War Year 2002 - Stage Set for "Transferring" Palestinians, "Jordan is Palestine"
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War Year 2002 - Stage Set for "Transferring" Palestinians, "Jordan is Palestine"

December 22, 2001

WAR IN SUB-CONTINENT LOOMING

BUSH II PREDICTS 2002 A "WAR YEAR"

Stage Set for "Transferring" Palestinians and "Jordan is Palestine"

MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 12/22/2001: If major wars and more "terrorist incidents" break out in the Sub-Continent and elsewhere in the Middle East region, as now seems likely in the weeks and months immediately ahead, that is just what Ariel Sharon and the "right-wing" Israelis -- with at least acquiescence from Barak, Peres and the so-called "left-wing" Israelis -- have been waiting for. It is then the Israelis are likely to manipulate events further so that they can follow through on Sharon's personal life-long ambition to vanquish the Palestinians, and in the process turn the TransJordan of British-making into the Palestine of Israeli-making. Sharon's plans are amazingly quite advanced at this point with a majority of Israelis now favoring the modern-day euphemisms for his core policies of Revionist Zionism - "transfer", "separation", "no choice". True, the Labor Zionists prepared the way for all this, and though some of their leaders like Peres and Beilin will cry crocodile tears it is really their own policies over a long period of time that have brought about the current looming historic moment of decision, with none other than General Sharon, long-time friend of former Generals Rabin and Barak, now at the helm.

Meanwhile, as Washington insiders continue to worry about the possibility of small nuke devices that could even be positioned in the city or elsewhere in the U.S. -- explaining the extraordinary precautions which keep VP Cheney usually out of Washington at a distant "secure" location -- the sparks of war seem everywhere now, and even a world conflagration could be ahead in the new year. President Bush II has in fact just publicly predicted that 2002 will be a "War Year" -- possibly hoping to influence TIME Magazine's weekend selection of the "Man of the Year" from Osama Bin Laden to himself -- even as the American military prepares to unleash the new "Thermobaric Bomb" and assault a still growing list of Muslim countries, even including Pakistan.

For the first time in 30 years India has just "recalled" its Ambassador to Pakistan, sealed the borders, and is preparing to strike. One way or another the goal will be -- in alliance with both Israel and the U.S. no matter what is said in public -- to somehow find a way to "disarm" Pakistan, at least from its couple of dozen "weapons of mass destruction", just as was done to Iraq. It is in this possibly now looming blazing world at war that the Israelis may seize the moment they have been waiting for, and "solve" the "Palestinian problem" in a hail of blood and destruction.

INDIA AND PAKISTAN ON THE BRINK OF WAR

By Coomi Kapoor in Delphi and Zahid Hussain in Islamabad

[The Times, London, 22 December] INDIA and Pakistan moved closer to a state of war yesterday, as Delhi recalled its envoy from Islamabad and sealed border crossings and both sides deployed thousands of reinforcements along their frontier.

The sabre-rattling raised fears around the world that the two nuclear powers were on the brink of a new round of bloodshed, which would undermine the international coalition's war against terror in the region.

India began the escalation when it withdrew Vijay Nambiar, its High Commissioner in Islamabad. The move is more than a symbolic diplomatic protest.

Only twice before, in 1965 and again in 1971, has Delhi recalled its envoy. On each occasion the two countries were at war shortly afterwards.

The action followed growing demands across the political spectrum in India for the Army to attack two militant Islamic groups that are based across the border in Pakistan and accused of carrying out the attack last week on the Indian Parliament that left 14 dead, including the five assailants.

India and Pakistan last clashed in 1999 in a mountain battle at Kargil in the disputed Kashmir province. Hundreds of Indian and Pakistani troops were killed.

This time the stakes are even higher. In addition to reinforcements along the Line of Control, which separates the two sides in Kashmir, tanks, artillery and infantry have also been deployed along the normally peaceful Rajasthan-Sind border.

Yesterday's escalation began when India launched a verbal assault against its historic rival, accusing Pakistan of "sponsoring last week's suicide attack on the Indian Parliament". Pakistan hit back by charging the Indians with provocation and warning Delhi that it would defend itself if attacked.

The threats and counter- threats caused alarm in Washington and London, which are preoccupied with trying to complete their operations against terrorist suspects in Afghanistan and instal a new government in Kabul. To achieve that they need stability in the region and the help of President Musharraf of Pakistan.

