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15 August
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ISRAEL ON TOP
NOW
Yet 'on the eve of destruction'?
"We
are living in a country that is undergoing a process of moral decay."
 "We are
obtuse. We are blind. We do not feel and we do
not see."
"In
our cabinet today there are ministers of war. One of them wants a war
in Damascus and another wants war with the whole Arab world and a
third
just loves war."
- Avraham Burg
Mid-East
Realities - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - 15 August 2004:
His father long headed the National Religious Party.
He himself has been the head of the world Zionist movement as well as
the Speaker of the Knesset. And yet -- even as the Israelis
appear to be victorious with the Palestinians everywhere surrounded,
subjugated, dispossessed and controlled -- Avraham Burg dares to speak
out loudly about how perverted Zionism has become and that all the
militarism, racism, and arrogance could in reality have put Israel 'on
the eve of destruction'. This extensive discussion
with Burg was published late last year in Ha'aretz and deserves much careful
reflection and debate. Like NYU Professor Toni Judt's
recent New York Review of Books
article calling for a return to the 'bi-national state' idea now that
the 'peace process' and two-state solution have failed and helped
ignite regional and even worldwide conflict, Burg's extraordinarily
courageous analysis should be the focus of far more attention, even as
the daily headlines keep everyone so on edge.
On
the eve of destruction
He
caused a furor - so does Avraham Burg regret his harsh,
apocalyptic
remarks on the failures of Zionism? Not one bit:
'I am directing all my
energy to the central effort of saving
Israel from the occupation,
of
saving Zionism from itself.'
By Ari Shavit
Suddenly,
at the end of the summer, the Israeli left reappeared. After three
years of dormancy, after three years of shock and paralysis and losing
its way, the Israeli left awoke - upon the collapse of the hudna
(cease-fire) - to new life.
Avraham (Avrum) Burg, too, awoke
to new life. Two years after losing the contest for leadership of the
Labor Party and half a year after losing the comfortable position of
Knesset Speaker, Burg woke up one morning in August and, after a dawn
conversation with his wife Yael, a radical, decided that it was
impossible to go on like this any longer. That something had to be
done. To be said. That it was time to shake up the world. At 5:30 A.M.
he went into his office, which overlooks the Judean Hills, and within
less than an hour, typed into his laptop 1,000 words that would
generate a furor in the Jewish-Zionist world in the month that followed.
In
Hebrew the article was called "Zionism Now." In English [in the Forward
on August 29, and in The International Herald Tribune on September 6]
it was entitled "A failed Israeli society is collapsing." In French and
German, too, it reads as an extraordinarily harsh indictment of the
Zionist state, one written by the person who until not long ago was the
head of the Zionist movement.
He's a very energetic fellow,
Avrum. At 48, he is light of foot, sometimes light of mind and a bit
hyperactive. He's a quick study and is quick with responses, and he
possesses a great deal of the charm of Israeli directness. He's an
articulate politician of devastating sound bites. However, unlike the
past, when Burg's sound bites helped him chew his way into the top
echelon of the Israeli establishment, into the heart of the sated elite
that tilts a bit left of center, his sound bites are now trenchant and
acerbic and almost apocalyptic. They're the sound bites of someone who
is returning from power to protest. From the political to the moral.
From the grays of the complex to the black and white of what brooks no
argument.
Does he want to retract the harsh things he said? Is
he bothered at the use that inveterate Israel-haters made of his
remarks? Not in the least. Sitting in the pleasant dining area of his
home in the community of Nataf, Burg says he is at harmony with himself
as he has never been before. Only now does he understand how much he
disliked the person he became within the political grinder. Only now
does he understand that the establishment fluff that pampered and
warmed him also deadened him morally and distanced him from his inner
truth. So now he is basking in a feeling of great tranquillity. Of
mental peace. And he goes on to say the harsh things that he says about
Israel without any hesitation and without flinching, a smile on his
lips.
Your article generated a furor in the Jewish world.
Many people had the feeling that the former chairman of the Zionist
Movement had crossed the lines and become a post-Zionist.
Burg:
"Even when I was chairman of the Zionist movement, I was unable to say
what was Zionist and what was post-Zionist. My worldview does not allow
me to accept Orthodoxy - of either the Jewish or the Zionist variety.
