools and hospitals are going on nearly all the time, ceasefire or not. From verbal insults, checkpoints, village blockades, ID cards, houses damaged from tank rounds, Palestinians unable to go to work, the electricity only on from 7 to 11 in the morning: these forms of violence don’t end. The daily life of most Palestinians doesn’t change a whole lot because Palestinian political groups agree to a “ceasefire” – it’s just not in the paper.
Settlers above all
By Nehemia Strasler, Ha'aretz 10/3/2003
There is joke about a government committee that wanted to plan a donkey, but ended up with a two-humped camel. The Israeli government has gone further than that. It wanted to build a fence that would be an obstacle to prevent terror attacks, but ended up deciding on a route full of deeper fjords than in Norway, with underground passages, tens of thousands of Palestinians trapped between double fences, a withdrawal from 12 percent of the territory in the West Bank and total surrender to the settlers - and at a fantastical budgetary cost of NIS 5 billion, at a time when NIS 250 million is being cut from the basket of lifesaving drugs.
This was a typical Mapai-type compromise, a la Ariel Sharon, an attempt to please everyone, to give in to all the political pressures. The result will therefore not only not solve the security and economic problems, but will make them even worse.
If the fence had been built according to the plan presented by former interior minister Haim Ramon two years ago, it would have been built along the Green Line, on the shortest possible route, and would thus be efficient in maintaining security. After all, every zigzag makes security more difficult and infiltration easier. The fence Ramon proposed would have cost a more reasonable sum of NIS 1.2 billion at most.
In Memory of Edward W. Said
By Zaineb Istrabadi, Ph.D., Zaman 9/29/2003
Indiana, USA, September 29, 2003 - I had the honor of working “with” Edward Said for over fourteen years. He insisted on my use of the word “with” rather than “for” saying, “You are a member of a team.” And so it was indeed. All who were part of his life felt as if they were a member of his team. This remarkable man was a mesmerizing teacher, lecturer, and prose-writer; literary, music, and cultural critic; classical pianist; human rights activist; and foremost spokesman on behalf of the oppressed Palestinian people. He was also a husband, father, colleague, and friend.
He is perhaps best known for his book Orientalism which changed the course of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the West, but he also wrote several books on the Arab-Israeli conflict in which he tirelessly and primarily addressed his American readers explaining that the Palestinians were the “victims” of a systematic policy on the part of the Israeli government from 1948 to the present to evict them from their homes, shattering their lives and societies. Yet he understood the fears of most Israelis given the history of Jews in Europe, but felt that nothing could justify their occupation of a people who had historically done them no wrong. This, he did most courageously in a climate in the United States that was hostile, in general, to Arabs and to Muslims. He emerged as the most eloquent spokesman in the U.S. for the Palestinian people and became a member of the PNC, the Palestinian parliament-in-exile with close ties to the Palestinian leadership....
Refusal for the sake of democracy
By Amos Schocken, Ha'aretz 10/3/2003
Last Independence Day eve, I was invited to a party at the home of some friends. On the program was a private torch-lighting ceremony, scheduled to precede the official ceremony on Mt. Herzl.
One young man called up to light a torch said: "I hereby light this torch on the 55th anniversary of the State of Israel in honor of my peers, soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who bear the burden of defense with devotion and self-sacrifice, and in honor of my peers who refuse to serve in the territories, reminding us, in spite of punishment and social ostracism, that we are fighting not only for the security of our nation but also for the occupation and dispossession of another people seeking, just as we are, to live proudly in a country of its own. And to the glory of the State of Israel."
To ignore this duality in our lives, as the commander of the Israel Air Force has, is to show that one lacks the tools to understand the reality that has long been confronting our soldiers, and especially over the last few years. To respond with panic and aggressiveness to the letter of the 27 pilots, as Major General Dan Halutz has, is to show that one lacks the qualities a commander needs to motivate his soldiers in complex situations.
Why are we skeptical?
Editorial, Miftah 10/3/2003
So why are people so angry at America? Wasn’t America a model for freedom, equal rights and prosperity for most people in the Middle East? How come America does not uphold the same values it preaches in the Middle East?
According to the BBC “a panel of experts chosen by the Bush administration found that good will towards America had plummeted in the past year, from Jordan to Indonesia. One member of the panel, John Zogby, said America's standing in the Muslim and Arab world could not get any worse than it was today. The report's authors stressed that they were not addressing US policies per se but their presentation, arguing that the US was often "not even present for the debate" with the Muslim world.”
To most Palestinians US involvement at Madrid in 92’ was a good day. America was viewed as ignorant to the plight of the Palestinians and their involvement meant that they will once and for all learn the truth and seek a just solution. Even though, the Palestinians kicked off the peace process with a great and historical concession, recognizing Israel’s right to exist as an independent state on 78% of historical Palestine (captured in the 1948 war), the Israelis continued their land theft, settlement construction and expansion.
Yes, America failed miserably for internal politics along with a powerful lobby and its eager spin machines assured the loss of US integrity as an evenhanded seeker of peace and freedom through liberation. America’s popularity started to quickly decline, even the freedoms and values America holds are viewed as inconsistent and not credible. There are no excuses, the US government is aware and is consciously going against the values it preaches by completely siding with the occupier against international will, laws and resolutions.
General knowledge
By Dalia Karpel, Ha'aretz Friday Magazine 10/3/2003
Noemi Schory is the force behind the documentary series, `The Generals,' an Israeli-European coproduction about Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon. For Schory, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who lost her first love in the Yom Kippur War, the series is an opportunity to examine the Zionist mythology of force
Just as Noemi Schory is explaining how it's possible to be a workaholic and a mother, her 12th-grade daughter calls her on the cell phone and in a melodramatic voice complains: "There are no vegetables in the house." But there are eggs, her mother reassures her, and promises that she will do some shopping. She doesn't blame her. "In the past few months, I think I've really gone overboard," she says. "The skeptics - my children and friends - say I can't do things any other way. When I'm involved in something that interests me, I'm in it 200 percent."
...We decided to do a series about the Israeli leadership that grew out of Zionism's myth of power," she says. "Films that, to a great extent, are also portraits of Israeli society, portraits that seek to answer the question of why the Israeli public chooses generals as its leaders, why the choice of the path of force was relevant to our lives and, unfortunately, still holds true."
'Spreading Edward Said's message'
By George S. Hishmeh, Jordan Times 10/3/2003
WASHINGTON — The death of Edward W. Said, 67, Palestinian intellectual and hero to many Arabs and progressive people elsewhere, has robbed the world of an articulate champion for the cause of the dispossessed, especially the Palestinians, and an internationally recognised literary critic and classical pianist.
The legacy of Said, a prolific writer and die-hard activist, will undoubtedly leave an indelible mark on both academic and international circles. Articulate and handsome, he always spoke to overflowing crowds, particularly at universities in the US and elsewhere, spawning ideas that could be traced in the output of academicians, writers and journalists. His outpouring was hailed by his admirers and, to a much lesser extent, decried by his foes, almost always supporters of Israel, but also in Palestine where his books were banned.
...In an interview about two years ago, Said complained to Palestine Report that the Arabs “still have no understanding of the power of the media (in the US) and what you might call the `cultural work' of civil society”. He said: “What is completely lacking is a humanisation of the Palestinian story. Nobody knows anything about what Palestinians have gone through historically, why they are where they are, and ... most people are not aware of the fact that there has been an almost 35-year-old occupation of the Palestinian territories. They think that these are two countries (Palestine and Israel) fighting each other.”
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