|
April 3, 2002
Robert Fisk
The Siege of Bethlehem
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Sins of the Church
April 2, 2002
Uri Avnery
Murdering Arafat?
Jeff Chang
Is
Protest Music Dead?
Lev Grinberg
Israel's State Terrorism
Norman
Madarasz
Bullying
Brazil
Robert Fisk
Farce and Terror
in Ramallah
Steve
Perry
Let's
Roll! ®:
The Marketing of Lisa Beamer
April 1, 2002
Stanton / Madsen
America's War Inc.
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
Peace
and Nuclear Disarmament: a Call to Action
Bahour / Dahan
Bloodshed in Palestine:
A Way Out
Molly
Secours
Tennessee's
Kangaroo Court
Phyllis Pollack
The Making of Exile
on Main Street
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
This Week's
Top 10 CDs
Francis Boyle
The Big Lie:
Palestine, Palestinians
and International Law
March 31, 2002
Jordan
Flaherty
Last
Night the Israeli
Military Tried to Kill Me
Kristen Schurr
Live from Bethlehem
Maha Sbitani
The
Israeli Army Took Over My House
Robert Fisk
Lies Leaders Tell When
They Want to Go to War
March 24/30, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
The Year
of the Yellow Notepad:
Plagiarism and History
Rep. Ron Paul
Slavery and the Draft
Fidel
Castro
A
Better World is Possible
Edward Said
What Price Oslo?
José
Saramago
Justice
and Democracy Denied
Azmi Bishara
Talking to Tanks
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Clearcutting
Montana
Alexander Cockburn
50 Years of James Bond
Wilhelm
Reich
Gethsemane
Claud Cockburn
The Horror of It All
Dave Marsh
What's
Playing at My Houe
David Vest
Remembering Tammy Wynette
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Waylon
Jennings:
an Honest Outlaw
March 23, 2002
Mokhiber/Weissman
A
Corporate Lawyer
Speaks Out
Saeed Vaseghi
The US and Iran's Quest
for Democracy
Brian
J. Foley
Does
Pedophilia Scandal Spell an Opportunity for Catholics?
Sheperd Bliss
American Soul and Empire
James
Packard Winkler
Occupation
and Terror:
Politics from a Gun Barrel
M. Shahid Alam
A New International Division
of Labor
T.W. Croft
Enron's
Attack on Our
Economic Security
March 22, 2002
Robert Jensen
Corporate Power is a
Threat to Democracy
Tommy
Ates
The
Future of Black Academia
Rep. Ron Paul
Why are We in Ukraine?
March 21, 2002
McQuinn,
Munson, & Wheeler
Stars
and Stripes:
Killing for the Flag?
John Chuckman
How Change is Wrought
David
Vest
Hail
to the Chaff
March 20, 2002
Kay Lee
Censorship at Angelfire
Robert
Jensen
The
Politics of Pain
and Pleasure
Sheperd Bliss
Notes from Hawai'i:
Trouble in Paradise
Rick Giambetti
Prozac
and Suicide:
an Interview with
Dr. David Healy
Philip Farruggio
Bullies
Lori Allen
Live
from Ramallah:
The Madness of Occupation
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published March 1, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
April 3, 2002
America's Bravest
by Gabriel Ash
Not every day you'll catch me declaring my profound
agreement with the interloper in the White House. So take note.
In his State of the Union, George Bush urged Americans to volunteer,
to help build an America that "serves goals greater than
the self." He said "America needs citizens to extend
the compassion of our country to every part of the world."
I couldn't agree more.
It is therefore absolutely essential
to publicize the work of American men and women who are doing
just that.
This is the third day of Sharon's new
military campaign against Palestinian civilians. With 20,000
reservists called, it promises to be a long and bloody one.
Tanks wreak destruction in Ramallah,
Hebron, and other Palestinian towns. Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
soldiers vandalize homes, wantonly destroying furniture and precious
food.
Journalists and TV offices are top targets.
The IDF shoots at ambulances, arrests medical personnel, and
storm hospitals.
Yesterday they destroyed offices and
equipment belonging to two human rights organizations, LAW and
Al-Haq.
Five Palestinian policemen in IDF custody
were apparently executed in cold blood.
There are reports of more mass executions
in Ramallah today. Sharon calls it a war against "the infrastructure
of terror." But the only infrastructure that matters is
the determination of Palestinians to shake off the occupation
or take Israel to Hell with them. Sharon's war is a war against
the Palestinian population, and against humanity.
Amidst this ugly orgy, dozens of Americans
join hundreds of Europeans in an international effort to protect
the life of Palestinians and bear witness to what the American
media doesn't ask and doesn't tell.
The internationals, as they call themselves,
have been coming to Palestine for some time now, for periods
between a few days to a few months. They do not have any official
status, but are self-organized in a number of groups, such as
the "Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace," "Direct
Action for Free Palestine," "International Solidarity
Movement," and others.
