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The "Arafat Era" Collapsing or About To Be Reborn?

October 20, 2001

ARAFAT SO DESPERATE HE MAY TRY TO SIGN "STATE" AGREEMENT NOW

"Arafat's opposition - made up of the Islamic bloc and the left - now enjoys the majority of the support of the Palestinian public. Adding Arafat's opponents within Fatah, the hardships of the Palestinian leadership are greater today than they have ever been."

MID-EAST REALITIES © - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington -10/20: Yasser Arafat is losing both his grip on power (extended to him by the Israelis and the Americans for the past decade since the Gulf War) and his credibility (with his own people) at the same time.

The Israelis, as usual with considerable American help no matter what the public relations theatrics of the moment, have him cornered. After so many years of being infiltrated and manipulated, after taking so many wrong turns in the past, after so much corruption and ineptitude, Arafat is now up against the wall with his own people, having nowhere to turn but into an even a tighter embrace with his life-long nemesis.

This is the great fear many of the most astute Palestinians have of the situation they are now in, a fear that their long-time but actually widely mistrusted and despised "leader" will react as he has in the past and in desperation try again to save himself at the great expense of his own people. Intense secret negotiations with the Israelis and the CIA are known to be ongoing, Arafat's de facto Prime Minister, Nabil Sha'ath, whom many Palestinians also consider a kind of de facto American agent in their midst, frantically trying to bring about some kind of deal to save the "Palestinian Authority" (i.e. the Arafat regime) at nearly any cost.

Of course this is precisely the predicament the Israelis want Arafat in and have worked so hard for so long to achieve. Their first preference is to use Arafat while he is still alive to sign some kind of historic agreement -- one that purportedly will create a kind of fractured, disjointed, near-stillborn Palestinian statelet (which will of course be publicly touted as far more), but which will actually be designed to legitimize and mask continuing Israeli rule; certainly one that won't even come close to meeting the basic minimal requirements of legitimate Palestinian aspirations. A second preference for some (first for others) from the real yet unspoken Israeli point-of-view, would be that they finally to get Arafat assassinated -- by other Palestinians that is. Just imagine how the Israeli propaganda machine is going to play that one. As for the Americans, they might even send Colin Powell to the funeral!

ISRAEL SAYS ARAFAT ERA IS OVER

By Christopher Walker

* PLO fears leader is target of assassination plot * Sharon warning of war within a week

[The Times (London), Jerusalem, 19 October]: THE Middle East moved closer to a new war yesterday as Ariel Sharon declared the Arafat era over and moved tanks into three West Bank towns.

Israel also killed a leading Palestinian militant, and the PLO claimed to have evidence that the Jewish state was plotting to assassinate its leader, Yassir Arafat.

The rapid collapse of the peace process followed the murder of Rehavam Zeevi, the Israeli Tourism Minister, by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on Wednesday. Mr Sharon said: "Arafat has seven days to impose absolute quiet in the (occupied) territories. If not, we will go to war against him. As far as I am concerned, the era of Arafat is over."

The Palestinians suspect that Israel has decided on its response to the killing of Mr Zeevi. Nabil Abu Rdainah, an Arafat aide, said that the Palestinian Authority had evidence that Israel was planning to assassinate Mr Arafat.

Israel's Security Cabinet is understood to have sent a blunt message to Mr Arafat that unless Israel's conditions for the extradition of the killers and the outlawing of all Palestinian terror organisations were adhered to within one week he "would be treated in the way in which the US treats the Taleban".

Although there was some confusion about the precise timing of the new Israeli deadline for the surrender of the PFLP killers - whose identity ministers claimed to know - officials said that it would run out at the end of the seven-day mourning period for Mr Zeevi.

In a reflection of the mood across much of Israel as Mr Zeevi, a former army general, was buried with full military honours in Jerusalem, his family and other mourners called for retaliation on a massive scale to avenge his murder.

The latest Israeli "targeted killing" near the West Bank town of Bethlehem was that of Ataf Abayat, a member of the Tanzim militia of Mr Arafat's Fatah faction. He died instantly in a car bomb explosion. He was high on Israel's wanted list and blamed for the recent death of a woman settler.

At least three other Palestinians were killed in clashes across the West Bank, as Israeli tanks entered the Palestinian towns of Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah. A 10-year-old schoolgirl was killed in Jenin and two Palestinian security men using automatic rifles to try to prevent tanks advancing into Ramallah also died. The Palestinians said that four other schoolgirls and three adults were wounded in Jenin.