Western sources said that they feared that the Pakistani leader was not able to control elements of his military and intelligence services, who were deliberately encouraging extremist groups in the hope of provoking a clash with India.

Western officials privately appealed to India to show restraint, but the Government in Delhi was under mounting public pressure to respond decisively.

In addition to recalling its envoy, India cut road and rail links, including the DelhiLahore bus service, which was opened only two years ago as part of a peace drive between the two neighbours.

The Indian authorities alleged that the five gunmen involved in last week's gun and grenade attack were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, two Kashmiri rebel groups based in Pakistan.

Indian investigators claim that the conspiracy to storm Parliament House in Delhi was hatched in Pakistan and that the cellphone records of the dead assailants and the confessions of those arrested for abetting them establish Pakistan's involvement.

On Thursday the Indian Government produced one of the accused, an Indian named Kashmiri Mohammed Afzal, before the media. He said that the suicide squad was from Pakistan and that he was the link man between them and Jaish-e-Muhammad.

The Indian Government is upset by what it considers the US's refusal to accept the evidence of Pakistan's role in continuing to foment terrorism in India and believes that the US is deliberately turning a blind eye because it does not want General Musharraf to be destabilised.

Pakistan has rejected India's accusations that its intelligence service supported the attack and said that it would take no action until India supplied proof. India on Thursday rejected a US request to share its evidence with Pakistan so that General Musharraf could crack down on the militants.

Most defence observers agree that the situation in the region is the most serious since May 1999 when Pakistan's military intrusion in Kashmir brought the two nations close to a full war. The danger was averted when Pakistan pulled out its troops from Kashmir's Kargil mountain post under US pressure.

BUSH PREDICTS 'WAR YEAR' IN 2002

By Peter Graff and Charles Aldinger

KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters - 21 December) - A provisional government on which the world has pegged its hopes for a peaceful Afghanistan prepared on Friday to take power, but U.S. President George. W. Bush warned that 2002 would still be a ``war year.''

A disputed U.S. attack on a convoy of suspected Taliban or al Qaeda leaders marred the run-up to a ceremony on Saturday that would mark the first orderly transition of power in two decades in the central Asian nation.

Pashtun tribal chieftain Hamid Karzai was to be sworn in as leader of a government molded by the United Nations and charged with rebuilding the war-shattered nation whose ousted Taliban rulers sheltered Osama bin Laden and his fighters as they allegedly plotted the Sept. 11 attacks on America that killed nearly 3,300 people.

Some 75 British Royal Marines, the vanguard of an international peacekeeping force expected to swell to at least 1,500, touched down in Kabul while the United States stepped up its hunt for bin Laden in the cave-riddled mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. forces had begun searching al Qaeda caves and tunnels and that more troops would be sent to press the hunt, as Washington left the ''nation-building'' mission to its European and Muslim allies.

The Pentagon also rushed into battle a new bomb designed to kill people in caves and tunnels with a higher-energy blast than standard explosives.

CONVOY BOMBED

U.S. defense officials announced AC-130 gunships and Navy fighters had attacked and destroyed a convoy in Afghanistan believed to be carrying ``leadership'' of the Taliban or al Qaeda.

But reports from the region said the convoy instead comprised Afghan tribal elders on their way to Kabul to attend the inauguration of the interim government, killing about 65 people -- something the Pentagon rejected.

``There is no doubt in their (U.S. military's Central Command) mind that they hit what they wanted to hit and that it was the bad guys,'' Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters.

Bush, in an interview with reporters in Washington, said great progress had been made in his ``war on terrorism'' but warned that peace was not at hand.

``Next year will be a war year as well because we're going to continue to hunt down these al Qaeda people in this particular theater, as well as other places,'' he said.

Bush said the United States would be willing to send U.S. special forces or logistical support to countries that ask for help. Washington has identified more than 60 countries with al Qaeda cells in them in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

``Our war against terror extends way beyond Afghanistan. And at some point in time maybe some president will come and say you have the expertise that we don't, would you mind maybe have some of your troops with ours. And the answer is, 'you bet,''' Bush said.

ON TO IRAQ?

A majority of Americans support extending the military campaign to Iraq, according to the latest opinion poll.

Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that military success in Afghanistan did not guarantee a similar result in Iraq, proposed by Washington's hawks as the next target in the war on terrorism.

``They are so significantly different that you can't take the Afghan model and immediately apply it to Iraq,'' he said.

Bush admitted that the whereabouts of bin Laden was unknown, but repeated his promise the wealthy Saudi-born militant would be caught.

