Distorting the map
By Uzi Benziman, Ha'aretz, October 27, 2002 
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had a reputation in his youth as someone who could read maps from the day he was born and who earned military accolades largely because of his exceptional ability to read the map of a battle while it was in progress, is now busy searching for stratagems with which to foil the American "road map" for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sharon and his advisers are currently drafting a formulation designed effectively to torpedo the American plan without making it appear as if that was their intention.

A law unto themselves
By Zvi Bar'el, Ha'aretz, October 27, 2002  
"We're talking about a group of kids who are on the margins of the margins and don't listen to us," was how one of the rabbis in the West Bank described those who have been dubbed, rather romantically, the "hill youth." "Wild weeds" was another of the descriptions lavished on these young people by a representative of the Yesha Council of settlements. The idea, apparently, is that the education of these people, according to the principles and concepts that the rabbis and the leaders of the settlers in the occupied territories sought to inculcate in their children, was unsuccessful. However, the question is not only how far we should see the hooligan youths as exceptions - as distinct from the young people who beat up Arabs in the Hebron market - but how much self-righteousness can be taken from a spiritual-political leadership that differs from the hooligans only in their style of action.

The Palestinian Refugee Problem and the Right of Return
By Baha Abushaqra, Palestine Chronicle, October 25, 2002
"Ben Gurion's testimony to UNSCOP in 1947) concur that, prior to the 1948 Arab-Zionist war, Jews owned no more than 6% (5.6% by Palestinian estimates) of Palestine .." -  "Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen." (Golda Meir, in a speech to the Knesset, reported in Ner, October 1961):  Sadly, when it comes to the Right of Return, there is virtually no difference between the Israeli Left and Right, as peace activist and founding member of Gush Shalom Uri Avnery once noted (1)--they all reject it. But, the question is why. It is one thing to denounce such rejection, but to defeat it, a strong case must be made against it, by exposing its underlying moral bankruptcy, lawlessness and debunking its relevant myths, until it is exposed for what it really is --mere chauvinism, in the racist sense.

Arbitrary Imprisonment
By Sam Bahour and Paul de Rooij, Palestine Chronicle, October 25, 2002
RAMALLAH (PINA) - Last week, armed Israeli policemen burst into the East Jerusalem YMCA offices and arrested Haytham Hammouri, a YMCA staff member. He was handcuffed and taken into police custody. No charges were made, and he was kept incommunicado for three days. Finally, he was able to see a lawyer, taken in front of an Israeli court, and sentenced to six months “administrative detention” in an Israeli prison. No charges were made against him, and there has been no trial. Haytham joins more than 12,000 Palestinians in a similar situation, and he may be the only Palestinian resident of Jerusalem held under this arbitrary pretext.