Was it the Likud Party, or the Labor Party, that authorized more illegal settlements in the occupied territories since the Gulf War and the Madrid Peace Conference? Was it Bibi Netanyahu or Ehud Barak who turned over more territories for "autonomous rule" to the "Palestinian Authority"?

The answers in both case are the opposite of what most people believe to be the case -- Labor and Bibi.

Meanwhile, Shimon Peres has finally unmasked, his long friendship with Ariel Sharon now coming to the fore, that with the so-called doves and Yossi Beilin crumbling.

A cartoon in an Arab newspapers shows a picture of Sharon telling Barak and Peres "Let's form a government of heroes". The caption under each of them reads: "Hero of Sabra-Shatila Massacre", "Hero of Intifada Massacre", "Hero of Qana Massacre".

All this "facts on the ground creation" has gone on of course right under the nose of Yasser Arafat and the "Palestinian Authority". Indeed it is Arafat and the PA which have provided the Israelis, since the Gulf War, with another decade of cover and confusion through which to further disenfranchise, divide, and corral the Palestinians -- all the while paying Arafat and his cronies great sums and providing them with numerous special VIP priviledges. The tragic reality is that the Palestinian people are far more oppressed, far more restricted, and far more "doubly occupied" today in 2001 then they were before the Intifada began and before the coming of Arafat to Gaza.

Whether all this treachery is all now coming to an end, whether Arafat's usefulness to the Israelis and the Americans is drawing to a close, remains to be seen. But there are signs, including the previous published articles forecasting the Authority's "collapse".

In the "autonomous" areas the checks from Arafat's authority are bouncing; and in most cases not coming at all. In Washington the PA bank account, administered by long-time corrupt Arafat crony, Hassan Rahman, is said to be approaching $100,000 in the red. And the rumor factories continue to be stoked by leaks, mostly coming from Arafat's own people for self-serving reasons not to difficult to fathom, that the PA's collapse is imminent unless large amounts of money are sent Arafat's way.

Now they won't have Arafat in Amman or Damascus, and he'd be too controlled and "supervised" in Cairo, so the rumors are that Arafat and crew are considering exile again in Baghdad, or possibly going back to Tunis.

For Arafat, Shaath, Abu Mazen and entourage, its really mostly about money and power anyway. It was to get huge amounts of money and to retain their hold on power that they sold themselves at Oslo and in Washington; and it is the same motivations that are propelling them now. In addition they are manipulating the media, using the coming to power of Sharon, in ways that will give them a badly needed excuse why the Palestinian State they have promised and promised to "declare", ad infinitum and ad naseum, has not become reality.

Like all good rumors and leaks, there is in them hidden truth twisted and disguised. First of all the Arafat crowd, and those Israelis who support them, want to try to convince the Americans, Europeans, and Arab regimes, to send more hundreds of millions quickly and save both Arafat and the "peace process" -- so the rumors serve to push that immediate goal. Everyone hesitates for their own reasons, including the awareness that the likelihood is much of this money will be siphoned off into secret bank accounts and never reach the Palestinian people, just as before. If not successful in getting enough money, (and maybe the same is true if successful), Arafat may be preparing the world stage for the excuse that Sharon was going to go after him personally so he had to flee and save the PLO. If he can successfully portray things in this new light he will then again try to collect big-time in another exile pretending to have once again escaped the plots of Sharon and the Zionist cabal against the PLO. "Sharon has tried to assassinate me 13 times" Arafat recently remarked in Gaza to Arab journalists.

More to come on this epic Arafat saga which appears to be reaching another turning point. Meanwhile, this confirmation today about more "facts on the ground" from Israel's leading newsspaper, Ha'aretz.

Additionally, the Israelis continue to get away with their apartheid and militarist policies with only wrist slaps and verbage from the U.S., the U.N., and the Arab client regimes. Not one single military person has been courtmartialed for any of the abuses, including the assassinations, the sniper killings, as well as the wounding and beatings of dozens of journalists. For killing a totally innocent 14-year old Palestinian boy simply walking to school a few weeks ago, his commanding officer sent him off to a special jail for 49 days -- such is the worth of a Palestinian life to the Israelis, even when caught in the act of murder.

[Ha'aretz - 27 Feb:] The government began construction of 1,943 housing units in the territories last year - the largest number in any year since 1992, according to data released yesterday by MK Mussi Raz (Meretz). The figures are based on official data from the Housing Ministry.

Nor has the building stopped since the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada: In the last quarter of 2000, work was begun on 954 housing units, up from 368 in the final quarter of 1999, Raz said.

And since such public construction accounts for only about 25 percent of all building in Israel, the actual number of units built in the territories last year was probably around four times higher.

The figures also showed that only 632 units have so far been sold in the new Har Homa neighborhood of East Jerusalem, out of some 2,000 that were put up for sale.

Additionally, the Housing Ministry only recently issued a tender for development work in the Tel Zion neighborhood of Kochav Ya'akov, south of Ramallah. The plan is to build 696 apartments there for Haredi families - which would double the settlement's current population of about 600 families.

[February 27, 2001 - Palestine Monitor}:The Israeli army sniper who shot and killed 14 year-old Issa Ibrahim al-Amur on February 3, 2001 was sentenced to 49 days in jail by his commanding officer. Despite the fact that the soldier was to found to have violated the Israeli army's rules of engagement, he was not remanded to a military court nor was this case investigated by the military police.

According to various sources, the military police have investigated only 5 cases of illegal weapons use by Israeli soldiers. The Christian Peacemakers Team in Hebron report that at least 9 unarmed Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli soldiers in Hebron alone, including a 14 year old boy. As of yet, not a single military investigation has been opened into these cases.

In the past 5 months Israeli forces or settlers have killed 384 Palestinians. Several international human rights organizations, including Physicians for Human Rights USA, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have investigated the general circumstances of these deaths and each have confirmed that the Israeli forces are using excessive and lethal force against Palestinian civilians, with little respect for the law. They have also stressed that there is an immediate need for an international observer force in the Occupied Palestinian Territories(OPT).

Furthermore, according the US State Department's annual human rights report, "Israeli security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses during the year" and "sometimes exceeded their rules of engagement, which provide that live fire is only to be used when the lives of soldiers, police, or civilians are in imminent danger."

From this and other eyewitness accounts, its has become more than clear that Israeli soldiers have time and time again, violated the law, and time and time again have been let off with nothing more than a two week reprieve of duty, a month or two in jail or at the very least, nothing. This said, it is imperative that an international observer force be deployed in the OPT.