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US DEMANDS OF ARAFAT, WORKS EVER MORE CLOSELY AND COVERTLY WITH ISREAL
September 19, 2001
U.S. DEMANDS, ARAFAT SURRENDERS (publicly), SHARON GLOATS (privately)
"I instructed all leaders of the security forces to work intensively on a ceasefire... and to abstain even in self-defence in response to Israeli attacks." Yasser Arafat yesterday
MID-EAST REALITIES © - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 9/19: The Americans are making "demands" on everyone right now. "You're either with us or against us" is the constant refrain. Risking revolution in nuclear Pakistan, bio terrorism at home, and even a real world war, what is going on in Palestine is not at the top of Washington's concerns for now -- but even so it must be all be manipulated, coordinated, and presented in public very carefully in view of the larger worldwide goals. Even though what has been happening in occupied Palestine, magnified on TV screens worldwide, is very much a part of the vortex of hatred and revenge that led to 11 September 2001, the Americans will never admit that in public and the powerful Israeli/Jewish lobby will certainly punish all who dare speak such heretical truths openly.
As usual much of the Western media, and that certainly includes the so-called liberal and internationalist among them including "The Guardian" in once Great Britain, are playing Washington's game. While the headline is accurate proclaiming that "force" by the U.S. brought about the "ceasefire", the idea that Israel was "brought to heel" to end attacks on the Palestinians is just part of the much larger conspiracy afoot. We've been through this cycle a few times in history already -- most recently at the time of the Gulf War, which then lead to Madrid, to Oslo, to "Apartheid Peace", to Intifada II, to Durban...and then to the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon.
The bottom line is the Americans are determined now to pursue their long-time imperial goals, and that one of their most unusual of enemies has provided them the historical moment and the international context. A war to impose a new world order -- one the Israelis are very much a part both because of their own goals in the Middle East and their significant power in the U.S. -- is now underway in the name of stamping out "international terrorism". The underlying realities and immense complexity of the actual conflict -- its broad dimensions and context, the grievances and motivations behind the hatreds and the passions -- will all be subsumed in a jingoistic and simplistic public presentation of good against evil, freedom versus tyranny.
Oftentimes, there are some in the grassroots who are much more candid and insightful than the big players on the international stage -- though of course finding them and hearing them is oh so difficult. In this case, before reading The Guardian's take on what is essentially Arafat's latest surrender arrangement, consider this extemporaneous commentary by Salah Musa in Canada heading up a group calling itself the "Jerusalem Defense Committee": "There is no doubt in my mind that this coming cease fire will hold. It will hold because it will serve the American Interest and allow the US to build another unholy alliance to destroy or cripple yet another Arab or Islamic nation. It will hold, because it will be in Israel's best interest. It will hold, because Israel will achieve a cessation of resistance while not giving up anything other than to stop shelling and killing Palestinians. But the Intifada did not start to stop Israel's shelling of Palestinians. It will hold because it is in the strategic interest of the US and Israel. It will hold, because it will serve the PA's primary and overriding objective of survival at all costs. It will hold because the PA can only think and act tactically. Just yesterday a Palestinian naively proclaimed that "they are going to solve the conflict, because America wants to solve it now" We are a nation of wishful thinkers!
"Does this scenario seem familiar? Did we see this play several years ago? Could this be a mini Gulf War and a subsequent OsloIII all over again? Did NOT the people of Iraq already paid the bill for this prostitution of our cause? Was NOT one of the prices of crippling Iraq the resolution of the Arab Israeli Conflict and forcing Israel to withdraw from the occupied Arab land. Or so we were told. Have we forgotten already? The Gulf war has yet to stop and Israel occupation is expanding, except for its forced and humiliating removal from northern Lebanon. Iraq has been crippled! The US is virtually occupying Saudi Arabia and Kuwait! We got Oslo and a man without any traceable Palestinian roots who likes to be called "president." A "president" who never seem to miss a chance to humiliate himself (and us) at the world stage on weekly basis. A president who has to be fed his short sound bites word by word much like a bad actor in a badly written play. If it does not hold it will not be because of lack of trying by the PA.
