"Nazi Behavior" Charges Arafat As Israelis Crush Palestinians into Submission
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"Nazi Behavior" Charges Arafat As Israelis Crush Palestinians into Submission

"Is this not one of the methods used by the Nazis against the Jews...Is this not a new Nazi racism? Is this acceptable to the international community?" - Yasser Arafat

NOW IT'S THE WAR OF THE REFUGEE CAMPS

"I am receiving from the territories - from places
like Tul Karm, Jenin and Deheisheh - cries for help.
The people who are turning to me describe the dead
and wounded in the houses and in the streets, the
lack of medical personnel and medications. I listen
to them, but I don't know what to say to them or
what to do."
- Palestinian Aid Worker

MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 3/12/2002: Nothing like this has happened to the Palestinians since the 1967 War. And this time the cowardly "Arab leaders" are simply watching and pretending; while those who claim to be supportive of the Palestinians in the U.S. are, disorganized, inept, impotent, demoralized, and used up.

Tremendous fear has spread through the refugee camps of Occupied Palestine. Going on a hundred have been killed, thousands have been injured and more thousands arrested, many are newly homeless, incidents of cold blood murder are spreading. Tanks, helicopter gunships, and fighter aircraft have been unleashed against an essentially defenseless civilian population who for most have lived under Israeli military occupation their entire lives. The American role in all this should be obvious, but the American media refuses to acknowledge this reality instead focusing on such absurdities as the "General Zinni Peace Mission", the "Saudi Peace Plan", and George Bush's "civilized world" speeches.

The events of these days will have dangerous, far-reaching, and potentially cataclysmic ramifications far into the years ahead. The very future existence of Israel, not just of the Palestinians, has now once again come into focus as never before.

NEW GAZA INCURSION LEAVES 19 DEAD

[BBC News - Tuesday, 12 March]: Nineteen Palestinians have been killed when Israeli troops using up to 30 tanks entered a refugee camp on Monday evening.

The deaths - in the Jabalya camp - came after six Palestinians died earlier in the day in clashes in Ramallah and the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli troops detained more than 1,000 Palestinians during the raids.

Earlier, Israel announced that it was lifting its travel ban on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in return for his arrest of all the suspected assassins of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

One eyewitness in Jabalya reported very heavy fighting between Israeli troops and gunmen in the streets of the camp. He told the BBC's Gaza correspondent Kylie Morris that he was too frightened to open his windows to investigate any further.

Some residents fled the northern communities and made their way into nearby Gaza City itself.

Our correspondent says Jabalya is a stronghold for Palestinian national and Islamic groups.

On Monday it was the site of a march organised by the Islamic militant group Hamas to mark the Palestinian suicide attacks in Netanya and Jerusalem.

The advance follows similar operations by Israel in refugee camps in Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Tulkarm.

In addition to the incursion into Jabalya, Israel fired rockets from Apache helicopters into a facility belonging to Mr Arafat's personal guard, Force-17, in Gaza's south.

And after midnight, Israeli gunboats fired on a Palestinian naval headquarters near Dir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Palestinian security sources said one person was killed and several others wounded in the attack.

Mr Arafat remained in his compound all day on Monday. Officials did not say when he would leave Ramallah.

When he begins to move around Palestinian territories, correspondents said he will see for himself the recent devastation inflicted by Israeli air strikes which have reduced his offices in Gaza, and in Nablus and Jenin in the West Bank, to rubble.

Israel says Mr Arafat will "need permission" before travelling abroad; Palestinian officials hope he will attend an Arab summit in Beirut later this month, where an emerging Arab peace initiative is expected to be presented.

Tens of thousands of right-wing Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Monday night to urge their government to step up the military campaign.

The demonstration follows a threat by four right-wing cabinet ministers to leave Mr Sharon's coalition because of what they see as his new softer line on the Palestinians.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Israeli decision to allow Mr Arafat to move had little significance: "What is needed from the Israeli Government is to stop immediately its crimes and massacres against the Palestinian people and to end the closure that all the Palestinian people have been living under for more than 18 months," he said.

