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Recent
Stories
June
12, 2003
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
a Former CIA Analyst
June
11, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
June
10, 2003
Benjamin
Shepard
A Season in the Anti-War Movement
Chris
Floyd
Bush Family Lies About Iraq and Nazi
Germany
Wayne
Madsen
Weaponsgate
Jason Leopold
Powell's Denials Ring Hollow
Richard
Lichtman
Whining, Whimpering Leftists Confront the Logic of American World
Domination
Ray
Close
A CIA Analyst on Why the Lies About
WMD Matter
Hammond
Guthrie
Banking on Saddam?
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/10
June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft is Coming!
Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
Agustin
Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
Poor
Gila
Svirsky
Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Human Worth in Bush's America
Michael
S. Ladah
A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder
Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
June
6, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft the Insatiable
David
Krieger
The Big Lie
Ramzy
Baroud
Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
Gancarski
Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay?
David
Lindorff
Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
Steve
Perry
Greens and
Moore in 04? No
June
5, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear
Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina
Imraan
Siddiqi
Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
Michael
Leon
Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done
Robert
Jensen
Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy
Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
Paul
Dean
How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush
Gary Leupp
When Spooks Speak Out
Website
of the Day
Evidence in Black and White?
June
4, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Federal Judge Blinks; Rosenthal
Walks
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
The Isaiah Crowd: The Threat of Neo-Christianity
Jason
Leopold
Manufacturing the Iraq War
John Chuckman
Blackmail as Policy
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
Summit: Peace or Pretense?
Issam Nashashibi
Sharon's Sword of Damocles
Steve
Perry
Wolfowitz of Arabia: the VF interview transcript
June
3, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Copycat Killers: Bush, Jakarta and
the Slaughter in Aceh
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Tells All
Elaine
Cassel
We Interrupt Your Normal Show to Bring You an Important Message
from Michael Powell: "Go to Hell, Americans!"
Tom
Crumpacker
The Politics of US Cuba Policy
William
S. Lind
Fourth Generation Warfare in Iraq
Sam
Hamod
The Final Brick in the Wall
Uri
Avnery
The Altalena Affair
Hammond
Guthrie
Stepping into Some Deep DARPA
Steve
Perry
The WashTimes'
al-Qaeda nuke "exclusive"
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Ashcroft's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
June
12, 2003
The Calm Before the
Collapse
Warm
and Fuzzy in Aqaba
By TARIF ABBOUSHI
Almost 36 years to the day after the start of
the Arab-Israeli Six Day War, President Bush sought to "end
the occupation that started in 1967" by bringing together
the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers at the Red Sea Summit
in Aqaba, Jordan. The president moved to kick-start the U.S.-endorsed
roadmap for peace by declaring that "the Holy Land must
be shared between a state of Palestine, and the State of Israel."
He commended Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas for promising
"to work without compromise for a complete end of violence
and terror" and made a point of noting--with Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon within earshot--that "the issue of
settlements must be addressed for peace to be achieved."
Prime Minister Abbas re-iterated that
the Palestinian Authority accepted the roadmap "without
any reservations." More importantly, he unequivocally denounced
and renounced "terrorism and violence against Israelis wherever
they might be." These words are a necessary but insufficient
obligation on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Necessary
because it is critical for any future peace that the PA's commitment
to do everything in its power to end the tragically misguided
Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians be clearly articulated.
Insufficient because words alone won't cut it. Absent an agreement
by the Palestinian militants to lay down their arms, Abbas is
expected to disarm them by force, raising the ugly specter of
a bloody Palestinian civil war.
While it inevitably has its shortcomings,
one of the positive aspects of the roadmap is its requirement
for parallel and reciprocal actions to be taken by the Israelis
and Palestinians, and it is in this regard that Ariel Sharon's
performance at Aqaba came up short, less for what he said than
for what he didn't say. Sharon agreed to "immediately begin
to remove unauthorized outposts" and asserted that Israel
is "a society governed by the rule of law." The problem
is that Sharon's reference is to the rule of Israeli law, not
international law, for which Israel demonstrates disdainful contempt,
at least as it applies to Israel's obligations in the occupied
territories. This was clearly manifested by Sharon's studied
omission of the word 'settlements' from his speech. While international
law does not differentiate between Israeli 'settlements' and
'outposts' (both are illegal), and while the roadmap specifically
requires that the government of Israel "freezes all settlement
activity (including natural growth of settlements)" in its
initial (current) phase, the only time Sharon has mentioned settlements
publicly since the text of the roadmap was released was to avow
that the issue is not up for imminent discussion.
The Red Sea Summit thus highlights the
fact that the Palestinian prime minister unconditionally accepts
the roadmap and the obligations assigned to him therein vis-à-vis
the Palestinian rejectionists who oppose his government, while
his Israeli counterpart heads the government that itself opposes
its obligations under the plan.
The crux of the matter remains the willingness
of the two warring parties to share the Holy Land. In 1993 the
Palestinian leadership formally accepted Israel's right to exist
in its June 4th, 1967 border with mutually-agreed minor adjustments,
thus agreeing to a lopsided sharing of the Holy Land: 78% for
the Israeli state, 22% for the Palestinian state. Israel has
not yet accepted that split. While the roadmap leaves undefined
the specific parameters of the end game, it is nonetheless widely
viewed as the only way out of the morass that has engulfed the
Holy Land in recent years. If it is to progress beyond Phase
I, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders must both accept their
responsibilities, and decisively act upon them. Failure of either
party to comply means the dissipation of what little optimism
the Red Sea Summit may have produced, and the inevitable collapse
of yet another peace process.
It was warm in Aqaba last Tuesday, so
much so that Ariel Sharon visibly suffered from the temperature,
wearily wiping the sweat off his brow as he stood at his lectern.
More seriously, the new peace process is already compromised
by the Israeli prime minister's fuzzy logic that requires Mahmoud
Abbas to disarm Palestinian militants before Israel matches the
Palestinian Authority's unconditional acceptance of the roadmap.
It is now up to the White House to ensure that the roadmap is
fully implemented by both sides. So far George W. Bush has talked
the talk. It remains to be seen whether the president--whose
middle name is Walker--will lead all concerned parties in walking
the walk.
Tarif Abboushi lives
in Houston, Texas. He can be reached at: tabboushi@aol.com
Today's
Features
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
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