The king is cleaning out the stables
By Zvi Bar'el, Ha'aretz, December 4, 2002
The Shemisani neighborhood in Amman is one of the city's more luxurious areas. Its modern shopping centers, movie theaters and upmarket restaurants are the Western face of the Hashemite kingdom. The spacious, stone-covered homes that fill the neighborhood are product of the labors of thousand of Jordanian workers deported from the Gulf states in the early nineties as a result of Jordan's pro-Iraqi stance. Jordan of the early nineties enjoyed an economic boom and growth rate that went as high as almost 6 percent in 1995. The peace agreement it signed with Israel in October 1994 brought with it yet another wave of investments, and even more than that - dreams. Ultimately, however, it turned out that the agreement was merely extending the death throes of the boom. The peace agreement did not bring with it economic good tidings, and with the exception of the industrial zone established in Irbid and another small zone near the border with Israel, Jordan realized it would have to look out for itself.

A solution for security crisis in the Middle East
By Ahmed Abdel Halim, Arab News, December 4, 2002
There are some moments in history that are more important than others. Such moments normally follow major events that change the status quo. The significance of the present moment, following the adoption of the Arab peace initiative in Beirut, is that it could open the way to ending the historical feud in the Middle East, if two conditions are met: Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and closing all related files. The parties to this conflict, however, apparently do not realize this fact, and what seems to be taking place at the surface is a “dialogue of the deaf.” What is needed now is to discard the long-standing step-by-step approach, and to conclude interim agreements culminating in a final package deal. Approval of such a package would be followed by defining the process and the mode of implementation, finding the appropriate implementation tool, and surmounting all obstacles facing this process.

Use brains, not brawn
Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, December 4, 2002
The war on terror must be waged by doves and hawks (but hawks need to drag themselves into the 21st century)  -- So far the war on terror has divided the world into hawks and doves. Hawks want to crush the enemy with physical might. Doves seek to understand the root causes of terrorism, to address the grievances that motivate the killers: if those can be remedied, terror itself will eventually melt away. But what if that's a false choice? What if it's time for a new division: smart v dumb? The dumb approach says you can either be a hawk or a dove, one or the other. The smart approach says you don't have to choose. You can, indeed must, be both hawk and dove at the same time - depending on who you are taking on.

...Till ignorance us do part
By Hussein Shobokshi, Arab News, December 4, 2002
A strange but unfortunately typical conversation recently took place between a Saudi and an American. Said the Saudi: “You know, I can’t believe how angry you Americans are with all of us Saudis.”
To which the American replied: “Hey, don’t forget that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.”
The Saudi: “Maybe so but for 15 people, you can’t condemn an entire country.”
The American snapped back. “Don’t forget they demolished buildings in two of our principal cities and killed thousands.”
The Saudi: “We’ve also built schools in the US because of friendship.”
The American continued his theme: “15 of the 19.”
The Saudi in exasperation: “This is all a Zionist plot. No use in talking to you.”

We are being set up for Iraqi war
By Robert Fisk, Arab News, December 5, 2002
In North Carolina last month, a woman attending a lecture I was giving asked me when America would go to war in Iraq. I told her to watch the front page of The New York Times and The Washington Post for the first smear campaigns against the UN inspectors. And bingo, right on time, the smears have begun. One of the UN inspectors, it’s now stated — a man appointed at the behest of the State Department — is involved with pornography. Another senior official, we’re now told — again appointed at the urging of the State Department — was previously fired from his job as head of a nuclear safety agency. Why, I wonder, did the Americans want these men on the inspection team? So they could trash it later? Actually, the official drubbing of the UN inspectors began way back in September when The New York Times announced, over Judith Miller’s byline, that the original inspections team may be on a “mission impossible”. The source was “some officials (sic) and former inspectors”.

The end of Ramadan
Kristen Ess, The Electronic Intifada, December 4, 2002
On this, the final day of Ramadan 2002, Israel continues its decades old illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Khalil (Hebron), under effective curfew for years. Apache helicopter missiles fired into Gaza City. Israeli bulldozers continued to raze houses in the Gaza Strip and thousands of Palestinians were held under another day of curfew throughout the occupied West Bank and parts of the Gaza Strip. When 12 Israeli soldiers were killed in the Palestinian town of Khalil (Hebron) last week, the Israeli government lied to the international community, saying that worshippers were killed. The dissembling makes Israel out to be the victim, makes it falsely about innocents being killed, makes this about religion instead of politics. This is a tactic that Israel has employed for 50 years, making this the most successful propaganda campaign in our history. The illegal Israeli settlers in Khalil are protected by 2,000 Israeli soldiers. Baruch Goldstein, an American trained doctor and settler,