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TIME TO SUSPEND ISRAEL FROM U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

August 28, 2001

MID-EAST REALITIES © - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 8/27:

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. The American Secretary of State, born Black, has been ordered to stay away from the world conference on racism -- and as usual he lacks the conviction to speak up on such a crucial matter, preferring instead to personally identify with soft and easy issues like his "big brother" campaign for American kids.

The battle on the ground is being lost. No matter how brave and courageous the Palestinian resistance to the increasingly brutal and deadly occupation, they have been poorly prepared and they are terribly lead. They are now paying the horrendous price for so many years of mistaken policies, squandered resources, and incompetent representation.

The battle for public opinion has also been lost -- even Edward Said has admitted as much in print. In the crucial United States, the world's "only superpower", the miserable "client organizations" and the third-rate Arab-regime representatives have done such a terrible job for so long that everyone has come to expect they have no real capabilities or credibility. The Jewish and Christian "peace movements" have likewise failed miserably -- a great example the Michael Lerner/Gerry Seagal gathering at the National Cathedral in Washington in June which we haven't yet quite gotten around to mentioning for its pathetic ramblings.

But there is a very important ideological and diplomatic battle that is within reach, that can be won, and which possibly could have considerable significance in the dangerous and bloody years now ahead. And this is not just a matter for Arabs and Muslims, there are many Jews and Christians and people all over the world who feel that something dramatic of this kind should and must now be done. We've commented in much more detail in the past about these matters. Now let's just keep it very short and simple:

STEP 1: A major resolution should now come from the Durban conference condemning the Israeli occupation, condemning Israeli racism, condemning Israel's neo-Apartheid policies, condemning the U.S. for its support of Israeli policies and its refusal to even attend the conference knowing that nearly the whole world sees the situation completely differently than does the American government.

STEP 2: Insistence on a clear and firm vote in the United Nations General Assembly in October -- where the U.S. veto is not applicable -- on suspending Israel from that world body, just as was done regarding South Africa in the days of Apartheid.

Repeat, this is not just a matter for Arabs and Muslims and those who have a particular connection with the Palestinians. This is a matter for people of good conscience everywhere, most especially Jews and Americans who are the most complicitous in what is happening.

A PERSONAL ACCOUNT FROM BETHLEHEM:

PALESTINIANS CONTINUE TO RESIST ISRAELI INVASION

Tuesday; 28 August: The Israeli invasion and reoccupation of Beit Jala has been met with incredible and steadfast Palestinian resistance. Don’t believe the Israeli reports, which state to the contrary. Despite the Israeli plan to re-occupy Beit Jala in a few hours, until this very second (17 hours later) the battle continues. The Israelis have yet to accomplish their occupation and as time goes on, the chances of an Israeli success dwindle.

During the invasion, many of us stayed up all night watching the night sky, illuminated with tracers and bombs exploding, and we listened to the non-stop gun battles between the Goliath IDF and the fearless Palestinian resistance. The resistance continued even as I went to sleep at 7:00 am. Thanks to Uncle Sam, Palestinian civilians were terrorized by US made and paid for apache helicopters flying over the skies all night.

All around the Bethlehem area last night, the church bells rang and the mosques called on the people to wake up and defend their land from the Israeli invasion. Palestinians from all over went to the streets with whatever they had to fight the Israeli invasion. Deheishe camp residents took bulldozers, dug trenches and blocked the streets. Beit Jala residents put gas tanks on the roads to stop the Israeli tanks from advancing.

And as I write, at 3:00 p.m. reports from Aida camp are that the Israeli army has fled the houses it occupied earlier today as a result of the intense Palestinian resistance. And more reports are coming in that despite the Israeli action, shooting on Gilo continues. No force, not even the Israeli army backed by the most sophisticated US weapons can succeed in occupying another people indefinitely. The Israelis are a foreign army occupying a foreign land. The solution is not to dispatch international observers – that would just put an end to the legitimate Palestinian resistance to push out the Israeli occupation. We must all stand with the Palestinian resistance and call for one thing - end the Israeli military occupation now!

Israeli Occupation Forces Extend Control Over Beit Jala & Beit Sahour - International Human Shields to Step In

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT - 28 August: International Human Shields based in Palestinian territories and serving to protect Palestinian civilians from the brutal Israeli Occupation Forces simply by their presence in targeted areas of Israeli aggression are taking action this afternoon in Beit Jala to work to remove soldiers from the homes of Palestinian civilians. Additionally these Human Shields will spend the next nights in Beit Jala until the occupation forces leave the city, and cease their ongoing shelling and shooting of Palestinian civilians.

