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Today's
Stories
October 8 /
9, 2005
Ralph Nader
Katrina
and the Growls of Greed
October 7,
2005
Larry Johnson
The
Plame Case: the Real Issues
Will Youmans
Why
Do We Hate Our Freedom? Recruiters and Thugs on Campus
Dave Lindorff
Bird Flu: Evolution or Intelligent Design?
Judith Scherr
Haiti's Children's Prison
Russell D. Hoffman
Nukes for Peace, Revisited?: Nobel Prize Debacle
Jared Bernstein
Katrina and Jobs
Jennifer Van
Bergen
New
American Law: the Case of Dr. Dhafir
Website of
the Day
FBI Witchhunt
October 6, 2005
P. Sainath
"Take
That, Tom Friedman": Indian Masses Reject NYT's Neoliberal
Idol Again
Scott Parkin
When Antiwar Activists Get Mugged
Paul Craig
Roberts
Blundering
into Syria
Andréa Schmidt
Haiti's Biometric Elections: a High-Tech Experiment in Exclusion
Dave Lindorff
Easy
Money in the Big Easy
Joshua Frank
In Defense of Lew Rockwell
M. Junaid Alam
Jackboots at George Mason
Matthew Koehler
Cock and Bull on the Bitterroot
Robert Pollin
Is
the Dollar Still Falling?
October 5,
2005
Heather Gray
Militarization is Not an Answer for
Reconstruction: the Case of the Philippines
Robert Jensen
Is
Bush a Racist?
Ramzy Baroud
Bush's Final Choice: America or
the Empire
Col. Dan Smith
Keeping Promises to Iraq: "Everything
is Bad"
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds Laughs Last
Paul Craig Roberts
Liberal Guilt? How the Neocons
Took Over
Alan Maass
Doing
the Right Wing's Dirty Work
October 4, 2005
Nikolas Kozloff
Shocking the Two Party System:
a Political Opportunity for Sheehan and the Antiwar Mvt.
Mike Roselle
Houston,
You've Got a Problem
Joshua Frank
The Scoop on Harriet Miers
John Chuckman
War
Porn: What the Gruesome Images Say
Alan Farago
Storm Warning for Jeb: Developers,
Hurricanes and the Keys
Mickey Z.
An
Interview with Thaddeus Rutkowski
Christine & Ethan Rose
Home Depot Exploits Hurricane Victims
Gary Leupp
An
Earlier Empire's War on Iraq: a Lesson from Roman History
Website of the Day
Rodney
Crowell on Bob Dylan
October 3,
2005
Vijay Prashad
Desperation at Holyoke
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
Rice: Gunslinger
Joshua Frank
An Interview with Cindy Sheehan
Seth Sandronsky
The
Hiring Crisis for Black Teens
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Great Green Scare
October
1 / 2, 2005
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Democrats Sink Deeper into the Ooze
Dave
Marsh
A Direction Home: a Message from Bob Dylan
Ralph
Nader
Gutless, Spineless and Clueless
Flavia
Alaya
Showdown at Sheriff's Plaza
Uri
Avnery
The Gladiators: Sharon's Victory
Chris
Kutalik
The Battle at Northwest Airlines
Greg
Moses
Bill Bennett's Book of Cracker Virtues
Brian
J. Foley
I Gave My Copy of the Constitution to a Pro-War Vet
Nicole
Colson
Hunger Strike at Gitmo
Ray
McGovern
Abu Ghraib is a Command Responsibility
Fred
Gardner
Ricky Williams Takes a Late Hit
Justin
Felux
Save America from Crime: Abort Every White Baby!
Will
Youmans
"Free the P": Hip-Hop for Palestine
Mike
Ferner
What Else Shall We Do?