The killing of Mr Abayat, and two other Palestinian militants who were with him, led to reprisals by Palestinian gunmen, who fired on the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo, which Palestinians regard as an illegal Jewish settlement. A mortar bomb was fired late in the evening but there were no reports of injuries.

In another incident an Israeli man was shot and killed and two of his companions were wounded in a drive-by shooting on the road between Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Jericho.

Israeli sources refused to comment on the killing of Mr Abayat, who had recently been picked up by the Palestinian police and released soon after. He was on a wanted list Israel had given to Mr Arafat.

The Palestinian Authority said that it had arrested 11 PFLP members, although it was not clear if they included the suspected assassins. Ziad Abu Zayad, a Palestinian Cabinet minister, said: "If indeed the people behind Zeevi's murder are inside Palestinian Authority territory, Arafat needs to arrest them and bring them to trial, but not to extradite them to Israel."

Sending tanks into the Palestinian towns, the Israeli Cabinet said that it reserved the right to enter Palestinian-ruled territory in the West Bank and Gaza Strip whenever "there is an operational need to act against terror".

Even moderate Israelis appeared ready for a new cycle of violence. Yossi Sarid, leader of the main left-wing Meretz party, said that the country was heading inexorably towards a repeat of the Lebanon invasion of 1982, which followed the attempted assassination of its London ambassador, except this time against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In advance of the harsher action against Mr Arafat, Mr Sharon nominated four senior ministers to fly to the US to convince the Government and people there that the Palestinian leader was not cracking down on terrorism.

ARAFAT LOSING SUPPORT, CANNOT QUELL OPPOSITION

By Danny Rubinstein

[Ha'aretz - 20 October]: The severe deterioration of the situation in the territories is weakening Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and is undermining the authority of Palestinian leadership. Palestinian spokesmen said Thursday that they have no doubt that Arafat has wanted to achieve a cease-fire in recent weeks, so as to regain the trust of the United States and European nations.

According to the Head of the Jerusalem Media Center, Rassan al-Hatib, the person who prevented Arafat from reaching the relative calm and cease-fire was Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who, even before Wednesday's murder of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, had renewed his policy of assassinations, elevating tensions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

According to a speech given Wednesday in Jerusalem by researcher Dr. Khalil Shikaki, of Ramallah, Arafat's oppostion - made up of the Islamic bloc and the left - now enjoys the majority of the support of the Palestinian public. Adding Arafat's opponents within Fatah, the hardships of the Palestinian leadership are greater today than they have ever been.

An example that highlights the huge gap between Arafat's policies and the Palestinian public opinion is the attitude towards Ze'evi's assassination. While Arafat and his associates denounced the murder, opposite opinions were voiced on the Palestinian street.

An interviewer on an Arab television station Thursday asked Dr. Mustafa Barghouti of Ramallah if committing the murder had been a mistake on the part of the PFLP, because of the barriers it imposed on the PA's attempts to win international support. "Why should we blame ourselves? The Israeli government assassinates and kills us every day, and we should remain silent?" Barghouti replied.

The Palestinian Islamic organizations chose sharply worded responses, while the main headline of Thursday's edition of the Islamic Jihad's Al-Istiklal journal read: "The intifada crushed the head of Ze'evi the snake and sowed fear in the Zionist establishment."

Last week, when the journal used harsh language against the actions of the Palestinian police, news spread that Arafat had ordered the arrest of the editor, but it now appears that this never transpired and the editor and his journal continue to function as usual. In Gaza, estimates were made Thursday night that any attempt by Arafat to take action against the Islamic organizations and the left-wing bloc would be an act of political suicide.

The differences between the claims made by Arafat and his associates and what actually takes place on the ground was exemplified Thursday when shooting was renewed on the Gilo neighborhood in Jerusalem. Also Thursday, a demonstration took place near the prison in Bethlehem, with the demonstrators demanding that individuals suspected of cooperating with Israel be put to death. Bethlehem residents said Thursday that nothing would stop the demands for revenge called on by the Abayet clan, who lost a family member to IDF gunfire at the start of the intifada, and has suffered three more deaths since.

Members of the Palestinian leadership tried Thursday to salvage some of support from the Palestinian public by claiming that Israel has plans to assassinate Arafat. This claim was made by Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh, as well as other Palestinian cabinet members. It was also clear that the Palestinians would reject Israel's ultimatum that Ze'evi's assassins be extradited and the offices of the PFLP be closed. "We are an independent authority and will not accept these dictates," Abu Rudeineh said.



