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Recent
Stories
July
7, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Draw
July
4 / 6, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
July
3, 2003
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Meaning of Gettysburg
Thomas
W. Croft
There Was a Reason They Called It the Casino Economy
David
Lindorff
Outlawing Subversives: Hong Kong
and the US
John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Stan
Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former
Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis
to Attack US Troops
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July 2, 2003
Diane
Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress
Justin
Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
Reuven
Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July
1, 2003
Sasan
Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia
and the Sodomy Cops
Susan
Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong
to Ourselves
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name
Gary
Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
of Progressive Politics in America
Col. Dan
Smith
The Occupation of Iraq: Descending into the Quagmire
Tim
Wise
Race and Destruction in Black and White
Neve Gordon
The Roadmap and the Wall
Chris
Floyd
The Revelation of St. George: "God Told Me to Strike Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Kentucky Woman
Uri
Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
Website
of the Day
Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?
Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
June
27, 2003
Jason
Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
Posed No Threat to US
David
Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
Ali"
Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26
Website
of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy
June
26, 2003
Sen.
Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
CounterPunch
Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops
Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo
June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
Dan
Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops
Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
Guidelines
Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods
June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth
It to Risk One's Life?
John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
Ray McGovern
Conn
Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon
Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories
CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
Our Favorite Novels
Todd Chretien
Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension
Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
Walter
Brasch
Down on Our Knees
Robert
Meeropol
The Son of the Rosenbergs on His Parents Death and Bush's America
Russell
Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells
Norman
Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a
Quebec Radical
Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
Steve
Perry
Bush's Lies
Marathon: the Finale
Hot Stories
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
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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July
7, 2003
When Americans Are
the Brokers
Peace
for All the Wrong Reasons
By RAMZY BAROUD
For Palestinians, the Camp David Peace Treaty,
signed between Egypt and Israel in March 26, 1979, under American
sponsorship, equaled a catastrophe.
Israel's aim was to keep Egypt away from
the focal conflict in the Middle East, the Israeli occupation
of Palestinian land. It did so successfully. Not only was Egypt
out of the picture, but also the seemingly united Arab front
collapsed thereafter. Egypt received harsh flak from its Arab
neighbors and lost its leading role among Arab nations.
Israel was the ultimate beneficiary.
Then Prime Minister Menachim Begin, refused any proposition of
a realistic negotiation framework that could resolve the Palestinian
conflict. On the other hand, the United States signed a separate
agreement with Israel: the Israel-US Memorandum. The agreement
provided American guarantees to Israel, lest Egypt violated the
peace treaty. It also designated a generous annual military and
economic aid package, to help Israel cope with the cost of peace.
The question of Palestine was then put
on the back burner, but not completely. Instead, Israel had an
awesome chance to concentrate on suppressing the rebellious Palestinians,
while trying to create an alternative leadership to negotiate
peace based on Israeli terms. As Israel managed to breath easier,
since the war of attrition in Egypt was officially over, a bloody
campaign was waged against Lebanon, with the aim of altering
the political structure of the tiny country, while driving Syria
out of Lebanon, but foremost, annihilating the Palestinian resistance.
Israel's gamble led to the invasion of
Lebanon, in the summer of 1982, which culminated to the massacre
of Sabra and Shatilla. The estimates on Lebanese and Palestinian
casualties in Israel's war varied. But there is an agreement
that tens of thousands were killed or wounded. The masterminds
of the invasion were the same man who signed the peace treaty
with Egypt; Begin, and the rising star of Israel's politics;
Ariel Sharon.
Israel has of course achieved little
from its invasion of Lebanon, a lesson that cost Israel hundreds
of its finest soldiers. Two decades of senseless occupation reaped
nothing but a humiliating withdrawal. Former Israel Prime Minister
Ehud Barak, had the courage to admit that the Israeli presence
in Lebanon was costly and futile. In an unforgettable night in
May 2000, Israeli troops scrambled to escape back to the Israeli
northern border as their leadership vowed never to return.
Once again, Israel was allowed to focus
on its problem with the Palestinians. Less than two months following
the withdrawal from South Lebanon, Israel attempted to force
its own conditions on the Palestinian leadership, this time back
in Camp David. Despite the intense pressure, practiced by the
"honest broker", a role played by former US President
Bill Clinton, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held his ground.
History, written by the US media, often refers to that phase
as "Barak's generous offer", claiming that Barak offered
Palestinians everything they wished for, but they arrogantly
refused. Leading Palestinian intellectual, Hanan Ashrawi, repeatedly
stated that no written proposal was ever made available to the
Palestinians. Even if there was such a proposal, Arafat's rejection
of the division of the West Bank into three cantons, separated
by Israeli military zones and bypass roads, the continuous presence
of the illegal settlements and the Israeli illegal control of
the occupied city of Jerusalem, is nothing less than a sound
choice.
Nearly three years have passed since
the failure of Camp David II, and nearly as long since the outbreak
of the Palestinian uprising. Israel continues to wave two options
in the face of Palestinians, either peace on Israel's turf, or
a deadly war that uses every weapon available. Sharon's painful
honesty often helped outline the Israeli peace agenda. He declared
the essence of his strategy to the world on March 4, 2002 when
he stated: Before peace talks with the Palestinians could resume,
"they must first be hit hard."
On July 02, 2003, Israeli tanks reportedly
rolled out of the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, opening
the stage for a new Israeli maneuver. Considering Israeli official
statements that joined the withdrawal, Israel seems to be playing
the same old game of marginalizing one enemy to crack down on
another. Unlike the Egypt Camp David scenario however, Israel
expects the Palestinian Authority (PA) to play the role that
Israel has itself played in the bloody crackdown on the Palestinian
resistance in Lebanon in 1982.
Of course, Israel is not serious about
peace, for if it were, Sharon would have at least agreed to release
the aging Palestinian leader Arafat from his battered Ramallah
headquarters. Sharon flatly denied such a request just as his
Palestinian counterpart, Abu Mazen was enthusiastically engaged
in outlining his peace agenda, vowing security and peace for
both nations.
Peace for Israel is always a maneuver
of some sort. For example, following the 1993 Oslo peace accords,
Israel used that temporary calm to double the size of illegal
settlements in the Occupied Territories. Yet, ironically, Israel
downplayed the Palestinian groups agreement for truce late June
2003, saying that these groups only wish to gain more time to
recuperate. A quick look at Israel's peacemaking strategies,
from Camp David I all the way back to Camp David II, Israel is
the one who uses peace to intensify its aggressions.
Israel is yet to provide a serious sign
that it seeks real peace with the Palestinians. In fact, it has
so far provided all the wrong reasons of why peace is the favored
choice at this time. It's a chance to expand the settlements,
annihilate the resistance (with the help of the willing segment
of the PA) and end the popular Intifada (the single most costly
reason behind the Israeli government's budget deficit.)
Palestinians should therefore be wary
of the Israeli motives for peace, not because they have good
reasons to mistrust Sharon and his extremist government, but
because history is apt to repeat itself, and perhaps even more
painfully and costly that ever before.
Ramzy Baroud
is the editor-in-chief of PalestineChronicle.com
and the editor of the anthology "Searching
Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion 2002."
50 percent of the editor's royalties will go directly to assist
in the relief efforts in Jenin. He can be reached at:
ramzy5@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
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