Analysis: Indiscriminate death from the air
By Amos Harel, Ha'aretz, December 8, 2002
The Israel Defense Forces operation on Friday in Al-Bureij refugee camp was the fourth such in the past year which resulted in a large number of Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip. Ten people were killed in Friday's raid. In each of the four instances, the Palestinian Authority has claimed that all casualties were civilians. Israel disagrees on three of the raids, but it's hard to dispute one fact - in the four operations 50 Palestinians were killed, mostly by missiles or bombs from air force helicopters or planes. These operations were the assassination of senior Hamas operative Salah Shehada in July; operations in Khan Yunis and the Zeitun neighborhood in September; and the raid on Friday. The Shehada assassination stands out, because an extreme weapon - a one-ton bomb dropped from an F-16 - was chosen to kill a leading terror suspect, and there was strong intelligence indications that his wife was with him in the Gaza hideout.

US fiction of link between Al-Qaeda, Iraq
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, Arab News, December 8, 2002
Attempts have been made to link Al-Qaeda with the Iraqi regime with such reports as Muhammad Atta, leader of the Al-Qaeda gang that carried the New York and Washington attacks last year, used to communicate with Iraqi diplomats. It was also reported that Iraq had connections with terrorist elements in Pakistan and Turkey. None of these reports, however, has been substantiated by convincing evidence. In a recent forum on the present Iraqi situation and its possible links with terrorism, one of the speakers argued that the close cooperation between the Iraqi regime and Al-Qaeda was such a well-known fact that it needed no evidence at all. I pointed out to him that he could bring any other charge against Saddam except of international terrorism. It is because the country has been waging a relentless war on religious fundamentalism of all hues and denominations. Nobody has so far brought even a shred of evidence to link the regime with a successful or aborted fundamentalist outrage anywhere in the world. The United States does not need to invent a charge of imaginary crime against Saddam. His past record is full of crimes against humanity.

The most dangerous dossier is the one marked 'War'
Editorial, The Independent, December 8, 2002
There are ominous signs that the British government is shifting the focus in the build-up to a possible war against Iraq. Until last week the only issue was supposedly whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. This in itself is far from straightforward. Hawks in the US and Britain will still find an excuse for war even if the United Nations weapons inspectors fail to discover such weapons or Saddam hands them over. Yesterday the US administration was already rubbishing the dossier prepared by Iraq before a word of it had been read. Over recent days the whisperings have predictably started in the US and Britain suggesting that the UN's weapons inspectors are not up to the job either, implying they could by easily duped by Saddam. As we demonstrate on page 17, the US and Britain have contrived a situation in which nearly all paths lead to a war. Almost certainly, President Bush and Tony Blair have sought such an outcome from the beginning, and the discussions between them have focused more on the best way to bring this about.

Arab-Jewish Cooperation in U.S. Can Send Powerful Signal
By Josh Ruebner and Rania Awwad, Palestine Chronicle, December 8, 2002
"It is time for politicians in this country to cast aside the special interests and listen to the grassroots of their Arab and Jewish constituencies .." --
WASHINGTON (PC) - Last week, the Arab American Institute (AAI) and Americans for Peace Now (APN) released a joint public opinion poll of Jewish and Arab American attitudes toward Israeli-Palestinian peace. Roughly 87 percent of Jewish Americans and 97 percent of Arab Americans surveyed agreed that Israelis and Palestinians alike have the right to live in secure and independent states. When polled about the likely details of such a two-state solution, including the evacuation of Israeli settlements from the West Bank and Gaza, implementation of a right of return for Palestinian refugees to the new Palestinian state, and sharing Jerusalem as the capital of both states, support remained high with 52 percent of Jewish Americans and 79 percent of Arab Americans favoring such a compromise.

Israel-First Brigade Squeezing Bush
By William Hughes, Palestine Chronicle, December 8, 2002
"There is one other remote possibility, and that is this: Bush Jr. might just decide to be a president for all of the American people! .." -- BALTIMORE (PC) - In baseball parlance, a squeeze play is a high-risk strategy, that managers enjoy pulling off. With a runner on third base, the batter will sacrifice himself by bunting the ball down the first base line, preferably forcing the pitcher to field it and to choose between going home with the ball or to first base. Although, the batter is usually out at first, it allows the runner on third, who is off to home on the pitch, to score. The squeeze play, with that element of surprise, can show up in the political arena, too.  The Israel-First Brigade is foaming at the mouth in anticipation of this war with Iraq. However, they are also concerned that Bush Jr. might just go south on them and buy into the UN Resolution line. In order to put increased pressure on Bush Jr., they have let loose Daniel Pipes.

Why Does Israel Want a U.S. War with Iraq?
By Jaffer Ali, Palestine Chronicle, December 8, 2002
WASHINGTON (PC) - There is no country in the world that yearns for the U.S. to go to war with Iraq more than Israel. They even pay public relations firms to promote this agenda in the media. What is behind Israel’s passion for wanting Americans to march off to war? At first blush one might think it is because Iraq poses a threat to Israeli security. But no military analyst believes that Iraq could do much in the way of attacking Israel. They do not share a border with them and Jordan is not likely to allow Iraqi tanks to cross its border to attack Israel. Iraq does not have an air force. What missiles they have are generally ineffective, and Israel has all the firepower to repel any attack. As one Israeli military analyst said, “We don’t lose sleep over Iraq’s military threat to us.”