Israeli Sympathizers’ Arrogance Knows No Bounds
By Raff Ellis, Palestine Chronicle, October 20, 2002  
WASHINGTON - While channel surfing a couple of weeks ago, I landed on the "Anna Nicole Smith Show," quite by accident I assure you. In the scene I happened upon, the irrepressible Anna Nicole was riding in the back of a limousine with her lawyer, Howard K. Stern, on their way to some celebrity bash. "I think it would be good if you said something in support of Israel," Howard offered, out of the blue. I was somewhat shocked that this solicitation, completely out of context with the proceedings, would come while the camera was rolling. Nicole demurred, not that it would have made much difference in the greater scheme of things, that is.

Jabba apologizes
By John Chuckman, YellowTimes, October 21, 2002
(YellowTimes.org) – The Reverend Jerry Falwell has apologized again. It is his third-favorite occupation. His first, as we all know, is using national television to promote the kind of intolerance and ignorance long associated with sweltering, fly-blown corners of America's south. It's a profitable business by the looks of Falwell's cascading jowls and tailored, tent-size suits. He generally doesn't apologize for these activities, whether it is his retailing of videotapes sensationalizing the pitiful suicide of a member of President Clinton's staff, or his spending countless hours blubbering from the pulpit against the lives of people who happen to be gay. He once alerted the nation to dangerous hidden tendencies he discovered in a British television show for children, a harmless piece of fluff called Teletubbies. Falwell gravely warned America that one of the tubbies was promoting homosexuality.

Christendom goes Zionist
By Mitch Jones, YellowTimes, October 17, 2002
"The scary thing is that these militant Christians and Jews are close to the U.S. President. In fact, when Jerry Falwell sent a letter to the White House decrying the President's call for Israel to remove tanks from the occupied territories, Bush recoiled from his former speech and didn't repeat the demand.": (YellowTimes.org) – "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." - Matthew 26:52 The above quote is from Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of the Christian faith. He preached a message of peace, love and nonviolence and his early disciples followed this model. However, somewhere along the way, things changed. The Crusades and the Holocaust are two extreme examples of where war was carried out in the name of Christ. Currently we find ourselves faced with another religious war that pits Christians against Muslims. President Bush has stated that the so-called War on Terrorism is a "crusade" of good versus evil. By implication, Christians and Jews are good and Muslims are evil. This is not to minimize Islam's role in making war; however, Jerry Falwell called the Islamic faith violent without examining the militant tendencies in his own religion.

Falwell and His 'Christian Right' Have It Wrong
By Rev. Jan Linn et al, Common Dreams, October 20, 2002
Enough is enough. When Jerry Falwell declares on national television that Mohammed was a terrorist and Christians believe there will be no peace in Jerusalem until the second coming of Jesus, the time for silence on such religious arrogance is over. Put bluntly, the Christian right that Falwell represents is neither. It is not Christian in attitude or actions because both represent what Jesus spoke and acted against. Those who lead the Christian right are the Pharisees of today's Christianity. They play the role of moral and thought police, condemning to hell anyone whose actions they consider wrong and whose views are different from their own. Their religiosity runs a mile wide but their spirituality is an inch deep.

Put the road map on the table
By Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz, October 21, 2002
Ariel Sharon's glib response that he had not had time to study the draft American peace plan shows the prime minister is in no hurry to put the new "road map" on his desk.  A few hours before President Bush spoke with him about the plan, Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, spent more than two hours going over every detail of it with Sharon and his aides. Some points, like the timing of an international conference, took into account Sharon's own comments.

The Berlin Wall 2.0
By Sune Segal, Palestine Monitor, October 14, 2002
Israeli contractors have embarked on erecting a fence between Israel and the West Bank. Israel claims that the sole purpose of the fence is to prevent Palestinian attacks inside Israel proper. However, there are indications to the contrary. The barrier does not follow the 1949 armistice line, the so-called Green Line that constitutes the unofficial border between Israel and the West Bank. In stead, significant portions of the fence run or will run east of the Green Line. As a consequence, vast amounts Palestinian farmland have been confiscated by Israeli. These confiscations infringe the human rights of the affected Palestinian population, among them the Right to Property and the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living. The question that remains is: is this infringement justified by Israel’s military needs, i.e. the aim of preventing suicide bombers from entering Israel from the West Bank?

Citizens not Soldiers
By Robert Jensen, Palestine Chronicle, October 21, 2002   
(PINA) - In what could be one of the final steps toward the permanent militarization of U.S. society, we all are being recruited as soldiers in the Bush administration's unlimited war against endless enemies (also known as the "war on terrorism"). Last December, highway workers were enlisted as "foot soldiers in the war on terrorism," watching for suspicious people. This summer, truck drivers became "the latest soldiers in the war on terrorism" under a program to train them to watch for terrorist activity. There's nothing wrong, of course, with reporting information that could prevent attacks (though we should be nervous about how "suspicious" behavior can lead to harassment in a climate of fear). But there is a difference between being alert and being -- even metaphorically -- a solider. Respectfully, I must refuse orders to be a soldier and remain a citizen in a democracy.