Al-Sayafa: A Case Study in Dispossession
By Jacob Pace, Electronic Intifada 10/7/2003
3 October 2003 -- We were sitting outside a small shack at the edge of a Bedouin community in the Northern Gaza Strip region of Al-Sayafa. Abu Housa, one of the Bedouin elders, sat with us speaking in quick, expressive Arabic phrases, spreading his arms and flinging his hands about, the gestures adding emotional context to words that, for the most part, I could not understand. When we first arrived at the community we were quickly invited to sit in the shade of the shack and offered tea, as is customary here. There were five of us visitors -- myself, another international worker, two other staff members from our organization (the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights), and our taxi driver from Gaza City.
As we interviewed Abu Housa, we sat with our backs to the shack and gazed directly across a small depression at a massive Israeli army base about 150 meters in front of us. On our left, to the West, the dirt track fell away to an electrified gate at the bottom of the hill, again, about 150 meters away. The gate is the only entrance in a fence that runs north-east from the illegal Israeli settlement of Dugit, south of the gate. The fence cuts across Palestinian land, eventually reaching Nissanit, another illegal Israeli settlement in the center of Gaza's northern border.
"Go Forth and Smite Thy Enemies" (Selective Obedience to God)
By Stan Moore, Media Monitors Network 10/7/2003
"The day is coming when nations may determine that the U.S. and Israel are threats to their own security.." -- The governments of both the United States of America and of Israel practice selective obedience to god in terms of their predominant national religions.
The only command ever issued by God that is actually consistently obeyed is "go forth and smite thy enemies". Both nations not only devote extremely high amounts of their national treasure for this purpose, but both nations seem to relish this aspect of their perceived "spirituality".
Both the U.S. and Israel operate the most sophisticated, technologically advanced, and lethal weapons systems in the world. Both nations are perfectly willing to deploy these advanced, lethal weapons systems against foes that are essentially defenseless against these weapons. Both have ultra-modern air forces that literally rule the skies and can launch precision-guided munitions from a variety or aerial platforms with literal impunity. Both nations' air forces launch reconnaissance missions with air assets simply to provoke a response from their foes, such as the turning on of radars, and then use their high-tech munitions to destroy the radars of their foes and kill the enemy "combatants" simultaneously.
An Emergency Government
Editorial, Miftah 10/7/2003
President Yasser Arafat and his Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei (Abu Ala) have declared and sworn in 8 ministers to serve in a Palestinian emergency government. This emergency government is to unify the 8 security forces while enforcing law and order. It has also sidelined all factions, the Palestinian Legislative Council and is representative of one political group (Fatah) and surprisingly has the blessing of the US government.
Again, we find ourselves in a position were Palestinians have to compromise their demands and wishes for a free and democratic government representative of the majority and truly capable maintaining the Palestinian aspirations. When Oslo was engineered and signed, Palestinian negotiators who called for institution building and democratization of Palestine were regarded as trouble makers who were upsetting the apple cart. They, the international community and the PLO, wanted to sign an agreement, any agreement and to move on and provide Israel with security.
A one man or one party show is not what the Palestinian people need, or even what America preaches and upholds as democratic values. The best way to empower the Palestinians is by setting up a democracy and the rule of law and this can only come with a participatory government.
Rules Of Engagement
By Zuheir Kseibati, Al-Hayat 10/7/2003
Syria's claims about its deterrent capacity following the Israeli air raid, paralleled by the threats of Sharon's government to strike deep into Syrian territory, are more than enough to rule out any possible reconciliation between the two parties. If the Likud leader chose this critical timing for the Bush administration, which is embroiled in the Iraqi swamp and trying to salvage the popularity of the U.S. president, there certainly is no need to bring evidence to Israel's opportunism, and Sharon's desire to impose new rules of engagement, against the backdrop of war on terror. More importantly, the administration, which has started the countdown in its preparations for the presidential battle in the U.S. next year, will not spark the anger of the extremist Israeli right-wing, the ally of the U.S. fundamentalist right-wing.
It is obvious that Washington, which called for "self-restraint" after the air strike on what the Sharon government described as a training base for the Islamic Jihad near Damascus, sided with Israel in the first strike inside Syria over the past twenty years. It has also implicitly supported Sharon's desire to set new rules of confrontation, based on the U.S.-Israeli concept of war on terror. By reminding Damascus that it is still "on the wrong side" in this war, the U.S. is only encouraging Sharon to pursue the escalation and is giving it a green light for new raids on Syria, which it has accused of failing to meet its demands, namely to cease its "support and protection of terrorism."
Israel Is Losing
By Richard Cohen, Washington Post 10/7/2003
I talked recently with an American who had just returned from more than 20 years in Israel. We did not talk for the record, so I will withhold his name and what he does for a living. But I will say he is somewhat well-known in Israel and that he loves it dearly but he has left, probably permanently, because he cannot take life there any longer. He is a nonstatistic -- a living victim of terrorism. How many others there are like him I cannot say. He has the most valuable of all commodities in this world, an American passport, and with much regret and with questions about his courage, he used it to get out. His business had gone to hell, his life was always in danger and he simply could not take it any longer.
In the perpetual war against Israel, its enemies are winning. The economy is awful. Parents do not want their children to go out. The beach is presumed safe, but not a cafe or restaurant. A commute on a bus (I have done it) is gut-wrenching. You watch everyone. What does a suicide bomber look like? The last one, the one who blew up a Haifa restaurant, was a 29-year-old woman, a law school graduate. She killed Arab and Jew alike. Even safe places are no longer safe.
Time for US to preempt Mideast instability
By Erich Marquardt, Asia Times 10/8/2003
Israel's air strike inside Syria on Sunday represents a sharp change in policy by the Israeli government. Failing to pacify its Palestinian population, the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is running out of options on how to respond to Palestinian violence. No matter how many targeted assassinations Israel carries out, or how many Palestinians it inflicts punishment upon, the level of resistance to the Israeli occupation has not weakened. With Saturday's deadly suicide attack in Haifa, the Sharon government found itself without an original response.
Also, because of the international outcry that has developed out of Israel's threats at eliminating Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Sharon government also could not take that course. Therefore, Israel retaliated in a new way, by bringing its internal conflict into the affairs of a neighboring Arab state. By attacking Syria, Israel is warning Damascus to cease its protection of Palestinian militants, in addition to demonstrating to the Middle East Israel's power and leverage in dealing with other sovereign states.
Against Suicide Bombings
Editorial, Arab News 10/7/2003
sraels attack on what it said was an Islamic Jihad military training camp in Syria sends two messages to the world. The first, on behalf of the United States, is the clear signal that the Bush administration will do everything it can to keep Syria and Iran in its sights as the so-called war on terror continues. It is a message that has been heard, loud and clear, in the Arab world. However, the second message, though indirect, should be taken on board with equal concern: That suicide attacks on Israeli civilian targets are politically and militarily counterproductive.
How much reflection has there been in the Arab media on the fact that three Israeli Arabs were among the 19 killed in the restaurant in Haifa on Saturday? How much acknowledgement has there been that the city targeted is one of the few in Israel where Arabs and Jews coexist peacefully? And where are the editorials asking what the three children and the baby who were blown to pieces there did to deserve such a terrible fate? Is there any reflection on the fact that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is now as a result of the bombing in a weaker position than ever, and that the sizeable minority of ordinary Americans who support Palestinian calls for a viable state are less likely than ever to raise their voices in support of the cause?
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