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March
8, 2002
CounterPunch
Exclusive
Enron's
Spooky
Image Consultant
Rep. Ron
Paul
Stop
the War on Colombia
Andre
Achong
The
Failed War on Drugs
John B.
Kelly
Michael
Moore and Me:
Disability Rights and
a Big Stupid White Guy
March
7, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Congressman
McInnis Equates Enviros to al-Qaeda
Mike Rogers
Will
the Battle of Shah-i-Kot Become the Taliban's Alamo
Walt Brasch
Patriot
Act and Free Speech
John Jonik
Insurance
Scams:
Who Are the Scofflaws?
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Bumper
Crop: The Politics
of Afghan Opium
March
6, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
A
Beautiful Mind:
Another Dangerous Lie?
Tom Turnipseed
War
Is Wrong
David
Vest
Billy
Graham and Nixon:
Tangled Up in Tape
Patrick
Cockburn
The
Bombings That
Made Putin a Hero
CounterPunch
Wire
Berezovsky
Fingers Putin
in Bombings
Edward
Said
Thoughts
About America
March
5, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Ann
Coulter At It Again:
Race-Baiting Norm Mineta
Bill Christison
A
Former CIA Officer
Explains Why the War
on Terror Won't Work
Delkhasteh and Wright
What
Should We be Fighting For? An Open Letter
to Pro-War Academics
Mariya
Tsvekova
Putin's
Georgian Gambit
March
4, 2002
Ralph
Nader
Dick
Cheney: A Dinosaur
in the Age of Mammals
Uri Avnery
How
Israel Will Torpedo
the Saudi Peace Plan
Southern
/ Kubrick
Stangelove
Scenario
for Shadow Govt. Bunker
David
Vest
Grammy's
of Constant Sorrow
March
3, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
War
on Terrorism for Dummies
Paul Cox
Boycott
Mel Gibson's
"We Were Soldiers"
Frederick
Hudson
Toward
a Nonviolent Africa:
Bill Sutherland's Quest
Eric Schaeffer
Dear
Christie Whitman:
Take This Job and Shove It
John Chuckman
Why
the Rest of Planet is Unnerved by America
March
2, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Sweat,
Sex, Feet and
the Working Class
March
1, 2002
Brendan
Sexton III
What's
Wrong With Black Hawk Down: an Actor Speaks Out
David
Krieger
Nuclear
Terrorism
and US Nuclear Policy
February
28, 2002
James
T. Phillips
Baghdad,
Spring 1992
Gideon
Samet
Sharon
Must Go
Rep. Ron
Paul
Before
We Bomb Iraq
M. Shahid
Alam
Samuel
Huntington:
Peddling Civilizational Wars
St. Clair
/ Cockburn
Rumble
from the Jungle:
Ecuadorian Farmers Fight
DynCorp's ChemWar
February
27, 2002
Eric Hobsbawm
The
Future of War and Peace
John Troyer
About
that WTC Memorial
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Wired
for Democracy
or Business?
Alexander
Cockburn
Daniel
Pearl: Should His
Editors Have Sent Him There?
February
26, 2002
Jonathan
Steele
Kabul's
Loss
Vasily
Streltsov
The
Pentagon in
the Transcaucusas
CounterPunch
Wire
How
Corporations Use Shadowy "527" Groups to Influence
Politicians
Lt. Col.
Robert Bowman
ABM
Treaty: Alive or Dead?
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
A
Prayer for America
February
25, 2002
John Clarke
Interrogated
at US Border
Blankfort,
Poirier, Zeltzer
ADL
Blinks, Settles Spying Case
Alex Lynch
Naked
from Sin:
The Ordeal of Nahla
and Sami Al-Arian
John Chuckman
Ashcroft
Speaks in Tongues
February
24, 2002
David
Vest
Skate
Date
February
23, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Axis
of Evil and
Media Monopolies
Bahour/Dahan
Cracks
in the Occupation
February
22, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Axel
of Evil: Sex Crimes
and the Constitution
February
21, 2002
Gary Leupp
The
Philippines: Second Front in US's Global War
David
Vest
Reagan
Clone Project?