Therefore, if Zionism today means Greater Israel, not only am I a
post-Zionist, I am an anti-Zionist. If Zionism is Netzarim and Kiryat
Arba, I am an anti-Zionist. I do not accept the type of Zionism that
took Judaism, with all its dazzling beauty, and turned it into the
worship of trees and stones. When I look around today, my feeling is
that Netzarim has become an altar, God has become a Moloch and our
children have become sacrifices: human sacrifices to terrible idol
worship."
In your article you describe Israel as a dark and
cruel nationalist state. Do you feel that Israel is becoming a new
South Africa? That the Israelis are the new Afrikaners?
"We
are living in a country that is undergoing a process of moral decay.
What frightens me the most is that we are not paying attention to the
process that we are going through. Without noticing, we are continually
distancing ourselves, a little more and then a little more, from the
place we were. Suddenly an F-16 warplane is about to attack a building
in which there are innocent people, and some army commanders say that
despite this, they sleep well at night. What is happening is that we
are increasingly coming to resemble our enemies. We are losing the
feeling and the sensitivity that were our conscience.
"In the
streets of our cities, especially Jerusalem, I see slogans calling for
`Death to the Arabs' that the municipality no longer bothers to erase.
I see terrible graffiti - racist and Kahanist - that we accept
offhandedly. We don't even take note of them. The cancerous process is
devouring us. The Zionist perversion embodied by the settlers and the
right wing has terminally affected every fabric of our life and hasn't
left any place that is not affected by the nationalist consciousness.
If our last remaining healthy cells do not rise up and stem the virus,
we will no longer exist. We will simply no longer exist."
Have
things gone that far? Do you see a process of destruction? Does the
former chairman of the Zionist Movement really believe that Zionism is
dead?
"The current channel is taking us to that. Maybe we
will be Israelis. Or Jews. But we will not be Zionists who are
continuing the Zionism that created the state. Consider two simple
tests. Does the State of Israel fit the contour lines envisaged by
Theodor Herzl? No. Does the State of Israel meet the criteria and the
values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence? No. That is the
truth. That is the basic truth from which we have been fleeing for the
past 35 years."
I find two dimensions in what you are saying: a dimension of
moral outrage and an apocalyptic dimension.
"That's
right. That is my frame of mind. I think nationalist Zionism has taken
us to terrible places from which it will be very hard for us to
extricate ourselves. Look, I go through agony every time my children go
out to the German Colony neighborhood of Jerusalem [where the suicide
bombing at Hillel Cafe occurred]. On the other hand, what really scares
me is the day, which is not far off, when the Palestinian baby will be
born who will turn the Jews in this country into a minority. What are
we going to do then? What are we going to do when we no longer have the
excuse and the strength of being a majority?
"I think every
generation has its formative truth. And the formative truth of this
generation is that between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,
the Jews are going to become a minority. That is what we have to cope
with. But the government of Israel and Israeli politics are not
succeeding in coping with that truth. In the past three years we have
reached a state of mute shock. A situation of no words. There is
nothing to say. That's why I wrote the article. Because I reached the
conclusion that for the past three years, we have said nothing."
Throughout
your political career you have projected a certain energetic optimism,
which has sometimes been a bit immature and at other times frivolous.
Do you want to tell me that you have really become a pessimist? Are you
really all that gloomy?
"When you ask Israelis today whether
their children will be living here 25 years down the road, you don't
get an unequivocally positive answer. You don't hear a booming yes. On
the contrary: Young people are being encouraged to study abroad. Their
parents are getting them European passports. Whoever can checks out
possibilities of working in Silicon Valley in California; whoever has
the wherewithal buys a house in London. So that slowly but surely, a
society is developing in Israel which isn't certain that the next
generation will live here. A whole society is living here that has no
faith in its future.
"What is actually happening is that the
leading Israeli class is shrinking, because it is no longer ready to
pay for the caprices of the government. It is no longer willing to bear
the burden of the settlements and the burden of the transfer payments.
