Why not train Israelis in the art of decolonization?
By Khaled Al-Maeena, Editor in Chief, Arab News, December 27, 2002
Why not sponsor a similar training program for Sharon, Peres and the other blood-thirsty Israeli politicians and generals? The Arabs may need to learn what democracy is all about but the Israeli need to learn some basic lessons in humanity is far greater. --- Recently I read a report that the daughter of US Vice President Cheney, Elizabeth Cheney, a deputy assistant secretary of state, had supervised a training program on democracy for some 50 Arab women from 12 countries. Among the women were two Saudis. (I did wonder what qualifications Ms. Cheney had for this particular job. Does she have one other than her father’s being vice president? To be fair to her, I admit that I have no idea about her qualifications. At the same time, it seems certain that her father’s job was not a liability in her being employed by the State Department. So the long arm of “wasta” is even alive and flourishing in the United States.)

Bethlehem to Rafah
By Kristen Ess, Palestine  Chronicle, December 26, 2002
"The Israeli military did not leave Bethlehem, just remained out of site of the cameras. They occupied five high buildings throughout the Bethlehem area .." --- A soft-spoken man who used to live in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip until the Israeli military demolished his Block O house in order to build their separation wall, tells me, "You know really," he pauses for a long time, "I'm afraid now that we are just all wanted." The night before Christmas Eve the Israeli military demolished thirty houses in Rafah. Tanks fired into the houses, the families ran out, and the bulldozers ripped through. There was not even a half second of notice. --- BETHLEHEM (PC) - At the last minute, at the end of the day before Christmas Eve, the Israeli government announced it would lift its curfew of Bethlehem. This was another move in the endless game of Israeli propaganda, and one that was expected. Thousands of eyes were on Bethlehem, the West Bank city that has been under curfew and reinvasion for the past month. For the second year in a row the Israeli government did not allow President Arafat to move the 13 miles from Ramallah to Bethlehem. There is a chair inside the Church of Nativity with a photo of Arafat and a kafia sitting on it.

The Secret War on Iraq
By John Pilger, Dissident Voice, December 22, 2002
The American and British attack on Iraq has already begun. While the Blair government continues to claim in Parliament that "no final decision has been taken", Royal Air Force and US fighter bombers have secretly changed tactics and escalated their "patrols" over Iraq to an all-out assault on both military and civilian targets. American and British bombing of Iraq has increased by 300 per cent. Between March and November, according to Ministry of Defence replies to MPs, the RAF dropped more than 124 tonnes of bombs. From August to December, there were 62 attacks by American F-16 aircraft and RAF Tornadoes - an average of one bombing raid every two days. These are said to have been aimed at Iraqi "air defences", but many have fallen on mostly populated areas, where civilian deaths are unavoidable.

A Vote for Mitzna is a Vote for Sharon
By Tanya Reinhart, Dissident Voice, December 22, 2002
The Labor Party chair returned to the separation plan of Ehud Barak, which the prime minister has been carrying out energetically the last few months. Just over a month ago, Amram Mitzna appeared to offer a new hope to Israeli politics.  He was even perceived by some as the potential Israeli de Gaulle.  During all the years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Israeli political system has managed to generate only two alternatives: eternal negotiations while preserving the occupation and expanding settlements -- the Oslo model of the Labor party, or slow elimination of the Palestinian people -- Sharon’s model.  The hope that many (including myself) attached to Mitzna was that a third alternative is possible as well, following the model of Lebanon -- Immediate withdrawal of the territories that most Israelis are willing to evacuate (all of Gaza and about 90% of the West Bank), and opening serious negotiations over the rest. But by now, it is obvious already that a vote for Mitzna is a vote for Sharon.

An Open Letter to the Corporate Media
By Sadu Nanjundiah, Dissident Voice, December 20, 2002
Two weeks ago (December 5), a massive force of Israeli tanks, helicopter gunships and warplanes raided one of the poorest Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza (al-Bureij), killing ten (eight civilians that included two United Nations relief employees) and maiming at least twenty people. This barbaric attack, yet another in a series of horrific Israeli onslaughts on crowded refugee camps in Gaza since August and, as usual, conducted under cover of darkness hardly made it into the mainstream American media (video, audio and print). The "newspaper of record" (New York Times, Dec. 6) carried its correspondent's report on an inside page titled, "10 Palestinians killed in Israeli Hunt for a Militant." The typical provincial broadsheet (Hartford Courant, Dec. 6 as one example) printed a wire service report buried deeper inside the paper, with the article merely repeating assertions of the Israeli military that its "operation targeted a militant" and Israel "regretted" the death of Palestinian civilians.

