|
Today's
Stories
January 7,
2008
Chris Floyd
There
Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities
January 5 /
6, 2008
Douglas Valentine
Good
Guys in Black Hoods
Kevin Young
The
US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq
Richard Rhames
Saddam
Who?
Saul Landau
Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory
Marc Lynch
Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing
Robert Fantina
Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War
Donna Volatile
Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr.
Jelle Bruinsma
Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands
Bob Sutcliffe
Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist
Harvey Wasserman
Anti-Nuclear Renaissance
Missy Beattie
Why Obama Can't Save Us
David Swanson
Remembering the Separation of Powers
Jacob Hornberger
The Importance of the Padilla Case
Shepherd Bliss
Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms
Ron Jacobs
Bleeding Kansas
Poets' Basement
Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint
January 4,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Good Night in Iowa
Jonathan Cook
War Crimes Airbrushed from History
Paul Craig Roberts
Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime
Stan Goff
Ron Paul's Monkeywrench
Dave Lindorff
Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
To Pindi Station
Allan Nairn
U.S. Elections Over Before They Began
Joshua Frank
The Failures of Sectarianism
Peter Morici
Economy on the Skids
Mary McInnis
Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease
Website of the Day
The Return of Obama Girl
January 3,
2008
Fatima Bhutto
Farewell
to Wadi Bua
Pam Martens
The
Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos
Joanne Mariner
The Presidential Candidates and Torture
Zoltan Grossman
Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the
Web
David Domke
The Echoing Press and Huckabee
Norman Solomon
Edwards Reconsidered
Nikolas Kozloff
Return of the Faux Liberal
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus
Martha Rosenberg
Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick
Russell Means
This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah
Lands
Website of the Day
WolfQuest
January 2,
2008
Jeff Taylor
The
Left and Ron Paul
M. Shahid Alam
The Life and Death of Benazir Bhutto: a Pakistani Tragedy
Gary Leupp
Madness Compounding Madness: Calls for Intervention in Pakistan
Paul Craig Roberts
Criminals with Badges
Heather Gray
Georgia's Racist Death Penalty
Fred Gardner
and Shobhit Arora
Dr. Strangelove's Nemesis
David Macaray
Labor Unions and Taft-Hartley
Benjamin Dangl
Fear and Loathing in Bolivia
January 1,
2008
Iain A. Boal
City
of Disappearances
B. R. Gowani
Benazir's Death in Crisistan
Shahid Mahmood
Bhutto and the Press
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Old Injustices Endure: From Crack Sentences to Racial Profiling
Harvey Wasserman
Taking Leonard Peltier to Iowa: the Moral Low Point of the Clinton
Era
John Ross
2008, Already a Year to Forget
Website of the Day
The Thrill is Gone: BB and Gladys
December 31,
2007
Alexander Cockburn
Goodbye
2007 and Good Riddance!
Tariq Ali
Pakistan, the Aftermath
Liaquat Ali Khan
The Perfidy of Pakistan's Rulers
Wajahat Ali
After Bhutto, a Nuclear Pakistan?
Robert Fisk
Who Killed Bhutto?
Ajai Sahni
Myths and Realities About Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan's Dark
Future
Marwan Bishara
You Say Talk, I Say Attack: The Middle East and the US Presidential
Election Campaigns
Uri Avnery
The Beilin Syndrome
Mark T. Harris
Does This Happen in Canada?
Brenda Norrell
Resistance and Censorship
Website of the Day
A People United Will Never Be Defeated
December 29
/ 30, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Options
in America: Kill Yourself or Have a Baby
Tariq Ali
Indignation and Fear Stalk Pakistan
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
My Encounter with Benazir Bhutto
Gary Leupp
The U.S. and Pakistan After 9/11: Blowback from an Unholy Alliance
China Hand
Pakistan Stares Into the Abyss
Jacob Hornberger
Stop Medddling in Pakistan
John Chuckman
Pakistan and the Failure of Quick-Fix Politics
Missy Beattie
Evaluating Bush with the Bhutto Corruption Standard
Ralph Nader
Who Will Take the Next Step?
