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Today's
Stories
January 9,
2007
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Purging of Palestinian Christians
January 8,
2007
Werther
Why
We Fight
Jeff Leys
The Occupation Project: a Campaign of Civil Disobedience to End
Iraq War Funding
Paul Craig Roberts
Nuking Iran
Shulamit Aloni
Israeli Apartheid: Sorry, This Road is For Jews Only
Dave Lindorff
The Party of Invertebrates Reverts to Form
Sunsara Taylor
The Democrats' First Day: Same As It Ever Was
Seth Sandronsky
Syndicated Error: George Will and the Minimum Wage
Dr. Susan Block
Baghdad Cockfight Ends in Snuff Film
Website of the Day
Watch CounterPuncher Sunsara Taylor Take on Bill O'Reilly!
January 6 / 7, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
War and the NYT
Franklin C.
Spinney
Stalingrad
on the Tigris
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Urge to Surge
Ralph Nader
Democrats in the Spotlight
Walden Bello
Globalization in Retreat?
Marleen Martin
The Needle and the Damage Done: Tortured in the Death Chamber
Brian Cloughley
We Do What We Like: Return Our Rapist or Else ...
Uri Avnery
The Kiss of Death
Saul Landau
Fidel Castro in the Fields
Ron Jacobs
From Cointelpro to the Patriot Act: a Legacy of Torture
Joseph Nevins
Crimes Against Humanity from Ford to Saddam
William S. Lind
A State Restored? Somalia and 4GW
Gary Leupp
Attention John Conyers: Impeach the President!
Elisa Salasin
Bringing Life to Numbers
George Ciccariello-Maher
Beyond
Chavistas and Anti-Chavistas: Deepening the Bolivarian Revolution
Stefan Wray
Confronting Recruiters: the Story of the Bush Street Raiders
Michael Leonardi
Toward an International Moratorium: Italy's Crusade Against the
Death Penalty
Richard Rhames
Reality TV: Triumph of the Thugs
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Barbara LaMorticella
Two Poems
Website of the Weekend
FBI Witch Hunts
Song of the
Weekend
End Times: a Soundtrack
January 5, 2007
Jorge Mariscal
Growing
the Military: Who Will Serve?
John Walsh
Clash of the Elites: Beltway Insiders vs. Neo-Cons!
Christopher Brauchli
The Great Relaxer: Bush and Federal Regulations
Travis Sharpe
No More New Nukes, Please
Tom Barry
Hawk for Hire: Roger Noriega's New Gig
Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese
Americans Voted for Peace: Has the New Congress Already Let Them
Down?
Tiffany Ten Eyck
Workers' Centers and Unions: a New Alliance
Mahmoud El-Yousseph
A Challenge to Pelosi
Lucinda Marshall
3003 Funerals: "And They're Still Burying Ford!"
Website of
the Day
Van the Man: Warm Love
January 4, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Martyrdom of Saddam Hussein
Winslow T.
Wheeler
A Guide to Earmarks: Will the Democrats' Reforms Do Anything
to Curb Pork Barrel Spending?
M. Shahid Alam
Has Regime Change Boomeranged?
Raed Jarrar
So This is Plan B? The US Attack on Saleh Al-Mutlaq's Headquarters
Bert Sacks
Can the US Legally Kill Iraqi Children?: a Challenge to the Supreme
Court
Kathy Rentenbach
Report from Oaxaca
Stephen Fleischman
The Rain of Riches: Bonuses, Then and Now
George Bisharat
Carter's Truths
Peter Rost, MD
Hail the Hangman, Jail the Cameraman!
Evelyn Pringle
Can Eli Lilly be Held Criminally Liable for Zyprexa?
Website of the Day
Courage to Resist
January 3,
2007
Kathy Kelly
Wrapped
Around a Bullet
Paul Craig
Roberts
His Last Hurrah: Bush Cuts and Runs from Reason
William Johnson
No Worker is Illegal: SEIU Members Push Their Union to Change
Its Policy on Immigration
Stan Cox
Under a Brown Cloud: Money vs. the Monsoon
Trita Parsi
A Lose-Lose Situation with Iran
Declan McKenna
Ireland's Slavish Hostility Toward Cuba
Joe Bageant
Dispatch from the Chinese Landfill
Nicola Nasser
Somalia: New Hotbed of Anti-Americanism
Missy Beattie
Dead Wrong
Website of
the Day
Pharmed Out
January 2, 2007
Michael Watts
Oil
Inferno
Amina Mire
Return of the Warlords: Death and Destruction for Somalis
James Brooks
Pushing the Wedge in Palestine
Alevtina Rea
The Tyrant is Dead! Long Live ... ?