Jenin: the day after Christmas
Annie Higgins, The Electronic Intifada, December 26, 2002
The day after Christmas, the Israeli Army has killed six men, one of them from the next village over, Qabatiya. He is Hamza Abu Rubb who was active in Islamic Jihad. Yesterday when I was coming from a Christmas day journey to the nearby village of Zababde, the shared-taxi driver said he was headed to Jenin, but "by the dirt road." Not just dirt, it turns out, but huge ditches which the Israeli Army has dug to prevent Palestinians from going from one contiguous village to another. At the edge of Qabatiya village, he advised me: "Just walk a little way and you will find a ride on the other side."

True, false or just kidding?
By Yoel Marcus, Ha'aretz, December 27, 2002
Is it a turnaround or an illusion? Sharon or Finkelstein? A cynical campaign trick or Sharon eyeing his place in history? True, false or just kidding, a month before the elections, Sharon has performed a surprising somersault: He has put the establishment of a Palestinian state on the agenda of the government he expects to head. This is no shot from the hip or slip of the tongue. He and Netanyahu have already sparred publicly over this matter at Likud headquarters, and Netanyahu made it clear that he wouldn't serve in a government with those words on its basic platform. No one saw Sharon shedding a tear. Recently, he had another face-off with Tzachi Hanegbi, who waged a frontal attack on Sharon's new position and threatened not to support him. Who would have believed that over a Palestinian state, of all things, Sharon would present his present and future ministers with an ultimatum: Disagree with me and you can forget about being a minister in my government.

Tentacles in the corridors of power
Editorial, Ha'aretz, December 27, 2002
The longer the investigation into allegations of corruption in the Likud continues, the more details are revealed about apparent connections between senior members of the party and criminal elements. The picture emerging in recent days is worrisome: As opposed to what the prime minister and some of the ministers and MKs have been saying, this is not a marginal phenomenon that can be quickly isolated and uprooted. Although appropriate caution must be used regarding the details of the probe and all the suspects are innocent until proven otherwise, there is a growing suspicion that individuals with criminal backgrounds managed this time to reach deep into the political machine and the government. Yesterday, Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishky expressed the grave concern of the law enforcement agencies in light of the extent of the phenomenon.

Home Demolitions in the Name of “Security”: Focus on Hebron
Palestine Media Center,
The illegal colonies situated in the heart of Hebron highlight the devastating effects of Israel’s ongoing military occupation and its accompanying colonization. Currently, an estimated 400 Israeli Jewish settlers along with 2,000 soldiers of the Israeli army, have besieged 130,000 Palestinians (20,000 in the old city and 110,000 in the remainder of the city). In its latest manifestation of ongoing colonization, Israel has announced that it will demolish 22 Palestinian homes and expropriate 61 parcels of land [2] in order to establish a corridor [3] (1.7 kilometers long, 6 to 12 meters wide with a 2 meter high wall) between the illegal colony of Kiryat Arba and the illegal colonies situated in the heart of the old city of Hebron. The corridor, which will only be accessible to Israelis, and not to the indigenous Palestinian population, will leave 110 Palestinians homeless and result in the destruction of 20 historic homes.

Manufacturing Anti-Semites
By Uri Avnery, Tikkun, Nov/Dec 2002  
The first Israeli victim of Saddam Hussein is a Zionist myth on which we were brought up. The myth tells us that Israel is a haven for all the Jews in the world. In all the other countries, we are told, Jews live in perpetual fear that a cruel persecutor will arise, as happened in Germany. Israel is the safe haven, to which Jews can escape in times of danger. Indeed, this was the purpose of Israel's founding fathers when they established the state. Now Saddam comes along and proves the opposite. All over the world, Jews live in safety; they are threatened by annihilation in only one place on the planet: Israel. Here national parks are being prepared for use as mass graves, here (pathetic) measures against biological and chemical weapons are being prepared. Many people are already planning to escape to the communities in the Diaspora. End of a myth.

The Trail of a Bullet series: Depleted Uranium
Index to Christian Science Monitor series on Depleted Uranium
Depleted uranium is created as a by-product of the processes used to convert natural uranium for use as nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons.
[In addition to heavy use of DU weapons by allied forces in the Gulf War,] NATO used ammunition and weaponry made of depleted uranium during its air strikes on Yugoslavia in 1999. Suspicious deaths and illnesses among Europeans exposed to the substance are prompting investigators to examine DU's health risks. The United States has denied any link between illnesses and exposure to depleted uranium.