Palestinian Human-Bombs, Human Rights and Amnesty International
By Dr. Agustin Velloso, Palestine Chronicle, November 6, 2002   
(PC) - There are many studies on Palestinians under Israeli occupation and in exile. Human rights organizations, both in Palestine and in the West, have reported extensively about human rights violation by Israel in the Occupied Territories. There is no need to repeat here what has been described before. However, it is worth to pause for a moment in a recent event that speaks volumes about the gravity of the situation in Palestine.
Understanding the context is indispensable before answering the question about the legitimacy of the attacks against Israeli civilians by the Palestinian human-bombs. That is, if we are not satisfied with the psychological "explanation" which forgets about the context and deals only with the personality of the "suicide bombers". That is, if we think the core of the Palestinian conflict and its solution are not the actions of the human-bombs. That is, if we consider the international community, the international organizations included, could do more than condemning the attacks.

Where America has elected to go, no one will follow
The mid-term results show the stark contrast between the US and Europe
By Hugo Young, The Guardian, November 7, 2002
Not long ago, George Bush and the Republicans seemed to have something to say to European parties of the right. The British Conservatives, in particular, were entranced. Last December, the red carpet was rolled out when Iain Duncan Smith paid his first visit to Washington as leader. He saw Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, a full house of the warrior right. The Americans, who had often received him when he was Tory defence spokesman, obviously thought he mattered. He for his part saw Bush as a role model. On his return, he wrote a piece headlined "My Manhattan project for a transatlantic conservative revival".

Conflict in Palestine: a tale of two states
Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, November 6, 2002
Many important voices have come out to express fear that the "two-state solution" for the Palestinian-Israeli dispute is fast fading. The consequences, they warn, are horrifying, not only for the Palestinians, for whom statehood is a national aspiration, but also for Israelis. While the circumstances cited as reasons for the undermining of the two state option vary with their origin, there seems agreement as to the frightening nature of the consequences. They limit the options of both the Palestinians and the Israelis to only two. One is the transfer (ethnic cleansing) of the Palestinian population by Israel, which means another nakba, or catastrophe.The other is to grant the occupied Palestinians equal citizenship in a single binational state - a demographic catastrophe for Israel. The two principal originators of the concern over the possible abandoning of the two-state solution, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, have both agreed and indeed warned of the awful choices the region would be left with should the factors distancing the two-state option be allowed to exacerbate the damage.

You get what you deserve
By Juhair Al-Masaad/Al-Riyadh, Arab News, November 9, 2002
Many have expressed satisfaction at the Kingdom’s decision to fingerprint visiting Americans. The decision was in response to an American decision to fingerprint most Saudis visiting the United States. The effect such a measure would have on Saudis could be profound, following the embarrassing searches and unjustified humiliations they endure at many American airports. I don’t know what effect such a measure will have on the Americans. Many questions could be raised here: How many Americans come to the Kingdom to study in our schools and universities? How many come here seeing medical treatment? How many visit our country as tourists to see its different regions? How many come here to conclude profitable business transactions?

The face of power, the raw, real power of Bush's America
By Rupert Cornwell, The Independent, November 9, 2002
In the space of a few minutes yesterday, two starkly contrasting faces of power were on view: diplomatic power, clothed in the formulaic rites of the United Nations Security Council, and raw, real power as brandished by President George Bush in the Rose Garden of the White House. For a moment, surveying the placid scene at the Security Council, or reading the nuanced legalistic language of Resolution 1441, you could believe the vote was the unqualified opinion of 15 like-minded nations, rather than what it really was: a document, amended a little to be sure, but conceived and driven through by the US to permit Washington to take military action against Saddam Hussein should it unilaterally decide to do so.

George Bush crosses Rubicon - but what lies beyond?
By Robert Fisk, The Independent, November 9, 2002
When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river, he wrote, in his Gallic Wars: "Alea iacta est [The die is cast]." Just after 5pm yesterday, when the United Nations Security Council voted 15-0 to disarm Iraq, the US President George Bush crossed the Rubicon. "The world must insist that judgement must be enforced," he told us. The Rubicon is a wide river. It was deep for Caesar's legions. The Tigris river will be more shallow – my guess is that the first American tanks will be across it within one week of war – but what lies beyond? For Rome, civil war followed. And, be assured, civil war will follow any American invasion of Iraq. "Cheat and retreat will no longer be tolerated," Mr Bush told us yesterday – forgetting, of course, UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 which call for Israel to withdraw from the Arab territories occupied during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.