| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/30: About that report published "in full" in the Saudi Royal Family London newspaper Al-Hayat over the weekend and then, it now appears erroneously, picked up by Israel's top newspaper Ha'aretz. We already mentioned that the whole thing seemed suspicious. And sure enough with the Monday dawn of a new week and a little fast checking it seems the author, long-time military analysis and close CIA confidant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Anthony Cordesman, says he didn't write it and the whole thing looks like a set-up. How do you like that! Actually the tip-off among others should have been the very notion that the Saudi air force "matches" that of the Israelis, along with the downplaying of Israel's vast arsenal of battlefield as well as strategic nuclear weapons. Now the Saudis do have a lot of money, and sure enough urged on by the Americans they buy all kinds of things including jet fighter planes for cold cash petrodollars. But even so Saudi society is so filled with weak, nepotistic, and purposefully castrated institutions -- not to mention the on-scene presence of the American military and intelligence agencies -- that the Saudis aren't even close to being a match for the Israelis. And that's before taking into account Israel's nuclear weapons stockpile.
As for journalism in the American capital, this little anecdote. The Washington Post, like the New York Times, has long been known for it's Israeli-oriented coverage of the Middle East, heavily influenced by liberal American Jews affiliated with their sections of the Israeli/Jewish lobby, but oftentimes very professional and sometimes even insightful (just stay away from the opinion pages and editorial sections as much as possible!). And then there's the second newspaper in DC, the Washington Times, bought some years ago by those known as the Moonies and themselves affiliated with that Korean guru personality Sun Yung Moon and his Unification Church. On Sunday, the day of the somewhat aborted but nevertheless very symbolic "cornerstone laying" for the Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, there was indeed a picture of Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock right there on Page 1. At first glance it appeared this right-wing and even more pro-Israeli newspaper known for its affiliation with the hard-line Likud-oriented segments of the Israeli/Jewish lobby was going to feature the significance of the expected confrontation in Jerusalem that day -- how thoughtful. But actually no mention of any of the important and historical stuff; rather it was all about "missing intern" Chandra Levy and her visit to Israel last summer.
"The bodies were dismembered by the explosion, and some body parts were tossed 30 yards." [NABLUS, West Bank (AP - 30 July)]: A car parts store blew up and killed six Palestinian activists in Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement early Monday - one of the deadliest single episodes in the 10 months of Mideast violence. The explosion near the West Bank city of Nablus came only hours after a tense confrontation between Israeli police and Palestinians at Jerusalem's most contested religious shrine.
Palestinians said the blast, which blew the roof off the shack at a refugee camp north of Nablus, was part of Israel's policy of targeting suspected Palestinian militants... Palestinian Mansour Barahmah said he was sleeping when he heard a powerful explosion shortly after 1 a.m.
``I went there immediately and found a fire,'' he said. ``The bodies were still burning.'' The bodies were dismembered by the explosion, and some body parts were tossed 30 yards from a table where the men apparently had been sitting, he said.
All six of the dead were members of Fatah, the movement headed by Arafat, the Palestinian leader. At least three were among the dozens of suspected militants sought by the Israelis, according to Mahmoud al-Aloul, the governor of Nablus.
The men, aged 22 to 31, regularly slept in the shack, fearing the Israelis would attack them in their homes, Palestinian witnesses said. A seventh man in the shack was wounded, they added. The Monday morning explosion followed a tense day Sunday.
In Jerusalem, Palestinians rained stones on Jewish worshippers commemorating a holy day at the Western Wall, prompting Israeli police to storm a mosque and drive back the crowd with stun grenades.
Sunday's clash came exactly 10 months after the current round of Mideast violence erupted inside the same hilltop compound where two large mosques were built atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples.
Israeli police blocked a group of about 30 ultranationalist Jews, the Temple Mount Faithful, from placing the symbolic cornerstone of a new temple within the mosque compound. The police did permit the group to hold a short ceremony in a parking lot outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.
Shortly after, Muslims inside the compound began throwing stones, bricks and bottles at hundreds of Jews praying down below at the Western Wall, which forms an exterior wall of the compound. When the stonethrowing began, about 400 Israeli police in riot gear rushed inside the mosque compound. The police were met with a hail of rocks, and tossed stun grenades. Fifteen Israeli policemen and 10 Palestinians were injured and 28 Palestinians were arrested.
Israel claims sovereignty over the compound, which Jews call the Temple Mount. However, the Waqf, an Islamic trust, has day-to-day control over what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary.
The first clashes in the current violence broke out at the site Sept. 29 - the day after a controversial visit to the site by Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, who was opposition leader at the time. Since then, 539 Palestinians and 133 Israelis have died in the fighting.
| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/7/315.htm |