But what we're getting in the meantime is not a revolt in the streets,
it's a quiet revolt of people leaving, getting out. It's a revolt of
taking the laptop and the diskette and moving on. So if you look up and
look around, you will see that the only people who are staying here are
those who have no other option. The economically weak and the
fundamentalists are staying. Before our eyes Israel is becoming
ultra-Orthodox, nationalist and Arab. It is becoming a society that has
no sense of a future, no narrative and no forces to maintain itself."
Okay.
That's a reasonable concern. But your article, which was disseminated
all over the world, used terms that are almost hostile. You described
Israel as a building that exists on a foundation of human
insensitivity. You described it as a country lacking justice. You
talked about the Palestinians being trampled under the Israeli boot.
Those are terrible expressions - expressions of a person who has
himself undergone a process of complete alienation vis-a-vis the
society he is supposed to represent.
"My words come from a
place of pain, not a place of hostility. They are words of trenchant
self-criticism. When I write about Israel I write not about others, but
about myself. But I truly feel that we do not see what is happening
outside our window. In the morning, when I travel in the hills around
the community where I live, I see children of 8 and 10 and 12 walking
in search of work. And when a Border Police Jeep arrives, these kids
hide under bushes and rocks, scared. So I don't think we can go on
saying that we are beautiful and moral because we went through a
Holocaust 60 years ago. I don't think it's possible to go on saying we
are beautiful and moral because we were persecuted for 2,000 years.
Today we are involved in a horrific reality. We look bad. Truly bad."
Do you think Israel has become a state of evil?
"No.
We are not a state of evil or a society of evil. But we have lost the
sensors of evil. We are obtuse. We are blind. We do not feel and we do
not see. Just last week I visited a well-known high school in
Jerusalem. A good many of the students I spoke to told me appalling
things. They said: When we are soldiers, we will kill old people, women
and children without giving it a thought. They said: We will expel
them, we will put them on planes and fly them to Iraq. We will fly
hundreds of thousands of them. Millions. And most of the students in
the audience applauded those opinions. They supported them even when I
pointed out that that is how people talked 60 years ago in Europe. So I
am really worried. I am even alarmed. I think that we are internalizing
a normative approach that is not ours. We are coming increasingly to
resemble our enemies."
One of the criticisms of your article was that you crossed the
lines and thereby served Israel's enemies.
"That
criticism is immaterial to me. I didn't see one Israel-hater in
Damascus or Malaysia who became anti-Semitic because Avrum Burg said
so-and-so. The unfavorable attitude toward Israel that exists today in
the international community stems in part from the policy of the
government of Israel. So if Israel-haters used me, that's fine as far
as I am concerned. I am a lot more worried that, because of the fear of
what Israel-haters will say, we will not wash our laundry outside, and
then we stop washing laundry altogether, and then things start to
stink. Look around and see how much things stink."
When you
write in your article, "Israel, having ceased to care about the
children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come
washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli
escapism," you are, after all, justifying terrorism. When you write,
"They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our
appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are
hungry and humiliated," you are in effect justifying murder.
"I
am not justifying terrorism. As a citizen of Israel and as a citizen of
the West, terrorism is my enemy. But amid the tremendous noise of the
explosions and the investigations and the despair, we no longer hear
anything. We are unfeeling. And I tell you that I can't sleep nights
because I feel that I am an occupier. I tell you that no serious war
against terrorism is being waged here today. Because Israel is now
fighting terrorism in terms of tons. How many tons did I drop on
terrorism today? And tonnage of bombs is not a war on terrorism. It is
the expression of a policy of revenge that is out to satisfy the base
instincts of public opinion.
"I want you to understand: It's
clear to me that we have to wage war on terrorism. But a war against
terrorism is quiet, daring, crafty and mute. It is not a festival of
declarations to hit them again and again. Nor can a war on terrorism
succeed if you don't open windows and allow the other society to
breathe a little air of hope. Therefore, as long as Israel only uses
brute force, without generating any hope, it is not confronting the
true infrastructure of terrorism. The time has come for us to
understand that not all the Palestinians are terrorists and not all the
Palestinians are Hamas, and that some of the people who are fighting us
are doing so because of Israel's insensitivity."