About 400 Palestinians were rounded up in the West Bank town of Qalqilya on Monday, and close to 600 were detained in a refugee camp at Deheishe, near Bethlehem, in a search for militants.

Men aged between 15 and 45 in Deheishe were forced to stand - stripped to the waist and holding their hands to their heads - in a yard on the outskirts of the camp before they were taken away in plastic handcuffs.

Yasser Arafat accused Israeli soldiers of behaving like Nazis in the round-ups. In an interview broadcast on Abu Dhabi television, he said Israeli soldiers had written numbers on the arms of Palestinians they arrested in a similar operation in Tulkarm last week.

"Is this not one of the methods used by the Nazis against the Jews," Mr Arafat asked. "Is this not a new Nazi racism? Is this acceptable to the international community?"

UN CHIEFS MUST SUMMON THE COURAGE TO TAKE ON ISRAEL

Few Arabs have any faith in
the United States to broker
peace in the Middle East,
writes Amin Saikal*.

Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)- 12 March 2002: Israeli-Palestinian violence has reached a dismal point. Having backed the right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to intensify military suppression of the Palestinians since last December, US President George Bush finds it once again necessary to send his Middle East envoy, General Anthony Zinni, back to the region to mediate a ceasefire. But Zinni will not find it easy to restore the faith of the Palestinians in the United States or to bridge the deep animosities between the protagonists. It is time for a collective international intervention under the leadership of the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to break the cycle of violence.

The US has had numerous opportunities to act to bring the two sides to the negotiating table. But despite its good intentions, it has constantly found itself limited by its strategic partnership with Israel. It has too often overlooked the imbalance that exists between Israel as a powerful and determined occupying power and the Palestinians as a largely defenceless and occupied people. It has shown great concern for the security of Israel but paid less attention to the fact that that security can only be achieved through peace with the Palestinians, and that peace will not be achieved until such time as Israel gives back the lands which it has forcibly taken from the Palestinians and has defended ferociously against Palestinian resistance. Violence as a means to achieve political objectives must not be condoned but, equally, injustice must not be rewarded in any way whatsoever.

The strategy that Sharon has adopted to quell the Palestinian resistance has so far proved disastrous. It has involved not only targeted assassination of Palestinian figures but also collective punishment of the Palestinians in response to Palestinian acts of retaliation for targeted assassinations. It has aimed at humiliating and degrading the Palestinians as a people and bombing them into the Stone Age, so that even if they are granted independence they would remain traumatised by the scars of Israeli occupation for a long time to come. Yet all this has brought Israel neither peace nor security.

Sharon has acted in the full knowledge that the Palestinians are organically linked to the wider Arab people, who share the suffering of Palestinians and view their humiliation as their own. It is not surprising that there is so much dislike of Israel and the US in the Arab world. While most Arab governments are under US sway and are divided over what to do about the Palestinian problem, the Arab masses are cumulatively and painfully outraged at the behaviour of both Israel and the US. This has led some of them to identify silently with Osama bin Laden. Most cannot understand why the US and its allies have been more than helpful to the Afghans to liberate themselves from the savage rule of the Taliban but have remained indifferent to the plight of the Palestinian people.

The feeling of despondency over US policy behaviour runs so deep among the Arabs that unless the US restructures and refocuses its Middle East policy, no amount of campaigning against terror may be able to produce the desired results. There is a widespread view among them that the Bush Administration has badly let the Arabs down by adopting Sharon's agenda, which has never included a final settlement with the Palestinians on a mutually acceptable basis. With the US reputation as peace broker in the Middle East in tatters, it is now time for an alternative mediator.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has lately aired a proposal as an Arab initiative to secure a comprehensive resolution of the Middle East conflict based on a total Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, that it took over in the 1967 war in return for a total Arab recognition of Israel as a secure sovereign state in the region. While this proposal has raised some hopes, it is unlikely to succeed as long as Sharon is in power. Sharon is not committed to a final settlement with the Palestinians. Nor is he willing to consider any possible withdrawal from East Jerusalem. The only way that Abdullah's proposal could succeed is for the US, the European Union and the UN to back it collectively and to cajole Sharon in whatever way necessary to accept it. The person who could take the lead in this respect is Kofi Annan.

