Today's Stories

December 12 / 14, 2008

Michael Hudson /
Jeffrey Sommers
The End of the Washington Consensus

December 11, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
Total Defeat for U.S. in Iraq

P. Sainath
After Mumbai

Vicken Cheterian
The Zarqawi Generation

Ray McGovern
Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?

Dedrick Muhammad
Post-Racial Racism at the Post: the Undying Obsession with Black Family Values

Lee Sustar
Victory at Republic

Peter Morici
The Big Drag

Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Must They Hate Us So?

George Wuerthner
Another Subsidy to Big Timber?

Christopher Brauchli
Mr. Berg's Strange Obsession

Worthy Group of the Day
Animal Balance

December 10, 2008

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Whose Interests Will Shape Obama's Change?

Mary Lynn Cramer
The Multi-Trillion Dollar Question

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Nuclear Weapons Obsolescence

Joshua Frank
Breaking the Stranglehold on Middle East News Coverage

Jack Ely
Stop Sobbing About Free Music Downloads: a Message to the Music Industry from the Lead Singer of the Kingsmen

Steve Conn
An Obama Public Works Program?

Lee Sustar
Republic Workers Target Bank of America

Glen Ford
The Die is Cast

Stephen Lendman
The Persecution of Syed Fahad Hashmi

Nadia Hijab
The Face of America

Dave Lindorff
We All Need a Union

Website of the Day
This One's For You, Senator Dodd

December 9, 2008

Mike Whitney
Card Check

Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Us vs. Them

Ghada Karmi
The UN Resolution That Time Forgot

Dave Lindorff
A Car Dealer Explains Why the Bailout is a Raw Deal

Steve Breyman
Notes on a Green Economy: Managing Stuff in the 21st Century

Lee Sustar /
Nicole Colson
Raising the Stakes at Republic

Rev. William E. Alberts
God of Our Fathers

Martha Rosenberg
Bill Richardson: Secretary of Bloodsports

Sam Husseini
How Holbrooke Lied His Way Into a War

David Macaray
The UAW in Peril

Website of the Day
This Toxic Life

December 8, 2008

Steve Early
Is Obama Backing Off a Crucial Pledge to Labor?

Michael Hudson
Obama's Favoritism: Wall Street, Not the Auto Industry

Patrick Cockburn
Talking to a Lashkar Militant

Diane Farsetta
An Officer and a Conflicted Man: McCaffery, the Pentagon and Fleishman-Hillard

Paul Craig Roberts
Chapters in Imperial Hypocrisy

Daniel Gross
The Chicago Sit-Down Strike

Saul Landau
To Bail or Not to Bail?

Harvey Wasserman
Why John Bryson is Unfit for Energy Secretary

Mike Ferner
The New Generation of "Non-Lethal" Weapons

Norman Solomon
The Silent Winter of Escalation

David Michael Green
The Other Foot

Website of the Day
The Remains of Detroit

December 5 / 7, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Honeymoans From the Left

Brian Cloughley
Shambles in Afghanistan

Paul Craig Roberts
Muslim Revolution: How Washington Arrogance Helped Drive the Mumbai Attacks

Liaquat Ali Khan
Mumbai and the Kashmir Tinderbox

Farzana Versey
Mumbai's Charge of the Lightweight Brigade

Peter Lee
Pakistan Nears the Breaking Point

Peter Morici
Slouching Toward a Depression?

Ralph Nader /
Toby Heaps
Junk Cap-and-Trade

Yinon Cohen /
Neve Gordon
Obama Could End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Will He Meet the Challenge?

Wajahat Ali
Perverse Justice: the Holy Land Foundation Convictions

Johnny Barber
Aswad's Story: Illegal Detention and the Declaration of Human Rights

Alan Farago
Fallout from the Pass-Through Economy

Jeremy Scahill
Obama Doesn't Plan to End Occupation of Iraq

Mike Whitney
Powergrab in Ottawa

Ranjit Hoskote
Jahiliyya Versus Jihad

Carl Finamore
Thank God I'm an Atheist! (Or Boy is Bill O'Reilly in for a Big Surprise)

Marjorie Cohn
Obama and Women's Rights

Norm Kent
Tommy Chong, the Unanticipated Warrior

Missy Beattie
What Lies Ahead

Binoy Kampmark
Committing Suicide On-Line: the Briggs Case

David Macaray
The Best and the Brightest Redux: Too Many Brains, Not Enough Humility

Nancy Stohlman
Relational Activism

Ron Jacobs
Irreverent Politics Then and Now

David Yearsley
Thematics From the Golden Past

Lorenzo Wolff
Troubled Songs of Home and War

Poets' Basement
Orloski: The Door Opener

Website of the Weekend
In Prison My Whole Life

December 4, 2008

Ece Temelkuran
Inside the Ergenekon Case

Ralph Nader
Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Who Will Seize the Moment?

