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Upcoming from MER tomorrow - THE MOTHER OF ALL HOAXES
FlashBack to Colin Powell at the U.N. four years ago tomorrow

HAMAS TAKING CENTER STAGE


MER - Washington - MiddleEast.Org - 4 Febuary 2006: Now it's not from Moscow with love...but it is at times at least from Moscow with more realism and insight, however inadequately written and phrased, than the kinds of articles usually appearing in the American media about Hamas. Worse yet is the calcified and fearful political situation in Washington where one think-tank and university after another since the Hamas election seem to be competiting to put on misguided forums about Hamas while nearly always refusing to invite speakers and analysts actually involved with Hamas. Indeed it is the same old game in Washington -- politically correct persons associated with the Israeli/Jewish lobby and acceptable kosherized persons of Arab background (usually well known to be on-the-take and on-the-make and oked by that lobby) are the only persons given the floor. Alas, it's just more of the same in imperial Washington from the oh-so-polite but oh-so-politically and intellectually corrupted Washington power circles even at this critical revolutionary time in world history.





Hamas election victory in Palestine: Goodbye peace, goodbye road map
The Palestinian elections are an excellent example of a truly democratic electoral procedure

1 February 2006: The parliamentary elections that took place in Palestine last week are of historic importance to that country. It is not that the Palestinians were electing their parliament, they have done it before. But the previous elections a decade ago were rigged by Fatah party, which has dominated the legislature ever since. The latest elections offered a real challenge to Fatah, a movement founded by Yasser Arafat half a century ago. Then and there, Fatah became a cornerstone of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The question was: How many seats in the 132-seat parliament will be won by Hamas, a radical Islamic movement, which was a chief rival to Fatah in the races.Hamas

The elections brought out a sensation. Some analysts even called the results a catastrophe, an earthquake. In fact, nobody could predict such results. We should take a closer look at Hamas so that we may understand why the majority of Palestinians voted for an organization that is mostly known for its terrorist activities.

Hamas is an abbreviation of the “Islamic Resistance Movement.” It was founded in 1987 by the sheikh Ahmed Yassin who was assassinated two years ago by the Israelis. Hamas emerged as an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood known for its motto “Islam is the solution.” Hamas regards the conflict with Israel as Jihad, the holy war between Islam and Judaism. In the very beginning of its activity, Hamas unveiled the plans for the creation of an Islamic state in Palestine that should be completely liberated from the Zionists. Hamas categorically rejects Israel's legal right to exist. In his recent statement, Mahmoud Zahar, head of Hamas, said that the Middle East rejected “the Zionist formation” (a term invariably used by Islamic Extremists for referring to Israel) as the human body would reject a transplant.

Hamas has always refused to join the Palestine Liberation Organization. It strongly objects to any settlement based on coexistence of two independent states in Palestine. Hamas condemned the Oslo peace agreement as capitulation, it also refuses to accept the “road map”, a peace plan approved by the international community. The plan provides for an Israeli pullout to the 1967 borders.

The relationship between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority has always been ambiguous. On the one hand, Yasser Arafat threw Hamas's leaders into jail. On the other hand, he seems to have used terrorists for putting pressure on the Israeli authorities. Following another Palestine uprising in 2005, the organization's military wing supplied dozens of suicide bombers for terrorists attacks against Israeli civilians. The suicide bombings claimed the lives of hundreds of the Israeli people.

Hamas's huge popularity with the Palestinians stems not only from its fanatical suicide bombers. Unlike the corrupt Fatah-dominated leadership of the Palestine Authority, Hamas has been taking steps to address some social issues of the Palestinians. The organization builds hospitals and schools, provide bank loans. That is why Hamas candidates scored a victory in last year's municipal elections in several large towns. The victory was a serious challenge to Fatah's ostensibly solid monopoly on power. Everybody was wondering whether Hamas would be able to repeat its strong showing at the polls in the upcoming national elections.

Very few analysts could have forecast the outcome of the elections with Hamas winning more seats than Fatah, a longstanding dominant force on the political landscape of the Middle East. Now all the forecasts have been shredded. Hamas won the election in a landslide victory. It could have never happened had Arafat been alive and politically active. As a founder and leader of the Palestine revolution, he might have prevented the toppling of the powerful political machine.

