Arafat Deserted; Region Boiling
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Arafat Deserted; Region Boiling


MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - January 25, 2002:

ARAB "Leaders" Cower before U.S. threats and Israeli might

MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 25 January 2002: The Arab "leaders" having deserted Yasser Arafat, as well as the Palestinian people. The terrible weakness and divisions of what is known as "the Arab world" are more visible than ever now. The Saudi regime is shaking; the Egyptian police-state is bankrupt; tensions are growing in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq...the list goes on. Meanwhile, the "crusade", now renamed the "campaign", continues and U.S. Special Forces and clandestine CIA squads are making their way around the region as the "war against terrorism" expands and the Israelis prepare to enforce their will.

A LONG, BITTER FEUD IS TIPPING SHARON'S WAY

By JAMES BENNET

JERUSALEM, Jan. 23 — Ariel Sharon had just become Israel's foreign minister when he arrived in Maryland in October 1998 for talks to salvage the Middle East peace process.

Through nine days of marathon negotiations that in the end produced a modest agreement, Mr. Sharon scrupulously held to a personal principle: No matter how much the American mediators grumbled, he never once shook the hand of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader.

The enmity is deep between Mr. Sharon and Mr. Arafat, and it has gathered strength across decades of a personal struggle that expresses the darkest national fears and suspicions of their two peoples.

It is Mr. Sharon who, against the odds, has the upper hand now. As the prime minister of Israel, he dispatched the tanks that have locked Mr. Arafat into his official compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah since early December.

The peace agreements that Mr. Sharon opposed and that Mr. Arafat signed are all but dead. The Bush administration and other governments are lending tacit or explicit support to his campaign to isolate the Palestinian leader. Israel's targeted killings of Palestinian militants and invasions of Palestinian- controlled areas, operations that once drew strong protests from the Bush administration, now receive little comment.

Despite decades as one of Israel's most polarizing figures, Mr. Sharon has managed to sustain a unity government with broad national support. Some moderate members of his coalition sometimes criticize his tactics, but they have ultimately endorsed them. The most dangerous political threat to Mr. Sharon's leadership has come from his right, and that has subsided lately.

If, as Mr. Sharon argues, Mr. Arafat is responsible for all attacks on Israelis, then it is partly to the Palestinian leader that Mr. Sharon owes his election and his subsequent political and diplomatic success.

As a boy, on the farm where he grew up before Israel existed as a state, Mr. Sharon carried a club to ward off possible Arab intruders. As a teenager, he served with the pre- state underground, and he went on to fight in all of Israel's wars. He never wavered in his belief that Israel could not relax its guard against its Arab neighbors.

"The simple fact is, the Arabs don't recognize our right to exist in our homeland," Mr. Sharon recently told a group of young people.

That message now resounds here with particular force, after 16 months of a conflict that came on the heels of Mr. Arafat's rejection of peace terms. Israelis viewed the peace offer as generous, but Palestinians considered it miserly. No better deal is likely anytime soon. The collapsing peace process took with it the Labor government of Ehud Barak and carried Mr. Sharon into office in a landslide.

A newspaper poll published last week said that 57 percent of Israelis approved of Mr. Sharon's performance overall. Only a third were dissatisfied.

These Israeli voters have given Mr. Sharon a rematch with his old adversary, after his previous pursuit of Mr. Arafat almost destroyed his career. To those who have followed the two leaders' turbulent lives, the present standoff parallels the confrontation they had 20 years ago in Beirut.

"The Lebanese war is the manifestation of this kind of quarrel or competition," said Uzi Benziman, author of the biography "Sharon: An Israeli Caesar." "This is the background to what is going on now."

The war was a disaster for both men. Mr. Sharon was defense minister when he directed the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. The mission was presented to the public as limited, but within a week Israel was besieging Beirut. The government's goal was to install a friendly regime and destroy the Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization. That, the theory went, would help persuade Palestinians to accept Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

By late August 1982, Mr. Arafat was evacuating his men from Beirut. In February 1983, Mr. Sharon resigned his post after a commission of inquiry assigned him and others "indirect responsibility" for the massacre by Christian Phalangists of hundreds in two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila.