Harry Browne
The Bush-Obama National Security Strategy

Eamonn Fingleton
The American Car Industry: a Riposte to the Knockers

Conn Hallinan
The Syria Attack

Mike Whitney
Fiasco in Somalia: Another CIA Cock-Up

Stewart J. Lawrence
Obama and Latinos: Richardson, Alone, is Not Enough

Paul Fitzgerald /
Elizabeth Gould
Message to Obama: Stop Killing Afghanis

Karyn Strickler
Show Us the Green, Before We Show You the Money

Jennifer Matsui
Obama-Cola: the Great National Temperance Beverage

Website of the Day
"He Ain't Got Laid in a Month of Sundays..."

December 3, 2008

Andrew Cockburn
What's Wrong with the U.S. Military

Sheldon Rampton
Mormon Homophobia: Up Close and Personal

Robert Weissman
Nationalize GM

Yifat Susskind
From Mumbai to Washington

William Blum
The Obama Bummer: Vote First, Ask Questions Later

Alan Singer
The Ghost of the Defunct Economist

David Macaray
Trampled Under Foot at Wal-Mart

Martha Rosenberg
Born With a Statin Deficiency? Line Forms to the Left!

Mats Svensson
The Crimes Have No Period of Limitations

Website of the Day
Why Bill Richardson's Nomination Should be Opposed

December 2, 2008

Jeremy Scahill
Obama's Kettle of Hawks

Paul Craig Roberts
The New Arms Race

Ayesha Ijaz Khan
The Mumbai Terror Attacks: Is Pakistan to Blame?

Sarah Anderson /
John Cavanagh
Skewed Priorities: How the Bailout Dwarfs Spending on Other Global Crises

William Blum
The Mythology of the War on Terrorism

John Ross
Mexico's Drug War Goes Down in Flames

Dave Lindorff
A Tale of Two Terror Attacks

Nicola Nasser
A Peace Process That Makes Peace Impossible

Steve Conn
Operation Redskin Removal

Robert Bryce
Coal Hard Facts

Website of the Day
Country, Funk, Soul

December 1, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
From Baghdad to Mumbai, by Way of Pakistan

Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
Obama's Economic Team: Records of Failure

Vijay Prashad
The Fires in South Asia

Deepak Tripathi
Obama's Foreign Crises

Joshua Frank
Madam Secretary Clinton and the Middle East

P. Sainath
The Unlikely Martyrdom of Free Market Jihad

Alan Farago
The Right's War on Regulators

Binoy Kampmark
Sydney's Ball and Chain

Chris Genovali
Silent Fall

David Michael Green
Hope You Die Before You Get Old

Stephen Martin
The Chinese are Coming, the Chinese are Coming!

Website of the Day
Robert Rubin: Coward, Liar or Both?

November 28-30, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
In Time of Trouble

Mike Whitney
The Obama "Dream Team": Rubin Clones and Other Fakers

Ted Honderich
What is the Meaning of Obama's Election?

Tom Kerr
Preserving Filthy Lucre (Or Becoming My Dad)

Mike Ely
The Conquest of New England

David Yearsley
Hymns of the Conquest

Deepak Tripathi
Uproar in Police-State Britain

Sonja Karkar
Gaza's Death Throes

Ramzy Baroud
Salvation in a News Broadcast

Robert Weitzel
Israel's Settlement on Capitol Hill

Robert Roth
Can We Create a Movement for Change?

Carlos Fierro
Obama and the End of Racism?