"Now ask yourself: Who would win the most from this cease fire? Who would loses? Why now? "Of course after the USA and Israel achieve their objectives, we will be back to square one and at much worse odds than now! Much like our position now relative to the first Intifada and prior to Oslo."
And now, the more conventional and political correct at the moment take on all this, twisted just right to suit the American government's way of wanting things to be presented and misunderstood:
U.S. FORCES MIDDLE EAST CEASEFIRE By Ewen MacAskill, and Virginia Quirke in Jerusalem
[The Guardian - Wednesday, 19 September 2001]: President George Bush last night overcame a major hurdle to building an international coalition against terrorism when he forced the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, to agree to a long-sought Middle East ceasefire.
He used America's enormous economic and political clout to bring Mr Sharon in particular to heel, fearful that Israeli incursions into the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza during the past week would wreck his attempts to include Arab and other Muslim countries in the coalition. As part of a total rethink of the Bush administration's foreign policy since the New York and Washington attacks, the president is taking a tougher line with Israel in an attempt to secure a speedy end to a conflict that feeds Arab hatred of the United States.
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, after speaking to Mr Arafat and Mr Sharon, welcomed the ceasefire as "an encouraging development". "We see some promise this morning," he said.
Under the agreement, the Palestinians will call off their fighters and Israel will pull its tanks back from flashpoints in the West Bank and Gaza. But last night the militant Palestinian Islamist group Islamic Jihad said it rejected the ceasefire. "Islamic Jihad in Palestine rejects the so-called ceasefire, which comes at a time when the Zionist enemy continues its aggression," the group said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Beirut. Mr Arafat's truce announcement was the most unequivocal yet. Speaking from his office in Gaza, he urged Palestinian fighters to exercise maximum restraint, even under Israeli fire. "I instructed all leaders of the security forces to work intensively on a ceasefire... and to abstain even in self-defence in response to Israeli attacks," he said.
He was in no position to resist Mr Bush. He was weakened diplomatically last week by demonstrations by Palestinians cheering the destruction of the World Trade Centre.
As part of a choreography worked out with the US, Mr Sharon responded by ordering the Israel army to pull its tanks and troops from Jenin, Jericho, Ramallah and Hebron, all in what are known as area A, under the control of the Palestinian authority, and which Israel should not enter. The Israeli army said: "The forces which are in Area A will leave completely." It added that its forces in Gaza and the West Bank had been told to "avoid any attacking activities against the Palestinians".
Late last night, the army had only left Jenin and there were exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in Hebron. Despite the battles, an Israel foreign ministry official said the ceasefire offered promise because it was taking place against the background of the attacks in the US. "The test will be in the field, but there is a good chance it will work because of circumstances."
Mr Arafat's biggest problem is in convincing Islamic fundamentalist groups to accept by the ceasefire. A senior Hamas official in Gaza, Ismail Abu Shanab, said that al though the group would continue to fight Israel in principle, it would not challenge Mr Arafat's decision for now. He said Hamas was not interested in stirring internal friction.
The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed that the ceasefire opened the way to a long-awaited meeting, previously blocked by Mr Sharon, between the the foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and Mr Arafat before the end of the week.
In an indication of the extent to which patience with Mr Sharon has ended, a senior British Foreign Office source described Mr Sharon as "the cancer at the centre of the Middle East crisis" yesterday.
US and European diplomats will follow up the ceasefire with a huge campaign over the next few weeks, with a procession of foreign ministers heading for Israel and the Palestinian authority to try to make the agreement stick.
Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who has been more critical of Israel than his predecessor, Robin Cook, and who protested to Israel last week over the incursions into Jenin, Jericho and Ramallah, said: "All of us have been deeply disturbed by the escalating violence in the region in the last week."