``I haven't heard much from him recently, which means he could be in a cave that doesn't have an opening to it anymore, or could be in a cave where he can get out, or may have tried to slither out into neighboring Pakistan. We don't know. But I will tell you this: We're going to find him,'' Bush said.

Pakistani security forces were holding hundreds of prisoners captured fleeing Afghanistan. After a mass escape of al Qaeda fighters, they searched cars and checked women wearing the all-enveloping burqa in case they were male fugitives in disguise.

Bin Laden ally Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive head of the ousted Taliban movement, also has eluded capture and was said by a former Taliban minister to be safe at an unknown location in Afghanistan.

Mullah Abdul Shakour, ex-minister of communications and reconstruction, said all the Taliban leaders were safe, and threatened retaliation against any country that extradited members of the Taliban leadership to the United States.

PROVISIONAL RULERS TO BE SWORN IN

The Taliban, whose five-year hold on power crumbled quickly under assault from the United States and the Afghan opposition group Northern Alliance, was to be replaced on Saturday by a 30-member government formed under United Nations guidance during meetings in Bonn, Germany last month.

It will rule for six months while a Loya Jirga, or traditional assembly of elders, forms another government to run the fractured country until elections two years later.

The new government's task will be difficult. The World Bank and United Nations said in a report unveiled in Brussels that Afghanistan will need $9 billion in aid over the next five years to rebuild after two decades of war.

The United States appeared ready to help, saying it would immediately recognize the new government. U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan James Dobbins told reporters in Kabul he had delivered a message of support from President Bush to Afghan leader designate Karzai.

The prospect of a new era in Afghanistan was dampened by the renewal of old hostilities between neighboring Pakistan and India.

India said it was recalling its envoy to Pakistan for what it termed Islamabad's failure to act against terrorism following an attack on the Indian parliament last week. There were big troop movements close to the border between the two nuclear rivals.

BUSH URGES PAKISTAN CRACKDOWN

Bush joined India in urging Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to crack down on Pakistan-based militants blamed in the attack in which 14 people died.

``As President Musharraf does so, he will have our full support,'' Bush said in statement.

The shock waves from the Sept. 11 attacks continued to reverberate around the world.

Somali police arrested four Iraqi Kurds and a Palestinian for questioning over possible links to al Qaeda network or other extremist groups. Somalia has been talked of as a possible new target of the ``war on terror,'' and has come under strong U.S. pressure to act against militants.

Yemen's President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, ordered his forces to use an ``iron fist'' in the hunt for bin Laden supporters after 22 people died in a battle with suspected al Qaeda militants.

Chinese police arrested nine Muslims for ``illegal preaching'' in China's restive western province Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan, saying the roundup was part of a campaign against ``separatists, terrorists and religious extremists.''

Iran said it opposed the deployment of foreign forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Conservatives in Tehran accused the United States of being ``drunk with superficial victory in Afghanistan'' after the U.S. navy intercepted an oil tanker carrying Iranian fuel in the Gulf.

The U.S. Justice Department said it had nearly completed questioning 5,000 foreign men in the United States in a controversial attempt to find out more about militant activities. It said it had generated leads useful in the nation's anti-terrorism campaign.

New York City firefighters and police met troops of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division at an air base north of Kabul and buried a piece of the World Trade Center in honor of comrades who died in the September 11 attacks.

NEW THERMOBARIC BOMB A POWERFUL ADDITION TO U.S. ARSENAL IN AFGHANISTAN

[Agence France-Presse - 22 December 2001] The US military is about to use a powerful new weapon in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, a "thermobaric" bomb which can suck oxygen out of the cavernous hideouts where Osama bin Laden and remnants of his al-Qaeda terror network may be holed up.

The laser-guided weapons contain an explosive that can penetrate deep into caves, as the hunt for bin Laden enters a new, more perilous stage, top Pentagon officials said Friday.

Officials said 10 of the newly designed bombs were being shipped to Afghanistan after a successful test last week in Nevada.

Each thermobaric bomb -- also called fuel-air explosives -- contains two explosive devices and a highly flammable chemical that sends a deadly shock wave through enclosed spaces such as caves and tunnels without collapsing them.

The weapons consist of a container of fuel and two explosive charges. When the first charge detonates, the fuel is dispersed. A second charge then detonates the billowing cloud of fuel.