If that's
so, Israel bears the responsibility for a suicide bomber blowing
himself up in Cafe Hillel and a woman terrorist blowing herself up in
Maxim Restaurant in Haifa.
"I go to Cafe Hillel with my
family. I visit the owners of Maxim restaurant every New Year's. So
when a suicide bomber blows himself up in places like that, he is out
to kill me, too. He doesn't distinguish between good and bad; when he
blows himself up he is attacking all of us. It's clear to me that from
the moment a terrorist straps on an explosives belt it is my duty to
kill him. At this late moment he is the person whom you must kill
before he kills you.
"But what I am saying is that this
terrorist attack should be thwarted long before this, and what I am
asking myself is whether Israel did enough to prevent the attack in the
two years that preceded it. What I am asking myself is whether Israel
is doing enough so that a child who is now two years old will not blow
himself up in another 15 or 20 years. We have responsibility in this
area. Even if 60 percent of the responsibility devolves on the
Palestinians and only 40 percent on us, we nevertheless have 100
percent responsibility.
"After three years of war I cannot
ignore our part in preventing peace. I cannot ignore the fact that in
our cabinet today there are ministers of war. One of them wants a war
in Damascus and another wants war with the whole Arab world and a third
just loves war. I feel a duty to create some sort of alternative to the
politics of despair and violence. I think it is very dangerous to
entrust our fate to those who do not understand that peace is in our
benefit. Peace is the best security means that exists."
The
attempt to create an alternative led you to Geneva. But when you and
your friends formulated the Geneva Accords, you effectively gave in to
Palestinian terrorism. You agreed to give the Palestinians what they
did not get before the intifada - the Temple Mount, for example.
"It
took me three weeks until I agreed to accept the draft of the Geneva
Accords. It was hard for me because in the past, I was in fact critical
of [former prime minister] Ehud Barak for his concessions in Jerusalem.
But the truth is that I changed. My anxiety about the destruction of
Israel is so palpable today that I am ready to make more concessions. I
am directing all my energy to the central effort of saving Israel from
the occupation; of saving Zionism from itself.
"I found two
proper things in the accords themselves. One is that we are giving up
the symbol of the Temple Mount while they are giving up the symbol of
the right of return. That is a huge exchange of symbols with tremendous
meaning. The second thing is the expansion of the suffocation belt
around Jerusalem in return for the expansion of the suffocation belt
around Gaza. In the end, then, my thinking was that this was a proper
move of symbol vs. symbol: Jerusalem vs. Gaza."
What you are
saying is very nice, but inaccurate. According to the Geneva draft
document, Israel explicitly forgoes the Temple Mount, but the
Palestinians do not explicitly forgo the right of return.
"We
must not confuse dreams with practicalities. Just as no Palestinian
will forgo the dream of Greater Palestine, so I have not abandoned the
dream of building the Temple. But the decision we took jointly is not
to allow those dreams to become concrete policy. We decided that in the
realm of concrete policy, the Jews will not build the temple in this
era and the Palestinians will not return to Jaffa. That is the essence
of the deal: dream in return for dream, practicality in return for
practicality."
Still, if we take the Geneva document
together with your article, it's clear that you have undergone a
process of political radicalization. Two years ago you ran for chairman
of the Labor Party on the basis of an almost centrist platform, and now
you are at the farthest extremity of the far left. Have you really
changed that much or have you conducted a totally cynical public
campaign since then?
"Both. After the contest in the Labor
Party I looked within and analyzed what happened to me. One of the
things I found was that I ran a tactical campaign, but fled from
addressing substance and essence. My working assumption was that [U.S.
President George] Bush was elected without saying anything and [Prime
Minister Ariel] Sharon was elected without saying anything, so maybe it
would work for me, too. So when I took stock after being defeated, I
reached the conclusion that for too many years, I was geared too much
to the political side and too little to my inner truths. My campaign
was wrongheaded because it was a campaign of personal popularity
without genuine content.
"My attempt to seize the center and my
refraining from going all the way to the end with my views made me a
cosmetic candidate lacking true positions. So in the final analysis,
the lesson I drew was that in such a difficult period, I have to speak
my truth unvarnished. If there is no other choice, I prefer to lose
over truths than to be elected for emptiness."