Fidel Castro
There Hasn't Been a Day in My Life When I Haven't Learned Something
Robert Fantina
The Sham of Homeland Security
Greg Moses
Beauty from the Heart of Texas
Catherine Lutz
What We Can Not See: Art and Bombing
Kristin Van
Tassel
Seeing in the Dark
Kim Nicolini
Redacted: Brian DePalma's Scream of Outrage
Phyllis Pollack
Keith Richards Runs With Rudolph Once More
Poets' Basement
Landau, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Driving Karachi in Search of the Perfect Naan
December 28,
2007
Farzana Versey
The
Complex Electra
Wajahat Ali
A
Pakistani Requiem
Binoy Kampmark
Death in Rawalpindi: Bhutto and Her Legacy
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Not Dead Yet: The Pakistan People's Party Still Survives
Anthony DiMaggio
Turkey's Bombing of Iraq
Ray McGovern
Creeping
Fascism
Jim Goodman
Biofuels, the Biggest Scam Going
Ron Jacobs
Transcending the Colonizer's History: Iran, a People Interrupted
Russell Hoffman
Mini-Nukes by Toshiba
John Murphy
Greens Gone Wild
Website of the Day
Guiliani Campaign Official: "Only Rudy Can Defeat the Muslims"
December 27,
2007
Dilip Hiro
A
Tragedy Foretold: Will Bhutto's Death be a Boost for Her Party?
Murtaza Shibli
Who Killed Bhutto?
Stephen Soldz
Fallujah,
the Information War and U.S. Propaganda
Bill Quigley
Locked
Outside the Gates
Paul Craig Roberts
The Great American Lock-Up
Omer Subhani
Killing Bhutto: What Happens Next in Pakistan?
Marjorie Cohn
The Torture Tape Cover-Up: How High Does It Go?
Allan Nairn
Cataclysm By Money Whim
Jacob G. Hornberger
Smearing Ron Paul: Shame on the NYT
Norman Solomon
Channeling Suze Orman
Patrick Irelan
Rumsfeld Spills the Ink
Ben Tripp
Pass the Razor Blades
Website of the Day
Quagmire, For What It's Worth
December 26, 2007
Charles Tripp
From
One Saddam to Fifty
Paul Armentano
No-Knock, You're Dead
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon in Search of a Government
Stanley Heller
Brzezinski and Charlie Wilson's War
John Walsh
Two Unreasonable Men
Martha Rosenberg
The Strange Career of Scott Gottlieb
Norman Madarasz
Bolivia Amends New Constitution and Faces Mutiny from Within
Website of
the Day
Cockburn at the Battle of Ideas
December 25,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Conscience
and Empire
December 24,
2007
Andrea Peacock
A
Dark Ride on the Border
Tariq Ali
Thinking of Edward Said
Uri Avnery
Help! A Ceasefire!
Jill Jameson
Burma is Not Back to Normal: A Trip from Rangoon to Mae Sot
Steve Melendez
Russell Means Goes to Washington
Mike Whitney
The Big Fix
Chuck Munson
Not Getting It About New Orleans
John Walsh
Clueless Crusaders
Farzana Versey
Tony Blair and the Hawking of Religion
Richard Neville
Dreaming of a White House Christmas
Website of the Day
Back in the USSR
December 22 / 23, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Mike
Huckabee's Ascending Chariot
Ralph Nader
Politics
and Profits: How the Oil Cartel Gets Its Way
Andy Worthington
Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons
in Afghanistan
Ahmad Faruqui
The Comedian of Pakistan
Bill Moyers
Society on Steroids
Rev. William
E. Alberts
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Timothy J. Freeman
From Kant to Lennon: Can War Really be Over?
Anthony DiMaggio
Democrats Continue to Capitulate on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Molecule of the Year, Cannabiodiol
Paul Krassner
Enhanced Hazing Techniques
Seth Sandronsky
17 Years of Meanness: Repealing California's Three Strikes Law
William Loren
Katz
Christmas Eve Freedom Fighters: Recalling the Battle of Lake
Okeechobee
Michael Dickinson
In the Dungeon of the Zabita
Ron Jacobs
Why Leon Russell Still Matters
David Vest
Doyle Bramhall's "Is It News?"