David
Krieger
The War in Iraq: a Broken Covenant
Agustin
Velloso
Samson Returns to Gaza
Saul
Landau
The Constant Gardener: Serious Cinema
Ben
Tripp
Right Down the Middle
Poets
Basement
Peddibone, Crowell, Engel and Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Holler If Ya Hear Me
September
30, 2005
Mary
Geddry
Why I Marched: They Made My Son Kill
Paul
Craig Roberts
Bush is Cooking Up Two New Wars
Dave
Lindorff
Judith Miller's Strange Voluntary
Jail Time
Gregory
Wilpert
"The Osama Bin Laden of Latin America"
Benjamin
Dangl
"Gringo, Go Home:" an Interview with Orlando Castillo
James
McMurtry
We Can't Make It Here Anymore
T.R.
Johnson
Return to the Ninth Ward
September
29, 2005
Sen.
Russ Feingold
Bush's Iraq War is Weakening America
Carl
G. Estabrook
Obama the Enabler
Ramzy
Baroud
Rhetoric and Reality of War
Dave
Lindorff
What Opposition Party?
Mike
Whitney
Brownie's Comic Opera
Jozef
Hand-Boniakowski
What Noble Cause?
Gary
Handschumacher
Getting Arrested with Cindy Sheehan
Winslow
T. Wheeler
No Leaders in Congress Against This
War: Lame Democrat and Tame Republicans
September
28, 2005
Dr.
Eyad Serraj
Letter from Gaza: What Disengagement
Sounds Like
William
A. Cook
Bush's Security Barrier
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Invention of Porno Torture
Mike
Whitney
Apartheid Justice in America
Joshua
Frank
Sheehan and the Democrats: Anybody Home?
CounterPunch
Wire
New Orleans Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters
Chris
Genovali
Cutting the Bears Out of the Great Bear Rainforest
Linn
Washington, Jr.
White Affirmative Action: How
John Roberts Got to the Top
September
27, 2005
Forrest
Hylton
Political Murder in Puerto Rico: a
Matter for Our Movement
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Bill Frist
Jennifer
K. Harbury
Torture is US Policy, Not an Aberration
Ray
McGovern
Torture and Cowardice: Why are American Religious Leaders Silent?
Mike
Ferner
Bringing the War Home: Arrested at the Pentagon
Antony
Loewenstein
When the Truth Comes to Town: What You Can't Say About Israel
in Australia
Harry
Browne
Live from Hollywood: the IRA Disarms
September
26, 2005
Rafael
Rodriguez Cruz
Assassination in Puerto Rico: the FBI
Murders a Legend
Joshua
Frank
Democrats Flee Peace Protests
Lamis
Andoni
The Railroading of Taysir Alony
Mike
Marqusee
Those Pesky "Urban Intellectuals":
Blair, Spiro Agnew and the Antiwar Movement
Rep.
Cynthia McKinney
They Can't Fool Us Anymore
Ron
Jacobs
A Small March for Me, a Giant March
for the Antiwar Movement
Norman
Solomon
The Media and the Antiwar Movement
John
Chuckman
Bush in a Bottle
Paul
Craig Roberts
America is Running Out of Time
September
24 / 25, 2005
Kathy
and Bill Christison
Polluting Palestine: Settlements
& Sewage
Ralph
Nader
Stealing the Moment: How Corporations Cashed in on Katrina
Saul
Landau
The Terrorist Resumé of Luis Posada
Greg
Moses
A Movement Gathers Power on the Sorrow Plateau
Roger
Burbach
Hugo Chavez's Mission
Vijay
Prashad
America's Shame
Laura
Carlsen
After NAFTA
Robert
Fisk
When Man and Nature Conspire to Expose the Lies of the Powerful
Dave
Lindorff
A Gusher Called Katrina: They Fix Oil Prices, Don't They?
Kirkpatrick
Sale / Thomas Naylor
Secession from the Empire: the Middlebury Declaration
Maj.
Anthony Milavic
The US Military and Torture: the View of a Former Interrogator
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Haiti: the Time for Action is Now
September
23, 2005
CounterPunch
News Service
In Which, Phil Donahue Demolishes
Bill O'Reilly
Diane
Farsetta
Katrina and Right-Wing Think Tanks
Robert
Sandels
Militarizing the Market
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush: the Good Samaritan for Corporations
Alan
Farago
Bird Flu Takes Flight
Dave
Zirin
When Sports & Politics Collided: Redeeming the Olympic Martyrs
of 1968
Maxine
Conant
A Simple Test for Bush
David
Price
Workers Get Hit Twice: Katrina and
Davis-Bacon Profiteering
September
22, 2005
Smith,
Wood, Leas, and Greenfield
Which Way Forward for the Green Party?
a Report from Tulsa
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraqis: This Government has No Authority
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Thinking is Religious Freedom
Lucia
Dailey
Trial of the St. Patrick's Four: Day One
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Are You a Speed Freak?
