PALESTINIAN ELITE AND PA OFFICIALS FLEEING
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PALESTINIAN ELITE AND PA OFFICIALS FLEEING

September 7, 2001

Palestinian Masses Left More and More On Their Own

MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 9/07: Israel is paying a price -- and this is not a reference to economics. But even so the price being paid by the Palestinians is immensely greater.

Israel continues to create facts on the ground that as in the past will determine the foreseeable future. More settlements, more "aliyah" (Jewish imigration to Israel from abroad), more military advances, and now more fences and barricades to further divide and imprison the Palestinian population within the overall military occupation. True, Israel is suffering, especially in terms of international reputation. But this has happened before, and each time the Israelis have managed to repair the damage through intensive media warfare, public relations blitzes, and diplomatic chicanery. The Palestinians on the other hand continue speaking mostly to themselves and have yet to develop any powerful network of capable allies; not to mention how badly co-opted, corrupt, and incompetent are the "client regimes" and "client organizations" who have so terribly failed them for so long.

And now we find that a further fracturing of the Palestinian population is taking place. The masses are being divided and imprisoned behind actual and legal fences; while the VIPs and Elites are continue to send their money, and in many cases their families, out of the country. This too is a major Israeli victory and it still could yet lead to the long-time Revionist Zionist goal of eventually transforming Jordan into the Palestinian State and declaring the conflict resolved, like it or not!

The following excerpt is from a brief and unusual article in the Palestinian publication Al-Hayat al-Jadida" -- title: "THE LEADERSHIP IS CORRUPT": "We continue to bring out all the embarrassments and crimes in our midst... Senior figures in the Palestinian Authority are leaving the homeland, leaving the area that is their responsibility without permission from above, without informing a soul and for no reason related to their tasks. They are leaving because of their own personal interests or fears, and sometimes they also use despicable excuses. If the individual who is responsible for control and monitoring were to print out from the computers at border terminals the number of departures and days absent from the homeland in one year, then since the beginning of the intifada, the figures - backed by signatures and dates - would be distressing. Many go away, leave their jobs, among them director-generals, aides and members of parliament. And if anyone asks where they are going to, the answer is also distressing: to their homes and families... People will serve the ruling authority as long as it is made up of responsible and respected people who inspire awe - isn't there a limit to tolerance and forgiveness?"

And these article from Middle East Newsline and from Voice of America News. And by the way, the Jordanians aren't helping the Palestinians - they are only letting in the very rich and well-connected, everyone else they have closed the border to. After all, this is the same Hashemite regime that not that long ago was welcoming Ariel Sharon to Amman and Aqaba, and which even held a secret dinner for former heads of the Mossad in the Royal Palace in Amman shortly after the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty!

PALESTINIAN ELITES FLEE TO JORDAN
AMMAN — Jordan has acknowledged the influx of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank over the last eight months.

Jordanian officials said nearly 200,000 Palestinians entered the Hashemite kingdom from the West Bank over the spring and summer and never returned. They said the Palestinians have been seeking long-term visas to remain indefinitely in the kingdom.

The Palestinians include much of the elite in the West Bank as well as families of Palestinian Authority officials. The officials said they are uncertain over whether this marks policy by PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.

So far, Jordanian leaders have not publicly complained about the Palestinian influx. But King Abdullah is said to have raised this issue with Arafat and has stressed that he will not allow the Palestinians to make Jordan an alternative homeland.

For his part, Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb has denied that Palestinians from the West Bank have remained in the kingdom. He said about 180,000 West Bankers entered Jordan so far this year. All but 5,000 have since returned.

"Jordan is a state founded on solid grounds with its institutions and leadership," Abu Ghareb said. "God willing, the Palestinian state will rise on Palestinian soil while Jordan is and will remain the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan."

At the same time, the prime minister said Jordan will not allow the transfer of Palestinians to the kingdom. Abu Ragheb blamed Israel for the concerns expressed in Jordan. [MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE - Thursday, 6 Sept 2001]

UN REPORT: PALESTINIAN ECONOMY IN SHAMBLES
By Ross Dunn

[Washington, Voice of America News, Friday, September 07 2001]: U.N. Special Representative to the Middle East Terje Larsen has issued a report showing the devastating impact of Israel's closures on the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mr. Larsen says that the measures have brought great suffering upon Palestinians, while at the same failing in their aim to bolster Israel's security.