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Chicago
School and Corporate America: Rotten to the Core
February
20, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
The
Shallow Throat Document
Kay Lee
The
Prison Guard Who Never Owned Up to His Crimes
February
19, 2002
David
Orr
Waylon
Jennings, the Duke,
and the Navajo
John Chuckman
The
Devil and Georgie Bush
Prudence
Crowther
Giblet
Gravitas
Ramzi
Kysia
Caught
in the Iraq DMZ
February
18, 2002
Ron Jacobs
The
US and Iran
George
Lewandowski
Empire
in Declline
Lenni
Brenner
Life
and Death of a Folk Hero
February
17, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Lost
in a Pit of Desperation
February
16, 2002
Phillip
Cryan
Colombia
in War Time
February
15, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
From
New York to Porto Alegre
Robert
O'Brien
The
View from Porto Alegre
Mokhiber/Weissman
Resisting
the Assassins
February
14, 2002
Levy and
Easton
Ante
Pavelic
Real Butcher of the Balkans
Joan Claybrook
Dear
Jeb Bush,
About You and Enron
John Chuckman
Time
for a Woman Prez
Alexander
Cockburn
Banning
the Koran
February
13, 2002
Sen. Russ
Feingold
War
Powers and
the War on Terror
Tom Turnipseed
Bush's
Folly
George
Monbiot
American
Imperialism
February
12, 2002
Uri Avnery
The
Great Game:
Oil, Sharon and Iran
Tommy
Ates
Black
Land Loss
February
11, 2002
Walt Brasch
The
Synergizing of America
John Troyer
Enron's
Deep Throat?
February
9, 2002
John Blair
Criticize
Cheney, Go to Jail
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
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The New Intifada:
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March 8, 2002
International
Women's Day
American Journal
The Nightmare in Israel
By Alexander Cockburn
Let's start with Baruch Kimmering, a sociologist
at Hebrew University. Here's what he sent to the Jerusalem Weekly
Kol Ha'Ir last month, which duly published it:
"I accuse Ariel Sharon of creating
a process in which he will not only intensify the reciprocal
bloodshed, but is liable to instigate a regional war and partial
or nearly complete ethnic cleansing of the Arabs in the "Land
of Israel."
"I accuse every Labor Party minister
in this government of cooperating for implementation the right
wing's extremist, fascist 'vision' for Israel.
"I accuse the Palestinian leadership,
and primarily Yasir Arafat, of shortsightedness so extreme that
it has become a collaborator in Sharon's plans. If there is a
second Naqba (Palestinian Holocaust), this leadership, too, will
be among the causes.
"I accuse the military leadership,
spurred by the national leadership, of inciting public opinion,
under a cloak of supposed military professionalism, against the
Palestinians. Never before in Israel have so many generals in
uniform, former generals, and past members of the military intelligence,
sometimes disguised as "academics," taken part in public
brainwashing
"I accuse the administrators of
Israel's electronic media of giving various military spokespeople
the access needed for an aggressive, bellicose, almost complete
takeover of the public discourse
"I accuse everyone who sees and
knows all of this of doing nothing to prevent the emerging catastrophe.
Sabra and Shatila events were nothing compared to what has happened
and what is going to happen to us. We have to go out not only
to the town squares, but also to the checkpoints. We have to
speak to the soldiers in the tanks and the troop carriers And
I accuse myself of knowing all of this, yet crying little and
keeping quiet too often."
From the press here we learn all the
time of the pressure of public opinion on Sharon and his government
to bear down even harder on the Palestinians. We just listened
to NPR's Linda Gradstein quoting one "expert" after
another in Israel to this effect. But if public opinion here
is crucial in pressuring US administrations to some measure of
constructive intervention (as opposed to carte blanche for Sharon)
then we should be hearing everyday of the passionate opposition
to Sharon of people like Kimmering.
There are many others you don't read
about. Take the extraordinarily courageous people in the movement
known Ta'ayush. On
its site first you'll see the words "Arab-Jewish Partnership",
and then you'll be able to scroll through one action after another
in which these folk have braved police and army beatings, march
to beleagured and often bulldozed Palestinian villages to stand
shoulder to shoulder with the victims.