David Macaray
How to Kill a Union

David Rosen
A New Sexual Agenda

James Cockcroft
Indigenous People Rising

Stan Cox
The Most Disappointing Gift

Steve Conn
Talking Turkey About College Basketball

Stephen Martin
The Electromagnetic Pulse and Economic Warfare

Richard Rhames
Busty Bimbettes, Bombs and Brand Obama

Kim Nicolini
Women as Products and Cannibalistic Achievers

Lorenzo Wolff
A Battle Cry for the Confused and Vulnerable

Poets' Basement
Woods, Harrison and Corseri

November 27, 2008

Tariq Ali
The Assault on Mumbai

Steve Hendricks
Thanksgiving We Can Believe In: Justice in Indian Country

Ralph Nader
Open Up Those Corporate Tax Returns

John Walsh
The Root Cause of the Crisis of 2008

Dave Lindorff
The Department of Homeland Lunacy

Christopher Brauchli
Thanks A Lot, Mr. Meese: How Alberto Gonzales Learned to Get You to Pay for His Legal Bills

Matthew Koehler
Giving Thanks for Burned Forests

Website of the Day
John Trudell: "Crazy Horse We Hear What You Say"

November 26, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Obama Letdown

Alan Farago
Bailouts and the New Math

Stanley Heller
Don't Bail Them Out, Take Them Over

Kevin Zeese
The Real Cost of the Bailout

Steve Conn
Now It Can Be Told (Except in North Carolina)

Ray McGovern
Kafka and Uighurs at Guantánamo

Ron Jacobs
King George is Gone: Now It's Time to Organize

Eric Walberg
Obama's Odious Entourage

Martha Rosenberg
Pay No Attention to That Turkey Being Slaughtered (Or How Sarah Palin Created a Whole New Generation of Vegetarians)

Matt Siegfried
Back to the Future With Barack

Website of the Day
"Every Time I've Compromised, I've Lost"

November 25, 2008

James Abourezk
Of Arrogance, Bailouts and the Big Three

Ralph Nader
Don't Suppress Carter

Patrick Irelan
PBS Reports for Big Oil on Venezuela

John Ross
Obama in Bedlam

Fred Gardner
Dr. Goodwin and the Infinite Con

Dan LaBotz
The Auto Crisis: a Big Caravan to Washington?

Tom Barry
Napolitano and Immigration Policy

Norman Solomon
The Ideology of No Ideology

Richard Morse
Memo From Haiti: Where the Culture of Corruption Meets the Corruption of Culture

Chris Strohm
The Missing Rules of Engagement in Cyberwar

Website of the Day
Green vs. Green?

November 24, 2008

Mike Whitney
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Pam Martens
The Rise and Fall of Citigroup

Laray Polk
Bush's Library: the Kurds, Oil and Missing Records

David Ker Thomson
American Friends: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Canadians?

Uri Avnery
Likud Rising

Joe Mowrey
Deprivation and Desperation in Gaza

Ramzi Kysia
An Administration in Search of a Progressive: the Team Obama Should Have Picked

Kevin Zeese
The Causes of the Auto Crisis

Dave Lindorff
Rescuing the Blob: Idiots and Bailouts

David Macaray
Seven Reasons You Should Join a Union

Howard Lisnoff
Inaugurations Past and Present

Website of the Day
I Hate the Beatles

November 21 / 23, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
The Honeymoon is Looking a Bit Wan

Michael Hudson
Paulson's Cascade of Lies

Mike Whitney
Time to Move to Plan B ... If There is One

Barbara Rose Johnston /
Holly M. Barker
Cautionary Tales From a Nuclear War Zone

Serge Halimi
The Gloom of Empire: Downhill All the Way

Alan Farago
The Suburbs March On

Ralph Nader
Changing With Retreads: the Third Clinton Administration

Saul Landau
When Old Axioms Don't Apply

Robert Bryce
From LBJ to Obama: the End of Texas Dominance

Shannon May
Ecological Crisis and Eco-Villages in China

Binoy Kampmark
The End of the Yugo

Jack Ely
The Fate of the West's Wild Horses

Ramzy Baroud
The Rights of Women in War Zones

Missy Beattie
Why Vote, Anyway?

Larry Portis
Women Soldiers Serving in (and Barely Surviving) the Israeli Army

James McEnteer
Colombia's Laboratory of Failure

Christopher Brauchli
A Tale of Two Whales

David Yearsley
Real Swords, Fire and Don Giovanni

Adam Engel
Power Down

Ron Jacobs
The Continuing Saga of the White Album

Lorenzo Wolff
Honky Tonk Heroes: When Country Got Real

Poets' Basement
Raza Ali Hasan

Website of the Weekend
Lips and Fingers

November 20, 2008

P. Sainath
The Jurassic Auto and Idea Park

Brian McKenna
How Dow Chemical Defies Homeland Security and Risks Another 9/11

Paul Craig Roberts
What Uncle Sam Has to Say to His Creditors

Andy Worthington
How Guanántamo Can be Closed

Peter Lee
India Doubles Down in Afghanistan ... Maybe

Dr. Eyad al-Serraj
At the Erez Crossing

Sen. Russ Feingold
The Bush Pardons

Lance Selfa
Who Made the New Deal?