You are
playing a double game, Avrum, isn't that right? On the one hand, you
are a cunning politician who is adept at navigating the turgid waters
of Israeli politics, but at the same time, you insist on playing the
prophet. On standing up against the state and the government and the
Zionist movement and uttering an adolescent cry of moral outrage.
"I
don't think my politics is adolescent. The Israeli adolescent escapes
the Israeli challenge by going off to India and South America. I am
doing exactly the opposite. I am taking the bull by the horns and
refusing to let it go. I am not putting a knapsack on my back and
running away from the battle. I think these are truly terrible times. I
think we are at a watershed. On one side is destruction, on the other
side salvation and renewal. But the space between the two options is
getting constantly narrower. The threat of destruction is more concrete
than ever before. In this situation, even if it's not pleasant and even
if it's not popular, I am no longer willing to remain silent. I am
obliged to do everything in my power so that Israel will return to
itself; so that Israel will come home from the occupation."
Ha'aretz
-14/11/2003
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August 2004
MER Exclusive - Listen to Douglas Feith about Israel and the Middle East
(August 30, 2004)
MER EXCLUSIVE - Listen to Douglas Feith while Bill Clinton was still President and a year before 9/11 even happened. For some time in Washington Feith himself has been a prominent member of the extended Israeli-Jewish lobby speaking at times as harshly and unrelentingly as any Israeli propagandist. Persons in the media should contact MER for more extensive information and additional audio and video comments by Feith - 202 362-5266 and press@MiddleEast.Org
Pointing the fingers at Douglas Feith
(August 29, 2004)
Feith has been mentioned in most of the major media stories this weekend in Washington -- but not nearly with the emphasis he should have been. For Feith has played a central role in just about every scandal that has beset the Bush Administration -- from the faulty 'intelligence', to the mistaken 'assumptions', to the prison torture scandals, and now the latest Israeli/Jewish lobby spy scandal right in his own office.
Sharon's Wars, Israel's Future
(August 28, 2004)
This major New York Times feature about Ariel Sharon could have, and should have, been far more harsh. But Ariel Sharon is at the top of his game now. And though the future he may have molded more than any other may be bleak and potentially catastrophic, now is his time and few in the Jewish world -- and in an oblique way that includes not only the New York Times but much of the contemporary American media -- dare to take him on directly.
Israeli Spy Scandal Erupting in Washington
(August 28, 2004)
Many, most no doubt, of these kinds of things relating to Israel never get out into the public domain; they are buried and sucked up into official Washington where so many have so many reasons for always wanting to hush such things up. But there should be no doubt that the Israelis have infiltrated at many levels and greatly influenced in many ways U.S. policies in the Middle East, especially of late the decision to invade and occupy Iraq.
The following quick list of past Israeli spy scandals all of which were covered up or sucked in one way or another include:
* Israeli Attack on U.S.S. Liberty - 1967
* Steve Bryent Israeli Spying Scandal - 1982
* Jonathan Pollard Arrested outside Israeli Embassy - 1985
* AIPAC infiltration scandal, President forced to resign - 1991
* Mossad bugging of Clinton and Monica - 1997
* Martin Indyk's Security Clearances 'temporarily' suspended - 2000
America's 'Iraqi Police' and the now impending Iraqi Elections
(August 27, 2004)
And it's clear that if it's a competiton between Negroponte and Allawi, against al-Sistani and al-Sadr, the Americans and their regime are in big trouble. Just how the U.S. occupation is going to attempt to either further delay the election or not-too-blantantly manipulate and control it now looms ahead -- just as soon as the American election is behind us all.
(August 26, 2004)
U.S. and Regime Bombing and Killing throughout Iraq
(August 26, 2004)
Chaos, confusion, death, and destruction -- that's the description of American occupied Iraq as the country virtually rebels and explodes. Even as Ayatollah al-Sistani heads back to Najaf protected by British occupation troops American occupation troops are ferociously attacking Najaf, Fallujah, Sadr City as never before and American armed and paid Iraqi mercenary troops are massacreing their own.