The term “machine” can come quite handy when describing Fatah and looking for reasons of its defeat in the latest national elections. The ordinary Palestinians have viewed Fatah as a corrupt bureaucracy machine whose chief operators have shamelessly indulged themselves in the misappropriation of huge funds donated by foreign states. The Palestinian Authority is the world's biggest recipient of foreign aid. At the same time, most residents of the Palestinian Authority live in misery. That is the main reason behind the fiasco of Fatah. The voters cast their ballots for Hamas not only due to inability of Fatah to arrange a peace settlement in the conflict with Israel. The vote showed a strong desire for internal changes and social equality. It would be wrong to assume that every single one who voted for Hamas is a supporter of terrorist methods. The voters were more concerned about dire straits they live in. Therefore, they voted against those who built luxurious villas, and they voted in favor of those who live side by side to the common people. The will of the common people proved stronger than the power of the state apparatus. The Palestinian elections are an excellent example of a truly democratic electoral procedure, a rare case in a third-world country. It is a lesson to many a political force: the ruling party has lost an open political fight.

Now that the election results have been announced, many analysts would like to know what the future holds for the Palestinians. It looks like a total disaster at first glance. One can say goodbye to the peace settlement process and the road map. Israel has already said that it would not negotiate with a government headed by those who openly aim to destroy Israel. The amount of foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority may be considerably cut. The autonomy virtually has no domestic resources of its own, and therefore will be doomed to impoverishment and complete degradation as a result. There will be no prospects for any progress in the peace settlement should the peace process get stalled and Israel backs out of its disengagement policy and keep the settlements on the West Bank. As a result, Hamas will declare that the organization has run out of peaceful means in the fight for the Palestinian cause, and Hamas militants will resume their suicidal attacks against Israel.

Meanwhile, let us not jump to conclusions. There are examples in history showing that even the most radical political forces could change their policies after coming to power. Hamas assumed responsibility for the destiny of the country. It means Hamas's leaders should focus on the needs of the people who voted for the radical Islamic movement not because of its terrorist methods. The people voted out of their hopes for the better, and those hopes are linked to Hamas. The people apparently hope that a Hamas government will improve an appalling standard of living of the population – a mission impossible without foreign aid. Perhaps Hamas's leaders will have to make a choice as to the next priorities. One has to do with the continuation of their fight for the eventual destruction of Israel (the prospects are few) by terrorist operations. The other concerns the efforts for the consolidation of power at least on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Assumedly, Hamas will split up in two. The one faction will be represented by die-hard “ideologists” who stick to the original concept of a “unified Arab Islamic Palestine.” The other one will comprise those who advocate a more pragmatic approach. Hamas may take a U-turn and accept the road map's two-state solution if the latter faction gets the upper hand. In that case Israel and the international community alike will have to deal with a new Palestinian government. Consequently, the peace process will resume.

The point is that real steps are required to make Israel believe in the transformation of Hamas, which is splattered with blood of many slain Israelis. Convincing Israel will be the hardest job. The Likud Party headed by its hawkish leader Benjamin Netanyahu will supposedly benefit from the victory of Hamas. “We told you so. We pulled out the Gaza Strip and now the terrorists have won,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying. The developments in the Middle East now depend on Hamas extremists who came to power in Palestine. The prospects for peace in the region will look rather bleak unless Hamas lays downs its weapons and recognizes Israel.

URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/75029-hamas-0




February 2006


Magazine






World War III?
(February 28, 2006)
“The threat from the White House is to go in anyway... I see the possibility if we do that of really setting forth World War III.” - Walter Cronkite, 27 Oct 2002.

Huge Death Toll in Iraq In Week - Equivalent to Five 9/11s
(February 27, 2006)
As usual the information coming from the Pentagon and State Department, and from the many who work for them either overtly and covertly, is again unreliable and deceptive, off by an order of magnitude in fact. After independent investigations it appears the Americans, and their associated regime in Baghdad, tremendously downplayed the actual death and destruction toll in the last week in Iraq since the bombing of the Golden Dome. Indeed, adjusting for population size, it is as if in just the past week alone Iraq has suffered deaths amounting to five 9/11s!

Palestine Articles - 26 Feb
(February 26, 2006)
Palestine Articles - 26 Feb

ISRAEL ARTICLES on 26 Feb
(February 26, 2006)
ISRAEL ARTICLES on 26 Feb

Who really bombed the Golden Dome is in much doubt
(February 26, 2006)
Just who really bombed the Golden Dome in Samarra a few days ago? Just who really benefits the most from this historic act that may have reshuffled the political geostrategic deck in Iraq and in the region? There's a long history now in the Middle East of covert operations blamed on others in order to justify actions the powers that be are determined to pursue.