Ray McGovern
Keeping Gates

Benjamin G. Davis
Ending Torture; Prosecuting the Torturers

Tracy McLellan
Obama's Crony Democracy: the Return of Tom Daschle

Website of the Day
Finally, a Victory for Palestinians

November 19, 2008

M. Shahid Alam
Obama and the Politics of Race and Religion in America

Mario A. Murillo
Holder, Chiquita and Colombian Death Squads

Martine Boulard
Escaping the Dollar's Shadow

Robin D. G. Kelley
Will Obama be the First "Freedom" Democrat?

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Obama and the Iron Cage

Jonathan Cook
Who Will Stop the Settlers?

Steve Conn
Spare Change or No Change at All

George Wuerthner
The NYT and the Beetles of Mass Destruction

Michael Winship
This Just in From Middle Earth

Stephen Martin
The Other Side of the Pleasure-Dome

Website of the Day
An Important Holiday Message From Kristen Johnston

November 18, 2008

Chellis Glendinning
Cheering for Morgan Stanley

George C. Wilson
Perils of Pakistan: Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?

Franklin Lamb
Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon: Hezbollah or the UN?

Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State

Roger Burbach
Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia: How Bush Tried to Bring Down Morales

John Ross
Drilling vs. Direct Democracy in Mexico

Wajahat Ali
Is Obama the Muslim World's Superman?

Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
What Really Happened in Washington? The G20 and the Inconsistent Script

Marc Gardner
When Mooning is a Sex Crime

Eric Walberg
Courting the Bear: a New Era for Russian/Western Relations?

Wendy Williams
The Bottled Water Con

Website of the Day
Where's Zappa When We Need Him?

November 17, 2008

Michael Hudson
Bankers Shake Down Congress and the G-20

Paul Craig Roberts
When It's a Clear Day and You Can't See GM

Mike Whitney
Busted in Washington

Steve Conn
Where is Nader Country 2008? Mapping the Nader Votes

Andy Worthington
Closing Guantánamo: Advice for Obama

Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of Israel's Blockade of Gaza: "They Are All Hamas"

Rannie Amiri
Dual Loyalties Will Doom Obama

David Macaray
Bailing Out the Automakers

David Michael Green
Twelve Victories

Charles Modiano
Sports Illustrated and Sexism: Tokenism or a New Day?

Website of the Day
The South Sea Bubble

November 14 / 16, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Heading for the First Hundred Days

Jeffrey St. Clair
How Bill Clinton Doomed the Spotted Owl: a Cautionary Tale for Greens in the Age of Obama

Mike Whitney
Paulson the Bungler

Sasan Fayazmanesh
RIP: the Experts, 1929-2008

Moshe Adler
Keynes: China's Greatest Export?

Anthony DiMaggio
Transcending Race?

Jean Bricmont
Cats, Dogs and Creationism

Sheldon Rampton
The Eisenstadt Hoax: a Real Life Example of a "Fake Fake"

Douglas Valentine
Let the Trials Begin!

Joseph Nevins /
Timothy Dunn
Barricading the Border

Tom Barry
Rahm Emanuel's Political Pragmatism on Immigration

Ron Jacobs
Che Guevara Meets Trashman: the Genius of Spain Rodriguez

Larry Portis
The State of the Israeli State

Mary Lynn Cramer Obama's Brain Trust: Seems Like Old Times

Sherry Wolf
The Myth of the Black/Gay Divide

Peter Cervantes-Gautschi
Secretary of Greed: How Larry Summers Championed Wall Street by Impoverishing the Mexican People

Jacob Hornberger
The Conservative Malaise: Hey, Brother, Can You Spare Some Habeas Corpus?