As was the case with Lebanon, Mr. Sharon has always been a man with a plan. He demonstrated that quality early in his career by conducting military operations described by some as audacious and others as brutal, and later by promoting settlement construction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an effort to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.

But for Israelis of the right and left, whether the prime minister actually has a long-term strategy for dealing with Mr. Arafat remains a mystery. Mr. Sharon has said that he has a plan but cannot divulge it.

"It's difficult for me to say," said Yuval Steinitz, a member of Parliament from the Likud Party and an expert on security, when asked if he could describe Mr. Sharon's strategy. "Tactically, I think that he was very successful. But you know, Arafat is an expert at escaping from difficult situations."

Senior Israeli military and political officials said that the strategy is to put so much pressure on Mr. Arafat that he either will act to crush violent Palestinian groups or be replaced by another leader.

For the moment, Mr. Sharon seems content to keep Mr. Arafat where he is. He has said Mr. Arafat will be free to leave Ramallah once he arrests the killers of Israel's tourism minister, shot dead on Oct. 17.

Although Mr. Sharon has said he would like to see a Palestinian state, his stated goal for negotiations is a "long-term interim agreement," which would postpone any final settlement. The current standoff is having a similar effect.

Mr. Arafat's own mistakes have greatly strengthened Mr. Sharon's position. After a series of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians in early December, fierce international criticism forced the Palestinian leader to declare a cease-fire and step up arrests of militants.

But as the cease-fire appeared to be taking hold, Israel on Jan. 4 announced the capture of a ship, under Palestinian command, smuggling 50 tons of weapons to the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials argued that Mr. Arafat was personally involved.

So far, the Bush administration has publicly confirmed the involvement only of senior officials in Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Authority. But on Jan. 9 Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned that "a heavy burden rests on Mr. Arafat to deal with these charges and to deal with the evidence as it comes forward."

Although he has detained one Palestinian official for questioning and has issued orders to detain two more, Mr. Arafat has so far given no such thorough accounting. Today, Secretary Powell called the Palestinian leader in Ramallah to say that he was still waiting. New York Times, 24 January

FEW ARAB LEADERS OFFER SUPPORT FOR AN ISOLATED ARAFAT

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

CAIRO, Jan. 23 — Yasir Arafat's virtual house arrest imposed by Israel has left him increasingly isolated, garnering few expressions of support from Arab allies.

The telephone in his compound does not ring much these days with calls from fellow Arab leaders. "I think they should call him daily because he is an Arab leader, an Arab leader under Israeli attack every minute," said Muhammad M. Sobeih, the Palestinian ambassador to the Arab League. "Some leaders phone, but some don't and we are waiting for more from the rest."

There are several reasons Arab leaders are keeping their distance, analysts and officials say.

Some countries, wary of acting in a way that might irk the United States, do not want to identify publicly with a man the Bush administration has largely shunned.

Others, sensing that a public campaign to help Mr. Arafat will go nowhere without American support, are avoiding highlighting their own impotence. Finally, after more than three decades of wheeling and dealing through the tumult of Arab politics, Mr. Arafat does not have a lot of friends.

Even in the face of Mr. Arafat's apparent humiliation by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, some countries that are usually staunch supporters of the Palestinians like Yemen, Algeria and Syria, have been largely silent about Mr. Arafat's fate.

Yemen has been mentioned as a possible target for American attacks on supporters of Al Qaeda, so it may not want to attract further American attention by making a public issue out of Mr. Arafat.

Syria has long been at odds with Mr. Arafat and provides offices for virtually every Palestinian opposition group. Syrian officials and Mr. Arafat argued vehemently at a December summit meeting of foreign ministers, diplomats here said. They said the Syrian foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, suggested that Mr. Arafat's speech calling for an end to violence was a capitulation to Israeli demands, echoing his country's public stand.