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies and Ford
Website of the Weekend
George W. Hates Santa
December 21,
2007
John Ross
New Massacres Loom in Mexico
Jacob Hornberger
Nothing Can Morally Justify the Invasion of Iraq
Dick J. Reavis
A
Way Out of the Newspaper Abyss
Jeff Cohen
and Norman Solomon
The 2007 P.U.-litzer Prizes
Peter Morici
Business as Usual as Recession Looms
Jack McCarthy
Let Us Now Praise Judith Regan (Even If She Did Sleep with Bernie
Kerik)
Raúl Zibechi
Sex and Revolution
Steve Early
How the Presidential Candidates Made Me an Atheist
David Macaray
Union Aftermath
Patrick Bond
Zuma, the Center-Left and the Left-Left in S. Africa
Lakota Freedom Delegation
A Declaration of Independence from the USA
Website of
the Day
Solomon v. Beck: Tale of the Tape
December 20,
2007
David Rosen
Mitt
Romney's Secret Life as a Pornographer
Alan Farago
The
Huckster and the Wreckage: Jeb Bush and the Subprime Mortgage
Crisis
Laura Carlsen
Standing Up to NAFTA
Ashley Dawson
The Return of the Bread Riot
Wayne Smith
and Jennifer Schuett
Cuba Changes, US Policy Stagnates
Website of
the Day
How to Talk to a FoxNews Reporter
December 19,
2007
Saul Landau
Is
the NIE Bush's Watergate?
Paul W. Lovinger
Hillary the Hawk
Norman Solomon
The Mad Corporate World of Glenn Beck
Dave Zirin
George Mitchell's Drugs of Choice
Marjorie Cohn
Bush Still Spinning Iranian Nukes
Sen. Russell
Feingold
The Iraq War is Exhausting Our Nation
Sonja Karkar
A Christmas Reflection on Palestine
Anthony Papa
Open the Drug Gulags
Christopher Ketcham
Pave the Holy Lands with Good Intentions
Davey D
Britney's Little Sister is Pregnant: Should We Blame Hip Hop?
Website of
the Day
When Republicans Use the F-Word on TV
December 18,
2007
R. F. Blader
The
Politics of Teen Pregnancy
George Wuerthner
Gunning for Wolves in Idaho
Steven Higgs
Can the NAFTA Superhighway be Stopped?
Vijay Prashad
Encounters with Ghadar
David Macaray
The Free Rider Problem
Ralph Nader
Nine Books That Make a Difference: a Reading List for the Holidays
Eva Liddell
Privatizing War Abroad, Invading Privacy at Home
Martha Rosenberg
While the Bodies are Still Warm: Drugs, Shrinks and Shooters
Dave Lindorff
When Impeachment is Out of Print
Peter Morici
The Consequences the Trade Deficit
Website of
the Day
Ron Paul: How Fascism Will Come to America
December 17,
2007
Mike Whitney
Staring
Into the Abyss
Tom Barry
Planning
the War on Immigrants
Uri Avnery
A
Gaza Masada?
Greg Moses
Crossing the Line in Texas
Allan Nairn
Terrorism; Counter-
Terrorism: Excuses for Murder
Patrick Bond
South Africa's Fight Between Hostile Brothers
Stephen Lendman
Police State America
Charles Jonkel
Grizzly Right of Way
Laray Polk
An Inside-Out Crisis in Gaza
Stephen Fleischman
Pawns in Their Game
December 15
/ 16, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
A
People's Penny for the Magna Carta
Howard Zinn
Bomb After Bomb
Standard Schaefer
The Greening of Big Tobacco
Raymond J.
Lawrence
Let's Take Christ Out of Christmas
Alan Farago
Down on Desolation Row: the Vultures and the Growth Machine
Saul Landau
Lord Byron and the Bad Tourists
Jenna Orkin
Lying to "Reassure" the Public: Bush's EPA and the
Post-9/11 Toxic Air Cover-Up
Ahmad Samih
Khalidi
Why a Palestinian "State" is a Punitive Construct
Robert Fantina
Politics By Photo-Op
Missy Comley
Beattie
Resistance Amid the Ruins
Ramzy Baroud
Of Mormons and Muslims
James L. Secor
A Vision for China's Future
Elijah Wald
Ike Turner's Music Won't be Forgotten
Website of
the Weekend
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies Needs (and Deserves) Your Support
December 14,
2007
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Dirty Cad: What Giuliani's Sex Life Tells Us About Him
John Ross
Iraqi
Refugees Return: One Cruel Hoax
Jacob Hornberger
Terror Suspects Belong in Federal Court
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: What Happened?