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October 2001


Magazine






Bio and Nuclear Threats Escalate As Purposeful Leaks Proliferate to Mass Media
(October 26, 2001)
The timing of newsstories like this in the major Western media should be suspect now more than ever. For more than ever in fact governments and intelligence agencies are using the mass media by leaking things at times of convenience and more importantly with their own twists and turns.

"Stop Israel!" Pleads Israeli Professor
(October 26, 2001)
One Israeli, not invited by the naive and misguided American Jewish "liberals" to the USA, speaks up from Israel with tremendous courage and conviction. Her name is Tanya Reinhart and she deserves to be taken very seriously -- though far too many don't even know about her.

"Palestinian Statehood" - Another Grotesque Deception Unfolds
(October 25, 2001)
The political smokescreens are lifting a bit as the pressures build to go beyond mere words, yet at the same time a purposeful distorting haze is taking over. Bottom line: the kind of "Palestinian State" Yasser Arafat has maneuvered his people toward and is being cornered into implementing is a grotesque distortion of their aspirations and of what use to be meant by the term "Palestinian State."

"A Pen Bought And Sold" - A Saudi Poem Revisited - MER FlashBack
(October 21, 2001)
Change comes in the Middle East, as elsewhere, in complex ways. There is the regular daily news of course; and in the region especially it is inextricably intertwined with an ever-more-sophisticated and propagandistic journalistic establishment.

WHY AMERICA MUST STOP THE WAR NOW
(October 24, 2001)
Both of the Georges are oh so full of themselves cocky -- just the personality type so many American's truly love. One is (to the amazement of many who wonder how in the world the U.S. chooses such persons to lead it) the President of the United States.

Massacres and Devastation Escalate Further In Palestine
(October 24, 2001)
The Palestinians are essentially defenseless with their backs up against the wall, the firing wall. Their "leadership" has been so corrupted and infiltrated that the Arafat regime has hardly any credibility with its own, not to mention anyone else.

Torture Now Coming to USA?
(October 22, 2001)
Adopting the tactics (as well as the goals) of the Israelis, and the methods long taught by the CIA in Latin America as well as the Middle East, the brave new world post 11 September is changing the face of the American homeland in ways nearly all Americans would have seriously resisted just a few long weeks ago.

Millions Likely To Die in Afghanistan U.N. Warns
(October 21, 2001)
As for Afghanistan, the American CIA worked behind the scenes to bring on the Soviet invasion of 1979, then engaged the Soviet Empire in a way that brought about the near-total devastation of Afghanistan and a huge uncounted death toll.

It's "New Imperialism" says leading British MP
(October 21, 2001)
Much pressure is building at the United Nations to not open itself to still more charges of being complicitous in "genocide", not to mention to do something to stop being seen as "an extension of the American State Department" (the actual private words of a senior U.N. official).

"Comply! Resistance Is Futile!"
(October 20, 2001)
British MP (Member of Parliament) George Galloway calls it the "new imperialism" (his article coming later today). On the whole the Anglo-British press is working up quite a frenzy (with notable exceptions like The Guardian and The Independent in the UK, sometimes The Nation in the U.S.).

The "Arafat Era" Collapsing or About To Be Reborn?
(October 20, 2001)
Yasser Arafat is losing both his grip on power (extended to him by the Israelis and the Americans for the past decade since the Gulf War) and his credibility (with his own people) at the same time.

The Coming Arab Crash
(October 19, 2001)
The west's most important friends in the Arab Middle East - Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah of Jordan, Mubarak of Egypt and the PLO's Yasser Arafat - are probably the world's most vulnerable political quartet.

Saudi Amb Bandar Badly Fails, Saudi Royals in Paralysis, US Relations in Doubt
(October 19, 2001)
Prince Bandar bin Sultan's 20+ year strategy has now substantially failed. Years ago, very much behind-the-scenes of course, the very controversial and in some circles much despised Saudi Ambassador in Washington began a relationship with the some of the most conservative and militant circles in Washington, very much including those associated with the powerful Israeli/Jewish lobby.

Worse Than Worthless Wartime "Promises"
(October 18, 2001)
The list of broken and disingenuous "promises" made to the Arabs by Western political leaders is something befitting a "Saturday Night Live" parody skit -- if only they would dare!

