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HAVE WE A PREDICTION HERE? YASS?

August 16, 2001

WHAT DO DO WITH YASS?? and OSLO?
"If we remove Arafat from the stage, Hamas's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, God forbid, will replace him - so say Peres..."

"...no power in the world can smash to smithereens a vibrant national community that has rallied around national, economic and economic institutions.... The last time there was an attempt to capture Palestinian history was 20 years ago, when under the orders of Ariel Sharon, the Palestinian national archives were seized in West Beirut."

MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 8/16: Beneath that thick Israeli arrogance, many Israelis are really far more confused, and far more fearful, than they are going to admit. Theirs' is a complicated psychology especially as the scars of the Holocaust remain deeply buried and only occasionally visible. But because they the Israelis are so much more powerful at this particular time in history than those who oppose them, and because they have the world's "only superpower" on their side in a very firm embrace, also for very complicated reasons, Israeli domination of the Palestinians, and of the region, is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

Israel's leading newspaper, Ha'aretz, publishes an unusual combination of right as well as left-wing Israeli writers and intellectuals as these two recent articles make quite evident. It seems much of the right-left debate in some ways now comes down to whether to continue deal with and relie upon Yasser. And it appears the greatest incentive for some who argue doing so is that the alternative, with just a change of the last two letters, is someone many have long feared would be much worse. Even so, the right may not be so sure any longer as the article by Israel Harel suggests. And as for the left, well it wasn't that many years ago that Meron Benviniste was Deputy Mayor of Jeusalem, himself preaching the concept of "segregation" and helping Teddy Kollek and the Labor Party bring about the conditions that have led to the situation today.

ARAFAT IS DEADLIER THAN YASSIN
By Israel Harel

The Oslo concept was (almost) perfect: Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat would become responsible for such matters as health, education, employment and transportation, and would simply cease to be a terrorist. In general, the leaders of countries, especially if they are Nobel Peace Prize winners to boot, are never terrorists.

However, the devil refused to take a holiday: A year after Arafat signed on the dotted line on the White House lawn, solemnly pledging to never ever resort to terrorism, buses began exploding in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Hadera and Afula. Yet then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and then foreign minister Shimon Peres, despite the hundreds of killed and wounded Israelis, remained hostages of the concept: Arafat, a subcontractor operating without the benefit of either the Israeli High Court of Justice or B'Tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), would take care of the terrorism (after all, he received thousands of rifles from Rabin and Peres for that purpose - not for the purpose of killing Jewish settlers on West Bank and Gaza Strip highways). Peres, who succeeded the assassinated Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister, furiously rejected the solid evidence supplied by Israeli military intelligence that Arafat had, in fact, given the green light for the terrorist attacks on Israeli buses. The prime minister claimed that the "purported" evidence was biased and subsequently lost the general election.

Eight years later, and after 11 months of endless terrorism, Peres' continued faith in Arafat is assuming clearly pathological proportions: The id?e fixe that Arafat, even after all the abominable terror attacks, is still a partner for peace and is still the only person with whom Israel can negotiate, is now requiring Peres to engage in the trivialization of Palestinian terrorism. Even he can no longer deny the fact that the person with whom he and the late Yitzhak Rabin shared the Nobel Peace Prize was directly involved in the terrorist attacks on Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium and in Jerusalem (as well as in all the other deadly operations carried out by Palestinian terrorists); thus Peres and his associates must downplay the emotional, moral and political impact of Palestinian terrorism. Peres still speaks very guardedly and he still only hints at what is on his mind. You still need a musical ear to penetrate the mists of his rhetoric. However, it is possible to distinguish that the "condemnation" is now coexisting - in the same breath - with the view that "this is not as terrible as we think." In other words, our "partner" is in a "no-alternative" situation. Furthermore, Israel has something to do with the creation of this "no-alternative" situation.