Israeli Occupation Forces stormed into Beit Jala and Beit Sahour with tanks, soldiers and Apache helicopters under the cover of darkness and reoccupied areas of the town and houses of innocent civilians. This, combined with the political assassination of Abu Ali Mustapha yesterday

represents a significant escalation of the conflict by the Israeli government, and another move towards Prime Minister Sharon’s endgame in which all Palestinian lands are occupied and Palestinians are forced to leave their homes or face the wrath of the Israeli military – one of the most sophisticated and deadly armed forces in the world.

And what are the Palestinians to do? If they do nothing, they face ethnic cleansing, condemned by the world in places like Kosovo, Bosnia and Rwanda, but accepted with silence in Palestine. If they resist with nonviolent means through demonstrations and protests, they face the wrath and force of the Israeli army, border police, and special security forces that use rubber bullets, sound grenades and live ammunition. If they use force – as glorified by Western countries with respect to their own histories in fighting occupation, resistance to despots and liberation – with their limited weapons and complete tactical and military disadvantage, then they are condemned for being "true to themselves" as if they only know violence, and face advanced military technologies, such as Apache helicopters, F-15 and F-16 fighter jets and the most advanced tanks in the world.

The so-called "conflict" here is actually a war – prosecuted by arguably the most capable military machines and militarized societies in the world (Israel), against an occupied civilian population that has been condemned throughout the world as aggressors, when in fact it is the victim of repeated and ongoing brutality, force and occupation for over thirty years.

The International Human Shields, through their own efforts and in putting themselves at grave personal risk, will bring these self-evident truths to light through their efforts in stopping the aggression of the Israeli Occupation Forces. No country, no government has the right to terrorize a civilian population, and it is the responsibility of all good men and women to stand up and say, "NO!" to these illegal and immoral actions by the Israeli government.

ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES HOLD PALESTINIAN CHILDREN HOSTAGE

Using Children as Human Shields

[Palestine Media Center – PMC - 28 August - 9:02 am]: Since last night, Israeli occupation forces occupied the Virgin Mary Church, an adjacent hostel under construction, and the Beit Ibrahim guesthouse, used for meetings between Christian, Moslem, and Jewish spiritual leaders.

The Palestine Media Center contacted Father Khadder Musallam, the host father at the Evangelical Lutheran House, a boarding home for children from broken families, to get an accurate account of the events. Father Musallam told PMC the following:

Currently there are forty-five children, ages 6 to 17 as well as four educators in addition to me in the Boarding home. Israeli occupation forces are holding us hostage and using us as human shields.

At around 1:00am, a secretary working in the school called us and informed me that Israeli occupation troops had begun an incursion into Beit Jala. When I looked outside, I could see the tanks approaching. Since the children sleep in the upper levels of our five-story building, I went upstairs and calmly woke them up. I explained to the children the situation and asked them to get dressed quickly and come down stairs. As soon as the children and the teachers were downstairs, our building, the Church, and the adjacent buildings in the compound were under attack. When I peeked from the window, it seemed as if it was raining bullets and tank shells on Beit Jala. The view was terrifying.

Suddenly, we heard violent banging on the window and the doors of the guesthouse. I saw an Israeli soldier peeking through the window and banging it. When I approached him, he demanded that I give him the key to the guesthouse. I told the soldier that this is a Church and that he had no right to come in. The soldier quickly replied that this issue was irrelevant and that I should not argue with him. I then told him that there are children here. To that he said, "I know". When I insisted on refusing, he pointed his rifle at my head and demanded the keys again. I had no choice but to comply.

They are now stationed at the rooftops. They fire towards Beit Jala knowing that they are placing us directly in harm's way.

I moved the children to the basement and then quickly called the authorities in Beit Jala and informed them of the situation. They informed me that so far, one Palestinian officer has been martyred and at least seventeen civilians were injured. I was then assured that they would not respond to the Israeli fire coming from our rooftops in order to ensure our safety.

ISRAELI ARMY INVADES BEIT JALA

CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AGAINST EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS AND INVASION OF PALESTINIAN LANDS!

[Beit Jala, Palestine, 28 August 2001, 09:30]: Yesterday's extra-judicial killing, authorized by Israel's "small security kitchen" composed of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Benyamin Eliezer, of Palestinian leader Abu Ali Mustafa was immediately followed by Palestinian protests and violent confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces all over the 1967

occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Among others, shooting was renewed yesterday in the early evening hours between Palestinian forces in the West Bank town of Beit Jala (Bethlehem) and Israeli army forces stationed in the Israeli settlement of Gilo next to Jerusalem, resulting in the slight injury of an Israeli settler. Consequently, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon felt called upon to fulfill his promise, made several weeks ago, that "one more shot on Gilo, and Israeli will enter the PA controlled town of Beit Jala."