Russell
D. Hoffman
The Nukes in Rita's Path
Kona
Lowell
God's Hurricane?
Jason
Leopold
GOP Fiscal Policy and Katrina
Website
of the Day
Robert Pollin on the Global Economy
September
21, 2005
Jorge
Mariscal
Military Recruiters: Counselers
or Salesmen?
Linda
S. Heard
Double Standards in Iraq: Basra Brit Jailbreak
Joshua
Frank
NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan
Eric
Ruder
"The Problem in Iraq is the US": an Interview with
Camilo Mejia
Pierre
Tristam
The Struts and Bull Presidency
Dave
Lindorff
The Real Story of the German Elections
Mike
Ferner
Sit Down in DC
Missy
Comley Beattie
Bush's Katrina Bling Bling
Jeffrey
St. Clair
W Marks the Spot
Website
of the Day
New Orleans: Survivor Stories
September
20, 2005
Steve
Breyman
Toxic Gumbo: Katrina and Environmental
Justice
George
Galloway
Et Tu, Greg Palast?
Patrick
Cockburn
What Happened to Iraq's Missing $1 Billion?
M.
Shahid Alam
Gen. Musharraf and Israel: Is Pakistan Selling Out?
Mike
Whitney
The Gitmo Hunger Strikers
Winslow
T. Wheeler
It's Not Rocket Science
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Back to the Future: North Korea's Gambit
Paul
Craig Roberts
Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?
|
Weekend Edition
October 8 / 9, 2005
Yet
Another "Generous Offer" from Sharon
Setting Up Abbas
By JEFF HALPER
From Sharon's point of view it's a done
deal. Israel has won its century-old conflict with the Palestinians.
Surveying the landscape - physical and political alike - the
Israeli Prime Minister has finally fulfilled the task with which
he was charged 38 years ago by Menachem Begin: ensure permanent
Israel control over the entire Land of Israel while foreclosing
the emergence of a viable Palestinian state.
With unlimited resources at his disposal, Sharon set out to establish
irreversible "facts on the ground" that would preempt
any process of negotiations. Supported by both Likud and Labor
governments, he oversaw the establishment of some 200 settlements
(almost 400 if you include the "outposts") on land
expropriated from Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem
and Gaza. Today almost a half million Israelis live across the
1967 border. With financial backing of the Clinton Administration,
a system of twenty-nine highways was constructed in the Occupied
Territories to incorporate the settlements into Israel proper.
In the meantime 96% of the Palestinians were locked into what
Sharon calls "cantons," dozens of tiny enclaves, deprived
of the right to move freely and now being literally imprisoned
behind concrete walls twice as high as the Berlin Wall and electrified
fence. Although comprising half the population of the country
between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, the Palestinians
- including those with Israeli citizenship - are confined to
just 15% of the country.
In order to secure permanent Israeli control, however, the "facts
on the ground" had to be legitimized as permanent political
facts. International law defines occupation as a temporary situation
resolvable only through negotiations. It prohibits an Occupying
Power from taking any steps that make its control permanent,
specifically transferring one's population into an occupied territory
and building settlements. Indeed, international law holds an
Occupying Power such as Israel responsible for the well-being
of the civilian population under its control. For help in by-passing
international law and transforming Israel's Occupation into a
permanent reality, Sharon turned to Israel's one and only patron
in such matters, the US, which promptly obliged. In April, 2004,
the Bush Administration formally recognized Israel's settlement
blocs - euphemistically called "major population centers"
- thus unilaterally removing from the Palestinians 20-30% of
the already truncated area in which they wished to establish
a small state of their own. It was tantamount to Mexico requesting
that Spain return Bush's Texas. Israel's annexation of its settlement
blocs was subsequently approved almost unanimously by Congress:
in the House by a vote of 407-9, in the Senate by 95-3.