In light of this state of affairs, and in light of the "understanding" that is being expressed in certain circles in Israel, there is today not one world leader, with the (temporary) exception of American President George W. Bush, who rules out Arafat as a "partner for peace" because of the recent massacres. Even Pope John Paul II, from the Holy See on the banks of the Tiber - the pontiff who is the spiritual father of billions of Catholics - saw fit to host Arafat only a short time after the mass murder at the Dolphinarium and to greet the Palestinian leader as a distinguished head of state. Yet the government of Israel registered no protest. After all, how can the government protest - even if it wanted to - when this country's foreign minister, certain members of its parliament and various public figures and journalists zealously seek out Arafat's company, joking with him, being photographed with him and providing him with legitimacy while the photos of horror depicting the terrorist attack on the Dolphinarium are still circulating around the world?

If we remove Arafat from the stage, Hamas's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, God forbid, will replace him - so say Peres and other persons with similar views. Peres and his cohorts are clearly demonstrating that, over the past 11 months, they have not remembered - and, what is most important, have learned nothing from - the events of the past. This is certainly a bizarre state of affairs. After all, according to their dialectic (that is, the dialectic of Oslo), a head of state can never ever act like a terrorist. And Yassin (or whoever else replaces Arafat) will have to worry about things like health, education, water and transportation, right? The answer is yes. And if Arafat's successor continues the terror attacks, Israel would be less hamstrung in its responses than it was during Arafat's regime, right? The answer is also yes. Yassin is certainly not the world's darling, and even the radical Israeli left feels no special commitment toward him. Thus, it is possible to imagine certain scenarios in which the quantity and "quality" (i.e., the lethality) of the terror attacks would diminish precisely because Hamas was in control of the Palestinian Authority, is it not? The answer is, again, yes.

When Hamas finds itself responsible for the lives of more than two and a half million Palestinians, it will also discover that terrorist attacks do not produce food, work, medical services or transportation, and that they similarly do not produce foreign aid from the Americans or even from the European Union. In such a situation, Peres and former justice minister (and key Oslo architect) Yossi Beilin would no longer be able to confuse Israelis as to the enemy's identity and intentions. If such a scenario fails to become a reality, the identity of the head of the snake will at least be obvious to everyone and will no longer be a matter for speculation. Then it will be possible to fight against this snake's head without any inhibitions or reservations. Since Arafat is unable to stop Hamas from carrying out its terrorist actions, Hamas, when it comes to power, will be forced to put the brakes on itself. Only the fanatics who are presently stage-managing the suicide-bombing terror attacks in the name of Islam will be able to find justification in the Koran for putting a stop to the attacks. Although objections would be raised by Islamic Jihad, its opposition would be crushed with a fist of iron, as only the fanatics of Islam (abundant examples can be cited all the way from Algeria to Iran and Afghanistan) know how.

The principal difference between Arafat and Hamas is tactics. Because of his position, his leadership and his sugar-coated utterances, Arafat is a thousand times more dangerous than any Hamas leader who may succeed him. It would therefore be in Israel's best interests for Arafat to step off the political stage immediately in order to spend his retirement years in Tunis. As long as he remains in power, and no matter where he turns, he will leave a trail of scorched earth behind him. Peres and the Labor party can be numbered among his victims. Arafat's terrorism will double, perhaps even treble, the clout of both the Likud and the other right-wing parties in the next Knesset. Nor will the other leftist groups that are so anxious to meet with Arafat be able to make a comeback. The terrorist attacks, the demonstrations supporting Arafat over Orient House and the cries for a boycott of the Jewish settlements at the very height of the attacks on the settlers will shrink these leftist groups as well.

FOOLHARDY and ANACHRONISTIC
By Meron Benvenisti

The takeover of Orient House and its contents, with its childish raising of the Israeli flag over the Palestinian center, captured the world's attention and continues to provoke nearly universal criticism, anger and mockery. But the clumsiness, folly and anachronistic approach of the government's actions in East Jerusalem were exposed less at Orient House than in the closure of a much less colorful and almost anonymous institution: the Arab Chamber of Commerce, located behind the Rockefeller Museum.