Here's what Professor Neve Gordon of
Ben-Gurion University wrote March 6: " As to the situation
here, it is getting unbearable by the day We tried to dismantle
a roadblock the other day near Hebrew U and were beaten by the
police. Three women had their hands broken, one had her head
opened. I was beaten while in custody with my hands handcuffed
behind my back. Sharon bombed Gaza this morning"
There are plenty of people in Israel
who see well enough that repression is not going to work. At
the end of last year Ami Ayalon, a former head of Shabak, Israel's
security service, told Le Monde, "We say the Palestinians
behave like 'madmen,' but it is not madness but a bottomless
despair... Yasser Arafat neither prepared nor triggered the Intifada.
The explosion was spontaneous, against Israel, as all hope for
the end of occupation disappeared, and against the Palestinian
authority, its corruption, its impotence."
"I favor unconditional withdrawal
from the Territories --
preferably in the context of an agreement, but not necessarily:
what needs to be done, urgently, is to withdraw from the Territories.
And a true withdrawal. If they proclaim their own state, Israel
should be the first to recognize it and to propose state to state
negotiations, without conditions."
There have been other public statements
from other Israeli security personnel bearing on the same general
theme that the present strategy of extreme repression is doomed
to fail and that some form of phased withdrawal is in order.
Is there anything to the Saudi proposal?
After all, its suggested bargain of unconditional recognition
for Israel from the Arab countries in return for Israel's unconditional
withdrawal to pre-1967 borders is over 30 years old.
The Israeli journalist Meron Benvenisti
had the right angle in his Ha'aretz column on February 28: No
illusion is more dangerous than the idea being sold that 'the
conflict with the Palestinians is small and incidental. We can
solve the conflict with the entire Arab world.' It was long ago
proven that there is no solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict
without a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians--and
that is what the Saudi initiative is all about."
The Bush Administration, criminally negligent
in its cowardice to engage with this crisis, lets it be known
that the Saudi proposal has merit, by which it knows well enough
what the standard operating procedure is for such proposals.
As summed up by Uri Avneri, head of the peace group Gush Shalom,
" In Israel, every international initiative designed tio
put an end to the conflict passes through three stages: (a) denial,
(b) misrepresentation, (c) liquidation. That's how the Sharon-Peres
government will deal with this one, too."
The press here has been as criminally
negligent as the Bush administration for decades. No US administration
will ever exert itself positively without some popular pressure,
and the role of most of the press has been to avert such pressure
but suppressing voices of opposition.
Here's one thing you can do. Right now
Jewish Voices Against Occupation
is calling for the evacuation of all settlements, a return to
pre-1967 borders, the suspension of US military aid till the
end of the occupation, the estasblishmdent of an international
peraqcekeeping force.
JVAO's Bluma Goldstein tells me that
450 has signed it and $30,000 raised towards the necessary $37,750.
Mail them at JVAO, PO Box 11606, Berkeley, Ca 94712. Their email
is jvao@jvao.org. Remember
Kimmerling's line, "And I accuse myself of knowing all of
this, yet crying little and keeping quiet too often."
Now read closely this "Call For
International Action to END THE OCCUPATION NOW!" issued
by Jeff Halper, of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
(ICAHD) on March 6:
"This is the moment of decision.
The Israeli army today opened its widest campaign against Palestinian
'targets' ever non-stop bombardment from the air, sea and land,
invasion of large Palestinian areas (especially in Gaza), house
demolitions, killings, arrests and the declaring of a virtual
halt to Palestinian traffic on all the roads of the Occupied
Territories. This is the time when all of us, NGOs, faith-based
organizations and citizens, Palestinians, Israelis and members
of the international community , must arise and focus our efforts
on one goal, and one goal only: To bring an end to the brutal
Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza
NOW.
"During the seven years of Oslo,
Israel pursued a particular vision of 'peace', a non-viable and
only semi-independent Palestinian mini-state that would relieve
Israel of the three million Palestinians residing in the Occupied
Territories but would leave it in control. Israel's ferocious
response to the Intifada came from a fear that the Palestinian
Street would break the PA out of the Oslo framework and lead
it to a true dismantling of the Occupation, to a viable and truly
sovereign Palestinian state.