In the past few days, there has been enormous telephone traffic between Washington and Jerusalem and Mr Arafat's headquarters in Gaza. If the ceasefire holds, the next step will be to implement a peace plan set out earlier this year by the former US senator George Mitchell. Under the plan, Israel and the Palestinian authority will begin implementing confidence-building measures. Then after a few weeks, the two sides would return to the negotiating table to discuss the issues that divide them.
The UN envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, who has been in close contact with Mr Arafat, said he believed the Palestinian leader's attitude had changed. "I think there's a strong belief that power is no longer in the barrel of a gun, that power now is based on diplomatic instruments to be used at the negotiating table."
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September 2001
FBI accuses people who are alive of hijacking 911 planes
(September 13, 2001)
ORWELLIAN DANCE OF DEATH
(September 30, 2001)
What goes around comes around, the Americans say. They and their allies,
including feisty little Australia, are marching into battle, to be confronted by weapons they sold to the Taliban when the Muslim maddos were on our side against the damned Russkies.
LUNCH WITH THE FINANCIAL TIMES
(September 30, 2001)
It is not often onegets to meet a childhood hero. But Imran Khan, Pakistan'sfinest-ever cricketer, and still the heart-throb of a million adolescent girls, is not in the mood for nostalgia. There is a strong atmosphere of foreboding in Islamabad, Pakistan's gleaming modern capital, following the country's decision to back the US in its war on terrorism.
THE U.S. IS NOW PAYING DEARLY FOR ISRAELI AS WELL AS U.S. POLICIES
(September 29, 2001416)
Americans are preparing for the long, arduous and necessary
task of bringing the perpetrators of Tuesday's unspeakable horror to
justice. But as we do so, we must also ask ourselves why this happened --
and why it might happen again.
INTIFADA II - YEAR 2
(September 28, 2001)
Last summer, the summer of 2000, it was Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, and Yasser Arafat gesturing to each other at the Camp David doorway over whom symbolically would enter before whom.
SAUDIS CAVE
(September 28, 2001)
It was to be expected. Looks like the Saudi Royals have recovered from their "crusade" induced political/historical heart attacks along with a somewhat repentant President Bush. They are caving in, as they always do when Washington really comes calling, aware that in the end the legitimacy of their rule of "the kingdom" is no more (and never really was) and that only the direct protection of the Americans can keep the despicably profligate Royals on their petro-thrones.
ROME JOINS MODERN-DAY "CRUSADES II"
(September 27, 2001)
How fitting that the descendants of the first crusades have now signed-on to the modern-day new Crusades II through their flambouantly right-wing business-tycoon Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
AMERICA'S GLOBAL CRUSADE
(September 27, 2001)
Written by a thoughtful young American academic, recently graduated with Ph.D. from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., "George Bush's Global Crusade" is an important contribution to thinking through what is unfolding as a result of 11 September 2001.
ARAFAT STIFFS DAMASCUS, BUMBLES WITH PERES
(September 26, 2001)
At the last moment, quite literally, Yasser Arafat called off his visit to Damascus, probably under severe threats from both the Israelis and Americans that if he dared defy them now his days truly would be numbered and he would be put on the to-be-vanquished "terrorist" list and suffer the consequences.
BOMBING AFGANSITAN- A NATION BETRAYED AND DESTROYED
(September 25, 2001)
"The problem is that America wants its own version of
justice, a concept rooted, it seems, in the Wild West
and Hollywood's version of the Second World War.
President Bush speaks of smoking them out, of the
old posters that once graced Dodge City: 'Wanted,
Dead or Alive'."
CIVIL WAR FEARED IN PAKISTAN
(September 25, 2001)
Pakistan's most powerful triballeader, Ajmal Khattak, yesterday pleaded with the country's leading fundamentalist agitator, Sami ul-Haq, "to keep Pakistan calm during the present crisis."
WARNINGS OF BACKLASH AND BLOWBACK GROWING..