Some support for the Palestinian leader has come from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The government- owned news agencies in all three have reported recent phone calls between their leaders and Mr. Arafat.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt this week criticized the "humiliation" of Mr. Arafat by Israel, and he said Israel should abandon envisaging a solution to the violence that did not involve Mr. Arafat. In early December, the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, made a rare trip to Israel by a senior Egyptian official to emphasize the same point. This week, Mr. Maher suggested that the problem had to be solved in time to allow Mr. Arafat to attend the March summit meeting of Arab leaders in Beirut.

Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian planning minister, said contacts had also been made with the United States and Europe to allow Mr. Arafat to attend a meeting of Arab foreign ministers called by the king of Morocco on Friday.

Similar efforts were made in December for Mr. Arafat to attend a conference in Qatar, but Israel would not guarantee that he would be allowed to return.

Many Arab leaders want him to stay put because they worry that Mr. Sharon will close the door should he leave, prompting an even greater crisis. The State Department has yet to make its position clear.

The condition that Israel set for allowing Mr. Arafat to travel again is the arrest of the Palestinians who assassinated an Israeli minister last fall. But there is a widespread sense that the measure is an effort to force Mr. Arafat from power. The Israelis feel that they have Washington's support as a result of American anger over a shipment of arms that Israel says was intended for the Palestinians.

Arab officials say the isolation of Mr. Arafat is a way of finally burying the Oslo accords opposed by Mr. Sharon. "Sharon wants to destroy the Palestinian Authority, to destroy the Palestinian leadership," said one Arab official. "It will take 10 years to reconstitute, by which time Israel can gobble up all the occupied territories and give back just half."

Arab officials point out that in addition to parking tanks outside Mr. Arafat's compound to ensure that he does not travel, the Israelis have been chipping away at the symbols of his authority — wrecking police stations, the airport, the harbor and offices of the Palestinian radio.

"Containing Arafat like this and at the same time asking him to control violence is illogical," said Muhammad al-Adwan, the Jordanian minister of state for political affairs. "How can he control any kind of violence when his hands are tied, when he has not freedom of movement, when his police and infrastructure are being destroyed?"

Many Arab officials say the United States has erred by not even remarking on Mr. Arafat's siege and by extension the conditions under which most Palestinians live. These officials argue that the American stance only allows the Arab-Israeli violence to escalate dangerously. They say it is a curious method of trying to curb extremism.

"Whether we like him or not, he is the leader of the Palestinians," said Ahmad al-Rubai, a liberal member of Parliament in Kuwait, where Mr. Arafat has never been forgiven for backing Saddam Hussein after he invaded in 1990. Even so, Mr. Rubai noted, allowing the government of Mr. Sharon to weaken him or even drive him from power will only open the door to more violent groups.

"If they kick Arafat out of power God knows who will lead the Palestinians," said Mr. Rubai. "We already have one extremist in power, Sharon, so I hope we don't have extremists on the other side too." New York Times, 24 January

ARAFAT ADVISER WARNS U.S.

By Hadeel Wahdan

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Associated Press - 25 January) - A decision by the United States to cut ties with the Palestinian Authority would ``cause an earthquake'' in the Middle East, an adviser to Yasser Arafat warned Friday after the Bush administration said it was reviewing its ties to the Palestinian leader.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh's comments came after President Bush leveled his strongest criticism of Arafat yet, saying in Washington that he was ``very disappointed'' over a weapons-smuggling scandal. The White House was contemplating its next move, including suspending contacts or demanding Arafat guarantee to make arrests in the smuggling episode.

Instead of punishing the Palestinians, Abu Rdeneh said Bush should take measures against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and not receive him at the White House. Sharon is to meet with Bush there on Feb. 7.

Bush focused on a boatload of Iranian weapons that were intercepted earlier this month in the Red Sea and were apparently headed for the Palestinian territories. ``That's enhancing terror,'' Bush said after reviewing U.S. ties to Arafat with his senior advisers.