Daily Articles Summary - 25 August 2004
(August 25, 2004)
Daily Articles Summary - 25 August 2004
MER Articles
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Sistani Returns and March on Najaf Looms
(August 25, 2004)
Now on this very day in history there is another Ayatollah in and at the heart of the Middle East at a crucial moment in time. The very term 'Ayatollah' was hardly known in the West before the Iranian revolution just 25 years ago now. But in the immediate days ahead it now appears Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is to have his and maybe modern on-its-knees Iraq's 'rendevous with history'. And then what this is really all about now is the future rather than the past, especially with Iraqi 'elections' supposed to take place just 5 months from now. What will the American Empire with its arsenal of planes, tanks, and shock troops now do to deter, deflect, or stop him? What will the U.S.-installed and protected Allawi regime in Baghdad now do to attempt to co-opt or twist him?
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Returns to 'Save the Burning Holy City'
(August 25, 2004)
The Mahdi Army defeated the British Empire in Sudan in 1885. Now a Mahdi Army battles the American Empire in Iraq in 2004. Today the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani returns to Najaf to "Save the Burning Holy City".
IRAQ, IRAN and ISRAEL Stories -- 24 August 2004
(August 24, 2004)
Crusades II - Iraqi Cities Bombed and Tanked
(August 24, 2004)
Bush's views and ongoing rhetoric -- and then came top Pentagon General Boykin telling the world that 'my god is bigger than their god' -- may come to define this period in 'modern' history.
Imperial America
(August 23, 2004)
Provocative thinking and writing from one of Great Britain's most prolific, most outspoken, most humanistic, and most insightful 'activist' journalists writing this cover article in the current issue of the New Statesman. It's too hard and probably wrong in fact to agree that 'Bush may be the lesser evil'. But it is very important to understand how and why John Pilger is speaking out in this way.
Palestinian Struggle Fully Justified
(August 22, 2004)
Because of the huge propaganda war in which the U.S. and Israel also have overwhelming firepower at their disposal, what leading Professors like Charles Black and now Ted Honderich have to say is in fact of critical importance.
Weekend Reading: Iran, the U.S., and Israel
(August 21, 2004)
These four articles from the past few days, especially the first commentary by UPI Senior Analyst Martin Sieff, help put things in perspective and set the stage for what is now to come. Unpleasant and frightening weekend reading, we know...but necessary.
What the Americans have Really Done in and to Iraq
(August 20, 2004)
This is a brief but very important outline of what the Americans have really done in recent years in and to Iraq. All this has little to do with 'freedom' and 'democracy' -- those are the simplistic and deceptive front-words. What's really involved is an increasingly desperate and ruthless master plan to turn Iraq -- a country at the center of both the Arab and the Muslim worlds -- into an appendage of the American military, political, and economic machine trying to more totally control the Middle East region and continue to drain it of its wealth, resources, and heritage. It's the imperialism of old considerably reconstituted for the brave new world of worldwide television, the internet, and high-tech 'Star Wars' weaponry.
Iran Warns of Preemptive Strike Against U.S. and Israel
(August 19, 2004)
"We will consider any strike against our nuclear installations as an attack on Iran as a whole, and we will retaliate with all our strength. Where Israel is concerned, we have no doubt that it
is an evil entity, and it will not be able to launch any military operation without an American green light. You cannot separate the two."
Iranian Defense Minister
The World on Fire
(August 19, 2004)
Now in 2004 as a result of what the Bush/Cheney/Israeli regime insisted on doing the world is dangerously on fire -- passions, hatreds, and fears all now enraged and engaged in an escalating "clash of civilizations" full of crusading rhetoric essentially pitting the U.S., U.K., and Israel against Arab and Muslim countries and peoples everywhere.
U.S. Allawi Regime Should Go
(August 18, 2004)
here's a bottom line here and at a time of such major historic developments it should be said clearly. The American-installed, financed, armed, and protected Allawi regime has already totally disgraced and discredited itself. It cannot succeed in authoritatively and democratically governing Iraq. It should be ended immediately before it does even more historic harm to Iraq, to the Middle East, to the Arab and Muslims worlds, and to the whole fabric of international justice and order.