This institution, which has been in existence since the days of the British Mandate and Jordanian rule over the city, always adapted its activities to the changing political reality. After the Israeli conquest of the city, when the need arose for an official Arab agency to mediate between Jordanian citizens resident in East Jerusalem and the Jordanian government, the chamber in effect turned into Jordan's consulate in Jerusalem. It provided notary-like authorizations, verified signatures on checks, matriculation exams, and export documents. It enabled the renewals of passports and Jordanian identity cards.

Its services were vital for the maintenance of a quasi-normal existence in practically impossible conditions and its activities were recognized and unofficially supported by both the Jordanian and Israeli governments, because it saved them both a lot of trouble. It was only the tub-thumpers of the right wing who criticized the Israeli government and Jerusalem municipality for the "flagrant violation" of Israeli sovereignty in East Jerusalem, for allowing "Jordanian inroads into the city."

Ater Jordan gave up its claim on Jerusalem and following the Oslo Accords, all civic powers (functional, not territorial) were transferred to the Palestinian Authority, including matters such as education, religious courts and commerce. This immediately had an impact on the lives of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. These residents, of uncertain citizenship, became dependent on the PA in matters concerning their personal status because, for example, the religious courts and waqf Muslim religious trust are under the authority of the PA's minister of religion, while the Palestinian Education Ministry became responsible for the school curriculum, to provide school books and prepare teachers for the public municipal school system of the municipality headed by Ehud Olmert.

The chamber of commerce, like other public Palestinian institutions, became, of necessity, a body "affiliated" with the PA. And if that "affiliation" is a violation of the law, requiring its closure, then Olmert's own school system in East Jerusalem should be shut down, for it is also connected to the PA, without which he cannot maintain the schools of East Jerusalem. By the same token, the Israeli security services that are unable to maintain even a modicum of quiet in the city without cooperation with the Palestinian security services, presumably should be shut down as well.

Some have already pointed out that closing the Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem - though not all of them, only those with some propaganda value - was a flagrant violation of Israel's own commitment not only to guarantee their status but to encourage their activity. But it hasn't been emphasized enough how their existence is clearly in Israel's interest, since the alternative - granting Israeli citizenship to 210,000 Palestinians and their full integration into Israel - is not on anyone's mind, just as "it's unthinkable" to consider handing Arab neighborhoods to the Authority.

It's difficult to expect Israeli government ministers to weigh the situation rationally; they only know how to recite slogans about "Israeli sovereignty in the heart of Jerusalem" and the price of their folly will be paid by the Arab residents and the representatives of the government who come into contact with those residents. Soon, very quietly, all the institutions will resume their activity as a result of the demands of reality and the decisive fact that no power in the world can smash to smithereens a vibrant national community that has rallied around national, economic and economic institutions.

There's no doubt the Israeli government's moves in East Jerusalem - and not the PA's activities - are violations of the Oslo agreements; not merely of this or that article or clause but of the entire ideological underpinning of those agreements - formal recognition of the legitimacy of the national Palestinian collective.

The symbolic expression of that is not only in the removal of the PLO flag from the Orient House but in particular the seizure of the documents of the institutions that operated from the building.

The last time there was an attempt to capture Palestinian history was 20 years ago, when under the orders of Ariel Sharon, the Palestinian national archives were seized in West Beirut. It turns out that the prime minister has not learned a thing, and he's stubbornly insisting on reversing the wheels of history. And the most foolish excuse is that "it's the heart of Israeli sovereignty" - as if anyone can use force and steal national heritage to break a connection between a people and its national and religious capital.

So, now, the Israeli government, faithfully following the traditions of classic colonialism, is asking the Palestinian donkey to eat a carrot after it's been struck with a stick. Look, the mayor says proudly, I got millions to improve the infrastructure of East Jerusalem, proof of the "city's unity." In his eyes, the Arabs are but dust, whose symbols can be trampled upon and who can be seduced by sewage pipes. The whole thing could be dismissed with derision if these people weren't holding our fate in their hands.


