Israel Pulls a Fast One, and Gets Caught
By Justin Raimondo, Palestine Chronicle, December 9, 2002
"I have a question: If the Israelis are running phony 'Al Qaeda' cells in Palestine and Lebanon, why not in South Florida, or New York? .." -- The Israelis are riding high, these days – but not, perhaps, for long. Ever since 9/11, the Israeli government and its American amen corner have been making the point that Israel's fight is now America's fight, and this argument has met with some success. A recent article in Ha'aretz notes that Israel is winning the struggle for American hearts and minds: "The conventional wisdom among policy-makers in Israel and the United States is that if there is one front on which Israel enjoys a clear advantage in the international arena, it is hasbara – information and public relations in the United States." Congress is practically Israeli-occupied territory, and the Bushies are in their back pocket: however, there are still some elements of the American public who have not been brought to heel, and this, we are told, shows that "Israel has cause for concern."

Lie, damned lies and terror warnings
By John Pilger, December 3, 2002
The myths and propaganda used to 'justify' war against Saddam aim only to distract attention from Bush and Blair's real prize: Iraq's rich reserves of oil. -- ON November 7, the day before the United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution that made an American and British attack on Iraq more than likely, Downing Street began issuing warnings of imminent terrorist threats against the United Kingdom. Cross-Channel ferries, the London Underground and major public events were all said to be "targeted". The anonymous Government sources described "emergency security measures" that included a "rapid reaction force of army reservists" and a squadron of fighter jets "on constant standby". Plans were being drawn up to "evacuate major cities and deal with large numbers of contaminated corpses". Police snipers were being trained "to kill suicide bombers" and anti-radiation pills were being distributed to hospitals. By November 11, Tony Blair himself was telling the British public to be "on guard" against an attack that could lead to "maximum carnage".

America's big dirty secret
By James Robert Parsons, Le Monde Diplomatique, March 2002
The United States loudly and proudly boasted this month of its new bomb currently being used against al-Qaida hold-outs in Afghanistan; it sucks the air from underground installations, suffocating those within. The US has also admitted that it has used depleted uranium weaponry over the last decade against bunkers in Iraq, Kosovo, and now Afghanistan. "The immediate concern for medical professionals and employees of aid organisations remains the threat of extensive depleted uranium (DU) contamination in Afghanistan." This is one of the conclusions of a 130-page report, Mystery Metal Nightmare in Afghanistan? (1), by Dai Williams, an independent researcher and occupational psychologist. It is the result of more than a year of research into DU and its effects on those exposed to it. Using internet sites of both NGOs (2) and arms manufacturers, Williams has come up with information that he has cross-checked and compared with weapons that the Pentagon has reported - indeed boasted about - using during the war. What emerges is a startling and frightening vision of war, both in Afghanistan and in the future. Since 1997 the United States has been modifying and upgrading its missiles and guided (smart) bombs. Prototypes of these bombs were tested in the Kosovo mountains in 1999, but a far greater range has been tested in Afghanistan. The upgrade involves replacing a conventional warhead by a heavy, dense metal one (3). Calculating the volume and the weight of this mystery metal leads to two possible conclusions: it is either tungsten or depleted uranium.

"No such thing as the status quo"
Khaled Dawoud Interviews Dennis Ross, Al-Ahram Weekly On-Line, 5 - 11 December 2002
Since the signing of the Oslo agreements in 1993, Dennis Ross, former US envoy to the Middle East, has been heavily involved in the region, presenting key initiatives and proposals for the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict on both the Palestinian and Syrian tracks. Since leaving office following the defeat of former Vice-President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential elections, Ross has been the director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington think-tank known for its close ties with Israel and the hard-line camp within President George W Bush's administration. He spoke to Khaled Dawoud about his views on Iraq, the collapse of the peace process, and Saudi-US relations.