A U.S. decision to cut ties with the Palestinian Authority ``will cause an earthquake in the region that no one will be able to stop,'' Abu Rdeneh said. ``What is needed is to isolate Sharon,'' he said.

Arafat, who has been confined by Israel to his West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah for the past week, has not commented on the U.S. policy shift.

In an interview with Greek TV earlier Friday, Arafat accused the world of ignoring the plight of the Palestinians. ``We are the only people under occupation all over the world. Can this be accepted internationally?''

Abu Rdeneh insisted the Palestinian Authority had no ties to the shipment of 50 tons of weapons, including missiles. However, Bush linked the smuggling to the Palestinian leader. ``Ordering up weapons that were intercepted on a boat headed for that part of the world is not part of fighting terror,'' Bush said.

The head of Israel's dovish opposition and two leading peace activists, meanwhile, appealed to Secretary of State Colin Powell not to cut ties with Arafat.

``We are deeply concerned that delegitimizing or boycotting the Palestinian Authority, or even the Palestinian Authority's collapse, will lead to a further deterioration and escalation of violence and be a disaster for our region, its peoples and the universal fight against terror,'' said a letter by opposition leader Yossi Sarid, former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and Tzali Reshef, head of the Peace Now group.

Also Friday, King Mohammed VI of Morocco criticized Israel's travel ban on Arafat, saying Israel is ``pushing the entire region toward the unknown.''

The Moroccan monarch accused Sharon of ``torpedoing'' peace initiatives and ``undermining the very foundations of dialogue and negotiation.''

Mohammed is hosting a summit of foreign ministers of the Al Quds (Jerusalem) Committee, created in 1979 to preserve the Arab-Muslim character of Jerusalem. It was the first time since the committee's founding that Arafat has not been able to attend one of its summits.

ARAFAT GETS THE SILENT TREATMENT FROM ARAB LEADERS

LONDON — World Tribune, 22 January: Arab diplomatic sources said not one Arab leader has telephoned Arafat over the last five weeks since Israeli restrictions have trapped him in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The sources said the apparent boycott involves heads of state including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah.

Palestinian diplomats, including the Palestinian envoy to the Arab League, Mohammed Sbeih, have confirmed the boycott on Arafat, Middle East Newsline reported. A London-based, Palestinian-owned daily quoted a PA official as saying that Mubarak has not been in direct contact with Arafat for one month.

"Arafat’s fellow Arab leaders have decided to turn their backs on him and not take any step to lift the siege thrown around him personally and the Palestinian people behind him," Al Quds Al Arabi said in an editorial this week. "None of them has even taken the trouble to ring him, not even his friend, the Egyptian president."

Mubarak, Arab diplomatic sources said, was angered by the Palestinian attempt to smuggle a ship full of Iranian weapons through the Suez Canal, owned by Egypt. Israeli commandos captured the Karine-A freighter in the Red Sea on Jan. 3, a move said to have ended the latest attempt by Arafat to smuggle weapons via the Suez Canal.

The sources said the United States presented evidence to Cairo that PA officials bribed Egyptian customs officers to allow the Karine-A through the canal. Washington, the sources said, has also sent the evidence of Palestinian involvement to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

"We continue to make very clear the responsibility that we believe chairman Arafat has with regard to the arms smuggling and with regard to the terrorist groups," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday.

The U.S. evidence has prompted doubts in Congress over approving a Bush administration request for the advanced Harpoon anti-ship missile to Egypt. The deal is worth $400 million and regarded as a priority in Egypt's military procurement program.

Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the sources said, have refrained from launching heavy pressure on the United States for Arafat to leave Ramallah.

The result, they said, is that Arafat will be unable to fly to Rabat on Friday for the meeting of 15 Arab and Islamic foreign ministers to discuss the future of Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, Palestinian officials said Arafat sent PA Public Works Minister Azem Ahmad to Baghdad to deliver an appeal for help to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "The letter described the dangerous developments that the Palestinian lands have been witnessing," PA radio reported.