Lance Selfa
The Center-Right Nation Con

Benjamin Dangl
Vermont Against General Dynamics

Seth Sandronsky
Lifelines in Hard Times

Russell Mokhiber
Time to Give the Friends of Big Coal the Boot

Allan Stellar
Nuke a Gay Whale for the Navy

Kelly Overton
Get Thee to a Shelter: the Obamas and the Million-Mutt March

Martha Rosenberg
Why Mink are Cheering the Economic Crisis

Richard Rhames
Palling Around with Ray the Plumber

David Yearsley
How I Played Hooky from "High School Musical 3"

Lorenzo Wolff
Zach is Back: Songs of Hurt, Rage and Resistance

Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Ford and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
The Eyes Have It

November 13, 2008

Pam Martens
The Two Trillion DollarBlack Hole

Vijay Prashad
Guilt by Participation: Sonal Shah's Membership Has Expired

Patrick Cockburn
Who is Paying for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service?

Jonathan Cook
The Withering Palestinian Economy

Ralph Nader
Obama and the Rogue Regime

Bill Quigley
McCain Owes America an Apology

Lee Sustar
Bailing Out the Big Three

Omar Barghouti
Boycotting Israeli Settlement Products

Steve Conn
More Alaska Fun

Howard Lisnoff
The Last Bastion of Hate

Jeff Cohen
What Indy Media Heroes Can Teach Us

Website of the Day
Who are the Obamagelicals?

November 12, 2008

Johanna Berrigan
Scattered Families: the Iraq Refugee Crisis

Steve Conn
The Big Mystery Election in Alaska

Patrick Bond
Against Volcker

Bokar Ture /
Dedrick Muhammad
Remembering a Black Radical in a Barack Obama America

Alan Farago
The Hispanic Vote in South Florida: Not Dyed Blue Yet

Dave Lindorff
Rescuing Joe Lieberman

Karl Grossman
Break Up Big Oil: Tyranny in the Tank

David Macaray
An Obama Litmus Test: Will Labor Have a Seat at the Table?

George Wuerthner
Act Now to Save America's Public Forests

Susie Day
Heavy Weather

Website of the Day
Does the Planet Have a Future? an Interview with Derrick Jensen

Weekend Edition
December 12 / 14, 2008

An Interview with Jeff Halper

An Israeli in Gaza

By FRANK BARAT

Jeff Halper is the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. He is the author of An Israeli in Palestine. He lives in Jerusalem.

You recently took part in the Free Gaza movement and successfully reached Gaza by boat with others activists, journalists and human rights workers from around the globe. How did you get involved in such an initiative and why was it important for you to take part?

As an Israeli and the head of an Israeli peace organization (ICAHD – The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), I was asked by the Free Gaza Movement organizers to take part in their action to Break the Siege of Gaza by sailing two boats from Cyprus to Gaza City port. I agreed because this was a non-violent political action; breaking the siege and by implication highlighting Israel’s responsibility for it (which it tries to shrug) fit into ICAHD’s mission, to end the Israeli Occupation completely. Had this been defined as a humanitarian mission I would not have participated, since the so-called “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza is not the result of some natural calamity, but of a deliberate policy of Israel – plus the US, Europe and Japan, it must be said, and aided by Egypt – to break the will of the Palestinians to resist and to replace the democratically elected government of Hamas by a collaborationist regime more amenable to Israeli control. 

What was the goal of this initiative and has it been reached?

The goal of this initiative, as I mentioned, was to break the Israeli and international siege on Gaza – although we were careful not to disconnect Gaza from the wider Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, of which it is a part. In an important sense we succeeded. One successful action gives tremendous hope and encouragement to the people the world over that civil society initiatives can shame governments to relent and even change policy, as well as express solidarity with oppressed people. But in order to genuinely break the siege, regular boat traffic must be established. In that we have partially succeeded. So far five FGM boats have reached Gaza (the last one on December 9th, as I write this), although a Libyan ship was turned away and a boat of Palestinian-Israeli parliament members was prevented from sailing. I am in the midst of a campaign, with European supporters, to organize maritime trade unions in ports around the Mediterranean to express solidarity with Gaza, which hadn’t seen a foreign vessel in 40 years before ours arrived. One of our goals is that on appointed day in the spring or summer one or more boats will depart to Gaza from every port on the Mediterranean. Imagine what a scene, what a gesture of solidarity and resistance that would be! 

As an Israeli Jew, what type of welcome did you get from the Gazans? Did you meet anyone from Hamas?

