Eyeless in Israel
By Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, December 15, 2002  
Is it too much to ask Israelis to take a look, even a glimpse, at what's going on in their backyard? Are we even capable of dropping our relentless preoccupation with primaries and the battle between Tnuva and Strauss over cottage cheese, to pay attention to what is happening in the territories under our occupation? A foreigner who happened to find himself here wouldn't believe his eyes: A few weeks before the general elections - a period that is supposed to be marked by an airing and sharpening of views - Israel continues to close its eyes, not to see, not to hear and not to know what it is doing to three million people who live less than an hour from our homes. If this crass disregard is hard to accept in normal times - the approach being that what doesn't interest me doesn't exist - on the eve of elections that are considered (as always) critical, it is nothing short of criminal.

Anonymous sources fueling push for war
By Douglas Turner, The Buffalo News, December 9, 2002
WASHINGTON - A generation ago, the great investigative reporter and columnist Jack Anderson said that when the press was doing its best work, it performed as "the alternative source of information." He meant alternative to the government. Admittedly, it was another time, when editors and newsrooms ran newspapers. Anderson did his job so well that there were speculations in the Nixon White House about whether to have him killed. Right now, with the Bush administration talking war almost daily, I think the country could use a bit more of Anderson's "alternative" approach toward reporting national affairs. Despite the overwhelming vote in Congress for war, a lot of patriotic people back home are still trying to sort out whether we ought to send our young men and women in harm's way in Iraq. One of the key issues is whether Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was working with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and if Saddam is in league with al-Qaida now. The Bush administration, principally hawks like Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, are pushing this line very hard, despite the lack of hard evidence. No less than former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the other day that, "The link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida has not been made." Even so, the link seems to have been made in the minds of many citizens back home by repetitive comments by administrative officials and, sad to say, the Associated Press, which I think has slipped toward the role of government organ in the run-up to a possible war, instead of the people's "alternative source of information."

In the service of empire
By Lamis Andoni, Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 12 - 18 December 2002
In the first of a series on America's war hawks, a look at the views of the man who coined the phrase "clash of civilisations". -- "Bernard Lewis has brilliantly placed the relationships and the issues of the Middle East into their larger context, with truly objective, original -- and always independent -- thought. Bernard has taught [us] how to understand the complex and important history of the Middle East and use it to guide us where we will go next to build a better world for generations" -- Paul Wolfowitz, speaking via video phone at a special ceremony held in Tel Aviv to honour the leading Orientalist in March. American Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of the US war hawks are no doubt indebted to the Princeton historian: At the age of 86, Bernard Lewis has not only provided historical justification for Washington's "war on terror", but has also emerged as chief ideologue for the recolonisation of the Arab world through an American invasion of Iraq.  Lewis's work, especially his book What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, has been a major source in what is practically a manifesto for advocates of US military intervention towards "establishing democracy in the Middle East". By declaring that the peoples of the Middle East, meaning Arabs and Iranians, have failed to catch up with modernity and have fallen into "a downward spiral of hatred and rage", Lewis has at once exonerated American imperial policies and provided a moral imperative for President George W Bush's "preemptive strikes" and "regime change" doctrines.

Christian fundamentalists and American hegemony
By Dr. Abdul Qader Tash, Arab News, December 12, 2002
The American writer Grace Halsell did not exaggerate when she said that Christian Zionists in Washington were more dangerous than the Zionist lobby. In 1989, Muhammad Sammak translated Halsell’s book “Prophecy and Politics” into Arabic. The book discussed the dangers posed by militant Christian fundamentalists to the Arab world but Arab policy-makers did not pay much attention to her warnings. Though a few Arab writers have written about the dangerous course taken by religious fundamentalists in the US, serious efforts have yet to be made to warn the Muslim and Arab public about the increasing influence of the anti-Muslim religious fundamentalist lobby in the United States. It may not be a matter of pure accident that the Christian fundamentalists in Switzerland have established a new organization to elicit public support for Israel. The organization’s activities include encouraging Israel to continue with its expansionist policies. The organization recently issued a statement, which was endorsed by several Christian priests, to justify every Israeli act including the inhuman repression of Palestinians.