At around 01:00 this morning, Israeli tanks and ground forces moved into Beit Jala, coming from the northwestern hill tops. The Israeli movement was confronted with the resistance of Palestinian security forces and residents of the area. One Palestinian security officer, Muhammad Sammour (25) from the Gaza Strip, was reported killed and several persons injured, among them a journalist of the Voice of Palestine radio. As for now (Tuesday, 09:00 a.m.), the Israeli invasion has come to a stand-still, with Israeli tanks stationed in the upper part of the center of Beit Jala in the area of the Orthodox Club. Israeli armed forces control the whole north-western section of the town adjacent to the Gilo settlement and have imposed a curfew on the residents.

Israeli media report that the army has taken control of five Palestinian homes from which fire was allegedly opened on the Gilo settlement. A decision is yet to be taken by the Israeli security cabinet about the possible demolition of these homes, and about whether the current invasion will be permanent or temporary. According to reports of Palestinian residents of the adjacent Aida refugee camp, Israeli armed forces have also occupied a building on the north-western border of the camp. The inhabitants, a family of 20 persons, have been locked into one room, while Israeli soldiers use the rest of the house as a base serving to back-up the Israeli forces present in the center of Beit Jala. Shooting continues, and according to Palestinian sources, the Israeli attack against Aida refugee camp is intensifying and Israeli forces have reached the UNRWA school in the camp.

BADIL Resource Center calls for massive protests against the Israeli policies of de-legitimizing the Palestinian leadership and popular resistance, extra-judicial killings, and the re-invasion of Palestinian controlled territories in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. We are in urgent need of world-wide and strong solidarity to stop the current escalation of Israeli violence against the Palestinian people. In particular, we call upon the participants at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban to take all possible action in order to set the foundations of a world-wide solidarity movement that can isolate the racist and colonialist positions and policies of Israel and its main supporter, the United States, by combining the forces of Arab and international solidarity with the Palestinian people and the worldwide movement against globalization. Only sustained solidarity can put an end to occupation, colonialism, and racism in Palestine and re-establish justice and peace in our region.

"FROM DHEISHEH TO DURBAN"

August 28, 2001 - Durban, South Africa

Dear Friends,

Sorry for being out of touch again for a while. Today is the first time I got in hold of Internet access after we left Dheisheh over a week ago.

A group of us - Jihad Abbas, Ziad Abbas, Susanne Abu Tair and Wafa Khatib from Ibdaa Cultural Center, and Barbara Lubin, Executive Director of Middle East Children's Alliance and myself - are here in Durban, South Africa, to participate in World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). As I write this, the opening ceremony of NGO Forum of WCAR is taking place in Kingsmesd Stadium outside of this computer room. The crowd - NGOs and activists from around the world - is cheering to the speech by President Mbeki.

Prior to arriving in Durban 2 days ago, our group spent several days in Johannesburg where Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) of South Africa organized many events on Palestine. Our group was busy being on radio interviews and meeting with human rights activists and community organizations. There is very strong solidarity and support of Palestinian cause here in South Africa. South Africans see the Palestinian struggle paralell to theirs - the injustice, exploitation, oppression and apartheid at hands of colonialists-racists. When we visited the Soweto uprising memorial, our friend and Soweto activist Selva said: "When I see a 9-year old Palestinian Hector Peterson (the first victim of Soweto uprising) standing in front of a tank with a stone in his hand, I see myself."

The US boycott on the conference and flatout rejection of the discussion on Zionism as racism only worked in favor of Palestine solidarity organizing here, by putting the subject on the agenda in the media. PSC already has organized many successful public events, including a Palestine solidarity march in Cape Town attended by 25,000 people. One evening in Johannesburg, PSC organized "Cultural Evening" where Palestinians from Dheisheh and South Africans shared speeches, poetry, music and committment to fight against justice. It was an extremely moving and inspiring evening when over 300 people packed the venue.

Here at the Durban conference, the Palestine question is one of the most important on the agenda. So many people - Arabs and non-Arabs - are wearing kaffiya and T-shirts with various Palestine solidarity or anti-Zionism messages. Each time the word "Palestine" is mentioned in the opening ceremony, cheers and clapping fill the whole stadium. Right now, the entire crowd is singing and dancing with Bob Marly's "One World." After this song, we will have a meeting to organize a mass Palestine march on the 31st, when PSC is planning for an official kick-off for the Anti-Apartheid Campaign Against Israel. more later - Shirabe


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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