Annan is the only one with a global moral authority to persuade and pressure the major powers. He will not find the task easy, because Israel would be averse to it. But the mission will require him to be bold, courageous, imaginative and sustained. And it is time for the Security Council to activate the Secretary-General's good offices.

* Amin Saikal is professor of political science and director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University; and can be reached at Amin@MiddleEast.Org

THIS IS WHAT OSLO HAS GIVEN US

600 Rounded-Up in Dheisheh, House-to-House Searches Underway
Israeli Defense Minister, Benyamin Ben-Elazar in Dheisheh

By Muna Hamzeh*
Monday, March 11, 2002: At about 6:30 a.m. Palestine time today, Israeli troops called on all male residents of Dheisheh Refugee Camp between the ages of 14-50 to assemble in the courtyard of a stone factory at the western edge of the camp. Six huundred men are being detained. The majority of men between the ages of 14-40 have been outside the camp since Thursday. The men who were rounded-up today have been blindfolded and their hands tied. Some western camera crews were able to film the men. Local Bethlehem TV stations have broadcast the photos and the women and children in the camp are watching their loved ones on their TV screens being mis-treated by the soldiers. The children are in a state of hysterics after seeing their fathers and/or older brothers in this state on TV. As the soldiers approach each blindfolded man, they are spitting on him and beating him. One by one, the men are being taken into a side room inside the factory and interrogated. Masked Palestinian collaborators are at hand to tell the soldiers which of the men is an active member of the resistence. This is what Oslo has given us.

The latest news from the camp is that the men who have been interrogated and will be released have been placed in one room and the plan is to release them at the end of the day. But the release won't take place until Israeli troops finish the house-to-house searched currently underway. About ten minutes ago, I called my friend Hourieh. "The searches are taking place about three blocks from my house. My only hope is that they will get to my house before it gets dark. All we can do is sit and wait our turn." Only women and children are inside the houses and according to one woman whose house was searched less than an hour ago, the soldiers aren't leaving anything inside in tact. The contents of all closets, cupboards, shelves, everything is being turned on the floor. The soldiers are destroying any furniture or belongings they feel like destroying.

About three hours ago, Israeli Defense Minister Benyamin Ben Elazar was in Dheisheh to inspect the site where the men are being held. An exchange of gunfire was reported during his visit, but it is all quiet now.

Dheisheh's entire civilian population is being subjected to the horror of Israel's military might. Every woman in the camp now does not know whether her husband will return home today or will be taken away. The detained 600 men have not had anything to eat or drink for the past 10 hours. Nor have they been able to relieve themselves. The number of those who will be take away remains unclear.

Yesterday the Israeli military dynamited four houses in the camp. All four houses being to families who lost sons in this Intifada. Another family was notified that their house will be dynamited today. The close proximity of the houses - many houses share a wall with a neighbor, means that the destruction of the houses has caused extensive damage to neighboring homes. Keep in mind that the Palestinians have no insurance on their homes and there are government funds to compenstate anyone for their loss.

* The author's important new book, REFUGEES IN OUR OWN LAND, is available from Amazon.com; and can be contacted at Muna@MiddleEast.Org



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March 2002


Magazine



Saudi Future Unstable; More Money to Secretly flow to Palestinians
(March 29, 2002)
What goes on in public and on CNN/Al-Jazeera is one thing. This is political theatre meant for all to see. But like the proverbial icberg the great bulk of what is going on is beneath the waves and hidden from regular view.

Arafat Surrounded - And A Letter from Bir Zeit University near Ramallah
(March 29, 2002)
"Reports are rampant, breaking news that there is a planned incursion, occupation, total destruction... who knows of Ramallah and so we have to act and act quickly."