If there is to be a war, the world needs to know why
Editorial, The Independent, December 15, 2002
True believers in the "Axis of Evil" have had a good week. First came claims that Iraq had given the deadly VX chemical agent to al-Qa'ida. Then a Korean freighter was intercepted in the Arabian Sea, carrying a hidden cargo of Scud missiles bound for Yemen, which also happens to be a lair of the terrorist organisation. There followed new allegations that Iran is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons. Even President Bush's severest critics were pressed to deny that he has a point when he brandishes the threat of a rogue state developing weapons of mass destruction and passing them on to terrorist groups. This febrile atmosphere makes it more important than ever to distinguish between war with Iraq, which seems increasingly likely, and the wider war on terrorism. Contrary to the view of the Bush administration, they are not simply two sides of the same coin.

Sharon's wink
By Uzi Benziman, Ha'aretz, December 15, 2002 
In the early 1950s, soldiers in the 101 commando unit got themselves entangled in a fracas with the military police in Tiberias. One of the 101 soldiers was badly beaten by a few military policemen. The unit commander gathered his soldiers and they raided the military police compound; the 101 men punished the three military policemen who beat their comrade. The three were hospitalized. Together, the military police and the Jerusalem brigade, to which the 101 unit was attached, conducted an inquiry about the incident. Both sides demanded that all those involved in the melee be punished. Ariel Sharon, commander of the 101 unit, gave his soldiers a two-week holiday. When they returned, he lined them up for inspection, grinned, and said: "You have just completed your terms of suspension." It could be that the 25-year-old Sharon who said one thing and did another is not the same as today's 74-year-old Sharon. It could be that the charismatic 101 unit commander, who made his soldiers his allies in a struggle against the security establishment, is not the same elderly statesman who sees things from his post in the Prime Minister's Office which he never noticed before. It could also be that the wile, the wink while you command style which characterized Sharon 50 years ago, has vanished and been replaced by seriousness and sincere behavior with colleagues. But, if this is the case, how is his decision to appoint Dan Meridor "head of the next government's policy planning team" to be interpreted?

Oscars’ Double Standard turns Palestinian Film into Refugee
By Benjamin J Doherty & Ali Abunimah, Palestine Media Center, December 14, 2002
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences operates a double standard that may have kept Palestinian director Elia Suleiman’s award-winning feature film "Divine Intervention" out of the competition for the Oscars, EI has learned. The film, a dark comedy about a love affair between two people on opposite sides of an Israeli military checkpoint, won a prestigious jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and the European Film Award. In recent days, the Palestinian activist community has been abuzz with news that Suleiman's film was rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) which gives out the Oscars, because Palestine is not a recognized country. Various action alerts have called on people to write letters of protest to the Academy to protest the purported rejection of the film. The true story is a little more complicated, but raises disturbing questions about how a film that is acclaimed and celebrated in the rest of the world, can be turned into an artistic refugee, just because it is by and about Palestinians.

Loan addict
Globes, December 15, 2002
Israel's best friend should not allow it to wallow in subsidized credit. -- The discussion about US economic aid gives rise to several important questions: Should the government increase the ratio of debt to GDP to 115%? If so, bring us the guarantees, and we’ll be able to borrow more. Is the government deficit too low, and should it be increased by NIS 10 billion every year? If the answer is affirmative, we can only hope the US will allow us to increase the deficit. Are interest payments too small a proportion of the government budget? If so, let’s grab this priceless opportunity with both hands. Should Israel increase still further the public sector’s proportion of GDP? If government is indeed too small, there’s no better time than the present for making it bigger. The correct and responsible answer to all these questions, however, is no.