(September 25, 2001)
The American government has a long long history of militarism and deception; but under the new circumstances post-11 Sept many who normally have grown skeptical and partially independent over the years are doing what they are told, "complying" so to speak.
OSAMA BIN LADEN SPEAKS
(September 24, 2001)
Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to join a holy war against "the American crusade," and the United Nations said Monday that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia have virtually shut down its humanitarian operations by threatening to kill its remaining staff.
THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN HISTORY SINCE ....
(September 24, 2001)
"The attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center are the most important event in world history since the collapse of the Soviet Union."
FOUAD, JAMES, AND CLOVIS "TV ARABS" - MER FLASHBACK
(September 24, 2001)
When the American mass media needs to flash "Arab" on the screen pretending to some kind of semblance of "balance", they know whom to call on. These are the faces, names and "Arab" identifications one sees on the screen politely commenting these days about "terrorism" and "peace process".
SERIOUS AND CONFUSING DEVELOPMENTS IN ISREAL, EGYPT, SAUDI - KEY US ALLIES
(September 23, 2001)
There is a strange and growing tension coming from the Middle East this weekend; and we don't mean from Afghanistan and Pakistan this time, rather we mean from America's closest allies, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. We're in no position to know for sure just what is happening. But in each of these countries very unusual and potentially historic developments are unfolding.
BIN LADEN LOCATED!?
(September 22, 2001)
It's impossible to know what to believe at the moment. It's possible the U.S. and Britain have no real idea where bin Laden is but are leaking reports of this kind in papers tomorrow in Britain hoping to "smoke him out" from what could be a secretly secure location. It's also possible that someone somewhere is trying to collect a reward of $25 million, the highest in history.
IS THE US WALKING RIGHT INTO BIN LADEN'S TRAP?
(September 22, 2001)
History will tell of course; but today's situation is far too pregnant with massive destruction to simply watch while the militarists and the terrorists of all sides take charge of the future.
US PLAYS WITH POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL FIRE
(September 22, 2001)
No question about it now, the U.S. is playing with fire, even with the possibility of things spiraling out of control and leading to a real World War whose destruction and devastation could be far greater than 11 September 2001.
SECRET PLAN TO OVERTHROW TALIBAN AND INSTALL NEW REGIME
(September 21, 2001)
The UNITED NATIONS has shamefully bowed out, right when it is needed more than ever. Urged to do so by Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- who had been urged to do so by Washington, which he has quite a habit of taking orders from -- for the first time in history the General Assembly has put off its important international gathering and not even set an alternative date.
USE NUKES SAYS PENTAGON!?
(September 21, 2001)
Especially under current circumstances, whether the excuse be that it is being talked about for "deterrence" against further terrorist attack, or God forbid whether it be the actual recommendation and desire of the American military, the advocacy of nuclear weapons at this time shows how dangerous the American militarists who have control of the United States really are.
INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT FISK
(September 21, 2001)
KIM HILL [Radio New Zealand on 19 Sept]: Can I talk to you about
Osama Bin Laden? I don't know whether you are in favour of him
becoming public enemy number one at the moment but I do know that
you have met him and I wonder if you could give me some kind of
insight into, first of all, is he capable of this.
SECRET PLANS FOR 10-YEAR WAR
(September 20, 2001)
Ten years in our modern world is forever. Whatever President George W Bush proclaims this evening before what will surely be overwhelming applause and repeated ovations from the Congress, American military and imperial goals are now much bigger than ever.
PRESIDENT RUNS TO MOSQUE TO OVERWRITE "CRUSADE" COMMENTS
(September 19, 2001)
Though the naive American public didn't get it, Europeans, Middle East experts, and especially American allies in the Middle East did! Warning calls came quickly over the weekend after President George Bush used the word "crusade" a number of times; apparently knowing so little about the Arab and Muslim history that he wasn't aware of the origins and associations of that single word; apparently so badly served by his advisers that he hadn't been warned never ever to use it.