August 2001


Magazine






IDEOLOGICAL CEASE-FIRE OR SELL-OUT AT DURBAN?
(August 31, 2001)
It's not likely this is the end of it, but indications are that the Arafat crowd -- as of the moment still in the pay of the U.S., Israel, and the despicable Arab "client regimes" -- has found a way to back away from the badly needed ideological confrontation, with the help of non other than that slimmy man for all seasons who never misses an opportunity to interject himself Jesse Jackson.

ASHRAWI SPEECH IN DURBAN
(August 31, 2001)
Hanan Ashrawi is no real hero, and she's made some terrible hard-to-forgive political mistakes in the "peace process" years in her search for the limelight and VIP status.

DURBAN AND ROBINSON AND ANNAN
(August 31, 2001)
A pamphlet distributed at the United Nations anti-racism conference in South Africa equating the Star of David with a swastika has prompted the UN human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, to declare at an official dinner: "I am a Jew".

"GO BACK IMMEDIATLEY OR WE ARE GOING TO SHOOT" - MARY ROBINSON COMES OUT JEWISH
(August 30, 2001)
Talk about humiliation. When the U.N.'s top human rights official was in occupied Palestine last year her car was shot at by Israeli settlers -- the Israeli army doing nothing to stop them. Now we learn that the very same Mary Robinson is herself Jewish and has been using her position to head off the urgently needed world censorship of Israel for its racist and apartheid-like policies.

HABASH AND CARLOS HAVE THEIR SAY
(August 30, 2001)
Aging guerrilla leader Carlos the Jackal called from his French jail cell Wednesday for worldwide attacks on Israel and the United States in support of the Palestinian uprising.

A LAND WITHOUT HOPE
(August 29, 2001)
Gaza is the largest prison in the world. Most of its one million plus inhabitants, in a sense inmates, have never been let out. Whether the term be "ghetto" or "concentration camp" or just "prison", the historical parallels are all too damning.

THE U.S. MAKES IT ALL POSSIBLE
(August 29, 2001)
What we should all be thinking when the U.S. State Department spokesman gets in front of the cameras is -- "You've Got To Be Kidding!" Instead, the American government with its super sophisticated PR apparatus dishes it out. The gullible, or should we say complicitous, corporate media then broadcasts it -- not just CNN, also the rest of the networks along with PBS followed up by the big daily newspapers and newsweeklies --all lemming-like.

TIME TO SUSPEND ISRAEL FROM U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
(August 28, 2001)
The American President and Vice-President both are giving public expressions of support to the Israelis; while the American CIA, military and Congress make Israeli policies possible with a continual flow of money, guns, and information.

"INVITING HELL TO BREAK LO0SE" - PFLP LEADER ASSASSINATED TODAY
(August 27, 2001)
The Israelis are clearly planning to totally crush the Palestinians -- Minister Uzi Landau is publicly saying as much -- probably thinking they can buy themselves still more years to consolidate their grip on the occupied territories and probably scheming for the opportunity to push as many Palestinians as they can across the Jordan and into a Hashemite Kingdom that will eventually, sooner or later, implode into a Palestinian State.

A MOST COURAGEOUS AND DEDICATED ISRAELI JOURNALIST
(August 26, 2001)
If we had an award for Middle East Journalist of the year, the Israeli writer Amira Hass would be very high on that list. A few years ago, long before it became politically correct to term Israeli policies "apartheid like", especially in Jewish and American circles, Amira Hass was doing just that in her writing and speaking.

ISRAEL WINNING PROPAGANDA WAR - MASSIVELY
(August 26, 2001)
The terribly weak, confused, and co-opted Arab regimes, Arafat's included, are miserably losing the "propaganda war". Sure, the Israelis have suffered in some quarters in some ways; but nothing compared to the Palestinians.

THE LATEST FROM GAZA GHETTO
(August 25, 2001)
About 400 fanatical "settlers" have forced their way into homes in the middle of Hebron, a city of 120,000 Arabs. About 6000 fanatical "settlers" contnue to occupy about 35% of the Gaza Strip, amidst more than 1 million Palestinians.