Al Krebs
Global Food Security: a Call to Action
Peter Rost
Invitation to a Hanging: the Saddam Hussein Execution Video
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
A Deadly December
John Stanton
Appetites for Destruction
Website of the Day
Out Now: Petition
January 1,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Iron
Man, Tin God: the Meaning of Saddam Hussein
Uri Avnery
What
Makes Sammy Run?
Joshua Frank
Eliot Spitzer's Constitutional Hang Up: Architect of New York's
Patriot Act
December 30
/ 31, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
2006,
Hard to Call It Vintage, But 2007 Could Finally Be Bobby Byrd's
Year
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
2006: a Nation Soaked in Blood Tears Itself Apart
Paul Wolf
Dying for Our Sins: A Lawyer for Saddam Describes How His Execution
on the First of Eid May Transform Him Into a Martyr
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Executing
Saddam, Protecting the Rackets
Tariq Ali
Saddam
at the End of a Rope
Paul Craig Roberts
The New Dark Age: Official Lies, Dogma and Unaccountable Power
Douglas Valentine
At the End of My Rope: Hanging With Saddam
Brian M. Downing
The New Iraq Policy: Escalation
Michael Donnelly
Injustice in Black and White: the Duke Non-Rape Case
Stephen Lendman
Did Sharon Order the Assassination of Arafat? The Revelations
of Uri Dan
Fred Gardner
Comes Now the Ghost of "Decrim:" Nixon and Marijuana
Bailly / Caudron / Lambert
Who Owns Ikea?: the Opaque Legacy of Ingvar Kamprad
Ralph Nader
The Prospects for Progressive Politics
Nick Dearden
The War on Terror Hits Africa
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
The Third Degree: an Interview with AC Thompson on the Origins
of the CIA's Secret Rendition Flights
Missy Beattie
In Harm's Way: How Our National Coward Describes War
Ron Jacobs
Sigh of the Oppressed: Religion and Politics
Dan La Botz
Defend Illegal Immigrants: Help Them! Harbor Them!
Andrew Wimmer
An Act of Contrition: the Peace Movement in 2007
Dr. Carol Wolman, MD
Psychiatrist: Impeach Bush for Good of Country
Martha Rosenberg
New Year's Resolutions for Big Pharma
Dick J. Reavis
News Before It Happens: Bush's 2007 MLK Day Speech
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Listening to James Brown and His Followers
Poets' Basement
Grima, Curtis, Davies, Orloski and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Charlie Fowler's Photolog: a Life at Altitude
Music Video of the Weekend
"We're Winning the War on Drugs!"
December 29, 2006
Bill Quigley
A
Tale of Two Sisters: Why is HUD Spending Tens of Millions in
Katrina Money to Bulldoze 4,534 Public Housing Apartments in
New Orleans?
Norman Finkelstein
The Dershowitz Treatment
John Borowski
Curb Your Environmentalism: Laurie David and Me
Abid Mustafa
The Re-Talibanization of Afghanistan
Greg Moses
World Responds to Palestinian Family's Jailing Despite Media
Blackout
Uri Cohen
Stand Up for Herod: a Seasonal Story of Ancient Palestine
Bailly / Caudron
/ Lambert
The
Secrets in Ikea's Closet
Website of
the Day
Justice for New Orleans
December 28,
2006
Norman Finkelstein
The
Ludicrous Attacks on Jimmy Carter's Book
Anthony Cowell
Highway Robbery: Privatizing New Jersey's Toll Roads
John Ross
Gateway to the Next Mexican Revolution?
Hilaria Cruz
I'm Going to Stay Right Here: Story of a Oaxacan Prisoner
Greg Moses
Palestinian Immigrant Jailings in Texas
Brittany Bond
The Blood Trail of Luis Posada Carriles, Washington's Preferred
Terrorist
Website of
the Day
Godfather of Soul and Father of Funk
December 27,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Farewell
to Our Greatest President: Adieu, Gerald Ford
Faruq Ziada
Is
There a Sunni Majority in Iraq?
Christopher Brauchli
Burning EPA's Books: What They Don't Want You to Read Might Save
Your Life
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Journey to Vietnam: Dare We Not Say Genocide?
Nikolas Kozloff
Saving
Caracas
Mark Schneider
Why Hope? Reasons for Optimism
December 26, 2006
Peter Stone
Brown
James
Brown: Please Don't Go
Tito Tricot
Chile: the Ghosts of Torture
Gary Leupp
Cowboys Differ on Iran Attack: Cheney/Bush vs. the Baker Commission
John V. Walsh
Dershowitz vs. Carter in Beantown: Peace Movement AWOL, Again
Reza Fiyouzat
Red Christmas: Why Santa Was Hot in China This Year
Ron Jacobs
The Golem: a Conversation with Marc Estrin
Website of
the Day
JB:
Prisoner of Love
December 25, 2006
Saul Landau
A
Jeep Trip with Fidel
Lang / McGovern
To
Surge or Not to Surge?
