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THE U.S. MAKES IT ALL POSSIBLE

August 29, 2001

MID-EAST REALITIES © - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 8/29: 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. And when it comes to matters Middle Eastern, the Arab client regimes in the region -- in most cases U.S.-sponsored and controlled -- then put it on their TV screens and in their newspapers. What it all means at the end of the day is that the American government continually gets away with murder and subjugation -- with a great deal of help from the media including from the very representatives of the victims! Gee (with a smirk)...maybe we need Connie Chung to grill the Secretary of State about really weighty and historical matters, rather than a lowly Congressman and his once secret sex life.

Now let's be very clear about this. The Israelis could not, not to mention would not be able to for long, do what they are doing if they did not have the American green light. It is American money, guns, technology -- along with America's major institutions including the Pentagon, CIA and NSA -- that have made it possible for the Israelis to occupy the Palestinians and to dominate the Arabs for decades now. As for the idea, floated yesterday as the article that follows indicates, that a report might be made to Congress about the use of American arms by Israel...yawn... Well, as we already said once: "You've Got To Be Kidding!" Oh yah, after all these years, after all this death and destruction, they might get around to writing a little report -- just as they have done over the years about human rights, about torture, and indeed about arms in the past. So what! There were secret State Department documents detailing the systematic Israeli torture of Palestinians as far back as 1979, reports which in fact the publisher of MER then published in The Middle East Magazine in London of which he was then the Interview Editor -- verified secret and classified documents that the complicitous American press refused to publish and which of course the government and Congress refused to act upon. And today the Congress is more controlled and more manipulated by the powerful and sophisticated Israeli-Jewish lobby than ever -- indeed Congress is also Israeli-occupied territory.

Even as U.S. helicopter gunships assassinate Palestinian leaders with precision-guided missiles, and as U.S. supplied tanks and war planes are used to ratchet up still further the brutal occupation, a high-level delegation of the Israeli military is actually at the Pentagon under guise of "the strategic relationship" coordinating everything. If anyone still thinks that the "critical" and "disassociating" and "peace process" words coming from the U.S. Department of State are anything other than smokescreens attempting to disguise the basic fact that it is the U.S. and Israel together doing what is being done, well...damn it..."It's the U.S. Stupid!"

U.S. WARNS ISRAEL ON USE OF AMERICAN-MADE ARMS
By ABCNEWS.com

A Bush administration says the State Department could soon determine Israel is violating American law.

[Tuesday August 28 08:26 PM EDT] - The United States has warned Israel that a report may have to be sent to Congress indicating it is improperly using American-made weapons for killing Palestinian leaders, a senior State Department official told ABCNEWS today.

The Arms Export Control Act requires that U.S.-supplied weapons obtained by foreign countries be used only for "legitimate self-defense." In the event of substantial violations, the executive branch is required to notify Congress.

Congress would have to decide if it wanted to impose some sort of punishment.

Palestinians argue recent attacks by helicopters and fighter aircraft were offensive operations. The Israeli government contends they were defensive, targeting the planners of recurring terror attacks against Israel citizens.

So far, the U.S. government has not decided whether American arms are being misused. "We have not made any determination or decisions that the provisions of the law might have been violated," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. He noted the act also permits use of U.S. weapons for "internal security."

Boucher said U.S. officials were not urging the Israelis to stop using U.S. weapons for the killings, per se, but rather, to stop the attacks altogether. "The focus of our discussions with the Israelis is on calming the situation and ending the violence. That remains the subject of discussion," he said.

But he added, "We do think that the use of heavy weaponry in populated areas runs a high risk of civilian casualties, and we have been opposed to it."

The issue has become an increasingly thorny one for the United States government, drawing increased condemnation from Arab countries.

"It does have a negative factor in the region, when the Arabs equate Israeli killings with the United States," says Robert Malley of the Center for Middle East Peace.

The United States is the principal supplier of weapons to Israel, providing some $5.2 billion in arms over the last four years, financed largely by annual grants of military aid by Congress. Such weapons include F-15 and F-16 fighter aircraft and attack helicopters.

In recent days, senior U.S. officials, including President Bush, have used increasingly stronger language to urge the Israelis to stop the targeted killings, arguing that they undermine efforts to make peace between the two sides and hamper efforts to prevent an all-out Middle East war from raging.

But those admonitions went ignored Monday, when U.S.-made Apache helicopters were used to target and kill a senior Palestinian activist. — Martha Raddatz at the State Department and David Ruppe contributed to this report.

ISRAEL EXPANDS ITS MILITARY RE-OCCUPATION
OF THE BETHLEHEM AREA

[BADIL Resource CenterBeit Jala, 29 August 2001, 01:00 p.m.] The partial Israeli re-occupation of the Palestinian town of Beit Jala and adjacent areas, including the north-western border of Aida refugee camp, has entered its second day. After more than 35 hours of violent battles between the Israeli occupation army and the Palestinian resistance, and in the absence of determined international intervention, the outcome of this new escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains uncertain.

