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A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
November 19, 2001
Edward
Said
Suicidal
Ignorance
November 18, 2001
John Farley
Shame on You,
Chelsea!
Kalpana
Sharma
Flower
Power:
A Blow for Peace
Tony Mauro
The Quirin
Ruling:
FDR's Horrible Precedent for Bush's Terror Courts
C.G. Estabrook
American
Crusades
November 17, 2001
Zoltan Grossman
It Ain't
Over Til It's Over
November 16, 2001
Rick Giombetti
Rep.
McDermott and
the Decay of Liberalism
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Voices
of Muslim Feminists
Mokhiber/Weissman
Kill,
Kill, Kill
November 15, 2001
George
Monbiot
Blasting
Our Way
Toward Peace
Jack McCarthy
Hitchens
Mind-Meld
and Hot Bodies
Steve
Perry
Afghan
Puzzle Palace
RAWA
We Do Not Accept
the Northern Alliance
November 14, 2001
Jensen/Mahajan
The
Press Must Press Harder on Afghanistan
David Vest
The Great Unificator
Harry
Browne
Preventing
Future Terrorism
November 13, 2001
Peter Mahoney
Veteran's
Day, 2001
Rep. Ron
Paul
Expanding
NATO
Is a Bad Idea
November 12, 2001
Robert Jensen
Goodbye to
All That...
Patriotism
Nancy
Oden
My
Day at the Airport
CounterPunch Wire
East Timor
10 Years
After the Massacre
C.G. Estabrook
Instead
of Terror
Alexander Cockburn
Wide World
of Torture
November 11, 2001
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland
Insecurity: The Politics of Terror in America
November 10, 2001
Grover Furr
Seeking an Opposition
to the Afghan War
Bruce
Kyle
Anatomy
of a Green Smear:
Backstabbing Nancy Oden
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War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
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Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
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
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The
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November
20, 2001
Plain Truths About Palestine
by Sam Bahour
The mirage of positive movement in the deadly
gridlock between Israelis and Palestinians continued today, uninterrupted
by reality. Following US President George Bush's footsteps, US
Secretary of State Colin Powell, during a major Middle East policy
address at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, finally
confirmed the addition of the word "Palestine" to the
US political lexicon. More significantly, Secretary of State
Powell explicitly acknowledged, for the first time ever, that
Israel's illegal "occupation" of Palestinian land and
people "must end".
For this new thrust in US policy, the
Bush administration should be applauded, albeit, their enlightenment
makes the US nearly the last nation on earth to face these simple
common sense policy decisions.
Palestine may be new to the US political
vocabulary, but it has existed within the rest of the world long
before the creation of the State of Israel. As a matter of fact,
the letter that was sent to US President Harry Truman on May
14, 1948 requesting US recognition of the State of Israel was
sent under the letterhead, "THE JEWISH AGENCY FOR PALESTINE."
Furthermore, President Truman responded the same day by writing
that the State being implemented "has been proclaimed in
Palestine." He then announced, 14 minutes after it was declared,
"The United States recognizes ... the State of Israel,"
not Israel the Jewish State, but rather, the State of Israel.
Yet, Secretary of State Powell requests that the Palestinians
again recognize Israel's right to exist, but this time as a "Jewish
State." It's odd that Palestinians are being asked to define
the nature of the State of Israel when even the US rightfully
did not do so in their recognition.
More significant in Secretary of State
Powell's much-paraded statement was the long overdue US acknowledgement
that Israeli occupation "must end." This long-awaited
realization must now be embedded in the day to day US policy
actions if any positive movement toward a lasting peace is to
happen. US financial aid to Israel, which is either directly
used by Israel to continue its occupation, or frees other monies
to the same avail, must become one of the tools that are used
by the US to bring Israel in line with international law. Also,
the non-stop supply of US military machinery that is used by
Israel to support and perpetuate its illegal occupation must
be stopped.
Conveniently skipping the Bush Administration's
initial determination not to be actively involved in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, Secretary of State Powell boasted of the US's half
century of activism and leadership in addressing this conflict.
Unfortunately, it took decades for the US to realize that Israeli
occupation is the core of the conflict. Hopefully, it will not
take another 50 years for the US to realize that the keys to
end Israeli occupation are in Washington, just as much as they
are in Tel Aviv.
The US's newly proclaimed "vision"
must quickly become a plan of action. Empty slogans, by both
Palestinians and Israelis, contributed to the catastrophic situation
the Middle East finds itself in today. The US has an international
obligation to no longer delay justice or fall into the well-exposed
Israeli policy of 'talking peace while acting war.'
Palestinians went to Madrid, Oslo and
Camp David and extended the greatest concession ever voluntarily
made by an indigenous people -- to relinquish 78% of their ancestral
homeland so Jews could fulfill their own dream of a homeland.
In return, Palestinians expected their Israeli occupiers to dismantle
the illegal Israeli occupation on the 22% of Palestinian lands
that remained, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
What Palestinians received instead was a package of Israeli aggression
like never before. Now, with the US seeing the light, it is absolutely
essential that the same light shine over Israel, its people and
its leadership.
The US knows better. Courting the word
Palestine in the 21st century without committing to real action
to end the illegal Israeli occupation is nothing more than a
shot of morphine that, once wears off, can only leave the region
more unstable than it already is today. On the other hand, if
a final solution based on true justice and international legitimacy
is realized, the entire Middle East will be poised to return
to its historic role of advancing civilization. Time is of essence.
Sam Bahour
is a Palestinian-American businessman living in the besieged
Palestinian City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank. He is co-author
of HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994)
and may be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.
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