"New Era" Says Sharon Reacting In Character to "Gandhi" Assassination
(October 17, 2001)
He had called the Palestinians "lice" and "vermin" and "cancer", and he had urged their "transfer" or "extermination". Just Monday he has tendered his resignation as Minister of Tourism, insisting that Ariel Sharon was being too moderate and too compromising.

"PALESTINIAN STATE" a la WASHINGTON and LONDON
(October 17, 2001)
As for the British, what's going on in both Palestine and Kashmir, the two most likely potential nuclear flashpoints in our world today, can be traced back directly to what the British did in these areas when they were the "Empire"

FAR RIGHT-WING ISRAELI MINISTER ASSASSINATED THIS MORNING
(October 17, 2001)
For some time now Palestinians have been warning that because of Israel's assassination of Palestinian leaders, "crossing the red line" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they would respond.

Red Cross Bombed in Kabul Before Presidential Red Cross Visit in Washington
(October 16, 2001)
You gotta love the chutzpa of the Americans. Today the President went a few blocks from the White House to the Headquarters of the American Red Cross -- a little photo op designed to further enlist "the children of America" in his recently announced effort to help the children of Afghanistan. But just as President Bush was getting ready to do his Red Cross pictures reports came in from Afghanistan that the major Red Cross center in Kabul, complete with large Red Cross emblem on its roof, was destroyed by American bombs.

Saudi/U.S. "Meltdown"? And Neutralizing Al Jazeera With A Firm Embrace
(October 16, 2001)
While American and British officials rush to make one TV appearance after another with continual reassurances everything is going "as planned", that's not quite the reality of the situation as this article in today's Guardian makes quite evident.

What Can We Do About Terrorism? by Lt. Col Robert M. Bowman (ret)
(October 15, 2001)
"Mr. President, you did not tell the American people the truth about why we are the targets of terrorism. You said that we are the target because we stand for democracy, freedom, and human rights in the world. Baloney! We are the target of terrorists because we stand for dictatorship, bondage, and human exploitation in the world."

Pentagon Far More Confused and Uncertain Than Americans Realize
(October 15, 2001)
The Bush administration is growing increasingly alarmed by the direction of the military campaign in Afghanistan after a week of almost continuous bombing has failed to dislodge either Osama bin Laden or the Taliban leadership.

Al-Qaeda Weekend Statement
(October 15, 2001)
This isn't really about "secret messages". Anyone with a $300 satellite dish can watch the statements in full, in Arabic, on al Jazeera; and the text is widely available on the Internet, in this case from London and the BBC!

Hundreds Dead in Nigeria
(October 14, 2001)
Hundreds of people have been killed in religious clashes after anti-U.S. protests turned violent, sources have told CNN. The demonstrations against the U.S.-led missile strikes on Afghanistan began peacefully on Friday but spiralled into a killing spree during Saturday, CNN's Lagos bureau chief Jeff Koinange said.

akistan's Benazir Opens Campaign in Washington as Pakistan Trembles Anarchy
(October 14, 2001)
Benazir Bhutto came to Washington this week to open her campaign for a third term as Prime Minister of the world's second largest, and only nuclear armed, Muslim State -- her first two terms she was overthrown, political and financial corruption was rampant, and her arranged husband remains in a Karachi prison.

Iraq Likely To Be Next "Phase"
(October 14, 2001)
A powerful coalition of "hawkish" government officials, lobbyists (especially those connected with the Israelis and the arms corporations), conservative press publications and columnists, many of the national Jewish organizations, as well as millions of Christian fundamentalists associated with Pat Robertson and his daily TV "700 Club" program, is mobilized to make sure that "America's new war" does not end with Afghanistan and al-Qaeda.

Saudi Royals Bugged, Embarrassed, Unstable
(October 13, 2001)
The following information is about to come out in THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE on Monday and is being leaked in Washington this weekend to stir up interest and try to get publicity for the magazine and author on the Sunday talk shows tomorrow.

Attacks and Demonstrations Escalating in Arab and Muslim Countries
(October 13, 2001)
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in various cities in the Middle East to protest the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. Many more thronged to mosques for Friday prayers throughout the region and heard anti-American sermons.

Western Commando Forces Getting Ready
(October 13, 2001)
This article in The Telegraph today is a good outline of what now seems likely to be immediately ahead in Afghanistan, pushed forward by weather considerations as well as by current expectations that American-sponsored key governments in Pakistan, Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, as well as the Arafat Regime, will all be able to weather the political storms with much expanded and mostly covert continual help from the western governments and intelligence services.

