The Joy of Ramadan, Before The Soldiers Return
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle, November 16, 2002
When a temporary lifting of the curfew was announced in Jenin on the fourth day of the holy month of Ramadan, the happiest of all were the children. Although eager to return to school, to their daily game of chasing one another in the alleyways of the camp, the children were more ecstatic from the fact that they now could freely, and temporarily enjoy Ramadan. If you thought for a second that children of poor families don’t know how to take advantage of the joy hidden in this holy month, you are mistaken. Sure, parents do all they can to ensure a somewhat exuberant Ramadan for the kids. They’d go into debt to give their children a special Ramadan. The children however, worry less about the source of the additional meat on the table, or how expensive the almost daily Kunafa desert was. But even without the additional rewards, Ramadan remains special, as long there is no curfew.

Car-Bomb Diplomacy
By Eddie Taylor, Palestine Chronicle, November 16, 2002
WASHINGTON (PC) - America’s reinvigorated assassination policy comes exactly 30 years after Israeli terror claimed the life of Palestine’s foremost novelist, Ghassan Kanafani. As blustering American pundits trumpeted the success of the assassination of Abu Ali and four colleagues in Yemen this month, and as the news networks — staggeringly devoid of legal context for this act of aggression — showed the twisted, charred shell of the victims’ car, it was dispiriting to realize how little has changed in 30 years. Bomb first, justify later. And so the West is still reserving the right to allocate the term “terrorist” to anyone it chooses, and without trial, without recourse to law, without evidence being placed before anyone other than a cabal of malleable intelligence chiefs, justice is served by a controlled detonation. After all, explosives are the most accommodating of servants.

Hopeless attrition
Editorial, Ha'aretz, November 17, 2002
Friday night's attack on settlers in Hebron and the soldiers who were guarding them, in which 12 Israelis were killed including Col. Dror Weinberg, and the IDF retaliation - taking over sections of the city - are no more than links in the long chain of terrorist actions and military reactions. It is a hopeless war of attrition on both sides. After more than two years of terror, the Palestinians have not advanced their goal of establishing a state. On the contrary, they have reached an economic and political nadir. Israel strikes the terrorists and their leaders, but has not yet had the sense to understand that its heavy-handed responses will not quash Palestinian national aspirations.

Analysis: A cease-fire must also include Jihad
By Ze'ev Schiff, Ha'aretz, November 17, 2002 
The bloody attack the Islamic Jihad carried out in Hebron on Friday, aimed at the Jewish settlement of the city, is proof that the agreement reached in Cairo between the Fatah and the Hamas for a possible cease-fire last week, is meaningless. It will remain so unless its control of Jihad and other organizations is made possible - and also of Syria, which keeps a number of these groups under its auspices. An analysis of the attack and the discovery of the body of a third militant near the gate to the Jewish settlement in Hebron suggest that the aims of the attack were twofold. One was to hit the worshipers on their way back from the synagogue, and the second was to break into the Jewish settlement in Hebron to kill as many people as possible. It is not true that the attack was planned as an ambush to kill the commander of the Hebron Brigade, who died as he fought the militants. There is also plenty of evidence that the planning for the attack was carried out some time ago.

Israel Uses Terror to Derail Peace Efforts and Establish Permanent Occupation
By Rachelle Marshall, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2002
The State of Israel has arisen, but our country is not yet liberated. The battle continues: it is Hebrew arms which decide the boundaries of the Hebrew State. So it is now...so it will be in the future. —Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, in a speech to Irgun fighters, May 15, 1948: -  The inhabitants of Kakrak and three nearby villages in Afghanistan were celebrating a wedding on the night of July 1 when U.S. warplanes suddenly roared out of the sky firing on the crowds below. When the bombing and strafing ended, 54 of the villagers were dead and more than a hundred wounded. Most of the victims were women and children. Although similar “mistakes” have taken the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Afghan civilians, the United States intends to pay no compensation. The reason, a congressional staff member explained to Robert Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle, is that, “They don’t want to set a precedent that could come back to haunt them for the next war [against Iraq] when tens of thousands of civilians could die.”

Occupied Palestine: Forcible transfers of Palestinians to Gaza constitutes a War Crime
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2002
This morning Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling allowing the forcible transfer of two Palestinians from their home town of Nablus to the Gaza Strip on the grounds that they allegedly assisted their brother to commit attacks against Israelis. The two Palestinians, Intisar and Kifah 'Ajuri, have been in detention since 4 June and 18 July, respectively, but have never been charged and no proceedings have been initiated to bring them to trial. The Israeli government claims that it cannot try them because this would expose the source of the evidence against them. Today's ruling effectively allows for a grave violation of one of the most basic principles of international human rights law - notably the right of any accused to a fair trial and to challenge any evidence used against them," Amnesty International said.

Report: U.S Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
U.S. Aid To Israel: The Strategic Functions / What U.S. Taxpayer Should Know / Interpreting the 'Strategic Relationship' / The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers: True Lies About U.S. Aid to Israel