The United Nations says that the Palestinian uprising that began nearly one-year ago has been characterized by an unprecedented level of confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians.

In reaction to the violence, Israel has imposed tight restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of the West Bank.

A report issued by the office of Terje Larsen, the U.N. Special Coordinator to the Palestinian territories, says the monetary loss to these areas in the past 12-months may be as high as $2.5 billion.

Addressing a news conference in Jerusalem, Mr. Larsen said the results of an investigation conducted by his office shows that action must be taken to reconcile Israel's desire to improve its security, and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.

"Under the current closure, it is easy to document that there is massive suffering among innocent people," he said. "And what I am calling for is a dialogue between the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority and the relevant part of the international community to ease this suffering. But I also said, and I will repeat it, taking into account the security of the Israeli people."

Mr. Larsen says that before the outbreak of violence, the Palestinian economy had been showing signs of sustained recovery.

But those gains had almost been wiped out by the effect of Israel's blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Palestinian unemployment soaring to nearly 27 percent this year.

Mr. Larsen says it is in Israel's interests to ensure that the Palestinian Authority does not collapse. "If [it]so happened, I would say that there would be a high degree of chance that we would pretty rapidly move into a situation of anarchy and chaos in the West Bank and Gaza, which would be counter-productive to the security in West Bank and Gaza but also for the security in Israel," he said.

Mr. Larsen says that the closures are only serving to intensify Palestinian anger, which is resulting in more violence, rather than improving security for Israelis.

He strongly advocated Israel lifting its blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and for Palestinian workers to return to their old jobs inside Israel.

But, Mr. Larsen emphasized that even with political progress it would take great effort and a long period of time to restore the Palestinian economy to what he called its "earlier position of promise."


September 2001


Magazine



FBI accuses people who are alive of hijacking 911 planes
(September 13, 2001)


ORWELLIAN DANCE OF DEATH
(September 30, 2001)
What goes around comes around, the Americans say. They and their allies, including feisty little Australia, are marching into battle, to be confronted by weapons they sold to the Taliban when the Muslim maddos were on our side against the damned Russkies.

LUNCH WITH THE FINANCIAL TIMES
(September 30, 2001)
It is not often onegets to meet a childhood hero. But Imran Khan, Pakistan'sfinest-ever cricketer, and still the heart-throb of a million adolescent girls, is not in the mood for nostalgia. There is a strong atmosphere of foreboding in Islamabad, Pakistan's gleaming modern capital, following the country's decision to back the US in its war on terrorism.

THE U.S. IS NOW PAYING DEARLY FOR ISRAELI AS WELL AS U.S. POLICIES
(September 29, 2001416)
Americans are preparing for the long, arduous and necessary task of bringing the perpetrators of Tuesday's unspeakable horror to justice. But as we do so, we must also ask ourselves why this happened -- and why it might happen again.

INTIFADA II - YEAR 2
(September 28, 2001)
Last summer, the summer of 2000, it was Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, and Yasser Arafat gesturing to each other at the Camp David doorway over whom symbolically would enter before whom.

SAUDIS CAVE
(September 28, 2001)
It was to be expected. Looks like the Saudi Royals have recovered from their "crusade" induced political/historical heart attacks along with a somewhat repentant President Bush. They are caving in, as they always do when Washington really comes calling, aware that in the end the legitimacy of their rule of "the kingdom" is no more (and never really was) and that only the direct protection of the Americans can keep the despicably profligate Royals on their petro-thrones.

ROME JOINS MODERN-DAY "CRUSADES II"
(September 27, 2001)
How fitting that the descendants of the first crusades have now signed-on to the modern-day new Crusades II through their flambouantly right-wing business-tycoon Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

AMERICA'S GLOBAL CRUSADE
(September 27, 2001)
Written by a thoughtful young American academic, recently graduated with Ph.D. from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., "George Bush's Global Crusade" is an important contribution to thinking through what is unfolding as a result of 11 September 2001.