"War of the Worlds" by Mark Bruzonsky
(October 11, 2001)
In the case of America's new war, the full might of the USA is being mobilized not against the armies of other nation states, but against the fanatical descendants of a puritanical militant Islam whose calling has become relentless opposition to American hegemony and passionate assertion of their own quaintly medieval religious constructs.

Arafat Begs Israelis To Save Him
(October 10, 2001)
It's a most complicated political dance than ever at this historical crossroads. But bottom line Yasser Arafat and his regime have now, even more than before, thrown their future to the Israelis and the now omnipresent CIA...

Uri Avneri - Fronting for Arafat and for a Castrated "Palestinian State"
(October 10, 2001)
The Israeli writer and activist Uri Avneri is "on tour" in the USA on his way to Washington. It shouldn't come as a surprise that a few naive or on- the-take "peace groups" -- Jewish and otherwise -- have invited him to speak.

After Afghanistan, U.S. has Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine in its Sights
(October 10, 2001)
In this case there should be no one saying down the road that they didn't know what was being planned. The Americans have said publicly and in many different ways right from the start of this "new war" that it wasn't going to end with Osama bin Laden, with the Taliban government, or with Afghanistan.

The "Palestinian State" Charade
(October 9, 2001)
Most of the Arab regimes, including that of Yasser Arafat, have proved themselves so co-opted and so gullible over the years that you can't blame the Americans for continuing to try their little tricks and deceptions -- just look how well, at least from their point-of-view, such things have worked in the past..

Anthrax Terrorism Now Likely
(October 9, 2001)
Federal officials suspect foul play rather than an environmental source is at the root of two Florida anthrax cases that have left one man dead and hundreds of co-workers lining up for medical tests.

Biological Attack? Inept or Demonstration?
(October 9, 2001)
Is someone sending a message that they can do it, a kind of primative, and deadly, deterrence attempt to try to protect themselves? Might this be an "inept attack" as today's TIMES in London suggests in its headline? As the third case of Anthrax in Florida is reported this morning, something seems to be up as the following reports indicate.

Bush versus bin Laden - Syria Elected to Security Council
(October 8, 2001)
It's all quite amazing really, President George W. Bush versus Osama bin Laden. On the one hand you have the most powerful man in the world commanding the full might of not only the world's only superpower but a whole entourage of Western European allies, the new Russia, and to a considerable extent at least behind-the-scenes many Arab and Muslim "client regimes".

Arafat's Army Opens Fire On Its Own - More Anthrax in Florida?
(October 8, 2001)
The Palestinian leadership rushed to distance itself Monday from Osama bin Laden while its police forces opened fire on university students protesting the U.S.-led military strikes on Afghanistan.

FBI Knocked...He's Not Home But You Can Find Him at the White House
(October 8, 2001)
Now the world will become much more confusing and dangerous, and the opponents of the American Empire will obviously be forced even deeper underground -- both literally and figuratively -- becoming even more insular and isolated among themselves leading to who knows what kind of future blowback.

US Journalist Warns: "Do not try to change the government in Afghanistan!"
(October 7, 2001)
Late friday evening one of the leading American journalists who is an expert on the Middle East and Islamic affairs was asked a question on CNN to which she immediately briefly answered...and that was that...no more was asked or answered.

"Our Friends are Killers, Crooks and Torturers"
(October 7, 2001)
Surely the British Prime Minister should know better than to try to simplify such a complex world we live in to that understandable by a third-grader. If not we have a little weekend reading Mr. Blair should be doing, starting in one of his own newspapers which we surely hope, especially now, he can find a few moments to read on a regular basis, The Independent.

History Corrected - U.S. Wanted Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
(October 6, 2001)
The world believes that there was an invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union on 24 December 1979 and then, in response, the U.S. and Muslim countries rallied to help Afghanistan repel the invaders. Wrong...just as so much of the widely accepted history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the actual realities of U.S. involvements in the Middle East are wrong because of the manipulation of history by various governments and intelligence agencies -- most especially the U.S. and Israel, the CIA and the Mossad.

UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS FOR AMERICANS TO PONDER
(October 6, 2001)
"Could it be that the stygian anger that led to the attacks has its taproot not in American freedom and democracy, but in the US government's record of commitment and support to exactly the opposite things - to military and economic terrorism, insurgency, military dictatorship, religious bigotry and unimaginable genocide (outside America)?"