Al-Sadr and Allawi - The Struggle for the Middle East
(August 18, 2004)
Here then are two such voices speaking out, crying out, at this critical time. The first an American who was Director of The Islamic Center in Washington, the very venue in fact President Bush choose to visit soon after 9/11. The second is a Canadian who is President of the Canadian Islamic Congress. -MER
Sharon the 'Bulldozer', Sharon the 'Butcher'
(August 17, 2004)
These BBC and Guardian articles today look at how the Israelis are even now continuing to expand settlements in the occupied territories, as well as at the current situation in and around Gaza -- realities 'on the ground' that Ariel Sharon is more responsible for than any other single individual on any side of the barricades. MiddleEast.org
"They are cheating us, laughing at us" - MER FlashBack 7 Years
(August 17, 2004)
"In the end, so long as the U.S. continues to back Israeli occupation with ever greater amounts of money, guns, and political protection, little will change and the "peace process" will remain a grand deception breeding resistance, hatred, and yes, more terrorism."
U.S. Iraqi Troops Fire on Reporters
(August 16, 2004)
History is being made in these bitter bleeding days, in these very hours, and the world will have to live with the aftermath for some time to come. This report just published by the Daily Telegraph in the U.K. is the best so far to outline how the Americans are attempting to blind the world and mute the protests by threatening the few courageous journalists still in and able to report from Najaf. As for pictures of what is happening, cameras are now illegal and being confiscated by the Americans and their agents.
Iraq Exploding! The historic confrontation at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf
(August 16, 2004)
Unless the Americans can find some way to get Muqtada Sadr and his forces out of the historic Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf without a firefight and without a massacre they themselves could become the victims of their own killing machine if the extraordinary rage and hatred in Iraq, Iran, and the Arab and Muslim worlds overall should erupt still further against them.
Americans Order Journalists, Cameras From Najaf
(August 15, 2004)
This is what police-states do; this is what dictators do; this is what the Israelis sometimes do; and now this is what the American 'democracy' does in the extraordinarily duplicitous name of 'freedom and democracy for Iraq.
Israel 'On The Eve of Destruction'?
(August 15, 2004)
His father long headed the National Religious Party. He himself has been the head of the world Zionist movement as well as the Speaker of the Knesset. And yet -- even as the Israelis appear to be victorious with the Palestinians everywhere surrounded, subjugated, dispossessed and controlled -- Avraham Burg dares to speak out loudly about how perverted Zionism has become and that all the militarism, racism, and arrogance could in reality have put Israel 'on the eve of destruction'.
Please tell friends and family about MER
(August 14, 2004)
Mid-East Realties (MER) commentary and analysis is exclusive, hard-hitting, and always directly to the point. The consistent incisiveness, expertise, and depth of coverage is not to be found anywhere else -- as these comments from readers around the world attest. Below is a summary with quick links to recent exclusive MER articles and FlashBacks. Please forward this summary complete to your friends and relatives encouraging them to also get MER just as you do. It's never been easier to subscribe to MER; and it's never been more timely and important to do so.
Occupied Iraq - Threats, resignations, killings, chaos all escalating
(August 13, 2004)
Reports from Iraq this morning indicate that Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr may have been injured today while meeting with supporters, and what's to happen next has everyone on edge as rarely before. Other reports from Iraq are of a wave of protest resignations against the American occupation and puppet government, with increased threats against the U.S. and its regime now coming in public even from other Iraqi officials approved by the Americans.
Nader vs. Israel
(August 12, 2004)
"The days when the chief Israeli puppeteer comes to the United States and meets with the puppet in the White House and then proceeds to Capitol Hill, where he meets with hundreds of other puppets, should be replaced."
Najaf 2004
(August 12, 2004)
"From Iran's perspective, there is little question what happens in Najaf is its business. Any damage there cannot leave a single Iranian ruler the option of remaining neutral, regardless of whether they are among moderates or hard-liners. The Shiite religious heritage is a shared one between Iraq and Iran."
Hidden History of the "Peace Process"
(August 11, 2004)
"It's not inordinate Chinese money and influence in American politics the Congress should be investigating, it's how Israel manipulates American politics with the help of some key Americans (most of them Jewish), who are in fact, however distasteful it is to say it, 'dually loyal'."