Experts say such bombs tend to be far more powerful than conventional high explosives, and are more likely to kill or injure people hiding in caves, bunkers and similar shelters because they can suck the air out of such places.

Earlier versions of thermobaric bombs were used in Vietnam by the United States and in Chechnya by Russia.

The new version, called the BLU-1186, was developed specifically for use in the war against terrorism, officials here said.



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December 2001


Magazine



U.S. and Israel Now Have Iraq In Their Sights
(December 31, 2001)
Britain's Telegraph Newspaper is well-plugged in with both the Americans and the Israelis, and is helping fan the flames of the likelier than not upcoming collision with Iraq. At the moment the U.S. is short of cruise missiles.

Sub-Continent Rushes Toward Conflagration
(December 31, 2001)
Pakistan and India are readying their military forces - including their ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons - for war.

Israelis Preparing The Way for 2002 - Now a Potentially Cataclysmic Year
(December 31, 2001)
Yasser Arafat remains under town siege in Ramallah, and his personal as well as historical nemesis, Ariel Sharon, continues to attempt to provoke more Palestinian hatred and violence which he will then use to justify still further Israeli military escalations, potentially cataclysmic in the year about to begin.

"We Will Win Nuclear War"! Crisis Escalates Further!
(December 31, 2001)
As the year turns, not since fourty years ago, not since1962 and the "Cuban Missile Crisis", has the world faced the possibility of an iminent orgastic nuclear war between two major countries.

The "Muslim" Bomb - Both Pakistan and Iran now Targeted in addition to Iraq
(December 30, 2001)
The Israelis have a vast arsenal of nuclear weapons; and in fact helped instigate the very regional arms race they are now so worried about; then fueled it further by ongoing attempts to crush and subjugate the Palestinians while colonizing still more territories.

Now, let's talk about terrorism, shall we?
(December 30, 2001)
If you are still shaken by the horrifying scenes of September 11, please observe a moment of silence for the 5,000 civilian lives lost in the New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania attacks. While we're at it...

"Internationals" Victorious For The Day Over Israeli Army
(December 30, 2001)
You've got to hand it to these international activists, they are succeeding at the moment at least in drawing attention to what the Israeli occupation is really all about, they are putting their bodies on the line, they have now finally after so many years and provocations begun to organize and demonstrate for real. But there are a few serious problems in this.

India-Pakistan War Brews - Potential Nuclear Conflagration Looms
(December 29, 2001)
No matter what American and Israeli officials now say in public, at some point the "war against terrorism" as defined in Washington and Jerusalem was likely to begin to quickly expand in unforeseen ways in both the Middle East and the sub-continent.

Islamic Militants Attack Israeli Patrol, Defying Arafat's Truce Call
(December 29, 2001)
Ignoring Yasser Arafat's truce order, two members of the militant Islamic Jihad group on Friday attacked an Israeli army patrol in the Gaza Strip in a failed suicide mission.

U.S. INVESTIGATING WHETHER NUKES IN COUNTRY
(December 28, 2001)
"I wouldn't be the least surprised if there were a nuclear explosion in Israel or the United States." Congressman Chris Shays (R-Conn.) Chairman of the House subcommittee on national security

The Real "OBSTACLE TO PEACE", and Egypt Targets Women - MER FLASHBACK
(December 28, 2001)
It's front-page news! Bill Clinton says Israeli settlements are an "obstacle" to peace. But this isn't the real story; nor are settlements the real obstacle.

INDIA, PAKISTAN PREPARE FOR WAR
(December 26, 2001)
Both India and Pakistan in recent days have deployed substantial combat forces to important strategic areas along their borders and with tension continuing to mount the Indian army has ordered residents in border villages to leave.

Pakistan warns of nuclear conflict with India!
(December 25, 2001)
As in Palestine, the Kashmir conflict originally resulted from Western policies in the last century. Now both conflicts threaten to explode into wars of mass destruction in this century.

The Terrible State of the Palestinians
(December 24, 2001)
After all his bluster and threats, Yasser Arafat remains essentially an Israeli prisoner in Ramallah, one of the militarily-surrounded Palestinian Bantustans that Arafat himself helped create when he put his pen to various Israeli schemes for which he received, quite literally, billions of dollars in payoffs and arms which he then distributed to cronies and entourage to keep himself in power.

Holy Land ShowDown - Will He or Won't He?
(December 24, 2001)
An atmosphere of tension and expectation has descended on Bethlehem as Palestinians wait to see whether their leader, Yasser Arafat, will successfully defy an Israeli ban on his travelling to the town for a highly symbolic Christmas Mass.