Allan Nairn
"Shoot Them on the Spot": Rewarding War Crimes
Dave Zirin
The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners
Dave Lindorff
The First Cut is the Deepest
Misty MacDuffee
Toxic Grizzlies
Ben Terrall
What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine?
Dr. Mustafa
Barghouthi
Prerequisites for Peace
Website of the Day
Sen. Kit Bond: "Waterboarding is Like Swimming"
December 13,
2007
Paul Craig
Roberts
Shrinking
the Dollar from the Inside-Out
Mike Whitney
Dershowitz for the Defense--of Waterboarding
Ron Jacobs
Blank Check DemocratsL the Great War Funding Conspiracy
Norman Solomon
The USA's Human Rights Daze
Peter Morici
The Dragon and the Toothless Dog: China Doesn't Flinch
Sandy Mayes
Blocking the Strykers: 13 Days of War Resistance at Port Olympia
Franklin Lamb
The UN in Lebanon: Whose Mission Is It Fulfilling?
Jacob Hornberger
Don't Reform the CIA, Abolish It
Nadim Rouhana
An Interloper in My Own Land
Dave Zirin
On Pigskin and Petrol
Website of the Day
Rachel's Needs (and Deserves) Your Support!
December 12, 2007
Allan
Nairn
US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian
Phones
Alan
Farago
How Sprawl Eats Its Young
Ray
McGovern
Torture, Lies and Videotape
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The Phony Pentagon Budget Cuts
Evan
Jones
The Raid on Great Western: Why an Australian Bank Might Spell
Doom for the US Farm Belt
James
Petras
An Open Letter to Sarkozy on the Exchange of Political Prisonsers
Joel
Hirschorn
The Horserace Fiction: Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Machine
Joshua
Frank
Why Ron Paul Deserves Our Attention
Sherry
Wolf
Why the Left Should Reject Ron Paul
Dan
Bacher
Survey of a Fish Graveyard
Website
of the Day
Men Eating Bugs
|
January
7, 2008
Why Tzipi Livni
Won't Fly
The
Case of the White Bird
By URI AVNERY
TZIPI LIVNI, as her name indicates,
is the white bird of Israeli politics (Tzipi is short for Tzipora,
"bird", and Livni comes from Lavan, "white").
As against the hawk Binyamin Netanyahu, the vulture Ehud Barak
and the raven Ehud Olmert, she was seen as the immaculate feathered
friend.
In public opinion polls, she
has enjoyed a remarkable popularity. She trumps all the other
politicians in the governing coalition. While the rating of the
two Ehuds - Olmert and Barak - was going down, hers was on the
way up.
Why? Perhaps it was a case
of the wish being the father of the thought. It is generally
accepted that in the present Knesset no coalition could be set
up without Kadima. Therefore, if one wants to throw Olmert out
while avoiding new elections, Olmert's substitute must also come
from Kadima. Livni is the only creditable candidate.
Still there is something odd
about Livni's popularity. Up to now, she has not been faced with
a serious test. She has never borne any real executive responsibility.
She has been only a mediocre Minister of Justice.
Her public image is indeed
impressive. She seems to be honest, a rare attribute for a politician.
She looks wise. She looks courageous.
But anyone who studies her
record must regretfully come to the opposite conclusion. Tzipi
Livni is far from courageous and far from wise.
* *
*
THAT BECAME CLEAR a year ago,
after the Second Lebanon War.
It seemed that public anger
over the failed war would topple Olmert. Livni jumped at the
opportunity. In a dramatic move she called for the resignation
of the Prime Minister and offered herself as his successor. It
was leaked that soon after the beginning of the war, she had
already called for its termination (which did not prevent her
from voting for all of Olmert's moves.)
A courageous act, even if not
very wise. Because very soon it became clear that public anger
was subsiding rapidly. The protest movement petered out. Olmert,
with the skin of an elephant and the cunning of a fox, just kept
his head down and survived. He shook off the interim report of
the Commission of Inquiry (the Winograd Report) as a dog sheds
water. The day after the attempted putsch, Livni found herself
alone in a political vacuum.
What does a courageous politician
do in such a situation? Resign, of course. Join the opposition,
exhort, admonish, preach at the gate like the prophets of yore.