Jewish Washington Neocons Responsible for War
(August 11, 2004)
As the Iraq war escalates and creates still more disgust and hatred around the world, it is also threatening to expand. And a month or two from now if the Bush/Cheney/neocon regime is lagging in the polls no telling what kinds of political or military 'surprises' might come from Washington sooner rather than later.
Stumbling, Bumbling 'Arabist' Ambassadors Play to the Cameras
(August 10, 2004)
After all these now wasted years, and after all this now-squandered money -- and even with all that has happened including 9/11, the Iraqi war, and the Palestinian Intifada -- the 'Arabist' Ambassadors in Washington are weaker and more incestuous, less influential and less credible, then when they started. Yet oh how they continue to pretend otherwise so tragically continuing to mislead so many well-meaning naive people who simply don't know better the real details of what has been and what is now the real situation in today's Washington.
Neocons All
(August 9, 2004)
He sure didn't write this way when he worked for the old gray Zionist lady the New York Times. With language like 'neo-con vampires' he sounds a bit this time like MER in its regular tell-it-like-it-really-is mode... Maybe for his next installment Mr. Ibrahim will have more to say ...about his old colleagues at the New York Times starting with Tom Friedman, et. al.
Both Israel and Saudis working to elect Bush/Cheney
(August 8, 2004)
Now of course neither is going to admit it in front of the cameras, and of course it's also politically confusing for many, but both the Israelis and the Saudis are working hard now to help the election of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and the right-wing neocons.
U.S. and puppet regime boot Aljazeera from Iraq
(August 7, 2004)
Oh yes, the headline..."U.S. boots Aljazeera..." Let's not get confused by all the technical details and propaganda tricks. The regime in Baghdad was selected by the Americans and empowered by the Americans. It is financed by the Americans and the American military and CIA keep it in power. What it does is what the Americans want it to do. And the responsibility for what it does is American as well.
Target Pakistan
(August 7, 2004)
As tensions and fighting in Iraq and Palestine continue, and with new sanctions and attacks on Syria, Iran, and Lebanon quite publicly threatened, the situation in the greater Middle East could become far more tense and the 'crucial countries' of both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia could indeed 'fall' from the American grip setting off even more dangerous and unpredictable political and military explosions.
Target IRAN con't
(August 6, 2004)
"Exploiting the November US presidential elections and the European concerns, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could order a strike at Iran's nuclear facilities, similar to the ones Israelis executed in 1981 against Iraq's nuclear weapons program", the diplomats were quoted by the London-based newspaper Al Hayat on Wednesday, August 4.
'Revolution' in Iraq; No U.N. or Muslim Troops To Help Americans
(August 5, 2004)
Indeed, the Americans and the Israrelis have now created their own joint vicious geopolitical stew in the Middle East; and they are very much in danger of gradually boiling away in it regardless of all the tough talk and military onslaughts.
Kerry, Israel, Jews, and the Middle East
(August 4, 2004)
John Kerry's Middle East policies have already been heavily mortgaged, if not downright sold, to those who have the greatest interest and power in controlling what the U.S. does in the crucial Middle East region and in determining where American arms, monies, and covert actions flow in the future -- powerful American Jews closely associated with Israel.
10 YEARS and 1 MILLION+ DEAD and COUNTING - MER FlashBack
(August 3, 2004)
"Here we are in the middle of the millennium year and we are responsible for genocide in Iraq. All of us that live in the silent democracies are responsible for sustained genocide in Iraq."
Former Assistant Secretary General
of the United Nations Denis Haliday
'SECURITY' POLITICS - Para-military troops dressed to kill become props in political war
(August 3, 2004)
A large numbers of 'security forces' dressed to kill in paramilitary uniforms with big guns took to the streets in New York and Washington and are there to stay, say those in charge, 'as long as it takes'. Bush and his are in fact using all this fear, and all these images, as props in their own campaign to retain power.
America Vs America
(August 1, 2004)
"The Bush Administration cannot be trusted...
George W. Bush and his administration have taken normal mendacity to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience... They traffic in big lies, indulge in any number of symptomatic
small lies, and ultimately, have come to embody dishonesty itself. They are a lie. And people, finally, have started catching on."
Ron Reagan
(August 1, 2004)
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