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January 2002


Magazine



Standing Ovation at U Chicago for MER Publisher Mark Bruzonsky Keynote Address. Full text at http://www.MiddleEast.Org/uchicago.htm
(January 31, 2002)
Standing Ovation at University of Chicago for MER Publisher Mark Bruzonsky Keynote Address. Full text at http://www.MiddleEast.Org/uchicago.htm

University of Chicago Speech by MER Publisher Mark Bruzonsky
(January 31, 2002)
Available at: http://www.MiddleEast.org/uchicago.htm

Arab Client Regimes Shaking
(January 30, 2002)
The first thing they do is cover your eyes. They make you strip to make sure you're not carrying anything. They replace your clothes with uniforms that are not clothes at all. They chain you by hand and foot. They drag you away and leave you on your own. They interrogate you. They say you are going to die if you won't talk. They feed you - you're not much good to them if you starve to death.

Torture and the Smile of Policeman Agadi
(January 30, 2002)
A few years ago Dr. Eyad Sarraj startled many when he published an article explaining "Why We Are All Suicide Bombers Now". Dr. Sarraj, Ph.D. from Harvard in psychology and a very cultured and secular individual, is Palestinian and lives in Gaza.

Black Voices For Peace - The Good and the Bad
(January 29, 2002)
Black Voices for Peace in Washington put on a good show last Monday, Martin Luther King's Birthday. For Blacks it was a well put-together and nicely produced program that went on for some 5 hours in a local downtown heart-of-D.C. church.

Arabs Threaten to Threaten; Israelis Act
(January 28, 2002)
The confused, bewildered, impotent, and divided Arab "leaders" -- mostly of course of the "client regimes" -- will be meeting in Beirut in March desperately trying even harder than usual to mask all of these realities.

Pakistan on Brink of Backlash, Chaos, War
(January 28, 2002)
India is likely to strike sooner or later, doing so on behalf of and in coordination with both Israel and the U.S. regardless of what those parties say in public. Whether India will wait for General Musharraf to loose control -- at that could come at any time -- is uncertain to everyone, probably including those in charge in New Delhi.

One War Criminal To Another
(January 27, 2002)
Fearing the possible public explosure of secrets known to very few, it appears one war criminal decided to do in another this week in Lebanon. The cycle of violence begetting violence, revenge leading to still more revenge, has not been broken in the Midldle East.

Zinni Embraces "Daddy Bear" Sharon Condemns "Mafia Godfather" Arafat
(January 27, 2002)
Americans and Israelis are essentially frolicking in bed together, all the more so in the aftermath of 11 September, all the while whispering under the covers about how they have truly screwed everyone else, most especially the gullible, weak, and confused Arabs from Arafat to Mubarak to Abdullah, et. al.

More Bloodshed Now; Possible Armagedon In The Future
(January 27, 2002)
At the moment Israel is Goliath in the Middle East; and American is Hercules in the world. But it will not always be this way; and the seeds of potential cataclysm, indeed of Armagadon, are in fact now growing like weed

U.S. Warns, Squeezes Arafat, Saudis
(January 26, 2002)
By threatening to desert the Arafat Regime the Americans are sending a much larger message to the rulers in the Middle East and especially at this moment to the Saudi Regime. The message: If you dare defy us, if you don't do what you are there to do, if you think you can get along without us support you; well think again.

Arafat Deserted; Region Boiling
(January 25, 2002)
The Arab "leaders" having deserted Yasser Arafat, as well as the Palestinian people. The terrible weakness and divisions of what is known as "the Arab world" are more visible than ever now.

Arafat Again In Exile? Oh No!
(January 24, 2002)
OH NO! Just the thought of Arafat going back into exile, continuing to hold to all the power and money and imagery, and traveling the world again with his sensely slogans, babbling ways, near zero credibility, and terrible record of corruption and ineptitude, is enough to make long-time supporters of the Palestinian struggle for true self-determination and real independence cringe.