But Livni did not do any of
this. She just muttered some noncommittal words, folded her arms
and remained in the cabinet. Like most of our politicians, she
paraphrases Descartes: "I am a minister - ergo I exist."
As a minister, she continues
to bear "collective responsibility" for all the acts
and defaults of a government headed by the very person she herself
has described as incompetent.
So much for courage. As for
wisdom: if she was not certain about her ability to unseat Olmert,
why did she start this escapade in the first place? And if she
was not prepared to resign, why did she play at rebellion?
Olmert could have dismissed
her. But he is much too clever. Better to have her in the tent
spitting out, than outside spitting in. Since then he has lavished
her with praise and paid her compliments at every opportunity.
What a successful Foreign Minister! What a wise diplomat!
* *
*
THE LAST few days showed just
how successful a Foreign Minister and how wise a diplomat Tzipi
Livni really is.
It began with her appearance
in the Foreign and Security Committee of the Knesset. In the
distant past, that was a closed forum. But nowadays it resembles
a sieve with very large holes indeed. Every word spoken there
is leaked even before the speaker has closed his mouth - mostly
by the assistants of the speakers themselves.
In this forum, Livni said that
the Egyptians were cheating on their commitment to stop the smuggling
of arms into the Gaza Strip. She demanded they mend their ways
and put an end to this traffic.
It was not just a verbal complaint.
It had practical implications: in the US Congress, there is an
ongoing campaign to punish Egypt by cutting the huge package
of financial aid it gets from the US. True, the Israeli Foreign
Office does not associate itself openly with this demand, but
everybody in Washington knows that in matters like this, the
US Congress is not much more than an instrument of Israeli policy.
Members of the Knesset roam the corridors of the Capitol and
lobby for the cut. They may belong to the right-wing opposition,
but they are clearly acting as emissaries of the Foreign Office.
To reinforce this effort, the
Israeli government has distributed a video cassette around Washington
showing Egyptian policemen standing passively by while the smuggling
goes on under their very noses.
No wonder that Cairo considered
Livni's remarks as another exercise of blackmail against Egypt:
if you don't comply with our demands, we shall hit you in your
most sensitive spot - the pocket.
* *
*
IT IS HARD to imagine a more
foolish policy. Anyone who knows anything about Egypt - and there
are such people even in the Foreign Office - would be aware that
this is not just about hitting the pocket, but also the heart.
Not just a matter of money, but also of pride.
Every year Egypt gets more
American money than any other country on earth - except Israel,
of course. And not for nothing: it started when Egypt signed
the peace agreement with Israel. The enemies of the Egyptian
regime call it a bribe for serving Israeli interests.
No country is more sensitive
about its honor than Egypt. Its leaders regularly remind everybody
- and, indeed, its foreign minister reminded Tzipi Livni this
week - that the Egyptian state has existed for 7000 years, and
is not prepared to be lectured by Israel (which was not even
there 60 years ago.)
Egypt lives in a painful contradiction:
it sees itself as the cradle of human civilization and the center
of the Arab world, but it is a very poor country and needs every
dollar it can get. Hosni Mubarak's regime is totally dependent
on the United States, but desperately craves the respect of 70
million Egyptians and hundreds of millions of other Arabs.
That demands subtlety, even
finesse. The accumulated experience of thousands of years has
prepared the Egyptian diplomats for such a task. They never say
"no", but "Yes, quite, but the moment is not appropriate"
or "good idea, we shall consider it with utmost seriousness".
Those who understand, understand. No wonder that Egyptian diplomats
look upon their unsophisticated Israeli counterparts with thinly
veiled contempt.
Tzipi Livni entered this porcelain
shop like an elephant.
* *
*
WHY DID she do it? The political
correspondents, most of whom are merely reporters of political
gossip, assume that the motive was personal: she spoke on the
eve of Ehud Barak's meeting with Mubarak. Her real aim was to
spoil it for Barak.
Perhaps she saw it as an opportunity
to polish her image. For weeks now, the security establishment
has been running a public relations campaign concerning the arms
in the Gaza Strip. Its agents in the media tell us every day
about the quantities of arms and explosives that are flowing
into the Strip from Egypt through the tunnels under the border.
The Egyptians are accused of closing their eyes. Livni wanted
to ride this crest.
Livni's problem is common to
all of Israel: the inability and unwillingness to see the point
of view of the other side, especially if the other side is Arab.
