US students demanding divestment from Israel 
By Will Youmans, Alternative Information Center, October 28, 2002   
Israel's singles night out: critics charge that divestment "singles out" Israel. They are right : A little more than a week ago several hundred college students from all over the United States met in Michigan to further the growing campaign to divest American universities of companies with holdings in Israel. The students gathered because they share recognition of the importance of severing the US-Israeli umbilical cord that feeds Israel's destructive military occupation of the Palestinian people. They argue that Israel's discriminatory legal and political structure vis-?-vis the non-citizen Palestinians of the Occupied Territories is at the very least a variant of Apartheid--the rights and security of Jews are prioritized while Israel refers to the Palestinians as a collective "problem"--thus, devoid of rights or the need for security.

Labor's unforgiven sin
By Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz, October 28, 2002
The leaders of Reform and other liberal movements in American Judaism admit to their friends in the Israeli peace camp that their communities refuse to listen to a word of criticism about the Israeli government's policies. "How can you expect us to pressure the administration to change its attitudes to Sharon's brutal policies," they ask, "when the Labor Party's leader executes those policies and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate does such a good job of explaining the policies?" For that sin, the abandonment of American Jewry, the peace camp may yet pay for many years to come.

The Bottom Line: A primary decision
By Zvi Zrahiya, Ha'aretz, October 28, 2002 
The Labor Party's demand to cut NIS 700 million from the funds earmarked for the territories, and to submit these huge budgets to a thorough review, is fully justified. It's about time to examine where the money the state has showered on the settlements is hidden and whether the allocations for these regions have been increased at a time of painful cutbacks to other budget items. It is essential for there to be transparency in the budgets for the territories.

Before Jewish fascism takes over
By Yossi Sarid, Ha'aretz, October 28, 2002  
They're putting the historical cart before the horses, to drag the horses after them down the slippery slope until we once again crash, for the third time; they are enlisting history into the cause to make sure the zealots of our day can once again bring us to destruction. Their ideological reading of history says the Second Commonwealth was destroyed by "a brotherly quarrel" and "baseless hatred," and they're feeding us that straw as if we were horses at the trough. The contemporary version of the circumstances of the destruction of the Second Commonwealth are meant to serve the zealots of our day.

Amnesty International: say it ain't so 
By Paul de Rooij, Alternative Information Center, October 28, 2002   
Any organization fighting torture and other human rights abuses deserves our support. A recognized leader in this fight is Amnesty International
(AI), helping people escape with their lives or avoid torture for decades. Given AI's track record and its role as a human rights monitor, one must be careful leveling criticism against it. But one can no longer be silent about AI's stance regarding Israel and Palestine. This article analyzes Amnesty's entire public record and stance during the current intifada (Sep. 2000 thru Sep.2002 ). It is an analysis of a meager record of 83 press releases and six reports. It reveals the following shortcomings and questions about its stance.

Burns mission
Editorial, Arab News, October 28, 2002
Even by the bleak standards set by previous special US Middle East envoys, the mission of US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns has been a "non-happening". Palestinians are continuing to reel from a series of military offensives and are currently feeling the brunt of a major excursion into Jenin, the biggest since the summer. This follows a bus bombing that killed 16 Israelis in northern Israel a week ago, the highest death toll from an attack inside Israel since June, and yesterday’s blast in the Jewish settlement of Ariel which killed two and injured more than 30. In the middle, Burns brought with him a road map which looks like the reprint of an old one.

The winds of war
By Ali Jarbawi, BitterLemons, October 21, 2002
The United States administration is clearly determined to strike Iraq, and current diplomatic efforts to garner a new Security Council resolution are merely part of a continued attempt to mobilize the widest possible base of support. Washington has issued strong statements that confirm the United States’ readiness to act alone against Iraq, but other voices in Washington warn of the consequences that could follow hasty and unilateral moves. These voices are calling on the US administration to exert every conceivable effort to form an alliance.