Saudis plead, Bin Laden emals, Arafat sits, Jesse offers...US and Israel prepare
(March 28, 2002)
With the #2 summit Saudi suffering a stroke and hospitalized (how appropriately) at the American University in Beirut, the Arab League summit was even more of a circus and disaster than we had predicted.

The "Saudi Peace Plan"...of 20 Years Ago
(March 28, 2002)
In April 1981 Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia unveiled the "Saudi Plan" which then dominated the Arab League summit held in Fez, Morocco, in November.

Saudis Humiliated, Betrayed, and now "Invited"
(March 28, 2002)
Quite literally as Saudi Royal "Crown Prince" Abdullah was following his script in Beirut no matter what, the U.S. Government was announcing in Washington that he had "accepted" to visit the Bush Presidential Ranch in Texas at the end of next month.

"The summit is heading toward total chaos"
(March 27, 2002)
Today's "Arab Leaders" always seem to manage to bumble themselves from one disaster to another. Then the controlled media and commentators they either own or manipulate in one way or another mostly cover up for them, including such subsidized and sponsored English-language publications as "Middle East International" in the UK and "Washington Report on Middle East Affairs" in the U.S.

Arafat Unheard at Summit - Secret Israel Phone Calls to Cairo and Amman
(March 27, 2002)
How much is factual, how much is disinformation from Mossad, how much is twisted and spun....these are all legitimate questions needing consideration, especially these days. But there's no doubt Irish author Gordon Thomas has considerable connections in the murky world of intelligence and especially with the Israeli Mossad, and he's been on target with quite a few things in the past.

They Call This A Summit?
(March 26, 2002)
Readers of MER won't be nearly as surprised as most may be that journalists are already proclaiming the grand Arab summit in ruins and as the BBC correspondent concluded this evening, "they might as well go home now before it starts".

What a Mess the Arab World is in
(March 26, 2002)
Such a mess. "Arab Leaders" who are mostly inept and corrupt and miserably repressive. An Arab League that is impotent and crippled. Arab media that can't figure out whom to interview about what.

Huge Damascus Demo Screams About Sharon and Warns Arab Summiteers
(March 26, 2002)
History is repeating itself after 20 years, but everything is even worse today for the vast Arab world and its fast growing now over 200+ million.

"Grand Plan" For War On the Palestinians
(March 25, 2002)
As the impotent Arab League run by the corrupt and repressive Arab "client regimes" prepares to meet and do nothing real and serious as usual; the Israelis, with an American wink and much under-the-table help, are preparing even bigger assaults against the Palestinians.

Vital History - Origins of Israel's "Arab Problem"
(March 25, 2002)
In 1947, the then representative of the Zionist Organization in Washington, Nahum Goldman, urged David Ben-Gurion not to declare a "Jewish State" but rather to hold out for finding some way of accomodation with the Palestinians that could lead to a unified "bi-national state" ...

Draft Text of Arab Summit Resolution - More of the Same Sweet Nothings
(March 25, 2002)
Much too weak, fractured, and frightened to actually act in any serious and independent manner -- even in the face of such repeated Israeli and American provocations and humiliations -- the grand "Arab world", meeting in summit in Beirut later this week, is poised to essentially do nothing.

Europeans See Americans Far Better Than Americans See Themselves
(March 23, 2002)
Time magazine was wrong a few months ago, but understandably so under the circumstances and few really expect much more from the mass American media .

Cheney Admits US will attack Iraq 'for Israel's sake'
(March 22, 2002)
While the mostly co-opted and cowardly "Arab leaders" -- the Arab "client regimes" -- fly their lavish private jets into Beirut 20 years after the Israelis besieged the city, destroyed the country, and attempted at great cost to bring Lebanon under their and American domination ...

Threatening With Nukes Could Well Lead to Use of Nukes - Part 1
(March 22, 2002)
One dreadful day they will be used. That likelihood seems now to be growing, especially as irresponsible leaders in both the US and UK keep publicly threatening to do just that rather than insisting that such weapons should never ever be used ...

Marching toward an American Police State - Part II
(March 22, 2002)
The above title was used to headline an article published on Wednesday, the same day we now learn the federal government was raiding Muslim homes and organizations in the Washington DC area.