Israel Searches Convoy for Arafat...Political Brinksmanship Awaits Clock
(December 24, 2001)
As the clock ticks toward Christmas Eve and Midnight a grand game of political brinksmanship is underway between the two old protagonists, Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat.

Israel Prepares For Arafat's "Walk" or Copter to Bethlehem
(December 23, 2001)
It's even possible Arafat could tomorrow win this round in what has evolved into a kind of personal Sharon-Arafat political wrestling match. We're all anxiously waiting to see just how this drama is going to unfold Monday; and whether Arafat can even approach the political skill and timing of Mahatma Gandhi.

Arab Regimes Helped Bring Sharon To Power - MER FlashBack
(December 23, 2001)
It was the Arab client regimes themselves, especially the Hashemites in Jordan and the Egyptians, who actually helped bring Ariel Sharon to the pinnacle of power in Israel. This from MER archives four years ago:

"It's a humiliation for the entire Palestinian people"
(December 23, 2001)
"This is an example of the arrogance of occupation. It's a humiliation for the entire Palestinian people, Christians and Muslims... Sharon is playing with fire -- he wants blood and tears instead of Christmas carols."

Yasser's Historic Moment Monday To Walk Peacefully Into History
(December 22, 2001)
As we said the other day, we're all aware that Yasser Arafat's record of doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons in the right way is rather tarnished, to say the least. But even tarnished almost consumed historic figures sometimes have their possible moments of historic redemption.

War Year 2002 - Stage Set for "Transferring" Palestinians, "Jordan is Palestine"
(December 22, 2001)
If major wars and more "terrorist incidents" break out in the Sub-Continent and elsewhere in the Middle East region, as now seems likely in the weeks and months immediately ahead, that is just what Ariel Sharon and the "right-wing" Israelis -- with at least acquiescence from Barak, Peres and the so-called "left-wing" Israelis -- have been waiting for.

Darkness in the Once Holy Land
(December 21, 2001)
"The Oslo agreements were a sham... The understanding on the Palestinian side was that Oslo would eventually lead to Israeli withdrawal from the territories. In fact, the accords turned into a state-run land grab of astounding proportions..."

Arafat Threatens to Walk to Bethlehem - NewsFlash!
(December 21, 2001)
Just a week ago now MER wrote of the urgent need for Arafat to "do a Gandhi". "Message to Arafat - Do a Gandhi, right now, before it's too late!" was the title of the MER article published last Friday at this time. And it seems MER's impact is even greater than we imagined!

U.S. and Israel Cozier And More Intertwined Than Ever
(December 21, 2001)
The United States plans to offer Israel an expanded missile defense cooperation relationship. The cooperation is meant to follow the model of the current U.S.-Israeli Arrow-2 joint program.

Time to Suspend Israel from the U.N. General Assembly
(December 20, 2001)
The General Assembly could act seriously today; it has the power. And there is the precedent as well -- South Africa in the days of Apartheid. The U.S. has no veto in the GA; something that under today's conditions, and precisely because of last week's "astounding" Security Council veto, should be acted upon.

"So let's hope the president will resist the siren calls for new wars"
(December 20, 2001)
Warnings have already come, and in public, from all over. The Germans, the French, the U.N., there's already quite a long list. But the Americans are definitely planning to march forward on their crusade...there are many "phases" already not just planned but in various forms of execution.

Peres Himself "Shudders"; and "Evil" Israeli-Style Unleashed
(December 19, 2001)
Shimon Peres ought to know. This is hardly the first time the Israelis have been caught at what for most of the world deserve to be categorized as "war crimes." And for every time they have been caught there are ever so many other times that the dastardly things they have done have been successfully hidden from view, so far that is.

Thank You Der Spiegel
(December 18, 2001)
We've yet to see the full English translation of yesterday's important article by Publisher Rudolf Augstein of Der Spiegel. But right away we can certainly comment that it's about time German intellectuals and journalists realized that precisely because of their past they have a special obligation to stand up against racism and facism and brute militarism -- from whatever quarter it rears its ugly tentacles.

LIES, TRICKS, DECEPTIONS...then and now?
(December 17, 2001)
Was what the world watched a few days ago, originally broadcast direct from the Pentagon no less, the real OSB and the whole truthful story of the conveniently found and timed tape? Was this just a part of the real but more more complex and convoluted story? Was there a CIA Sting involved as has been reported by the establishment British press in London over the weekend?

