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April 6, 2002
Bill Christison:
A Former CIA Official on
Oil and the Middle East
April 5, 2002
Charmaine
Seitz
In
Ramallah: The Grueling Reoccupation Grinds On
Nancy Stohlman
The Invasion of Bethlehem
and Our Tax Dollars at Work
Beth Daoud
The
Siege of Bethlehem:
"What Do You Mean God Is Punishing Me?"
Fareed Marjaee:
Demonizing Iran
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Philip
Morris to Canada:
"Drop Dead"
Alex Lynch
Tampa Campus Mirrors
Middle East Strife
Alexander
Cockburn
Sharon's
Wars: How the
News Gets Through
April 4, 2002
Ray Hanania
Sharon's Latest Lie About the Church
of the Nativity
Mike Leon
Rightwing
Assault on Madison Progressives Misfires
Tom Turnipseed
Stop the Killing Now!
Nancy
Stohlman
An
American Under Siege in a West Bank Refugee Camp
Christopher Reilly
Kissinger, Chile and Justice
at Long Last?
M. Shahid
Alam
The
Lies of Thomas Friedman
April 3, 2002
Don Henley
Dear Loathsome Trade Hacks
Bernard
Weiner
An
American Jew Talks
About His Shame
David Vest
Sting of Stings
Tzaporah
Ryter
Under
Fire: an American Student in Ramallah
Gabriel Ash
America's Bravest
John Chuckman
Of
War, Islam and Israel
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
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
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Published March 15, 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
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April 6, 2002
The Blind Leading The Criminal
By Sam Bahour
For anyone familiar with the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, President Bush's speech politely "asking"
Israel to end its destructive military aggression against the
Palestinian people and Authority calls for continued global
alarm.
In awkwardly trying to strike a balance
between both parties, President Bush proved that he either does
not want--or is unable--to comprehend that Israel's 35-year
old US funded, equipped and politically protected military
occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is
at the core of this conflict. The last seven days and the next
suicide bombing are mere symptoms of a much worse calamity on
the verge of eruption.
Merging the Palestinian struggle against
occupation and for independence with Bush's superficial obsession
with the word 'terror' leaves a lot to be desired from American
leadership. Similarly, following Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's
cue by attempting to justify Israel's current war crimes as
a reply to acts of suicide bombers is as unproductive as the
bombings themselves. Most suicide bombers are themselves victims,
as are the innocent civilians whose lives they have taken. The
latter are victims of a bombing, the former victims of the brutal
35-year military Israeli rule that drove them to it. Both deserve
our acknowledgement.
With President Bush limiting his statement
to saying that the "United States is on record supporting
the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for a Palestinian
state", this US Administration continues to commit the
same three-decade mistake of ignoring the fact that the Palestinians
are engaged in a national liberation movement similar to the
movement that ended South African apartheid and that their rights
are embedded in International Law. "Aspirations" make
for great poetry, but implementation of internationally recognized
national, political and economic rights are what will make a
lasting peace.
The Bush's Administration's handling
of this latest round of Israeli violations of Palestinian rights
sheds the clearest light yet on the hidden agenda of the morbid
Oslo Peace Process - the creation of another Middle East Banana
Republic in Palestine. When duly elected Palestinian President
Yasir Arafat refused to go along with this agenda, President
Bush did not hesitate to un- elect President Arafat and condemn
him to death from the White House lawn.
This traditional colonialist political
strategy can be directly attributed to the pro-Israeli lobby
influence on US policy, which, for the last 35 years has-from
one administration to another--continued to threaten short-
and long-term US interests in the Middle East.
Now the Palestinian Authority has been
reduced to a President taken hostage and a people under military
attack, facing the constant threat of death from US-supplied,
Israeli-operated armaments. The Palestinian Authority exists
today only in the imagination of those who have contributed
to its demise and rendered it nearly defunct. With the Palestinian
Authority's deliberate destruction, Israel has succeeded once
again through its brutal, uncompromising aggression to destabilize
the entire region.
President Bush would have been better
advised to replace in his speech, "now we must build the
road to those goals," to, "to many roads have been
built trying to reach to many self-declared goals, and today
I declare that the US will implement United Nations Resolutions
and bring the Israeli occupation to a swift end." When
Israel would have issued its inevitable refusal, US financial
aid, which in FY2001 amounted to US$2.82 billion, should have
been immediately discontinued and US vetoes in the United Nations
to protect Israel discontinued.
The Palestinian people, however, are
very politically astute.
Under Israeli military gunfire and in
spite of full US sanction, Palestinians from across the political
spectrum will defend President Arafat and their cities with
all their might and with whatever little resources are available
to them. However, as far as the Palestinian people are concerned
- whether they are living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East
Jerusalem, in refugee camps or in the Diaspora -- the Palestinian
Authority President and leadership will be held accountable
for committing and/or continuing to commit to a political path
that has led us to the impasse we face today. The failed institutionalization
of Palestinian decision-making--be it within the Palestinian
Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organization--after
so many years, so many lessons, and so much pain and suffering,
can no longer be overlooked, but it will never be dealt with
under Israeli fire.
President Arafat's blanket acceptance
of President Bush's speech is yet another shallow attempt to
redirect US foreign policy without engaging US foreign politics.
Faced with the "persuasion" of Israeli Prime Minister
Sharon's gun at President Arafat's head, no court of law would
accept any agreements signed by President Arafat. Likewise,
under the same conditions, it can only be expected that the
Palestinian people will not accept yet another half-baked,
Israeli-designed, cosmetic "process" that subjugates
them to continued military and economic occupation, let alone
daily humiliation and often death.
While US Secretary of State Powell casually
packs his bags to travel to the region to find a way out, the
Palestinians will continue to pay a heavy toll for being Palestinians.
In the meantime, Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon is unnecessarily
marching Israel down a long, bloody road that will, like all
other roads, lead eventually to a viable Palestinian state.
Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American
living in the besieged Palestinian City of Al-Bireh/Ramallah
in the West Bank and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.
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