ARAFAT STIFFS DAMASCUS, BUMBLES WITH PERES
(September 26, 2001)
At the last moment, quite literally, Yasser Arafat called off his visit to Damascus, probably under severe threats from both the Israelis and Americans that if he dared defy them now his days truly would be numbered and he would be put on the to-be-vanquished "terrorist" list and suffer the consequences.

BOMBING AFGANSITAN- A NATION BETRAYED AND DESTROYED
(September 25, 2001)
"The problem is that America wants its own version of justice, a concept rooted, it seems, in the Wild West and Hollywood's version of the Second World War. President Bush speaks of smoking them out, of the old posters that once graced Dodge City: 'Wanted, Dead or Alive'."

CIVIL WAR FEARED IN PAKISTAN
(September 25, 2001)
Pakistan's most powerful triballeader, Ajmal Khattak, yesterday pleaded with the country's leading fundamentalist agitator, Sami ul-Haq, "to keep Pakistan calm during the present crisis."

WARNINGS OF BACKLASH AND BLOWBACK GROWING..
(September 25, 2001)
The American government has a long long history of militarism and deception; but under the new circumstances post-11 Sept many who normally have grown skeptical and partially independent over the years are doing what they are told, "complying" so to speak.

OSAMA BIN LADEN SPEAKS
(September 24, 2001)
Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to join a holy war against "the American crusade," and the United Nations said Monday that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia have virtually shut down its humanitarian operations by threatening to kill its remaining staff.

THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN HISTORY SINCE ....
(September 24, 2001)
"The attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center are the most important event in world history since the collapse of the Soviet Union."

FOUAD, JAMES, AND CLOVIS "TV ARABS" - MER FLASHBACK
(September 24, 2001)
When the American mass media needs to flash "Arab" on the screen pretending to some kind of semblance of "balance", they know whom to call on. These are the faces, names and "Arab" identifications one sees on the screen politely commenting these days about "terrorism" and "peace process".

SERIOUS AND CONFUSING DEVELOPMENTS IN ISREAL, EGYPT, SAUDI - KEY US ALLIES
(September 23, 2001)
There is a strange and growing tension coming from the Middle East this weekend; and we don't mean from Afghanistan and Pakistan this time, rather we mean from America's closest allies, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. We're in no position to know for sure just what is happening. But in each of these countries very unusual and potentially historic developments are unfolding.

BIN LADEN LOCATED!?
(September 22, 2001)
It's impossible to know what to believe at the moment. It's possible the U.S. and Britain have no real idea where bin Laden is but are leaking reports of this kind in papers tomorrow in Britain hoping to "smoke him out" from what could be a secretly secure location. It's also possible that someone somewhere is trying to collect a reward of $25 million, the highest in history.

IS THE US WALKING RIGHT INTO BIN LADEN'S TRAP?
(September 22, 2001)
History will tell of course; but today's situation is far too pregnant with massive destruction to simply watch while the militarists and the terrorists of all sides take charge of the future.

US PLAYS WITH POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL FIRE
(September 22, 2001)
No question about it now, the U.S. is playing with fire, even with the possibility of things spiraling out of control and leading to a real World War whose destruction and devastation could be far greater than 11 September 2001.

SECRET PLAN TO OVERTHROW TALIBAN AND INSTALL NEW REGIME
(September 21, 2001)
The UNITED NATIONS has shamefully bowed out, right when it is needed more than ever. Urged to do so by Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- who had been urged to do so by Washington, which he has quite a habit of taking orders from -- for the first time in history the General Assembly has put off its important international gathering and not even set an alternative date.

USE NUKES SAYS PENTAGON!?
(September 21, 2001)
Especially under current circumstances, whether the excuse be that it is being talked about for "deterrence" against further terrorist attack, or God forbid whether it be the actual recommendation and desire of the American military, the advocacy of nuclear weapons at this time shows how dangerous the American militarists who have control of the United States really are.

INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT FISK
(September 21, 2001)
KIM HILL [Radio New Zealand on 19 Sept]: Can I talk to you about Osama Bin Laden? I don't know whether you are in favour of him becoming public enemy number one at the moment but I do know that you have met him and I wonder if you could give me some kind of insight into, first of all, is he capable of this.

SECRET PLANS FOR 10-YEAR WAR
(September 20, 2001)
Ten years in our modern world is forever. Whatever President George W Bush proclaims this evening before what will surely be overwhelming applause and repeated ovations from the Congress, American military and imperial goals are now much bigger than ever.