Michael Dickinson
Should Stupid Thoughts Be Crimes?: Deny Santa If You Will, But
...
Website of
the Day
James Brown, RIP
December 23 / 24, 2006
Marjorie Cohn
What's
Going On?
Jeffrey L.
Gould
The Capital of Salvadoran Memory: El Mozote After 25 Years
Diane Christian
The Rape of Iraq
William Loren
Katz
From the Raid on "Fort Negro" to Iraq: Lessons from
the First US Invasion
Greg Moses
This War Can't be Made Right by Winning
M. Shahid Alam
An Islamic Civil War: Chaos by Design?
Fred Gardner
Exposé as Inoculant: HRT, Zyprexa, Lilly and the Press
Dave Lindorff
Crime of the Century
Azmi Bishara
Ways of Denial
Ralph Nader
The BCS: a Monopoly on College Football
Seth Sandronsky
Fiscally Imperiled Social Security?
William Hughes
Cop Assaults Activists at Lockheed Protest
Ron Jacobs
Making Stones Weep
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to on New Year's Eve
December 22,
2006
David Rosen
Bush's
Foreign Sex Policy: Imperialism's Second Front
Christopher
Brauchli
When the Secret is the Question: Secret Prisons, Top Secret Interrogations
John Ross
Flashlights
in the Tunnel of Hate
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Political
Sell-Outs in Black and White
Rahul Mahajan
Dennis Kucinich: Maverick or Stalking Horse?
Arthur Neslen
Provoking Civil War in the Occupied Territories
Peter Rost, MD
The Secrets of His Success: Fired Pfizer CEO Walks Away with
$198 Million
Website of
the Day
10 Ways to Change the World in 2007
December 21, 2006
Rosa Mariam
Elizalde
An
Interview with Gore Vidal: "I am Jealous of Cuba"
Arundhati Roy
Breaking the News
Brian Cloughley
Poppies Rising: Afghanistan's Drug Catastrophe
Daniel White
Jimmy Carter in Austin: Time to Come Clean on the Shoot Down
of That Itavia DC-9
John V. Whitbeck
On Israel's Right to Exist
Sam Smith
Still Smearing Ralph Nader for 2000
Paris Reidhead
GM Ice Cream: Something's Fishy in Your Good Humor Bar
Kevin Wehr
Denying Disaster: Katrina and the Case for Impeachment
Website of the Day
Pesticides and Amphibians: a Vital New Database
December 20, 2006
Gabriel Kolko
Rumsfeld
and the American Way of War
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The Pentagon Measures the Chaos in Iraq
Tariq Ali
The War is Lost
Saree Makdisi
Israel, Apartheid and Jimmy Carter
Bruce Jackson
Saying "Oh!": John Mohawk and the Power to Make Peace
Dave Lindorff
Democrats Walk Into a Bush Trap on Iraq
Leslie Radford
The Winter Harvest of the South Central Farmers
Dave Jansson
Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Secessionists Confront the
Empire
Johnny Barber
Jesus is a Terrorist
Website of
the Day
Is It for Freedom?
December 19, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
Democrats
Prepare to Fund Longer War
Jonathan Cook
End
of the Strongmen
Greg Moses
Globalized Gulag: Palestinian Refugees and Children Held in Hutto,
TX Jail
Sean Penn
Georgie,
There's a Crowd Downstairs
Dave Lindorff
Innocents Abroad: Cracking Down on Gitmo Detainees Despite Overwhelming
Evidence Most Are Not Terrorists
Ralph Nader
Going
Postal
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Pink Tide?
Carlos Villarreal
The
Well is Poisoned: Victory Requires an Immediate Pull-Out
Website of
the Day
Chuck Spinney on the Pentagon
December 18, 2006
Luis J. Rodriguez
En
Lak Ech: Chicanos, Mayans and Mel Gibson
Norman Solomon
Washington Refuses to End the War: Powell, Baker, Hamilton--Thanks
for Nothing!
Uri Avnery
Lebanon: War Without a Plan
Ron Jacobs
More Troops, More Body Bags
Phil Gasper
Afghanistan: Bush's Other War Unravels
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Iran's Elections: The World Isn't Florida and Bush Isn't Its
Supreme Leader
William Blum
The United States of Punishment
Jim Goodman
So What's the Big Deal If Wal-Mart Makes a Mistake?