From the "PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES"....to the Jewish Territories of Oscars Hollywood
(February 25, 2006)
PARADISE NOW: "The nomination probably won't be rescinded, but with 70 being the median academy voter age, and Judaism the predominant religion, it is something of a surprise, even to insiders, that the film has been nominated at all, let alone that it is a strong prospect to win."

Washington Scene: JUNKETS TO ISRAEL TO CONTINUE AS BEFORE
(February 25, 2006)
"U.S. lawmakers took 163 privately funded trips to Israel; more than one in five current members of Congress have traveled there. That compares with 139 to Mexico, the next most popular foreign destination, 97 to Italy and 87 to Germany... Israel has been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid since World War II."

Jewish Lobby Enters Arab World - Ariel Sharon's 'Dear Personal Friend' Seduces Qatar
(February 23, 2006)
This appears to be the first time such an Israeli-connected 'think tank' operation is formally setting up shop in an Arab country, however thinly masked as 'The Brookings Institution'. Much more background follows in the MER FlashBack article titled "ISRAELI Influence-Peddling - ON TOP OF ALL THE SPYING AND LOBBYING."

Today at 12pm noon sharp (Washington DC time) join in at MER CHAT - MiddleEast.org/chat
(February 22, 2006)


World Council of Churches Vents Angry
(February 20, 2006)
A coalition of American churches sharply denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq on Saturday, accusing Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown." The statement, issued at the largest gathering of Christian churches in nearly a decade, also warned the United States was pushing the world toward environmental catastrophe with a "culture of consumption" and its refusal to back international accords seeking to battle global warming.

DIVESTMENT AHEAD as 'JEWS ONLY' APARTHEID EXPANDS
(February 19, 2006)
Though the church-based 'divestment campaign' still remains very hesitant, embryonic and unlikely to 'catch on' and be 'sustained' as would be required for it to have a serious chance of seriously impacting, the debate is at least underway in limited forums... Meanwhile Israel's barriers, walls, fences, prisons, confuscations, checkpoints, and settlements are all still expanding in a worse than Apartheid every was way.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SEVERELY RESTRICTS MEDIA
(February 18, 2006)
The event was the 5th annual Palestine Solidarity Movement Conference -- no well-known speakers and certainly no one who is use to having any serious security. "I saved these two days to be at the conference" the reporter insisted before declaring in obvious frustration that she was going to have a weekend vaction instead and left in a huff.

CRISIS IRAN, CRISIS WORLD
(February 17, 2006)
The crisis with Iran is far more than a confrontation over production of a few nuclear weapons in the years ahead. The crisis with Iran, and indirectly with the growing forces of Arab nationalism and Muslim assertiveness, as well as with the growing counter-U.S. superpower reach of China and to a lesser extent Russia, is about nothing less than world domination.

Iran Articles - 16 Feb
(February 16, 2006)


Sharon The War Criminal - FlashBack to 2001 and BBC 'Accused'
(February 15, 2006)
"I think there is no doubt in my mind that he (Sharon) is indictable (as a war criminal) for the kind of knowledge that he either had, or should have had." - Professor Richard Falk, Princeton University

ISRAEL Articles on 14 Feb
(February 14, 2006)


Articles with keyword PALESTINE
(February 14, 2006)
Articles with keyword PALESTINE

Valentine's Day Plot To Discredit, Destroy Hamas
(February 14, 2006)
Remember it for its day of publication as the Valentine's Day Plot to discredit and destroy Hamas. And if this is what makes it to the pages of the New York Times just imagine what the Americans, the Israelis, and their European allies are really doing (and have already done) behind-the-scenes with all the agents and money not to mention all the bugging, killing, and scheming they are so capable of bringing to bear. But it all comes at a historic cost, and so much the Americans and Israelis do comes back as unexpected forms of blowback even worse for them than what they tried to destroy before.

TARGET IRAN - Preparations By All
(February 13, 2006)
WAR these days is far more than military attack. With the Americans there is first of all a tremendous technological side involving high-tech spying, covert ops, assassinations, internal upheavals, economic punishments, and regime change attempts. In addition war preparations for the Americans in this modern-day interconnected world involve massive propaganda campaigns designed to manipulate public opinion; and this in turn includes everything from planting information and stories to twisting journalists and publications to 'report' in ways that suit the needs of the war planners.

