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Today's
Stories
October 18,
2004
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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October 18, 2004
Only Israel
and the US Matter
Ariel
Sharon's Worldview
By
URI AVNERY
What really is important is not what
he said or why he said it, but the world-view that animates him.
By now, everybody has had a
go at analyzing the interview with
Dov ("Dubby") Weisglass, Ariel Sharon's most intimate
confidant. But there is precious little to analyze. His statement
is crystal clear: the "redeployment plan" was designed
to "freeze" the peace process for decades, to put all
peace plans "in formaldehyde", to put an end to the
possibility of a Palestinian state, once and for all.
A dozen small settlements will
be dismantled in order to keep practically all the 250,000 West
Bank settlers where they are. Israel will "concede"
the Gaza Strip, which constitutes 1.3% of pre-1948 Palestine,
in order to take permanent possession of the West Bank, which
is 16 times larger. The Gaza Strip will be cut off from the world
on land, by sea and in the air, as will the seven or eight similar
Palestinian enclaves that will come into being on the West Bank.
Why did "Dubby" disclose
this plan? After all, the disclosure was like spitting in the
face of the Labor Party, exactly when Sharon needed them most!
The answer is simple: Sharon
wants to convince the right and has only contempt for the left.
13 out of the 40 members of his Likud faction in the Knesset
abstained from voting for him this week, although the vote was
about nothing more then a resolution to "take notice"
of an unimportant speech of his. Sharon wants to explain to the
extreme right wing of his own party that "disengagement"
is a war-plan rather than a peace-plan, a plan to annex territories
rather than a plan to "give up" territories, a plan
for the rapid expansion of the West Bank settlements rather than
a plan to dismantle the settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Sharon cannot say so openly
without making a fool of George W. Bush. That's why he sent his
trusted lieutenant to say it instead of him. The settlers know,
of course, that "Dubby" is His Master's Voice.
Sharon can afford to treat
the "left" with disdain. Witness the farce with Shimon
Peres: he analyzed Weisglass' statement in an uncompromising
Knesset speech and condemned Sharon acidly. Immediately afterwards
he assembled the Labor Knesset faction and asked them not to
vote against Sharon. But the Members were so convinced by his
speech that they overruled him, 10 to 9. "I was too successful,"
Peres complained.
Thereafter, the two "leftist"
parties, Labor and Yakhad (formerly Meretz) announced that they
were going to vote for the disengagement plan when Sharon submits
it to the Knesset. No disclosures will cause them to desist.
Sharon knew that he could rely on their feebleness, and how right
he is.
Only Weisglass himself may
pay a price. It is difficult to believe that the beautiful friendship
between Dubby and Condy, between Weis and Rice, will hold after
Weisglass practically undressed her in public.
But that is not what is really
important. After all, Weisglass did not reveal anything new to
those who know Sharon's intentions. And whoever wants to deceive
himself will continue to do so.
What is really important is
the Weltanschauung, the world-view of Sharon as it emerges from
Weisglass' long interview. When he exposes Sharon's ways of thinking,
this sheds light on the basic beliefs and perceptions of his
master.
Sharon's world is one-dimensional,
as limited as the flat world before Galileo.
A world where brute force,
and only brute force, reigns supreme.
This is a world where there
are no past and no future, no lessons of history and no foreseeing
of things to come. Whatever exists now will exist forever.
This is a world without moral
constraints, where the opinions of mankind do not count. The
world of Stalin, who once asked contemptuously: "How many
divisions has the pope?"
His world looks like this:
The only thing that counts
is the interest of Israel and the Jewish people (as seen by Sharon).
Their interest is to take possession
of all of the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan
(at least).
The Palestinians are powerless.
Hence, they are nothing more than an object to be kicked around
as much as one pleases.
Europe is a pathetic lot. To
hell with Europe.
There is only one real power
in the world: The United States. They are the "world management".
All the power of the US is
concentrated in the White House. The President and a handful
of other people are the managers.
That's how it is now, and that's
how it is going stay in future.
Therefore, all we need is to
maintain the power of the Israeli army and the alliance with
the White House. All the rest is nonsense, fantasies of eggheads.
The Israeli army and the White
House--that is the winning combination. With it we shall take
complete possession of the whole country. There is no need for
a peace process, indeed, there is no need for peace. The Palestinians
are a negligible factor. Let them vegetate for the time being
in their ghettos. In due course, they will disappear from the
country.
This is, in free translation,
the world of Sharon according to Weisglass.
On the face of it, a realistic
picture. Sharon's thoughts are primitive, and perhaps because
of this, one might believe, he sees things as they really are.
Really? Is this in truth the
real picture? History shows that brute military power is a blunt
instrument that cannot solves complex problems. A leader who
puts his sole trust in it will discover that it is a broken reed
which wounds the hand that grasps it.
What Thomas Jefferson wrote
in the American Declaration of Independence about "a decent
respect for the opinions of mankind", was not just an empty
phrase. It was a realistic appraisal: world public opinion influences
in a thousand ways the behavior of nations and governments. It
can have far-reaching effects. "The pen is mightier than
the sword," according to a British poet. And the pope does
indeed have divisions, even it they don't march on the parade
ground.
Military might is but one of
the forces active in the world. Economic forces do not have a
smaller impact; as a matter of fact, their impact may be much
bigger in the long run. Moral forces are invisible, but their
impact is immense. One of the greatest military leaders in history,
Napoleon, was well aware of this.
The human craving for freedom
is invincible, and so is the struggle of oppressed nations for
liberation. To ignore this is not realism, it is blindness.
Even George W. Bush, himself
no less primitive and brutal than Sharon, is learning that the
"world management" is subject to severe limitations,
as he slowly sinks into the morass of Iraq. The belief that Israel's
problems can be solved solely by an alliance with the "world
managers" is an illusion.
The world is not one-dimensional,
even though one country has attained an impressive military superiority.
The world is a very complicated place; numberless forces are
at work, nothing stays in one place. "Everything is in flux,"
as the ancient Greek philosopher said.
One is tempted to paraphrase
Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Arik,
then are dreamt of in your philosophy."
The world-view of Sharon, which
at first appears so realistic, is the very opposite of realism.
It is a view that will lead us to disaster.
And to Dubby, who disclosed
it, whatever his motives, many thanks.
Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist
with Gush Shalom. He is one of the writers featured in The
Other Israel: Voices of Dissent and Refusal. He is also
a contributor to CounterPunch's hot new book The
Politics of Anti-Semitism. He can be reached at: avnery@counterpunch.org.
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
/
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