PAKISTAN COULD SPLIT IN REVOLT, images of 'crusader' america
(September 19, 2001)
General Pervez Musharaff has now spoken to his own country, invoking stories of Mohamed and the Koran. Clearly he is shaken...and shaking. All former bets about the "new world order" now need to recalculated and recast. A multitude of historic forces have now been set in motion. Not only did the world of the United States change because of what happened on 11 September 2001. A political, even an existential earthquake is potentially underway now in various locations on the globe with events threatening to spiral possibly out of control.
US DEMANDS OF ARAFAT, WORKS EVER MORE CLOSELY AND COVERTLY WITH ISREAL
(September 19, 2001)
The Americans are making "demands" on everyone right now. "You're either with us or against us" is the constant refrain. Risking revolution in nuclear Pakistan, bio terrorism at home, and even a real world war, what is going on in Palestine is not at the top of Washington's concerns for now -- but even so it must be all be manipulated, coordinated, and presented in public very carefully in view of the larger worldwide goals.
CHOMSKY ON 11 SEPT 2001
(September 18, 2001)
Asked "Do you expect U.S. to profoundly change their policy to the rest of the world?" Professor Noam Chomsky replied today: "The initial response was to call for intensifying the policies that led to the fury and resentment that provides the background of support for the terrorist attack, and to pursue more intensively the agenda of the most hard line elements of the leadership: increased militarization, domestic regimentation, attack on social programs... Terror attacks, and the escalating cycle of violence they often engender, tend to reinforce the authority and prestige of the most harsh and repressive elements of a society."
FROM ISLAMAMBAD
(September 18, 2001)
"If the campaign against terrorism is to be successful,
there has to be an introspective American review
and reappraisal of its policy in the Middle East. For
the last one year, the only image that is etched in the
popular Muslim mind is that of innocent and unarmed
children, women and men being attacked by armed
Israeli soldiers backed by tanks, missiles and planes.
IF AMERICA ATTACKS....
(September 16, 2001)
Like the term "Star Wars" before it "New World Order" had too many negative associations, too much imperial baggage. George W. has however evoked the refrain "This will not stand", just as his father did before him a decade ago. What is in essence a continuation of the building of the "New World Order" designed by the Americans to replace the "Cold War" paradigm is now being heavily masked under tons of rhetoric about "the war against international terrorism".
CHOMSKY- THE BOMBINGS, THE WAR, THE PALESTINIANS
(September 15, 2001)
The terrorist attacks were major atrocities. In scale they may not reach the level of many others, for example, Clinton's bombing of the Sudan with no credible pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and killing unknown numbers of people (no one knows, because the US blocked an inquiry at the UN and no one cares to pursue it). Not to speak of much worse cases, which easily come to mind. But that this was a horrendous crime is not in doubt.
FLASHBACK 3 YEARS AGO
(September 14, 2001)
The Arab "client regimes" daddle as usual, unable to even convene an Arab League meeting, not to mention assert major influence in the world, even in their region.
ARAFAT - ONE FAILURE, ONE DISASTER, AFTER ANOTHER
(September 10, 2001)
Arafat readies to meet once again with Peres, even as his senior allies are gunned down, his top lieutenants ridiculously proclaim victory in Durban, the Arab League can't even manage to hold a summit meeting, the battle of Orient House was quickly given up, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers starts building facilities for the Israeli army, and 100+ more American F-16s (plus large numbers of the Arrow anti-missile missile) are now on order for shipment to Israel!
THE RACISTS' CONFERENCE - SELL OUT IN DURBAN
(September 9, 2001)
Once again the weak Arab regimes and the incompetent organizations they support have stumbled and bumbled to nowhere.
durban, the rascists' confrence
(September 8, 2001)
Muslim countries claimed they were threatened and intimidated to accept the compromise statement on Palestine which was proposed by the President of the Conference earlier this week.
THE REAL JESSE JACKSON
(September 8, 2001)
The American sub-agents in Durban did all they could, which was quite a lot, to undermine the will of the vast majority of the world's nations and peoples.