ISRAEL'S IDEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
(August 25, 2001)
If you want to understand what the Israelis are doing, and why, you have to understand the ideological underpinnings of what is called "Revisionist Zionism". This article was published many years ago in The Washington Post by Mark Bruzonsky, today the Publisher of MER.

JUST IMAGINE, A MILLION + INJURED IN A YEAR
(August 24, 2001)
If adjusted for differing population sizes, these would be the dead and casualties figures if a foreign military power occupied the United States and did to Americans what Israel, with U.S. money and arms, is doing to the Palestinians. And that's just in the past year or so.

WITH ARAFAT AND COMPANY IN COMMAND, THERE IS NO HOPE.
(August 24, 2001)
As usual there is no serious introspection and self-criticism here. Arab and Palestinian Americans have failed miserably over a very long period of time to even establish viable organizations and publications. Moreover they have no lobbying and professional presence even worth discussion in the crucial capital of Washington, DC, even today.

SUICIDE BOMBERS - MADE BY ISRAEL AND THE USA
(August 23, 2001)
It didn't begin this way. A few generations ago Arabs and Jews lived together in the same neighborhoods of the once Holy Land. In the 40's the famous Arab mayor of Haifa Hassan Shukri's only son married a Jewish woman.

ISRAELIS "DEBATE" BOTH "SEPARATION" AND "DEPARTURE"
(August 23, 2001)
Two rather insightful articles follow about how confused and insecure many Israelis have become, even though this often comes across to others as heightened arrogance and self-centeredness. In the first from Ha'aretz some Israelis are hedging their bets and wondering just what the future holds. There is a deep down awareness, not quite conscious for many, that what they are doing to the Palestinians could possibly in the future backfire in an orgy of hatred and recriminations far beyond today's situation.

KILLING AND DESTROYING - THE ISRAELI WAY
(August 21, 2001)
Even as the U.N. Security Council gathered to demonstrate once again how badly it has been neutered and cast aside when it comes to the Middle East, the Israelis are further unleashing their basic policy of killing, destroying, repressing. General Barak, the previous PM, is busy taking credit for having "exposed" the Palestinians and "fathered" the concept of "unilateral separation" (i.e., apartheid forever).

UN NOW AND THEN
(August 20, 2001)
Today's United Nations is pretty much an "appendage of the (U.S.) State Department". And that's not our phrase, it's one used by a senior U.N. official not that long ago in one of those quiet unpublicized off-the-record Washington discussions.

THE "PEACE PROCESS" FRAUD AND CONSPIRACY
(August 20, 2001)
Professors Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Tanya Reinhart -- Jewish American, Palestinian American, and Israeli -- all have explained this month why the "Peace Process" was a fraud, a deception, a conspiracy, from the start.

PLEADING FOR PEACE; ANALYSIS IS WAR
(August 18, 2001)
Everything stops for tea in Britain, or so they say. So when Angie Zelter and her fellow foreign protesters found their way from Palestinian-ruled Bethlehem to Jerusalem blocked by Israeli soldiers and police on Saturday, Zelter ever so politely ventured a few words of advice.

A SUICIDE BOMBER'S WORLD
(August 18, 2001)
In a sense, a very important sense, the "Suicide Bombers" now so much in the news should have stamped on them "Made in Israel, Encouraged by USA". There were few if any "Suicide Bombers" just a few years ago. The phenomena first arose out of Israel's destructive invasion of Lebanon in and before 1982, then the occupation of about 10% of that country which only ended last year.

DATELINE WASHINGTON: ONE ARAB DISASTER AFTER ANOTHER
(August 17, 2001)
Months ago now the relatively new group of Muslim "client organizations" headquartered in Washington repeatedly promised at one press conference after another a wave of civil disobedience throughout the U.S. in view of what Israel and the U.S. are doing to the Palestinians.

ANTI-US/ISRAEL DEMOS IN SOUTH AFRICA
(August 17, 2001)
The pathetically weak and terribly mislead Arab and Muslim groups in the US aren't doing any protesting worth mentioning about this or anything else; but thousands of South Africans are doing the work for everyone...and "internationals" are on the way.