PRESIDENT RUNS TO MOSQUE TO OVERWRITE "CRUSADE" COMMENTS
(September 19, 2001)
Though the naive American public didn't get it, Europeans, Middle East experts, and especially American allies in the Middle East did! Warning calls came quickly over the weekend after President George Bush used the word "crusade" a number of times; apparently knowing so little about the Arab and Muslim history that he wasn't aware of the origins and associations of that single word; apparently so badly served by his advisers that he hadn't been warned never ever to use it.

PAKISTAN COULD SPLIT IN REVOLT, images of 'crusader' america
(September 19, 2001)
General Pervez Musharaff has now spoken to his own country, invoking stories of Mohamed and the Koran. Clearly he is shaken...and shaking. All former bets about the "new world order" now need to recalculated and recast. A multitude of historic forces have now been set in motion. Not only did the world of the United States change because of what happened on 11 September 2001. A political, even an existential earthquake is potentially underway now in various locations on the globe with events threatening to spiral possibly out of control.

US DEMANDS OF ARAFAT, WORKS EVER MORE CLOSELY AND COVERTLY WITH ISREAL
(September 19, 2001)
The Americans are making "demands" on everyone right now. "You're either with us or against us" is the constant refrain. Risking revolution in nuclear Pakistan, bio terrorism at home, and even a real world war, what is going on in Palestine is not at the top of Washington's concerns for now -- but even so it must be all be manipulated, coordinated, and presented in public very carefully in view of the larger worldwide goals.

CHOMSKY ON 11 SEPT 2001
(September 18, 2001)
Asked "Do you expect U.S. to profoundly change their policy to the rest of the world?" Professor Noam Chomsky replied today: "The initial response was to call for intensifying the policies that led to the fury and resentment that provides the background of support for the terrorist attack, and to pursue more intensively the agenda of the most hard line elements of the leadership: increased militarization, domestic regimentation, attack on social programs... Terror attacks, and the escalating cycle of violence they often engender, tend to reinforce the authority and prestige of the most harsh and repressive elements of a society."

FROM ISLAMAMBAD
(September 18, 2001)
"If the campaign against terrorism is to be successful, there has to be an introspective American review and reappraisal of its policy in the Middle East. For the last one year, the only image that is etched in the popular Muslim mind is that of innocent and unarmed children, women and men being attacked by armed Israeli soldiers backed by tanks, missiles and planes.

IF AMERICA ATTACKS....
(September 16, 2001)
Like the term "Star Wars" before it "New World Order" had too many negative associations, too much imperial baggage. George W. has however evoked the refrain "This will not stand", just as his father did before him a decade ago. What is in essence a continuation of the building of the "New World Order" designed by the Americans to replace the "Cold War" paradigm is now being heavily masked under tons of rhetoric about "the war against international terrorism".

CHOMSKY- THE BOMBINGS, THE WAR, THE PALESTINIANS
(September 15, 2001)
The terrorist attacks were major atrocities. In scale they may not reach the level of many others, for example, Clinton's bombing of the Sudan with no credible pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and killing unknown numbers of people (no one knows, because the US blocked an inquiry at the UN and no one cares to pursue it). Not to speak of much worse cases, which easily come to mind. But that this was a horrendous crime is not in doubt.

FLASHBACK 3 YEARS AGO
(September 14, 2001)
The Arab "client regimes" daddle as usual, unable to even convene an Arab League meeting, not to mention assert major influence in the world, even in their region.

ARAFAT - ONE FAILURE, ONE DISASTER, AFTER ANOTHER
(September 10, 2001)
Arafat readies to meet once again with Peres, even as his senior allies are gunned down, his top lieutenants ridiculously proclaim victory in Durban, the Arab League can't even manage to hold a summit meeting, the battle of Orient House was quickly given up, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers starts building facilities for the Israeli army, and 100+ more American F-16s (plus large numbers of the Arrow anti-missile missile) are now on order for shipment to Israel!

THE RACISTS' CONFERENCE - SELL OUT IN DURBAN
(September 9, 2001)
Once again the weak Arab regimes and the incompetent organizations they support have stumbled and bumbled to nowhere.

durban, the rascists' confrence
(September 8, 2001)
Muslim countries claimed they were threatened and intimidated to accept the compromise statement on Palestine which was proposed by the President of the Conference earlier this week.