Washington Gives Israelis the Wink and the Nod - Plus of course the Means
(January 24, 2002)
While the U.S. and Israeli military, and the CIA and Mossad, forge ever closer ties in the new crusade to remake the entire Middle East in the opening years of the 21st century, just as the Brits and the French did in the opening years of the last century, the Israelis also continue their assassination campaign not only of Palestinians but also of former friends and allies.

PERES, NOT PEACE-MAKER BUT CRIMINAL - Former Aide Charges
(January 23, 2002)
"Your silence and inaction can no longer be justified by any excuse: Shimon, you are a partner in crime... You have imprisoned an entire people for over a year with a degree of cruelty unprecedented in the history of the Israeli occupation. Your government is trampling three million people..."

CONGRATULATIONS, AMERICA YOU HAVE MADE BIN LADEN A HAPPY MAN
(January 23, 2002)
"'We are turning ourselves into the kind of deceitful, ruthless people whom bin Laden imagines us to be" "Minus the torture, the United States is now doing what most Arab regimes have been doing for decades: arresting their brutal "Islamist" enemies, holding them incommunicado, chained and hooded, while preparing unfair trials."

British Support for Israel and Sharon
(January 23, 2002)
Take the Middle East. When Blair welcomed Yasser Arafat to Downing Street following 11 September, it was widely reported that Britain was backing justice for the Palestinians. Editorialists drew a favourable comparison with the bellicose Bush administration.

SAUDI DENOUNCES U.S. AGENDA BEHIND BOMBING CAMPAIGN
(January 22, 2002)
From down under these two articles from the Sydney Morning Herald today, a newspaper with unusually thoughtful converage of world affairs. In Saudi Arabia there is a trembling now and a rush to try to distance themselves form the Americans one way or another.

Thousands of Al Qaeda and Pakistanis may have "escaped" Afghanistan; Bin Laden possibly among them
(January 21, 2002)
Kashmir remains the flashpoint. "The situation is bloody explosive," a senior Pakistani diplomat says, suggesting that Musharraf has not been given enough credit by the Indian government for the "sweeping changes" he's brought to Pakistan.

Thousands demand Arafat's release
(January 20, 2002)
Thousands of Palestinians marched through the Gaza Strip on Sunday protesting at the Israeli blockade of Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has said Mr Arafat is now effectively a prisoner of Israel.

THE RIGHT OF RETURN IS ALIVE AND WELL - ?
(January 20, 2002571570)
What Israel (with continuing U.S. and European help) has done to the Palestinian People "is the largest, most carefully planned and longest ethnic cleansing operation in modern history. The population of 530 towns and villages have been expelled in 1948, removing 85 per cent of the Palestinians in the land that became Israel. Those who did not suffer this fate in the remaining part of Palestine are now in the grip of the most brutal, longest and only occupation in the world."

America grabs for more power and domination, risks future revolution and explosion
(January 16, 2002)
Just as it did in the Middle East in years past, the U.S. is now positioning regimes and its military and economic tentacles to take in the riches of central Asia. That's really what these struggles are really all about in the end, power and wealth. The daily headlines and the various slogans and clashes actually serve to mask and obscure this far deeper and far more important reality.

Hezbollah and Lebanon Next U.S./Israeli Targets
(January 15, 2002566)
The Americans, and Israelis, are out of control now. The rather laughable "Arab League" is in fact scheduled to meet in Beirut in March. They may find themselves facing the wrath and revenge of the Americans who are determined to make the world safe for themselves and the Israelis, and unsafe for all who dare oppose the Empire.

Christian Americans Want Crusade - Was/Is Osama Right?
(January 13, 2002)
George W. Bush let it out of the bag less than a week after 911 when he publicly discussed the new "crusade" upon which American was now engaged. They shut him up quickly...in public anyway. And as for all that American help to the Afghani people... The reality is millions are on the verge of starvation and the country can be lickened to a "slaughterhouse". Someone should ask the Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Iraqis...etc. about American humanitarian assistance.