WHY WE HAVE ALL BECOME SUICIDE BOMBERS, DR EYAD SARRAJ-MER FLASHBACK
(August 16, 2001)
A few weeks ago I said that the struggle of Palestinians today is how not to become a bomb and that the amazing thing is not the occurrence of the suicide bombing, rather the rarity of them.

HAVE WE A PREDICTION HERE? YASS?
(August 16, 2001)
Beneath that thick Israeli arrogance, many Israelis are really far more confused, and far more fearful, than they are going to admit. Theirs' is a complicated psychology especially as the scars of the Holocaust remain deeply buried and only occasionally visible.

DEATH IN BETHLEHELM, MADE IN AMERICA
(August 15, 2001)
While the Israeli Army surrounds Bethlehem and many of the "autonomous Palestinian population centers" created through the Apartheid-style "peace process", it is American weapons and money that make the brutal military occupation possible.

ISREALI STORM TROOPERS BEAT, SHOOT, TORTURE, KILL
(August 14, 2001)
How ironic that the Jewish Israelis are acting like modern-day storm troopers, perpetrating ongoing Crystal Nachts, their victims akin to dark images from the Warsaw Ghetto of yesteryear...and so many "Good Israelis", so sadly reminiscent of the "Good Germans" of their own terrible past when they themselves were powerless victims, are cheering with mindless hatred

USED "PEACE PLAN" FOR SALE CHEAP - CAVEATE EMPTOR!
(August 14, 2001)
Gee..isn't this interesting. With the legitimacy of the Jewish State of Israel -- i.e. Zionism -- about to be challenged by much of the world in Durban; and with the "peace process" itself about to be finally condemned as a "new form of apartheid" -- just as so many of the independent experts have been saying for years now -- the Israelis are embarking on a major international public relations campaign whose top dogs are none other than soft barkers Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, chief architects and salesmen of the very same.

SALAMI ESCALATION
(August 14, 2001)
The Israelis are preparing everyone psychologically for more. Rather than everything at once, Sharon's tactics are a war version of "triangulation" which has become so famous in American political infighting. In this way he gets to be called "restrained" by many, creates the climate of confusion and anticipation that he wishes, uses Peres and Eliezer to confuse world opinion and even some of the more gullible Arab "leaders", and craftily prepares for that day when the tanks will roll in and roll over...and not just leave after a few hours of death and destruction.

NOW RUSSIANS PREDICT MID-EAST WAR SOON
(August 13, 2001)
The Israelis have been trying for years now to "reconfigure" the Middle East to their further advantage. That's really what the war for Lebanon that erupted most fiercely in 1982 was all about; and its what the various responses to the Intifada have always been about as well -- most especially the disengenous "peace process" which has now worse than collapsed.

A PEOPLE CRUSHED, DISPOSSESSED, TORTURED...
(August 13, 2001)
"His was not an act of 'mindless terror', the words Israeli spokesmen use. He was the logical product of a people who have been crushed, dispossessed, tortured and killed in terrible numbers." Fisk on the 'Suicide Bomber'

ON TO DURBAN...WITHOUT THEM - PART II
(August 12, 2001)
Well we weren't expecting United Nations officials to heed our advice about Durban and get on with things, with or without the constantly threatening and vetoing Americans (see Part 1 published yesterday). In recent years some of their colleagues at the very highest levels of today's U.N. have in fact resigned in moral disgust -- and even said so in public.

EGYPT MIGHT MOVE ARMY INTO SINAI?
(August 12, 2001)
It's not likely to happen -- Egypt's Third Army moving into Sinai for the first time since 1973 -- but it could. And in the Middle East there are historical precedents that this is sometimes the way big wars start with an initial bombardment of threats, bluffs, feints, and then the confusion takes on a life of its own.

SYMBOL OF PALESTINE CAPTURED AND RAPED
(August 11, 2001)
"Israeli riot police on horseback yesterday charged into protesters sitting outside Orient House, the barricaded mansion that serves as an unofficial Palestinian capital, reopening the battle for Jerusalem. The occupation of Orient House, headquarters of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in Jerusalem, by the Israeli army is one of the biggest acts of aggrandisement since the intifada began 11 months ago."