We all received a tremendous welcome from the Palestinian Gazans – 40,000 came out to greet us as we entered the port! As, unfortunately, the only Israeli Jew (two more have since sailed to Gaza), I was sought out by Gazans who wanted to communicate with me – in Hebrew – how much they yearned for a just peace in which all the inhabitants of the country could live together in peace. I was struck by how non-political their discourse was. No accusations, no political programs, just a deep desire to get beyond this superfluous conflict to a life good for everyone. This, it seems to me, is a solid foundation upon which a just peace can be built.

I was invited for dinner with Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian Prime Minister from the Hamas party, together with the rest of our group. I decided not to attend so as not to deflect the public discussion, especially in Israel, from our action’s main focus, breaking the siege, to side issues such as the connection of the Israeli peace camp to Hamas. This is just what the Israeli authorities would have wanted: a discussion over my attending a Hamas dinner instead of over its own responsibility for Palestinian suffering and oppression. I refused to play into their hands. Nonetheless, I am proud to note that I received Palestinian citizenship, including a passport, from the Palestinian government. 

Why did get you arrested by the Israeli forces at the Erez crossing on your way back to Israel?

I decided, after three days in Gaza visiting friends and participating in solidarity visits to Palestinian communities and organizations, to return to Israel by way of the Erez crossing rather than by boat. I wanted to make the point that the siege existed on the other three sides of Gaza, not only by sea. I knew I would be arrested, but I saw that as part of the action, of our civil disobedience. And in fact, when I went through the Erez “checkpoint” – actually a huge, intimidating metal terminal that reminded me of a cross between the Emerald City of Oz that suddenly appeared before Dorothy (in this case out of a barren landscape of demolished homes, uprooted fruit trees, scorched earth and the ever-present Wall) and an Orwellian scene from some totalitarian nightmare – I was arrested. The charge: violating a military order forbidding Israelis from being in Gaza (or the Palestinian cities of the West Bank). After a difficult night in prison, where I was physically threatened by right-wing Jews but protected by Palestinian prisoners, I was released on bail. I am still waiting to hear if the state will press charges.  

You founded the Israeli Committee Against House demolitions (ICAHD) in 1997. What was the goal of this organization at the time? What is it now and what is ICAHD going to focus on in the next few months?

I was one of the founders of ICAHD in 1997, in the wake of Benjamin Netanyahu’s election and the final collapse of the Oslo peace process. After several years of dormancy, ICAHD’s formation was part of the re-engagement of the Israeli peace camp in resisting the Occupation, which emerged from the Oslo process much more entrenched than it has been at the start.

ICAHD is an Israeli political organization dedicated to resisting the Israeli Occupation until its total end, and to a seeking of just peace with the Palestinians, in one state, two states, a regional confederation or whatever political arrangement best serves our two peoples. Since “occupation” is such an abstract concept to most people, we decided to take the issue of Israel’s policy of demolishing Palestinian homes – almost 20,000 in the Occupied Territories since 1967 – as the focus of our activities. ICAHD activists and members of other Israeli peace groups, together with Palestinians and international activists, resist demolitions and rebuild homes demolished by the Israeli authorities – 162 in the past decade. Since we rebuild as political acts of resistance and not as humanitarian gestures, 162 such acts of Israeli and Palestinians against the Occupation (so far) is significant.

Acts of resistance alone will not end the Occupation, however. Activism has to be balanced with strategic advocacy. The grassroots has to be mobilized and effective lobbying done among political decision-makers. The Israeli public, for many reasons I will not go into here, has taken itself out of the political equation: it is apathetic vis-a-vis the Palestinians and refuses to take responsibility (indeed, Netanyahu will likely come back as Prime Minister in February). The focus of ICAHD’s advocacy, then, is international, towards peace and human rights groups, trade unions, universities, churches, Jewish peace groups and other grassroots constituencies, as well as towards government officials and parliamentarians (Americans being the most influential and the most difficult to reach).

In the next few months ICAHD will concentrate on developing working relations with the Obama Administration. We are also involved in launching an anti-apartheid campaign. With Jimmy Johnson, a long-time ICAHD activist, I am also writing a book on Israel’s involvement in the world’s arms industry. Though we must continue to look “down” at Israel’s actions in the Occupied Territories, we must also start to look “up” at Israel’s role in what we call the Pacification Industry to understand why it receives the support from the US and other governments that it does.