James Brooks
Talking Surge: Let's Kill Some More Before We Go
Maria C. Khoury
Walking Into the Art World: Designing a Palestinian Academy for
the Arts
Website of the Day
Got Powell
December 16 / 17, 2006
Weekend Edition
Vijay Prashad
A
Perilous Way to Socialism
Saul Landau
Filming Fidel
Anthony Arnove
The US Occupation of Iraq: Act III of a Tragedy of Many Parts
Paul Cantor
The Puppet and the Puppeteer: Pinochet and Kissinger
Annie Nocenti
Baluchistan's Fight: The Khan of Kalat Gathers the Tribes
Nicole Colson
Hard Times on the Killing Floor: Smithfield's Rotten Record
Stephen Gowans
Tehran's Holocaust Conference
Jordan Flaherty
A Catastrophic Failure: Foundations, Nonprofits and the Second
Looting of New Orleans
Fred Gardner
Dustin Costa Faces 15 to Life
P. Sainath
There's No Such Thing as a Free Cow
Seth Sandronsky
The Democrats and Social Security: Watch What the Party Says
and Does
Nadia Hijab
An AIPAC Shot Across Baker's Bow?
Deb Reich
Dear Santa, (Or Someone): Greetings from the Occupied Holy Lands
Susie Day
Cops Shoot Another Rich White Man!
Albert Wan
Why Does It Take 50 Bullets?
Missy Beattie
Will the Next Leader Stand Up? Please!
Martha Rosenberg
Kicking the Wyeth Habit Saves Women's Lives
Lee Ballinger
The Devil's Highway: Clinton, Border Checkpoints and the Deaths
of the Yuma 14
Michael Dickinson
Kingdom of Fear
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Live/Evil: Listening to Miles Davis
Poets' Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford
Website of
the Weekend
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
December 15,
2006
Eliza Ernshire
Palestinian
"Civil War" and the Israeli Chocolate Ration
Virginia Tilley
What
Are You Going to Do Now, Israel?
Mike Ferner
Roll Call for the Choir: If They Vote for War, Occupy 'Em!
John Ross
Mad Mel's Mayan Apocalypse
Fred Wilhelms
The Flip Side of Ahmet Ertegun: Where Did You Get Those Shoes?
Kevin Zeese
Dennis Kucinich's Strange Mission: Can You Be a Real Anti-War
Candidate in a Pro-War Party?
David Severn
Social Engineering Begins at Home: Jeffrey Skoll, Billionaire
Philantropist
Dave Lindorff
Sen. Tim Johnson Death Watch: Senate Gridlock May Be Best Outcome
Sunsara Taylor
As American as Shopping and Torture
Website of
the Day
June 2, 2004: When Iraq Was There For The Looting
December 14,
2006
Jonathan Cook
The
Recognition Trap
Riz Khan
An Interview with Jimmy Carter
Jason Hribal
Kasatka, the Sea World Orca
Pennick / Gray
The Plight of Black Farmers: Racism in the US Farm Program
Richard Levins
That Embezzled Anti-Castro Money
Pat Williams
The College Crisis: Universal Access, Student Loan Debts and
Pell Grants
Peter Rost, MD
Simply Irresistible: Do Women Prefer Bad Boys?
Website of
the Day
The Sound of Rummy
December 13,
2006
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
is Beyond Repair
Greg Moses
The Dixie Chicks Come Home to Roost
Elizabeth Schulte
Hungry for the Holidays
Joshua Frank
Death By Coke
Debra Eschmeyer
Corporations Control Your Dinner
Leon Hadar
Baker's Rescue Mission: Too Little, Too Late
Peter Rost, MD
I've Been a Very Bad Boy
Margaret Knapke
Mow bé and Malachi, Presenté!
Reza Fiyouzat
Are Cows Free?
Fred Wilhelms
A Last Minute Appeal: If You Know One of These Musicians Let
Them Know They Are Owed Money--By Friday!
Website of
the Day
The Crimes of Augusto Pinochet
December 12, 2006
Fernando A.
Torres
The
Last Man of the Junta: an Open Letter to Kissinger from One of
Pinochet's Political Prisoners
Paul Craig
Roberts
America's
Injustice System is Criminal
Stephen Soldz
Abusive Interrogations
Uri Avnery
Baker's Cake
William S. Lind
Knocking Opportunity: From Vulcans to Vultures in Iraq
Missy Beattie
Convicted for Our Convictions: Trespassing for Truth at the UN
Dave Lindorff
The 35-Year Long Scream: Torture, Impeachment and a Vietnam Vet's
Tears
George Pyle
Our Perverse Farm Plan: Where Christmas Comes Every Five Years
Norman Solomon
Is the USA the Center of the World?