ON TO DURBAN...WITHOUT THEM
(August 10, 2001)
Conclusion first: Let the Americans and the Israelis stay home. So be it. There's been enough blackmail and bribery and vetoing for such a very long time now. The Americans and the Israelis have been two against the whole world so many times when it comes to the international community of nations. It was just a few years ago that the U.S. single-handedly black-balled Boutros Ghali and sent him packing.

SHARON OF ISRAEL - DANGEROUSLY CUNNING
(August 10, 2001)
Ariel Sharon has a terrible history of brutality and murder, and indeed by the usual definitions these days he is at the very least indictable as a war criminal. Even so, especially now in his new role as Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon is an extraordinarily crafty and sophisticated strategist as well as tactician.

ISRAEL FLAG FLIES OVER ORIENT HOUSE
(August 10, 2001)
They never ever let Yasser Arafat come to Jerusalem. And Arafat missed his moment on the day of Feisal Husseini's burial earlier this summer when he could have, and should have, called their bluff. Now the Israelis, commanded by General Sharon, have done what they have been planning to do for some time, using the excuse of yesterday's terror bombing on Jaffa Road -- they have closed Orient House, the very symbol of things Palestinian in East Jerusalem, as well as many other organizations associated with the PA.

ORIENT HOUSE CLOSED - STRATEGIC BLOW AGAINST PALESTINIANS LIKELY
(August 9, 2001)
NEWSFLASH -- 8/09/2001, 9:30pm -- For first time Israel has closed down Orient House in Jerusalem along with nine other offices associated with the Palestinian Authority

USS LIBERTY - ABANDONED AT SEA AND AT HOME BECAUSE?
(August 9, 2001)
Tonight at 8pm (ET) on the History Channel part of the story about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on 8 June 1967 is going to be told. But from preliminary indications, just part, and not necessarily the most important historical parts which really involve top secret intrigue at the highest levels of the CIA, NSA, and White House complete with super secrets of state the Americans continue to want to keep out of sight out of mind.

THE REAL USS LIBERTY STORY
(August 9, 2001)
The real questions -- and answers -- have been avoided for a very long time by the American Government, and in this case also by the "free and independent" American media. And from the preliminary indications, tonight's History Channel documentary about the USS Liberty doesn't actually answer the key questions (as it could) nor even deal with the key subject of the crucial role of the CIA (as it should).

THE CRUCIAL ISRAELI-TURKISH-US MILITARY ALLIANCE,THE ARABS ARE SURROUNDED
(September 9, 2001)
It was just a few years ago that in all likelihood the Mossad and CIA helped the Turk's capture Kurdish Leader Abdullah Ocalan after first pushing him out of exile in Syria, the Moscow, then Greece, and then grabbing him in Nairobi. It was three years ago last month that MER first published an article about the great importance of the new military alliance that has developed between Israel and Turkey -- "New U.S./Turkey/Israel Alliance Circumvents and Bottles Up The Arabs." And it was two years ago that the prolific and courageous British journalist, Robert Fisk, first gave us some of the details behind the new strategic military relation Turkey actually courted with Israel.

WITH THE HELP OF U.S. ARMS MANUFACTURERS, THE CIA, CONGRESS, AND THE PENTAGON
(August 8, 2001)
The Israelis are controlling, repressing, dispossessing, and assassinating the Palestinians not on their own. They are doing so with the constant and considerable help of American arms manufacturers, the CIA, and of course the U.S. Congress (which of course is supposed to represent the will of the American people) which constantly appropriates billions yearly for Israel and sanctions (or the threat thereof) against Israel's foes

HIZBULLAH ON A ROLL
(August 7, 2001)
Israeli security forces have completely shut down access in and out of five large Palestinian towns following the killing of a pregnant Jewish settler, Israeli public radio said Monday, quoting security officials. The army sealed off the West Banks towns of Nablus, Tulkarem, Jericho, Ramallah and Qalqilya, the radio said, adding that it had partially closed the towns of Hebron, Bethlehem and Jenin.