Still, Israel needs a Palestinian state. Although the annexation
of the settlement blocs gives Israel complete control over the
entire country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River,
it needs to "get rid of" the almost four million Palestinian
residents of the Occupied Territories to which it can neither
give citizenship nor keep in a state of permanent bondage. What
Sharon seeks, and what Bush has agreed to, is a truncated Palestinian
mini-state, a Bantustan, a prison-state on 10-15% of the country
that relieves Israel of the Palestinian population while leaving
it firmly in control of the country and its resources. Whether
or not we like the term, this amounts to full-blown apartheid,
the permanent and institutionalized domination of one people
over another.
Having created irreversible "facts of the ground" and
gotten American political recognition of an expanded Israel,
Sharon lacks just one last piece to make Israeli apartheid official:
either the signature of a Palestinian quisling-leader agreeing
to a mini-state, or an excuse to unilaterally impose it. Arafat
refused to play that role. Now it is Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas' turn. When, just this week, Sharon's advisor on strategy,
Eyal Arad, raised the possibility of turning unilateral disengagement
into a strategy that would allow Israel to draw its own borders,
the message to Abbas was clear: Either you cooperate or lose
any input whatsoever into a political resolution of the conflict.
Sharon, in short, is priming Abbas for a set up, another "generous
offer." It worked well for Barak, why not try it again,
this time for the whole pot? What would Abbas say if Sharon offered
Gaza, 70-80% of the West Bank and a symbolic presence in East
Jerusalem? True, it is not a just or viable solution. The Palestinians
would be confined to five or six cantons on 15% of the entire
country or less, with no control of their borders, their water,
even their airspace. Jerusalem, now encased in a massive Israeli
"Greater Jerusalem," would be denied them, thereby
removing the political, cultural, religious and economic heart
of any Palestinian state. Israel would retain its settlement
blocs and 80% of its settlers. But Sharon's "generous offer"
would look good on the map and, he believes, viability is simply
too complicated a concept for most people, including decision-makers,
to grasp. But for Abbas it sets up a no-win situation. Say "yes"
and you will be the quisling leader Israel has been looking for
all these years, the one who agreed to a non-viable mini-state,
to apartheid. Say "no" and Sharon will pounce: "See?!
The Palestinians have refused yet another Generous Offer! They
obviously do not want peace!" And Israel, off the hook,
will be free to expand its control of the Occupied Territories
for years to come, protected from criticism by American-backed
annexation of the settlement blocs.
Israeli unilateralism means only one thing: it has nothing to
offer the Palestinians, nothing worth negotiating over. The Road
Map asserts that only a true end of the Occupation and the establishment
of a viable Palestinian state will finally see the end of this
conflict with its global implications. A genuine two-state solution
may already be dead, the victim of Israeli expansionism. A two-state
"solution" based on apartheid cannot be an alternative
accepted by any of us. Yet apartheid is upon us once again. Sharon
must act fast to complete his life's work before his term of
office expires within the next year. This is the crunch. We cannot
afford to have our attention deflected by any other issue, important
as it may be. It is either a just and viable solution now or
apartheid now. We may well be facing the prospect of another
full-fledged anti-apartheid struggle just a decade and a half
after the fall of apartheid in South Africa. In my view, the
next three to six months will tell.
Jeff Halper is the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee
Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He can be reached at icahd@zahav.net.il
CLARIFICATION
ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY
ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH
We published an article entitled
"A Saudiless Arabia" by Wayne Madsen dated October
22, 2002 (the "Article"), on the website of the Institute
for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org
(the "Website").
Although it was not our intention,
counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article
suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has
funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist
activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
We do not have any evidence
connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.
As a result of an exchange
of communications with Mr Al Amoudi's lawyers, we have removed
the Article from the Website.
We are pleased to clarify the
position.
August 17, 2005
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Coming in the Fall
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher
Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
WHAT'S
INSIDE
Grand
Theft Pentagon:
Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror
by Jeffrey St. Clair
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