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June
13, 2003
David
Vest
Bush
Roadmap to What?
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded?
John
Chuckman
The Man Who Wasn't There
Jason Leopold
Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence
Michael
Leon
Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media
Negar Azimi
Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America
Saul
Landau
Shiite Happens
Hammond
Guthrie
Then and Now
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/13
June
12, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Intel-gate Row in Britain: a Chronology
Ahmad Faruqui
The Tragic Legacy of the Six Day
War
Wayne
Madsen
Unfit for Office: Time for Rumsfeld to Resign
Laura Carlsen
Hunger and Security
Tarif
Abboushi
Warm and Fuzzy in Aqaba
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
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Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/12
June
11, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
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Elaine
Cassel
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David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
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Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
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Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
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Julie Hilden
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June
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Close
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June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
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Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
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Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
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Gila
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Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
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A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
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Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
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Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
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Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
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Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
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Laura
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An Interview with Isabel Allende
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The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
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The Big Lie
Ramzy
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Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
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Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
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David
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Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
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June
14, 2003
A Good Week for the
Extremists
A Macabre Alliance
By GILA SVIRSKY
It was a good week for the extremists on both
sides. As they perceived some hope rising last Wednesday in the
seaside resort of Aqaba, they got to work: The very day after
all those high falutin' words, Sharon sent a hit team into the
West Bank and knocked off two senior Hamas figures. So Hamas
and allied groups made use of the weekend to kill 5 Israelis
in Gaza and Hebron. Tuesday was a big one: Sharon launched Apache
gunships at Rantisi, senior political leader of Hamas. Though
Rantisi survived, the funerals of 2 more Hamas leaders and 6
collaterally damaged men, women, and children helped balance
things out. But Rantisi wasn't down for long and on Wednesday,
a suicide bomber sneaked into downtown Jerusalem, adding 17 more
bodies to the count. That evening did not find Sharon idle and,
together with Thursday, he sent the boys back for 9 more killings
(counting women and children) in various locations. Hamas got
in one more, too.
Is this too confusing? Let's simplify
and say that 42 Israelis and Palestinians were killed these past
eight days. It was a good week for the extremists and, as we
speak, they are out there frothing at the mouth and fomenting
hatred for each other. ("Now it's all-out war", says
Sharon. "Now your women and babies are also targets",
says Rantisi.)
But while the extremists are having a
heyday, the rest of us - you won't be surprised to hear - just
want the flow of blood to stop:
On the Palestinian side, there is broad
support (63%) for the resumption of negotiations with Israel
according
to a poll conducted a few weeks ago by Bir Zeit University
. While polls also show Palestinian support for armed conflict,
this is always in the context of liberating themselves from Israeli
rule. In fact, an April poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy
and Survey Research showed that 71%
support the mutual cessation of violence.
In parallel, most Israelis are fed up
with being occupiers. A poll in today's Yediot Aharonot, Israel's
most widely read newspaper (conducted by Dr. Mina Zemach) reveals
that 67% of Israelis feel "the occupation is harmful to
Israel". The same large majority (67%) wants to end the
policy of assassinations. In fact, an astonishing 40% believe
that the attempt on Rantisi's life was made to deliberately thwart
implementation of the road map! Isn't that an amazing allegation
of disingenuousness attributed to Israeli leaders?
So we are left with the lines drawn as
follows: On the one side (roughly 30%) are the Israeli and Palestinian
extremists, all working hard at perpetuating the misery of the
other; and on the other side (roughly 70%) are the Israeli and
Palestinian victims of their fundamentalist ideologies. These
are the real lines of conflict in the Middle East: the coalition
of the willing - the extremists on both sides - against the coalition
of the unwilling - the moderates, which include those who have
to take buses (not cars) or are standing in the wrong place as
the helicopters pause overhead.
Today, the second annual gay pride parade
was supposed to have been held in Jerusalem. It was postponed
a week because it's hard to be gay when you are in mourning.
Among the victims of the Jerusalem bus bombing were Alan, who
would have marched in today's parade; Tamar, whose grandmother
and sister are Women in Black peace activists; Zippi, whose sister
is one of the human rights monitors in Machsom [checkpoint] Watch;
and 14 other good people, some of whom probably even believed
Sharon when he said he wants peace.
Ultimately, the 30% crazies are going
to lose out to the two-thirds of us who don't want to be going
to the funerals of healthy, innocent friends. In time, the moderates
will eventually win out - the extremist Israelis will inevitably
give up the occupied territories and the extremist Palestinians
will inevitably give up their demand for driving us into the
sea. What makes me furious is that we are in the majority, but
our extremists, bound in a macabre alliance, are galloping together
in a race toward each other's death, and we are getting trampled
in their madness. How much killing must there be before the sane
majority has had enough?
Gila Svirsky
lives in Jerusalem. She is a member of Coalition
of Women for Peace. She can be reached at: gsvirsky@netvision.net.il
Yesterday's Features
David
Vest
Bush
Roadmap to What?
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded?
John
Chuckman
The Man Who Wasn't There
Jason Leopold
Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence
Michael
Leon
Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media
Negar Azimi
Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America
Saul
Landau
Shiite Happens
Hammond
Guthrie
Then and Now
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/13
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