MANY MORE F16s FOR ISRAEL!
(September 7, 2001)
THE SOOTHING WORDS that come from the Americans destined to be headlined in the media of the Arab "client regimes" to cool off if not totally pacify the Arab masses have no credibility, even though far too many continue to repeat them ad infinitum.
PALESTINIAN ELITE AND PA OFFICIALS FLEEING
(September 7, 2001)
Israel is paying a price -- and this is not a reference to economics. But even so the price being paid by the Palestinians is immensely greater.
MER FLASHBACK- EIGHT YEARS AGO IN WASHINGTON, DC
(September 7, 2001)
The power and political elite were gathering on the White House lawn four years ago today practically giddy with excitement. The popular media was filled with expressions of how startling was the breakthrough, how wonderful and irreversible was the 'peace process', how the "New World Order" and the "New Middle East" were finally dawning.
AMERICANS NOW BUILDING BASES FOR ISRAELI MILITARY , PALESTINIAN MUSLIM INSTITUTIONS RAIDED IN THE US
(September 6, 2001)
Some eighty Federal Agents descended on Richardson, Texas, yesterday striking a blow against Muslim organizations raising funds for Palestinians groups not approved by the USA and thus accused, largely by those associated with the Israeli/Jewish lobby, of "terrorism".
SIGNIFICANT MORAL PROTESTS - ISRAELI TEENS, A BRITISH REPORTER
(September 6, 2001)
The former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Denis Haliday, quit the U.N. a few years ago in moral protest over the U.N.'s complicity in genocide against the people of Iraq.
LIKE IT REALLY IS - MER FLASHBACK
(September 6, 2001)
The worst massacres in the recent history of the Middle East have not been perpetrated by Arabs, but rather by Israelis. This simple fact is often overlooked in the Western media. In 1982 thousands of Palestinian refugees were slaughtered in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla -- this on top of the estimated 20,000+ Lebanese and Palestinian civilians killed during Israel's barbarous war on Lebanon.
CHAOS REINS - WAR PREPARATIONS ESCALATE
(September 5, 2001)
Ariel Sharon in Moscow had to call off his visit to the Duma as well as with Patriarch Alexei II today, reasons not spelled out but not that hard to contemplate.
APARTHEID-LIKE POLICIES CONDEMNED EVEN AS THEY EXPAND
(September 5, 2001)
Even as the Americans and Israelis continue desperate moves to try to prevent the Final Conference Statement at Durban from being as harsh as it could and should be, the Israelis are working furiously to begin to unilaterally implement their post-Oslo, post-Camp David "separation" program -- which in its actual implications on the ground is in fact the neo-apartheid approach everyone is screaming about in Durban.
DURBAN TO NEW YORK - ON TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
(September 4, 2001)
The Americans and the Israelis have tried everything regarding the Durban Conference to prevent Israel from being specifically mentioned as a racist state in the final conference document. They have repeatedly used all kinds of threat and bribes to get their way.
CNN AND THE REAL TILTS OF THE U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA
(September 3, 2001)
Thirty years ago most of the area now known as Gilo was part of the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem. Gilo has been built from scratch across the "Green Line" in areas Israel occupied at the time of the 1967 war. In the past three decades Israel has followed a basic and sustained policy of Arab dispossession and Jewish building.
"RACIST APARTHIED STATE" SAYS NGO GATHERING
(September 2, 2001)
When plans were being made for the World Conference on Racism...etc...now taking place in Durban, SA, it was the heyday of the "Peace Process" and the very term "apartheid" was nowhere to be heard in much of the establishment media, certainly not in the USA.
ANTI-APARTHEID II MOVEMENT BORN
(September 1, 2001)
Even while Israel continues to assassinate senior Palestinians the developments in Durban are telling. As usual the Arafat regime is selling out everyone else for its own gain -- continuing to earn its money so to speak even under the unprecedented circumstances of 2001.
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