WILL THE REAL YOSSI BEILIN PLEASE STAND UP
(August 4, 2001)
Like in the movie LION OF THE DESERT, those who profess sympathy and understanding can often cause the most harm. The well-meaning Lieutenant Colonel who befriends Omar Muhktar, lures him into deceptive "peace negotiations" in the desert, and then salutes him as his own involvement leads to Muhktar's being hanged from the gallows, is an illustrative symbol from the past.

SHARONS PUBLIC RELATIONS WAR
(August 7, 2001)
One thing about countries that have democratic features and most especially a professional and independent press -- sometimes insightful even amazing little tidbits result either from leaks or investigations. Like today's story about how Ariel Sharon himself is also the Commanding General in Israel's public relations war, shaking up and countermanding his troops in this arena as well.

ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE PROJECTS WAR IN 2002
(August 6, 2001)
Israeli sources said military intelligence has drafted a report that warns of the increasing likelihood of regional war in 2002. The report said the war could be sparked by either an Israeli offensive against the Palestinian Authority or an escalation in tension along Israel's border with Lebanon

TARGET EVERYONE EVERYWHERE
(August 5, 2001)
It has not happened yet, but it is now the direction things are heading. Soon the Palestinians may start responding to Israel's increasingly brutal military occupation, unprecedented anywhere else in the world of our day, by targeting Israeli political leaders and maybe Zionist leaders outside of Israel.

EGYPT IN THE ERA OF THIEVES
(August 5, 2001)
The Egypt of Hosni Mubarak and associates has terribly betrayed itself. It is a regime of sadistic torture and omnipresent corruption. It is a country of gross repression and escalating fear. And to a certain extent all this is at least in part the legacy of the Camp David agreement Egypt was tricked and bribed into signing two decades ago, and for which Anwar Sadat was assassinated by his own soldiers on military parade.

IRAEL ENFLAMES PALESTINIANS- HATRED WILL LAST LONG INTO THE FUTURE
(August 5, 2001)
In the past week the Israelis have substantially escalated the conflict with the Palestinians and risked enflaming not only the Palestinians but Arabs and Muslims around the world. Now senior Palestinian political leaders are being targeted.

ASSASSINATION POLICY EXPANDED- EXPECT A NEW LEVEL OF CLANDESTINE WARFARE
(August 4, 2001)
In a sense it would be like the going after the associates of Jerry Adams and his Sein Fein colleagues in Northern Ireland. It was a policy followed to a lesser extent by the White South African government when it tortured and murdered persons associated with the ANC, almost in fact secretly poisoning Nelson Mandela in his prison cell

"SECRET PLAN" TO SEND OBSERVERS TO ISRAEL
(August 3, 2001)
The very idea that the Americans and the Brits, after their long history of treachery and deception in the Middle East, are now going to do something other than continue on in that tradition is rather ludicrous. All the current talk at the moment -- especially from the Europeans and the usually gullible "peace" and "human rights" NGOs -- about helping the Palestinians by sending them "observers" is indeed a fitting CIA response to the predicament the American government finds itself in at the moment.

ISRAEL THREAT TO INVADE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES IS REAL
(August 3, 2001)
The Palestinians and their allies and supporters are extremely ill-prepared for what is happening. Israeli military might remains overwhelming, and political support remains amazingly strong, especially in view of today's situation with Ariel Sharon Prime Minister, the "peace process" undergoing slow and tortuous cremation, and Israel attacking Palestinians in the occupied territories with tanks and gunships heretofore reserved for real warfare between armies.

11 YEARS, 1.5+ MILLION DEAD, SEETHING HATRED EVERYWHERE
(August 2, 2001)
Eleven long bloody years. In the years just before the Gulf War there was the destruction of Lebanon, the terrible bloodletting of the U.S.-instigated Iran-Iraq orgy, the Kissinger-legacy of the Kurdish sell-out.




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