"That is the battle being waged
now, between an Israeli-controlled Palestinian bantustan and
a viable, sovereign Palestinian state. Couching Palestinian resistance
as mere 'terrorism' (and thereby cynically exploiting the simplistic
'anti-terror' approach of the post-September 11 Bush Administration),
Israel is using its entire military arsenal (except its nuclear
weapons) to suppress Palestinian aspirations 'for once and for
all'. Sharon, who believes that there can be only one 'victor',
has declared that the current offensive, escalated daily, will
not cease until the Palestinians 'surrender'."
The only force preventing the defeat
of Palestinian aspirations for independence is the Palestinian
Street. This is the force that rose up against an Oslo process
that was leading it to apartheid. This is the force that appealed
to the international community for support in its struggle against
a vastly superior military and political oppressor. But how long
the Palestinian people can hang on is a matter of question. People
speak bravely of fighting for as long as it takes, but military
strikes, invasions of refugee camps, impoverishment, house demolitions,
severe restrictions on movement and psychological fatigue all
take their toll. Israel's smooth, well-oiled machine of public
relations and diplomacy has succeeded in isolating the Palestinians
internationally and delegitimizing Arafat's leadership.
"This is the time when an international
Intifada is called for, when members of the international community
must stand up and demand that their governments end the Occupation
NOW. This must be the focus of our actions. All else, no matter
how well intentioned, has been rendered irrelevant by the events
of the past weeks. What must we do?
"International NGOs, faith-based
organizations and political groups must join their extensive
but scattered and poorly-focused networks into a coherent, adamant
Campaign Against the Occupation. Each country must form a campaign
team and those teams must develop a working framework of cooperation
and joint action. The international and country-based teams should
then establish contacts with Palestinian and Israeli organizations
for purposes of our immediate concerns and demanding an end to
the occupation now; coordination; the development of informational
and campaign materials; the dispatching of local delegations
(Palestinian, Israeli and joint) for the purposes of lobbying,
media work and appearing in public forums abroad. Effective lobbying
in the American Congress, the European Parliament and in European
capitals is essential.
"I would urge that joint Palestinian-Israeli
delegations be sent with a simple, compelling message: we are
on the same side, the side that aspires to a just peace that
addresses the right of self-determination of the Palestinian
people while bringing security, stability and economic development
to the entire region; the dispatching of international delegations
to Palestine to engage in resistance actions, and to develop
with them effective follow-up actions back home.
"We also need more effective means
of raising funds for our work, and of focusing our funding on
campaigns and actions that bear directly upon the urgent task
of ending the Occupation.
"Palestinian organizations must
focus their efforts on a Campaign to End the Occupation Now,
pulling together the agendas of their many organizations into
a coordinated and effective effort. In my opinion, a close working
relationship between Palestinian NGOs and those Israeli organizations
that share in their agenda of ending the Occupation is essential
for effective advocacy.
"Israeli peace and human rights
organizations must also develop a more effective framework of
action. Besides our scattered protest activities, we must find
ways to effectively communicate with the Israeli public, and
we must be much more involved in international networking and
campaigns, including production of better informational materials.
We must also seek ways to support Palestinian organizations.
All the pieces are in place. We have the organizations and the
world-wide networks. Some of us have the information, others
the funding, still others the skills at putting together an international
campaign, working with the media, gaining access to decision-makers.
Some of us are here, 'on the ground' in Palestine/Israel, with
all we can contribute; others are abroad, in key positions to
influence public opinion in their countries and their governments'
policies. We now all share the responsibility the collective,
urgent responsibility of bringing all our resources to bear on
the only issue before us: ending the Occupation now.
"People and organizations at the
center of international networks have to decide how to proceed.
You all know each other. Network, discuss, develop mechanisms
of coordination and suggest to us 'on the ground' how to link
up effectively. Palestinian organizations perhaps through PNGO
should declare a common Campaign For Ending the Occupation Now
in order to focus their attention and interact effectively with
organizations abroad, with all the contact information. Again,
I would urge a meeting with partner Israeli organizations to
strengthen the cooperation. ICAHD will work to create better
forums of cooperation among Israeli organizations, and to augment
the present emphasis on activism with effective international
advocacy and campaigning. We should not underestimate our power,
the power of the international civil society, which is growing
in strength and organization. This is the moment in which we
must arise and assert our collective will. End the Occupation
NOW!"
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