MER EDITORIAL: POSSIBLE WAY OUT!
(October 5, 2001)
The government in Afghanistan, popularly known as The Taliban, has finally taken what could be a significant step. Just hours ago through its official representative in Pakistan the Afghan government has publicly offered to turn Osama bin Laden over...not to the United States, but to another Islamic country.

CANADIAN PROFESSOR TAKES ON THE U.S.A
(October 5, 2001)
"The women in the audience -- academics, union members, mental health workers and advocates for female inmates, embraced her anti-American rhetoric, repeatedly interrupting her with cheers and standing ovations."

THE CIA, ISI, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN - A LITTLE HISTORY
(October 5, 2001)
Now we know that a few years ago, when President Bill Clinton was meeting privately one-on-one with the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, the U.S. "hired" the agents of the infamous Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) to assassinate Osama bin Laden.

NEWSFLASH: LAST MOMENT ARAB COLD FEET - RUMSFELD RUSHES TO THE REGION
(October 3, 2001)
The United States and Britain yesterday called off military strikes against terrorist targets in Afghanistan at the last minute. Washington officials say today that a severe attack of last-minute cold feet by some key Arab members of the coalition caused President Bush to postpone the operation.

WHERE DID THE TALIBAN COME FROM?
(October 3, 2001)
Osama bin Laden, arch nemesis of America today, is blowback from recent history -- the Gulf war, the permanent stationing of American forces in Arabia, and other American policies in the region, including the deceptive "peace process" fronting for Israel's brutal subjugation of the Palestinians.

BOTH SAUDIS AND PAKISTANIS CONTINUE TO ACTUALLY SAY NO
(October 3, 2001)
The American Secretary of Defense is rushing to the Middle East, goal #1 to try one more time to "convince" the Saudis that Prince Sultan Airbase and its super-modern regional control center -- just completed in fact during the summer at a cost of many billions -- is needed for the new war.

U.S. PREPARES FOR CRUSADER WAR - "OPEN-ENDED WAR WITHOUT CONSTRAINT"
(October 2, 2001)
"Drafted with a small coterie of loyal aides, mainly civilian political appointees at the Pentagon, the plans argue for open-ended war without constraint either of time or geography and potentially engulfing the entire Middle East and central Asia... The plans put before the President during the past few days involve expanding the war beyond Afghanistan to include similar incursions by special ops forces - followed by air strikes by the bombers they would guide - into Iraq, Syria and the Beqaa Valley area of Lebanon, where the Syrian-backed Hizbollah (Party of God) fighters that harass Israel are based."

READYING THE CRUSADE - ARMIES, PRESS, PUBLIC
(October 2, 2001)
Anyone with an ear tuned to Washington's politicians, lobbyists, and opinion molders can hear it quite loudly and clearly at this point. After taking down Osama bin Laden's al Queda network (said to be in some 50+ countries), after changing the government in Afghanistan, the American-led crusade (now more politely known by Colin Powell's term "campaign") will attempt to march on through the Middle East, next stop Baghdad.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT SAYS POWELL - "PALESTINIAN STATE"
(October 2, 2001)
It took them who intially talked of "crusade" nearly three weeks to figure out that all the "coalition building" wasn't going nearly as well as they keep saying in public and that doing something about all the Israeli oppression and "terrorism" against the essentially imprisoned Palestinian population would be a good idea in the post 11 September world and before the bombs start falling on Muslims here and there.

ARMY WANTS TO KILL ARAFAT SAYS PERES!
(October 1, 2001)
The situation is now so tense in Israel in dealing with the "Palestinian Authority" -- which it should be remembered the Israelis themselves created just a few years ago -- that Shimon Peres is getting more and more desperate.

DAMASCAS GATHERING OF PALESTINIANS
(October 1, 2001)
The Palestinian opposition is usually very weak and confused. Had that not been the case for some time now Yasser Arafat would never have been able to do the things he has done for so long now, especially since the Gulf War; nor would Arafat have have been able to retain power these past few traumatic years, however weakened himself at this point.

CHOMSKY ANSWERS
(October 1, 2001)
Yes, it will be very interesting to see if and how Noam Chomsky answers the at first blush surprising attacks from Christopher Hitchens, who has now not only endorsed the new war but also at least parts of the "New World Order" that underpins it.




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