Arab nations leaving Palestinians to face Israel alone
(January 12, 2002)
"The Arab world is unlikely to remain backward and divided forever," says one of the quoted commentators. True enough. But while it does, and while it is saddled with the inept and corrupt "client regimes" who prey on their own people and miserably squander the resources, the culture, and the history, of this once vital region, the whole Middle East is a seething cauldron of still growing hatreds and grievances whose eruptions in the 21st century now well begun are likely to be far greater than all those of the bloody 20th century now past.

Toward a World at War - Syria Fears, Indians Prepare
(January 10, 2002)
While the Syrians, Iraqis and others prepare for the coming American strikes; and while the Indians and Pakistanis prepare for a possible cataclysmic clash; the Israelis are preparing to further manipulate American policies and also preparing to strike out on their own against all who oppose their brutal military subjugation of the Palestinians -- probably to do so when other even bigger fires elsewhere have much of the world's attention.

US Military Heads For Pakistan, Reorganizes to Remain in Region, Prepare the Way for Global American Companies
(January 9, 2002)
The U.S. military is preparing to go much more publicly into Pakistan, and to establish a long-term presence in the region. The American corporations and banks will soon follow. For in the end its really all about great wealth and power on a global scale.

Attack Syria Next Insists Former NATO Commander and White House Chief of Staff
(January 8, 2002)
Target Syria even before Iraq says former NATO Commander and White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig. American is on the loose, on the rampage, more and more dangerous all the time it seems.

Saudi royal family 'in complete panic' during recent riots
(January 6, 2002)


SUBJUGATING BOTH KASHMIR and PALESTINE
(January 5, 2002)
Both Kashmir and Palestine are bleeding badly. And in the new world of Pax America and the "War on Terrorism" the Israelis are intent on keeping the Palestinians essentially imprisoned on Bantustans while the Indians see this as their moment to undermine the liberation struggle in Kashmir.

The New "New World Order" - Israel and India Gleefully Follow America's Lead
(January 4, 2002)
Both India and Israel are now seizing the moment to enforce their own regional dictate, a la the Americans. Everything is reduced to "they are terrorists". The "you are either with us or against us" mantra has been gleefully seized upon by those who rule in Delhi and Jerusalem. The courageous fighters in Kashmir, along with those in Palestine, are ever so simplistically and erroneous reduced to mini-caricatures of Osama bin Laden. Decades of U.N. resolutions demanding Israeli and Indian recognition of basic Palestinian and Kashmiri rights are cast to the wind. Any semblance of historical awareness -- not to mention real justice, freedom, and democracy -- is not only forgotten but even those who raise the issues and remind the world of the complex historical context, not to mention those who try to help with tangible and financial assistance, now run the risk of being branded "supporters of terrorism"

CIA, Israel, and Arafat force Palestinian newspaper to close
(January 3, 2002544)
"If you're not with us, you're against us." The CIA, the Mossad, the Shinbet, and the military -- these are the groups now in charge. And that of course is what happens when a regime like that of Yasser Arafat's puts its fate, and indeed its very survival, in the hands of the intelligence agencies and under the table financial and political deals that would never be possible if they were known.

Both India and Kashmiri Fighters Issue New Threats
(January 2, 2002)
Threat and Counter-threat in the Sub-continent while Pakistan is essentially an occupied country at this point. General President Musharraff has allowed U.S. forces into the country, the CIA is building up its presence, and tensions throughout Pakistan are growing. There are rumored "contingency" plans to either destroy or grab Pakistan's nuclear weapons should Musharraf's tenuous grip on power in coordination with the U.S. fail.

Israel and U.S. Get Ready To Finally Topple Iraqi Regime
(January 2, 2002540)
It's the CIA, Mossad, and the military that are in charge now; preparing to enforce a Pax Americana Israelica throughout the Middle East region.

The Terribly Bloody Year In Kashmir
(January 2, 2002)
The Kashmir crisis is at the heart of the clash which may or may not yet erupt into nuclear confrontation on the sub-continent. For additional information about the Kashmir crisis use the new search capabilities and check the MER archives.




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