How long will the Israeli forces remain in the area? Although Israeli media reported that the Sharon government informed the US and European governments that this military operation will be a matter of no more than several hours, Israeli government and army spokespersons argue that authorization for the re-invasion of the Palestinian areas south of the Gilo settlement was given by the "security cabinet" two-and-a-half weeks ago without limitation in time and specifying only the aim: to assure that Palestinian shooting at the Gilo settlement will be terminated once for all. This aim has not been achieved. To the contrary, shooting at the Gilo settlement from the larger Beit Jala and Bethlehem area has reached an unprecedented scope, including light and heavy ammunition, as well a mortars, in response to the Israeli escalation. Moreover, the Sharon government and its army commanders have never clarified the ways and means by which the current "limited Israeli presence" should lead to a halt of the shooting at the Gilo settlement.

Events on the ground (28-29 August): By the noon of 29 September, several new steps indicate that Israel is about to expand its operation by closing in on the Bethlehem area from the south. The positions taken in the north-western Beit Jala area by the Israeli occupation army at the time of its initial incursion in the early morning hours of 28 August have remained unchanged. Israeli tanks and artillery are stationed in the upper section of the town of Beit Jala (some 300 meters into Palestinian controlled "area A") and on the northern border of Aida refugee camp, in addition to the previously existing military bases below the Gilo settlement and at the entrance to Bethlehem. The Israeli occupation army thus controls the north-western area of Beit Jala and Bethlehem and has imposed a curfew on its Palestinian residents. Fierce Palestinian resistance has prevented Israeli movement beyond this area, and frequent attempts to enter further into the adjacent Aida refugee camp have so far been stopped.

Today, at around 11:45, Israeli tanks coming from the Israeli Jerusalem-Hebron road (Road no. 60) rolled into the Palestinian village of Al-Khader, located on the southern boarder of Bethlehem. As of now, the Israeli army has re-occupied an area reaching from the Pools of Suleiman until the old town of Al-Khader. Despite the curfew imposed there, Palestinian residents are trying to resist, using light weapons, Molotov cocktails and kitchen gas bottles in order to encounter the assault. News about Israeli plans to re-occupy the UNRWA operated and internationally protected Aida refugee camp are causing much apprehension in the camp.

Contrary to Israeli assertions that Palestinian civilians, their property, as well as holy sites will not be harmed, suffering and damages are substantial. Israeli tanks withdrew only late last night from the courtyard of Beit Jala's Lutheran church, after holding hostage some 50 Palestinian orphans - confined to one room without food and drink - for a whole day. Also last night, Israeli forces entered the mosque located next to the church, using it as a military position since then. Since yesterday morning, Muhammad Hassan al Masheikheh and his family counting 20 members have been forced to share their home on the northern edge of Aida refugee camp with a dozen of Israeli soldiers who took position in their house. Efforts by the camp residents in coordination with the ICRC and UNRWA to obtain the release of the family have so far remained futile. This morning, Israeli bulldozers destroyed the adjacent wall of the Armenian monastery, and prepared new access roads towards the camp for army vehicles. Two Palestinian resistance fighters (one member of the Palestinian security forces, one civilian, resident of Aida refugee camp) have so far been killed in the confrontations. More than 30 persons are reported injured, several cars belonging to civilians have been destroyed, and an unknown number of Palestinian homes have been damaged. Armed confrontations between the Israeli occupier and the Palestinian resistance continue until this moment. Social and economic life in the Bethlehem-Beit Jala area is paralyzed, public service institutions operate only partially, and Palestinian schools, scheduled to re-open this week have remained closed.

The initial partial and limited Israeli re-occupation of Palestinian controlled lands cannot achieve the declared aim, i.e. halt Palestinian shooting on the Gilo settlement, in the short and medium term. Therefore, the Israeli operation must be seen as part of the long-term strategy of the Sharon government, which has been outlined extensively by Israeli commentators in yesterday's Israeli news programs. The declared aim is to gradually re-occupy all or most of the areas designated as Palestinian controlled areas under the Oslo Accords, and to crush Palestinian resistance by means of extra- judicial killings, arrests and deportation of its leaders. These measures are to be accompanied by an international public relations campaign aiming to further de-legitimize the aims and persons guiding the Palestinian struggle for internationally recognized rights. In this context, it does not matter much whether Israel will eventually be forced by the international community to withdraw from the areas it currently re-occupied in the Beit Jala and Bethlehem area. What matters for the Israeli government is its ability to establish a new fact, i.e. that the international community accepts Israeli invasion and re-occupation whenever Israel identifies a need to do so, i.e. to re-introduce the normality of direct military occupation, even if the price is the immediate and long term escalation of the conflict, human suffering and an uncertain future for Palestinians and Israelis in the region.


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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