(The other side has, of course, a similar problem.)
The Egyptians consider themselves
the natural leaders of the Arab world. President Mubarak and
his followers are very sensitive to the accusations of their
enemies - especially the Muslim Brotherhood - that they are serving
the Israeli occupation at a time when Israel is starving the
Gaza population and killing their leaders. Mubarak has no wish
to do anything against Hamas that would seem to confirm these
charges.
It is quite possible that the
Egyptian authorities would be unable to prevent the traffic even
if they wanted to. Most of the smuggled items are unobtainable
in the besieged Gaza Strip, from milk powder to cigarettes. The
smugglers can do business with the Sinai Bedouins or bribe the
Egyptian policemen - who most certainly do not cherish the idea
of stabbing their Arab brothers in the back while they are fighting
against the Israeli occupation.
The Israeli public lives in
a bubble. They cannot imagine that the same people who they know
as "terrorists" are the heroes of the Arab world, that
the detested "murderers" are the holy martyrs of the
Arabs, that the "terrorism" is seen by the Arabs (and
not only by them) as a heroic resistance to a monstrous occupation,
that the "smugglers" are seen by the Arabs the same
way as we saw "our fine boys" of the Palmach who smuggled
arms under the noses of the British and risked their lives in
order to break the blockade.
In the eyes of the Egyptians
- and, indeed, of all Arabs - the Palestinian people are defending
themselves against a brutal oppressor. The Palestinian martyrs
restore the honor of the entire Arab nation. Even the Egyptians
who support Mubarak and believe that there is no choice but to
cooperate with the Americans and to keep the peace with Israel
are torn between conflicting emotions.
If one does not understand
the psychological and political dilemma of the Egyptian people,
one is liable to do foolish things. And nothing could be more
foolish than the Israeli action against those returning from
the Hajj last week.
* *
*
THE PILGRIMAGE to Mecca is,
as everybody knows, one of the five pillars of Islam. A person
starting on this voyage, with all its hardships, is much respected
by all Muslims.
The million and a half inhabitants
of the Gaza strip are prevented from fulfilling this duty, unless
they undergo a "security check" by the Israeli army,
often accompanied by harassment and humiliation. On Israel's
demand, the Egyptians have closed the only border station that
connects the Gaza Strip with the outside world: the Rafah crossing.
Two thousand pilgrims from
Gaza have broken this blockade and crossed the Rafah border.
It seems that the Egyptians cooperated, either openly or by closing
their eyes. Indeed, how can an Egyptian leader block the path
of devout Muslims on their way to fulfill one of the holiest
duties? But the chiefs of the Israeli security establishment
were furious.
The problem became worse when
the pilgrims were on their way back from Mecca. When their ferry
reached the Sinai shore, Israel demanded that the Egyptians block
the Rafah crossing and compel the pilgrims to return through
Israeli territory. This would have delivered Hamas members and
other "wanted" people into the hands of the Israeli
Security Service.
For the Egyptians, that was
an altogether intolerable demand. If they had acceded to it,
they would have looked to the whole Muslim world like collaborators
who had turned over to the Jews pious Muslims returning from
the holy Hajj.
The end was foreseeable: the
Egyptians allowed all the pilgrims to return through Rafah. The
Israeli government had scored an own goal.
All this would not have happened
if the Foreign Minister had persuaded her colleagues to close
their eyes and shut up. She didn't. They would not have listened
to her anyhow.
Something tells me that this
white bird will not be flying very far.
Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist
with Gush Shalom. He is o a contributor to CounterPunch's book
The
Politics of Anti-Semitism.
|
Now Available!
How the Press Led
the US into War
Buy End Times Now!
New From
CounterPunch Books
The Secret
Language
of the Crossroads:
HOW THE IRISH
INVENTED SLANG
By Daniel Cassidy
WINNER
OF THE
AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!
Click Here to Buy!
Cassidy
on Tour
Click Here for Dates & Venues
"The Case Against
Israel"
Michael
Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
Click Here to Buy!
Saul Landau's
Bush and Botox World
with a Foreword by Gore Vidal
Click Here to Order!
Grand Theft Pentagon
How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism
The Occupation
by Patrick Cockburn
Humanitarian Imperialism
By Jean Bricmont
CITY BEAUTIFUL
By Tennessee Reed
|