TARGET IRAN!
(February 12, 2006)
As MER repeatedly predicted in past years, the international situation is proceeding to one of the most dangerous times ever. The mistakes, the lies, the hypocrisy, and all the killing and 'Shock and Awe' of the past is catching up with all of us now. It's not that Iran can seriously withstand a U.S./Israeli attack. Clearly the American Empire has the firepower to destroy and prevail in the short run. But the political, economic, and psychological forces that may be unleashed by what the combined forces of the Neocons, the Evangelicals, and the Zionists are more and more loudly threatening and planning has serious people in Washington and beyond quivering and fearing about the future big time now. This today from the Sunday Telegraph in London:

Princeton University Speech by Mark Bruzonsky
(February 11, 2006)
This speech was given by the publisher of MiddleEast.Org at a forum at Princeton University on 7 February 2006. The other persons on the forum were Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Professor Cornell West.

The Mother of all Hoaxes - And the Disastrous Aftermath
(February 6, 2006)
Yesterday was the third Colin Powell 'Anniversary' of what we have termed 'The Mother of all Hoaxes'. Three years ago he gave what is now one of modern history's most infamous speeches quite literally to the world. What happened that day was a great historic 'haox' perpetrated ' on the American people, the international community and the United Nations Security Council', i.e., the entire world. Yesterday MER republished a FlashBack article calling for the resignation of both Colin Powell and George Tenet -- we did so two long years ago now when it was relevant, timely, necessary, and difficult to do. Remember though, the actual perpertrators responsible for this horrendous hoax and the disastrous consequences which have followed are the President and the Vice-President of the United States.

Colin Powell and The Mother of All Hoaxes
(February 5, 2006)
Last Friday evening Colin Powell's Chief of Staff in the State Department at the time Powell gave his historic speech at the U.N. Security Council came clean. It was that much-heralded speech of course that prepared the way for the launching of the disastrous Iraqi invasion/occupation. Now, Friday evening on the NOW! program on Public Broadcasting, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was right there helping prepare Powell's every move, damns it all as a 'historic hoax'.

HAMAS Taking Center Stage
(February 4, 2006)
Now it's not from Moscow with love...but it is at times at least from Moscow with more realism and insight... Meanwhile it is the same old game in Washington -- politically correct persons associated with the Israeli/Jewish lobby and kosherized persons of Arab background are the only persons given the floor at the numerous forums popping up to speak about the Hamas few of them actually know much about and all of them proclaim their disdain for.

Hamas Speaks
(February 3, 2006)
Tuesday this week, the day the American President gave his State of the Union speech in the evening, the resistance and liberation movement known as Hamas presented its view in the morning... Back in 1996, when MER had a weekly TV program, by special arrangement MER extensively interviewed Moussa Abu Marzook -- today the #2 official in Hamas -- in the federal detention center near Chinatown in New York about Hamas and the 'peace process'. We encourage news media organizations to get in touch with MER if interested in that lengthy multi-hour interview full of insights into how the Hamas victory was carefully orchestrated over the past decade. MER@MiddleEast.Org. 202 362-5266.

MER at Princeton University Next Tuesday 7 February
(February 2, 2006)
MER Publisher Mark Bruzonsky will be speaking on a Panel at Princeton Universty next Tuesday with the Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School and Professor Cornell West on "Intellectuals and the Institution: What's in the Service of the Nation?"

The 9/11 Imbroglio
(February 1, 2006)
According to the academic organizer of these scholars, Professor Jim Fetzer of the University of Minnesota in Duluth, it was because of a meeting in Washington with MER Publisher Mark Bruzonsky last week that a major revision was made in their public statement a few days ago. The new aim, as MER had advocated in a June 2005 editorial, is to call on major media organizations around the world to form a unique international coalition to fully investigate 9/11 and to report what really happened and what is in legitimate controversy and doubt.

Drop Principles Now or Drop Dead Soon!
(February 1, 2006)
Israel's notoriously powerfuly Lobby on Capitol Hill is wasting no time trying to lay down the law of money and power to Hamas. But this time it's probably too little, too late, with insufficient understand of or leverage on the now Hamas-led "Palestinian Authority"... And when the Israelis and Americans try to crush the new PA., as now seems all but inevitable sooner or later, probably after more attempts to foment a Palestinian Civil War which are likely to continue to fail, the political and geostrategic price may prove greater than the Americans will be willing to suffer upon themselves.




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