U.S. Shifting to Large once Secret Qatar Military Base for Regional Control
(March 21, 2002)
The Americans have apparently agreed to let the Saudis off the hook when it comes to Prince Sultan Airbase, the largest and most sophisticated in the region, as long as they are on the hook when it comes to controlling the Arab Summit and fronting politically with "the Saudi Plan".

A Plea to US and Europe: Don't Participate in Killing and Torture of our People
(March 21, 2002)
All of the American "client regimes" in the Middle East -- including the main ones in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan -- use censorship, intimidation, torture, and the omnipresent secret police, to control their societies and prevent popular expression against their policies and corruption.

NewsFlash: Some U.S. Forces Beginning to leave Saudi for Qatar
(March 20, 2002)
Just days after Vice-President Richard Cheney visited Saudi Arabia and other countries in the area there are reports coming from the region that U.S. military forces are beginning to move out of Prince Sultan Air Base, a facility the U.S. is said to have spent tens of billions of dollars to make the most modern command base in the region.

Marching toward an American Police State - "Washington Scene"
(March 20, 2002)
A FOX NEWS cameraman was accosted by Pentagon Police outside the building on Tuesday -- as he was shooting pictures of an arrest being carried out by Virginia State Police on a highway that runs alongside the Pentagon but outside Pentagon property!

Squeezing and Smothering Arafat To Death
(March 20, 2002)
The Israelis, and the Americans of course, have Yasser Arafat right where they want him now. He either does as he is told and paid or he's a goner...one way or another.

More Humiliation for the Arabs both in Palestine and at the upcoming Arab Summit
(March 19, 2002)
It's terribly humiliating of course, but the Israelis have now told Arafat, in public, that he can go to the Arab Summit in Beirut if he does as he's told and declares the fighting ended.

CIA ANTHRAX?!
(March 18, 2002)
We already know it was a CIA operation back in the late 1980s that resulted in American-created anthrax spors being sent to Iraq and paid for by the U.S. Congress. We've just learned that a secret CIA team has recently gone to Northern Iraq to secretly meet with the Kurds and help prepare the coming war there.

Angry Demonstrators Condemn both Israel and U.S. in Arab world
(March 17, 2002)
For a second straight day, thousands of Arabs took to the streets across the Middle East on Saturday to burn Israeli and American flags and express anger over the rising Palestinian death toll.

Greater CIA Regime Being Thrust on Palestinians
(March 17, 2002)
Now the Israelis ... are proposing to try to save the "Authority" of Yasser Arafat by putting CIA "monitors" in Palestinian cities, offices, and jails; and CIA listening amd "monitoring" devices throughout the Palestinian bantustans and "occupied territories".

Has The U.S. Lost Its Way?
(March 16, 2002)
We comprise slightly less than 5 per cent of the world's population; but we imbibe 27 per cent of the world's annual oil production, create and consume nearly 30 per cent of its Gross World Product and - get this - spend a full 40 per cent of all the world's defence expenditures.

Transfer? Expulsion? Jordan is Palestine? Approaching the End Game
(March 16, 2002)
If the Palestinians are unable to strike further in view of Israel's and the CIA's unprecedented war to crush them into submission Sharon will undoubtedly say his tactics are working.

Massive New Super Bomb Being Built To Kill Saddam and Threaten All
(March 15, 2002)
With its soldiers beginning to even look a bit like the Centurions in the Star Wars saga, the U.S. appears intent on enforcing the new "new world order" through brute force as well as technological marvels and overpowering firepower and information gathering capabilities.

DEALING WITH COLLABORATORS, AT LAST
(March 15, 2002)
Like so many words, this one "conspiracy" is overused and misused by many. That makes it all the more important to know whom to trust and rely on, whom to take seriously, whom to discount.

Manger Square has become a wild, blood-drenched place
(March 14, 2002)
After nearly 35 years of increasingly brutal military occupation since the 1967 war, Palestinian society itself has been tortured and disfigured. The Israelis have used informers and all kinds of means to bring the Palestinians to their knees ...