How being a peace activist fighting for Palestinian rights in Israel feels like? Also, could you give us an overview of the Israeli peace movement today?

Although ICAHD cooperates with other critical Israeli peace and human rights organizations, I stand somewhat apart from many activists for several reasons. Unlike most of my comrades, I do not think that activism by itself can achieve political results. The Israeli peace movement in general seems to think it cannot influence policy or events, and if it is limited merely to protest and symbolic solidarity acts, then there is no need to even try and participate in the political process. ICAHD considers itself an actor, a political player. We believe we can influence events, and so we seek to work with international partners, governments and civil society alike. I do not think it is worthwhile to try and reach the Israeli public. Unlike most Israeli peace activists, again, I again prefer to dedicate ICAHD’s limited energy and resources to international advocacy. Finally, I define myself politically as an Israeli; an ideology like Zionism cannot determine the life of a country. Thus we at ICAHD belong to a small coterie of Israeli peace groups – together with the Alternative Information Center, the anarchists and ’48 Palestinians – who can envision Israeli national expression within a single political entity shared with the Palestinians.

The Zionist peace movement is largely paralyzed today. Peace Now, the largest and best known of this camp, is non-functional except in its important monitoring of settlement activity. The Zionist left party, Meretz, has only five seats in the parliament out of 120. The critical (or “radical,” if you like) left of the Israeli peace movement to which ICAHD belongs is, it is true, even smaller in numbers and unable to elect a single member to the parliament. Nevertheless, we do unflinching actions and analysis from the ground and make our voices heard in many international forums. 

What do you make of the recent Jerusalem attacks by Palestinians living in East Jerusalem?

In fact, Palestinian violence against Israelis (“terrorism” in our parlance; Israeli violence against Palestinians is “legitimate military operations”) has been virtually eliminated – except limited rocket attacks coming periodically out of Gaza. Israelis are feeling great personal security, which removes much of the motivation for peace, which for Israelis means only concessions and becoming vulnerable to our permanent enemies. The Wall might have something to do with this, but incessant Israeli military activity throughout the Occupied Territories – today bolstered by military/police operations of the Palestinian Authority against Hamas and those “wanted” by Israel – provides a better answer. The only actual attack in recent years was that carried out against the yeshiva in Jerusalem, and it stands out as an exception to the rule. 

On the 17th of September 2008, Tzipi Livni was elected leader of the Kadima party. What could bar her from being the next Israeli prime minister? In what way could she been different than Ehud Olmert?

Israel’s four major parties – Likud of Netanyahu, Kadima of Olmert and Livni, Labor of Barak and Shas of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Eli Yishai – are all right-wing and have members (especially generals and former security agents) who frequently cross over from one to the other. Tzipi Livni is merely another right-wing politician, and it is a mistake to consider Kadima a “centrist” party (it was, in fact, Sharon’s personal political vehicle). Still, Livni is the most popular candidate for Prime Minister, but she cannot win because in Israel we do not have representative democracy. Voters vote only for parties, not for candidates, and citizens have no representation by district. The only way to get Livni, then, is to vote Kadima, but it is not a popular party and people would rather vote Likud, meaning they will get Netanyahu even though few want him, even in his own party. See what I mean by a disempowered Israeli electorate?

Gideon Levy said that as long as the Israeli public will have no problem with the occupation, it will not stop. He also said that in most polls Israelis showed strong support for peace (up to 70%), but then voted for people like Benjamin Netanyahu (who will win the next Israeli election in 2 months according to Levy). Would you like to comment on this?

Three things disempower Israelis and neutralize them as a positive, pro-active political force:

(1) the fact that although most Israelis are willing to support a two-state solution, they have been convinced by their political and military leaders that there is no political solution, there is no “partner for peace,” and therefore they have no choice but to let the government do whatever it wishes (which is to strengthen the Occupation);

(2) as I’ve mentioned, they have no political representation and no ability to influence government decision, and so do not even try; and

(3) as long as life is good – which it is inside the Israeli bubble – then who thinks of Arabs? So the issue of peace is way down the list of electoral priorities, and since candidates are dictated by parties, Israelis end up voting for the least evil choice. Thus Netanyahu.

In the last few years, unemployment rates in the West Bank and Gaza have reached new heights. In Nablus for example, which used to be a commercial centre for Palestine, more than 50% of its inhabitants are now without a job. The Palestinian Authority, in close collaboration with the World Bank and the British Department for International Development, has drawn up a new plan to be implemented in the West Bank called the Palestinian Reform and Development Plan. In your opinion is this the right plan?