Opinion: The Wisdom of Ahitophel
By Uri Avnery, Ramallah Online, December 9, 2002
In order to win, Amram Mitzna needs three miracles.
He needs a miracle in order to defeat the Likud, which is expected by all the public opinion polls to win by an astonishing 2:1. He needs a miracle in order to defeat the functionaries of his own party, who want to compel him to join a Sharon-led "National Unity" government. The posteriors of Peres, Ben-Eliezer and their colleagues, Sharon's collaborators in the last government, are itching to regain their soft chairs, from which they were separated with such great difficulty. But he needs the biggest miracle in order to defeat Ahitophel* & Co., the crowd of advisors, election experts and "strategists", who feed on public opinion polls and statistics. This points to simple and convincing arithmetic: "The great reservoir of votes is located in the center. The more you move to the left, the further you get away from them. The more you move to the right, the greater become your chances of winning. The leftist voters are in your pocket anyhow. What other alternative do they have? Therefore, don't talk about peace. Speak about "separation", about a wall, about a fence. Simple and convincing, indeed. But this is a certain recipe for defeat. If Mitzna rejects their advise, he will pass the first test of leadership. If he accepts it, his election campaign will die before it has even started in earnest.

Can might alone earn a nation love, trust?
By Peter Preston, Arab News, December 10, 2002 
LONDON, 10 December 2002 — Even the ambition is gargantuan. Only an American pollster like Pew would contemplate asking 38,000 people in 44 countries (speaking 63 languages and dialects) what they think of America. Only a superpower would try to take the world’s temperature thus. The trouble is — when you hold their thermometer up to the light — the reading that comes back says this power isn’t so super after all. Take just a few out of thousands of figures. Nineteen countries with data available for comparison showed antipathy to the US on the rise, and goodwill draining away. Favorable ratings in Western Europe, pretty consistently, were down five or six percentage points over the last three years. That turned to 22 points in Turkey and 13 points in Pakistan. Just six percent of the Egyptian public has a favorable view of the United States.

Schooling at Gunpoint: Palestinian Children's Learning Environment in War Like Conditions (part 1 of 2)
By Giacaman, Abdullah, Abu Safieh, and Shamieh, The Ramallah/al-Bireh/Beitunia Urban Center, The Electronic Intifada, December 6, 2002
A devastating look at the effect of the Israeli occupation on one aspect of Palestinian civil life -- school education -- in one area, Ramallah. -- The new school year was scheduled to begin on August 31st 2002 for over one million Palestinian children, comprising more than a third of the total population in West Bank and Gaza Strip. Only seven years ago, the newly established Palestinian Ministry of Education and the Palestinian community began to confront the huge task of reconstructing and rehabilitating the education sector, which had been left in shambles by the Israeli 'Civil Administration' through deliberate obstruction and neglect. Today, two years into the Second Palestinian Uprising (Intifada), resistance and re-occupation, the education system is near collapse again, leaving yet another generation of young Palestinians without proper schooling, the essential tool that is to prepare them for their challenging role in rehabilitating their society and building its future state.

A million immigrants? Where from exactly?
By Yair Sheleg, Ha'aretz, December 10, 2002 
In 2000, 61,025 persons immigrated to Israel, but by last year that number had dropped to 44,247, and this year only about 35,000 are expected to immigrate - representing a 43 percent decline in two years. -- Roni Vinikov took up his post as a Jewish Agency emissary in New York three months ago. The Agency already has several emissaries in the Big Apple, but Vinikov will play a unique role: He is coordinating Agency activities among Jews from the former Soviet Union who settled in New York following the collapse of Communist rule. About 300,000 people in that group opted for the American dream over its Israeli parallel, and a large percentage of them clustered in the New York area. Following a two-year series of discussions, the Agency decided to try to work among these Jews, in an effort to persuade as many as possible to give Israel a "second chance." Even before this, a-year-and-a-half ago, the Agency began a similar initiative in Germany, and soon plans one in Australia.

Should There Be A Jewish State?
By John Spritzler, NewDemocracyWorld.org,
Ted Koppel's Nightline ABC-TV show April 18, 2002 featured the question, "Is it anti-Semitic to criticize the Israeli government's policy towards Palestinians?" Koppel was interviewing the head of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, who replied that Israel was a sovereign state and of course it was permissible to criticize its policies. But, he warned, to oppose the idea of a Jewish state went over the line and was pure anti-Semitism. Koppel smiled agreeably and gave no hint that a reasonable person might disagree. The idea of a Jewish state (whose Jewish proponents call themselves "Zionists") is sacrosanct in the mainstream U.S. media, which does not give voice to the troublesome questions raised by the issue, in particular that many Jews have historically opposed the idea of a Jewish state. The establishment of Israel has been far more controversial among Jews than most Americans are aware. Jewish opponents of a Jewish state believed in democracy with equal rights for Jews and non-Jews, and thought a purely Jewish sovereignty would be disastrous for ordinary Jews.