The U.N.'s latest cowardness, impotence, and duplicity
(March 13, 2002)
It should be a Saturday Night Live skit...the U.N. uttering (or is the correct word stuttering) the term "Palestinian State" after the U.S., Europe, Ariel Sharon and nearly everyone else has other than the crazy Israeli racist fundamentalists.

The Latest As Israel's Slaughter of the Palestinians Escalates Still Further
(March 12, 2002)
Israeli forces killed 31 Palestinians on Tuesday in their biggest offensive in the West Bank and Gaza since Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Middle East war.

Journalists Carefully Targeted by Israelis
(March 12, 2002)
Israeli forces fired for 10 to 15 minutes from tank-mounted machine guns on a hotel where journalists were photographing armor targeting the al-Amari refugee camp early Tuesday.

"Nazi Behavior" Charges Arafat As Israelis Crush Palestinians into Submission
(March 12, 2002)
Nothing like this has happened to the Palestinians since the 1967 War. And this time the cowardly "Arab leaders" are simply watching and pretending; while those who claim to be supportive of the Palestinians in the U.S. are, disorganized, inept, impotent, demoralized, and used up.

Two Poems
(March 11, 2002)
These two unpublished poems were written by a 25 year old Israeliwoman at the time of the first Intifada.

Black Friday and Saturday in the once Holy Land
(March 10, 2002)
The war in 1973 was intense and almost lead to a nuclear confrontation -- remember the infamous "Kissinger nuclear alert"? But for most Palestinians alive today there hasn't been such a bloody day in their lives as on Friday at least 44 Palestinians were killed, hundreds injured.

Israelis Kill and Rampage - U.S. Rhetorically Complains but in Reality Helps
(March 9, 2002)
Serious and urgent questions need to be asked: Why have not the governments of Egypt and Jordan at the very least broken political relations with Israel; and why in fact are these governments actually preventing demonstrations against what the Israelis are doing?

The Israeli Spy CoverUp
(March 9, 2002)
In addition to the "spy coverup" there is now a "media coverup". "We stand by the story" said a FOX News spokesman on 20 December. But now "The Story No Longer Exists" and FOX News has covered up the story of what happened, and why.

American Univ in Washington - Second Rate and Third Class
(March 8, 2002)
When it comes to international affairs and matters relating to the Middle East serious and honest people should keep away from American University in Washington, DC.

Now the US Says it was the Iranians and the Palestinians not the Libyans. Right!
(March 8, 2002)
You just gotta love the Americans, no shame at all. All these years they have been repeatedly and loudly insisting it was the Libyans who bombed Pan Am 103 out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland - more than a decade of sanctions ensued in fact.

Israeli Spying on US - Spiked Story from FOX News - Who Done It?
(March 7, 2002)
Just who pressured FOX News? Why did FOX News cave in so easily? What now months later when an expanded story is not just coming back to life in foreign publications but appears to be the greatest spy scandal ever involving the Israelis spying on the Americans?

Israeli Spying On The U.S. - Essential Background
(March 6, 2002)
The world of spying, like the world of "black ops", is full of confusion, disinformation, and false leads. Those in the media, even the biggest establishment news outlets, usually lack the means (as well as the will) to penetrate very far into this world on their own.

LeMonde on the Israeli Spy Ring in U.S.
(March 5, 2002)
Tremendous pressure was brought to bear in a coverup in which the U.S. government is now thought to have participated.

Israeli Spy Rings Rolled Up in U.S.
(March 5, 2002)
Israeli spying on the U.S. has long been going on; but it is usually covered up or glossed over by the major American news media.

Arafat in Dog Kennel, Sharon in Twilight Zone, Hosni Lost in Space
(March 5, 2002)
After some 20 years in power Hosni Mubarak, chatting with George Bush II today at the White House, has helped lead his country to nowhere, the Palestinians to disaster, and the Arab world to impotent feebleness. More on Mubarak and his shameless Egypt to come -- for he as well as Saudi Abdullah are Lost in Space.




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