I don’t believe – together with the World Bank and DIFID, in my opinion – that development is possible under occupation. In fact, it ends up enabling occupation, since Israel can destroy Palestinian infrastructure at will and besiege Palestinians to the point of starvation knowing full well that the “development” and relief agencies will pick up the clack and keep the Palestinians’ heads just above water. This in Operation “Defensive Shield” in 2002 Israel destroyed $350 million of urban infrastructure, airports and ports, exactly the amount the international community had invested during the previous year. To paraphrase Clinton: “It’s the Occupation, Stupid!”     

Barack Obama's election as President has been celebrated all over the world as a proof that America had changed and was ready to stop the warmongering Bush years and start anew. Any chance that this will apply to Israel/Palestine?

I wrote an article entitled “A Bone in America’s Throat” which was published on Nov. 10, 2008, in Counterpunch. In it I argue that Obama is entering into a wholly different international reality than Bush did, in which America is militarily over-stretched and economically weakened and the world is more multi-polar.  Rather than a “War on Terror,” the US will have to rejoin, rather than browbeat, the community of nations. To do that – and to leave Iraq and Afghanistan while stabilizing relations with Iran and Pakistan, plus trying to prevent the fall of Egypt, Jordan and other American “allies” to Islamic fundamentalists – it will have to find an accommodation, if not reconciliation, with the Muslim world. And it will not get to first base without addressing the Palestinian issue, which for the world’s Muslims is emblematic, a conflict more symbolically significant than Iraq. The Palestinians’ clout is that they are the gatekeepers. Until they signal to the Arab/Muslim world that the conflict with Israel is over, that they have reached a political solution acceptable to them and that now is time to normalize relations with Israel and its US patron, the conflict is not over, and the US cannot move ahead. My hope is not in Obama per se but in that he will recognize that it is in America’s interest to end the Israeli occupation, and will then move forcefully to do so. So I’m optimistic. I don’t believe Israeli control of Palestine is sustainable. 

Noam Chomsky told me that "What current advocates of a one-state (binational) settlement don't seem to fully appreciate is that the choices are not two-states versus one-state with an internal civil rights (anti-apartheid) struggle, but rather two-states versus continuation of current US-Israeli programs, which take no responsibility for Palestinians outside of the areas Israel expects to incorporate, so that they can rot or leave". He also said that “I presume that's why binationalist proposals that were anathema when they were feasible (roughly '67-'73) are treated much more gently today, even approved in the mainstream, now that they can be exploited by the right to undermine a two-state first stage in the process.” What is your position on this issue and what is your vision for the future of Palestine/Israel?

I think mathematically there are only three solutions: one state, either bi-national (most likely) or a unitary state like South Africa; two states, which is still preferred by the vast majority of Palestinians in Palestine, who seek national self-determination (although they expect the eventual evolution of a single state); or apartheid – a “two-state solution” envisioned by Israel in which the Palestinians are shoved into a Bantustan on a truncated 15% of historic Palestine and Israel controls the rest, including borders, movement, water, Jerusalem and even the airspace. I believe that Israel has eliminated the two-state solution by its settlement project, and only an assertive US Administration can force Israel to withdraw to a meaningful degree, which is possible if US interests are at stake but unlikely. Since apartheid is not an option, we are left with a one-state solution, which I think is difficult – the history of bi-national states is not a happy one – but do-able if both peoples go into that project in good faith (very unlikely on the part of Israel). The one-state solution also enjoys no support today either in Israel or in the international community. It appears, then, that we have a conflict with no apparent solution at the moment.

I have advanced what I call a “two state-plus” solution based on the idea of a loose regional economic confederation involving Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Key to that is the freedom of all the residents of the confederation to live and work anywhere among its member states, as in Europe. This would eliminate the issue of how big the Palestinian is, neutralize the Occupation (since the settlements and Israel proper would be fully integrated), resolve the refugee issue and shift the burden of economic viability from a tiny Palestinian state to the entire region. But that’s a big vision whose time has not yet come.   

Jeff Halper's new book “An Israeli in Palestine” is out now.

Frank Barat is a peace activist living in London. His book of interviews between Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe, “Le champ du possible” is out now. He can be reached through is blog “Life under occupation”.

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