Destroying Saddam/Bathist Regime Being Planned by US, Israel
(December 17, 2001)
When you send a recently retired Marine Corp General and regional Commander to the Middle East as your "Peace Negotiator" it's war not peace you have in mind. But the popular press is ever-so-gullible and compliant of course.

Neighborhood Bully - A Former U.S. Attorney General on American Militarism
(December 15, 2001)
When I picture a high-ranking government official, I think of someone who is corrupt. I think of a corporate shill. I think of someone who is not a friend to the people of this country. I think of Lord Acton's famous line about power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Israeli Stage Set For Regional War and Destruction
(December 15, 2001)
"Arafat's real crisis is among his own people. They see him as just an Israeli sheriff who happens to speak their language."

Message to Arafat - Do a Gandhi, right now, before it's too late!
(December 14, 2001)
Palestinian support groups in the US and elsewhere are pathetically weak, terribly lead, and still engaged most of the time in rather juvenile uninformed internal debates about who is who and what is what. But even so, once and awhile there's a good idea circulated in their incestuous and bloated email forums, though there is hardly ever any follow-through in any serious way.

Arafat's Last Stand... European Betrayal... Devastation and Catastrophe...
(December 14, 2001)
"Arafat came as collaborator as much as liberator. For the Israelis, security - theirs, not the Palestinians' - was the be-all and end-all of Oslo. His job was to supply it on their behalf."

Arafat in Bunker; Israeli Missiles Seek Bin Laden; Propaganda Campaigns Escalate
(December 13, 2001)
Greatly emboldened because there have not been the kinds of major demonstrations and violent clashes in Arab and Muslim countries that some predicted, the U.S. and Israel have decided to push forward with crushing military power, still more covert CIA actions, and further administrative and financial restrictions worldwide.

Israelis Spies Held by U.S. While Israelis Unleash More Death and Destruction
(December 13, 2001)
The very day the White House went to great lengths to position the Israeli flag right behind the President, and to purposefully highlight the Star of David to the greatest degree possible, the whole subject of Israeli espionage against the U.S. has also unfurled once again.

Israeli Spying in USA, Part I
(December 13, 2001)


Israeli Spying in USA, Part II
(December 13, 2001)


Israeli Spying in USA, Part III
(December 13, 2001)


Israeli Spying in USA, Part IV
(December 13, 2001)


Boycott the USA Says Famous Egyptian
(December 12, 2001)
When Egypt's most popular television commentator, Hamdi Qandil, called for a boycott of U.S. goods, which his government opposes, it got past the censor. But he was stopped from repeating it.

Israel: The 51st State?
(December 12, 2001)
September 11th, 2001, has become the tragedy of opportunity for Israel; a perfect turning point in which the "war against terrorism" analogy has been fully exploited by Ariel Sharon's radical right-wing government to sustain, even intensify, the horrors of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

What Drives A Bomber to Kill the Innocent Child? MER FLASHBACK
(December 11, 2001)
I once asked the head of the Lebanese Hizbollah if he could explain to me how the mind of a suicide bomber works. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah was dressed in his black turban and robes. He had formerly been the Hizbollah's military commander in southern Lebanon and from his legions had emerged the first Arab suicide bombers who would - after more than a decade and a half - sap the morale of Israel's retreating army.

"...Symbol of Hatred and Fury of This Filthy War"
(December 10, 2001)
They started by shaking hands. We said 'Salaam aleikum' - peace be upon you - then the first pebbles flew past my face. A small boy tried to grab my bag. Then another. Then someone punched me in the back. Then young men broke my glasses, began smashing stones into my face and head.

Robert Fisk Nearly Beaten to Death
(December 9, 2001)
Robert Fisk is one of the world's preeminent experts about the Middle East and world affairs. He is the longest serving Western correspondent in the region. He is also an extraordinarily courageous person who always conducts himself with great determination, fortitude, and professionalism.

Just Call Me 'Uncle Jim', Saudi Propaganda, Academia Subverted - MER FLASHBACKS
(December 4, 2001)


Lies About "Peace" and a "Palestinian State" - Then and Now
(December 1, 2001)
More than twenty years ago now another American President was promising a complete "settlement freeze" and a "transitional period" leading to a "Palestinian State". The notion that George W. Bush is doing so for the first time, sui generis, is not only blatantly historically fallacious but downright disingenuous.




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