The Murder of My Terrorist Cousins
"On the answering machine, there was a message: “Both of your cousins were killed in the Bureij massacre today. The third is seriously wounded and is in the hospital .."
By Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle, December 10, 2002
SEATTLE (PC) - There is much in common between Abdul Hamid, Mohamed and Imad al-Uaini. For one, they are brothers, handsome, sweet, all with an unmatched sense of humor. They are also my cousins. Growing up, I didn’t have the privilege of spending much time with them. True, we were all refugees, but they were raised in Diaspora. The three brothers were raised in Iraq, and I was raised in a refugee camp in Gaza. On the first day of the Muslim feast, Eid al-Fitr, I returned home, along with my wife and two daughters. We had a great time. Zarefah was thrilled with her new set of crayons and “Dora the Explorer” tent. Iman was more elated by the colorful wrapping paper. On the answering machine, there was a message: “Both of your cousins were killed in the Bureij massacre today. The third is seriously wounded and is in the hospital.” I sat in front of my computer in my tiny office in Seattle. An annoying screen saver image circled the dark screen, pointlessly. I gazed at the screen thinking of how narrow the distance can be between life and death, happiness and tears, feasts and massacres.

A hard look at the election system
By Moshe Arens, Ha'aretz, December 10, 2002
Formally our Knesset members are elected on the day when the country's voters go to the polls to elect the Knesset. Actually, the majority of Knesset members are elected in the internal selection process of their respective parties some weeks before the Knesset elections. Therefore, the political parties' internal elections, especially those of the big parties, are in many ways as important, if not more important, than the Knesset elections in determining the composition of the Knesset. This is the result of the proportional election system existing in Israel, where political parties present an ordered list of candidates for election and it is the top of the list that is elected to the Knesset based on the share of the votes the respective parties receive. And yet, the internal party elections are quite arbitrary, differ from party to party, frequently lacking all rationale and lending themselves to manipulations that may be in the interest of specific candidates but are not in the best interests of Israel's democratic structure.

Israel? In the EU?
By Sharon Sadeh, Ha'aretz, December 10, 2002 
"The truth is that along with realization of a dream of "joining Europe," membership in the EU could also incur what Israel might consider a very steep price. Israel would have to nullify the Law of Return - EU legislation stipulates that all citizens living within its boundaries are free to settle and work without restriction in all of its member states - and all of the laws that discriminate favorably toward Jews. Israel would be required to unilaterally adopt all sections of the European legislation, and the European Convention of Human Rights. In so doing, it would all at once become a "state of all its citizens.""  -- BRUSSELS - High-ranking officials in the European Commission, which last week hosted a delegation of journalists from Israel, are having a hard time recovering from Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration that Israel is interested in membership in the EU. "Is he serious?" they said, over and over.

Unprotected rights
Editorial, Ha'aretz, December 10, 2002
This week Israel marks Civil Rights Week along with today's International Human Rights Day. In the tumult of the Knesset election campaign and in light of events that take place in the violent conflict with the Palestinians, it is difficult for the public to focus its attention on the civil and human rights that are the birthright of everyone in many countries. In developed countries, human and civil rights are embedded in the legal system, whether by virtue of the country's constitution or as a result of international treaties, such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights and European Union treaties guaranteeing civil rights for citizens and residents of EU countries. Since 1967 Israel has controlled the lives of millions of Palestinians who lack any constitutional civil rights, but Israel has not even settled this vital matter inside the 1967 borders.

Bye-bye unity
By Yoel Marcus, Ha'aretz, December 10, 2002  
If there's no change in the latest data showing up in the public opinion polls, the elections for the 16th Knesset will turn into a dramatic political upset. The Likud, more rightist than ever after its internal elections, will become the largest party and the ruling party, while Labor will shrink to half the Likud's size. In their worst nightmares, the heads of historic Mapai never imagined the possibility that the Likud, once again, would be up, and Labor down. On January 28 they'll be spinning in their graves.

Are the American hawks pulling back from war?
By Mary Dejevsky, The Independent, December 10, 2002
We have grown so used to war talk from Washington that we are incapable of detecting a new theme -- Here is your pre-Christmas quiz starter for ... war. Who said these words in the days before Baghdad handed over its 12,000-page weapons report to the United Nations inspectors? "I'm quite sure President Bush is not going to make a decision [to go to war] on the basis of one single piece of information ... He's going to make it not only on the pattern of information but also close consultation, particularly with our allies, but indeed with the international community." Was it (1) Colin Powell, the solo-flying dove in the US Administration; (2) the British prime minister, Tony Blair, who seems to have been borne along in the US President's slipstream for as long as war with Iraq has been an option, or (3) Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary and the most hawkish of the Pentagon's many hawks? Depending on your feelings about going to war with Iraq, you may be disappointed or relieved to hear that the answer is (3): Mr Wolfowitz. And you may be no less disappointed or relieved to learn that he voiced similarly cautious sentiments not on one isolated, perhaps jet-lagged, occasion, but at practically every stop of his recent trip to Europe.

Two generals, one way out
By Philip Terzian, The Providence Journal, December 4, 2002
THE SMART MONEY in Israel, at the moment, is on Ariel Sharon. Having trounced Benjamin Netanyahu in the primary contest to lead the Likud party in next month's election, the prime minister is expected to clobber the Labor candidate, a retired general named Amram Mitzna who is mayor of Haifa. Sharon's defeat of Netanyahu was something of a surprise to many observers, especially here. Netanyahu, a graduate of Lower Merion High School outside Philadelphia, speaks perfect American English and, while scarcely sylph-like, is considerably more telegenic than the corpulent Sharon. But Netanyahu, whose tenure as prime minister ended in scandal and defeat at the hands of Ehud Barak, was a calamitous candidate. He accused Sharon, who many of his critics believe is a war criminal, of being "soft" on the Palestinians; and he promised to send Yasser Arafat into exile and move the Israeli army into total re-occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

The Likud's dubious process
Editorial, Ha'aretz, December 11, 2002
The composition of the Likud's list for the Knesset and the published reports about the manner in which the list was elected, raise deep concerns about the political culture that has developed in the party. The format of the elections in the Likud Central Committee indicates a grave misunderstanding by the Likud of the democratic process. The Likud elections seemed to be properly conducted: the ranks of the party were opened to anyone who wanted to join, some 300,000 registered members elected a central committee, and that committee's 2,940 members were called upon to choose their nominees for the Knesset. But behind that formal procedure was an ugly and dangerous political reality.