Most of the time, the internationals
help Palestinians mount peaceful, non-violent resistance. The
foreigners' presence enable Palestinians to demonstrate against
the occupation without being shot at with live bullets.
Other protest actions include the dismantling
of roadblocks, which allow families short breathers to drive
in and out of their villages for essential restocking or to sell
produce. Palestinians cannot do such things on their own without
risking their life. Returning activists describe these actions
as very effective.
Beyond the immediate relief, international
presence brings a message of solidarity and humanity to a population
that is rapidly losing faith in the world.
Since yesterday, the role of international
presence changed dramatically. Caught together with the Palestinians
in the military assault, American and European activists find
themselves at the forefront of the war. They accompany medical
personnel, serving as "human shields" in the hope of
deterring the IDF from the usual lax shooting policy. And they
use their cellphones to broadcast direct evidence of what the
IDF would rather you did not know.
Nancy Stohlman is in refugee camp Aida,
which, she reports, is shelled by tanks. How shelling a densely
populated urban environment helps the IDF preventing suicide
bombs is beyond my reasoning powers. Together with her hosts,
she is waiting for the tanks and the soldiers to move in.
In the camp, almost everything adds to
the tension of waiting. Nancy describes how "a deaf boy
found her staring at a wall of martyr posters, and for 25 minutes,
using gestures, described the manner of each of their deaths."
Her journals can be read at <www.ccmep.org>.
Jordan Flaherty is in the refugee camp
Al-Azzeh, in Bethlehem, together with twenty-three other internationals.
They have spread out in the camp, accommodated by local families,
in an attempt to provide residents with some protection. Some
have also been riding with ambulances.
Jordan reported that, in order to get
to his present location, he had to cross a street running under
fire from an IDF sniper ensconced in the overlooking settlement.
Needless to say, Jordan is completely unarmed. The camp is shelled
occasionally by the tanks, and an incursion is expected within
a day. Those who needed to escape escaped; the rest are waiting.
This is Jordan's second time in Palestine.
Although the tension is higher, he stresses that the international
presence in Palestine is not going to shrink. A big recruitment,
planned for later this year under the name "freedom summer,"
will hopefully bring thousands of internationals to Palestine.
He urges more people to join because "this is really making
a difference." For information, visit: <www.palsolidarity.org>
Brooklynite Adam Shapiro negotiated with
the IDF for three long hours the passage of ambulances to Arafat's
compound, and ended up trapped inside. The first ambulance was
stopped on the way out and both the doctors and wounded were
arrested.
Seeing that, Adam remained inside, tending
to wounds with inadequate medical supplies, and keeping in touch
with the outside world with a dying cellphone. In the morning
he was invited to share breakfast with the blockaded Arafat.
Adam left the compound today, but other internationals came in,
braving the IDF, and intend to stay.
The internationals shatter the lie of
the manufactured consensus that the war in the Middle East is
between Jews and Arabs. It isn't. It is a war between racism
and justice. That is why the American media routinely ignores
their efforts. Only the photo-op with Arafat forced the news
editors to break their gag rule.
The IDF is alarmed by the presence of
internationals. Frenchmen Jose Bove, McDonald's eminence grise,
is also in Palestine.
He was arrested two days ago together
with nine other internationals and three Palestinians and taken
to the settlement of Bet-El. The IDF declared martial law in
Ramallah and is trying to evacuate the internationals and the
media. Nobody knows what the IDF is capable of doing once the
eyes of the world are covered.
Shapiro, Stohlman, Flaherty, and the
hundreds of peace activists currently staying in Palestine cannot
stop Sharon. They can only slow him down in the hope that the
world, that means us, stops him in time. Will we?
Says Irish Caoimhe Butterly, who is also
in Arafat's compound: "I urge all Irish citizens, government
officials and diplomats to show courage in standing up against
the brutal aggression used by the Israeli military against the
Palestinian people and the war policies of the Israeli government.
"The Palestinian people desperately
need our help and protection - I have witnessed the execution-style
killings and the house to house searches and destruction the
military has carried out in refugee camps and in cities.
"Only international action and the
voices of people working for peace and justice can overcome these
criminal Israeli actions."
Count the U.S. president out. George
Bush used his rambling press announcement to express cautious
endorsement of the Butcher of Beirut. Bush barely managed to
mention the Palestinians.
Thanks to the good services of Cheney
and Rumsfeld, he had earlier this year swallowed the bait of
Sharon's contrived equation between fundamentalist terrorism
and the Palestinian struggle against the long Israeli occupation.
Sharon's hook is now stuck deep in the throat of American foreign
policy.
But other Americans do listen to their
inner call of duty. They are participating in a true international
"army of compassion," enduring the occupation together
with Palestinians. They may not enjoy the cachet of sophisticated
war toys, fawning media accolades, and "black hawk down"
style adulation, but they are the real elite troops.
With their ordinary heroism, they are
America's finest and bravest.
Gabriel Ash
writes for YellowTimes.
He encourages your comments: gash@YellowTimes.org
|