THE REAL JESSE JACKSON
(September 8, 2001)
The American sub-agents in Durban did all they could, which was quite a lot, to undermine the will of the vast majority of the world's nations and peoples.

MANY MORE F16s FOR ISRAEL!
(September 7, 2001)
THE SOOTHING WORDS that come from the Americans destined to be headlined in the media of the Arab "client regimes" to cool off if not totally pacify the Arab masses have no credibility, even though far too many continue to repeat them ad infinitum.

PALESTINIAN ELITE AND PA OFFICIALS FLEEING
(September 7, 2001)
Israel is paying a price -- and this is not a reference to economics. But even so the price being paid by the Palestinians is immensely greater.

MER FLASHBACK- EIGHT YEARS AGO IN WASHINGTON, DC
(September 7, 2001)
The power and political elite were gathering on the White House lawn four years ago today practically giddy with excitement. The popular media was filled with expressions of how startling was the breakthrough, how wonderful and irreversible was the 'peace process', how the "New World Order" and the "New Middle East" were finally dawning.

AMERICANS NOW BUILDING BASES FOR ISRAELI MILITARY , PALESTINIAN MUSLIM INSTITUTIONS RAIDED IN THE US
(September 6, 2001)
Some eighty Federal Agents descended on Richardson, Texas, yesterday striking a blow against Muslim organizations raising funds for Palestinians groups not approved by the USA and thus accused, largely by those associated with the Israeli/Jewish lobby, of "terrorism".

SIGNIFICANT MORAL PROTESTS - ISRAELI TEENS, A BRITISH REPORTER
(September 6, 2001)
The former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Denis Haliday, quit the U.N. a few years ago in moral protest over the U.N.'s complicity in genocide against the people of Iraq.

LIKE IT REALLY IS - MER FLASHBACK
(September 6, 2001)
The worst massacres in the recent history of the Middle East have not been perpetrated by Arabs, but rather by Israelis. This simple fact is often overlooked in the Western media. In 1982 thousands of Palestinian refugees were slaughtered in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla -- this on top of the estimated 20,000+ Lebanese and Palestinian civilians killed during Israel's barbarous war on Lebanon.

CHAOS REINS - WAR PREPARATIONS ESCALATE
(September 5, 2001)
Ariel Sharon in Moscow had to call off his visit to the Duma as well as with Patriarch Alexei II today, reasons not spelled out but not that hard to contemplate.

APARTHEID-LIKE POLICIES CONDEMNED EVEN AS THEY EXPAND
(September 5, 2001)
Even as the Americans and Israelis continue desperate moves to try to prevent the Final Conference Statement at Durban from being as harsh as it could and should be, the Israelis are working furiously to begin to unilaterally implement their post-Oslo, post-Camp David "separation" program -- which in its actual implications on the ground is in fact the neo-apartheid approach everyone is screaming about in Durban.

DURBAN TO NEW YORK - ON TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
(September 4, 2001)
The Americans and the Israelis have tried everything regarding the Durban Conference to prevent Israel from being specifically mentioned as a racist state in the final conference document. They have repeatedly used all kinds of threat and bribes to get their way.

CNN AND THE REAL TILTS OF THE U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA
(September 3, 2001)
Thirty years ago most of the area now known as Gilo was part of the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem. Gilo has been built from scratch across the "Green Line" in areas Israel occupied at the time of the 1967 war. In the past three decades Israel has followed a basic and sustained policy of Arab dispossession and Jewish building.

"RACIST APARTHIED STATE" SAYS NGO GATHERING
(September 2, 2001)
When plans were being made for the World Conference on Racism...etc...now taking place in Durban, SA, it was the heyday of the "Peace Process" and the very term "apartheid" was nowhere to be heard in much of the establishment media, certainly not in the USA.

ANTI-APARTHEID II MOVEMENT BORN
(September 1, 2001)
Even while Israel continues to assassinate senior Palestinians the developments in Durban are telling. As usual the Arafat regime is selling out everyone else for its own gain -- continuing to earn its money so to speak even under the unprecedented circumstances of 2001.




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