Website of
the Day
Citizens' War Tribunal
December 11,
2006
Virginia Tilley
Banning
Mandela
Roger Burbach
The Condor Model: the Atrocities of Pinochet and the US
Col. Douglas MacGregor
There's Only One Option Left: Leave!
Fawwas Traboulsi
Lebanon on the Brink
Ron Jacobs
Death of a Pig: Poetic Justice for Pinochet
Gideon Levy
The Cruel Line into Gaza: Elbow to Elbow, Like Cattle
Mary McGrane
Burning Books at Harvard Law
Bernardo Ruiz
The Disappeared of Oaxaca: a Message from One of the Actors in
Apocalypto
Website of the Day
La Cancion de la Unidad
Video of the
Day
Killing
Castro: Congresswoman as Contract Killer?
December 9
/ 10, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Liberal
Consensus for More Troops in Iraq
Sen. Gordon Smith
Out of Iraq: Cut and Run or Cut and Walk
Greg Grandin
Jeane
Kirkpatrick, Mid-Wife of the Neo-Cons
Paul Craig Roberts
How Many More Will Die for Bush's Ego?
Col. Dan Smith
The Vietnamization of Iraq: Inside the Military Training Program
Ralph Nader
The Man from NAM: John Engler's Trail of Destruction
Behrooz Ghamari
The Donkey and the Date: Iran's Upcoming Municipal Elections
Rev. Willliam Alberts
Doing Unto Others: Pastor Haggard and President Bush
James T. Phillips
The James Gang: "Did You Kill Her?"
Bennis / Leaver
A Bi-Partisan Occupation
Dave Lindorff
A Congress of Hucksters and Pipsqueaks
Nikolas Kozloff
Robert Gates and Venezuela: Another Saber Rattler in Latin America
Seth Sandronsky
Activating White Racism
Lucinda Marshall
McKinney and Karpinsky: Silenced for Telling the Truth
Mike Whitney
Something's Gotta Give: James Baker vs. the Lobby
John V. Whitbeck
Recommendation No. 80
Faisal Kutty
Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Merely a Western
Construct?
Hugh Sansom
Smearing Jimmy Carter: an Open Letter to the New York Times
Robert Gold
My South American Journey: Impunity in Colombia
Boots Riley
Crash and Burn: an Urgent Message from The Coup
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Engel & Buknatski
Website of
the Weekend
Alive in Mexico
December 8, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
The
Iraq Study Group's Cautious Appraisal
Leutisha Stills
Just
How Progressive is the Congressional Black Caucus?
Norman Finkelstein
The Media Lynching of Jimmy Carter
Will Youmans
Mr. Lieberman Comes to Washington: Brookings Hosts an Ethnic
Cleanser
Peter Rost, MD
What Went Wrong at Pfizer?
Jonathan Demme
My Friend Bruce Langhorne: a Great Musician Needs Your Help!
Ray McGovern
Senate Democrats Give Gates a Free Pass
Lucinda Marshall
What She Wore
Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn
The Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
the Day
John Lennon's FBI Files
December 7,
2006
Alex Friedman
Rev.
Phelps' Hate-Fueled Fanatics Find a Home in the Kansas Prison
Industry
Maureen Webb
Risk Scoring and the National Insecurity State
Paul Craig Roberts
Catastrophe Still Awaits
Dave Lindorff
Prosecutor Admits: Mumia Abu-Jamal Had "No True Defense"
Matt Vidal
Drug Pushers, Inc.: Power and Profit in the Legal Drug Trade
Yifat Susskind
Looking for a Few Good Principles: What Should be Done in Iraq
Rodriguez / Jones
NYPD's Death Squads: From Diallo to Sean Bell
Website of
the Day
2006, Remixed
December 6, 2006
Robert Bryce
Omitting
the Obvious with James Baker: From the S&L Crisis to the
Iraq Study Group
William S. Lind
The Boomerang Effect: When Will the First IED Strike Cincy?
Zoe Blunt
The Clearcut Truth About the Great Bear Rainforest
Corporate Crime Reporter
The New Conventional Wisdom: Prosecute Individuals, Not Corporations
Amira Hass
A Regrettable Indifference: Israel's Treatment of Palestinian
Prisoners
Richard W. Behan
The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War
Sophie McNeill
Why Hezbollah is Broadcasting Sunday Mass
December 5, 2006
Virginia Tilley
Apartheid
Israel: a Beacon of Hope?
Sharon Smith
The New Washington Consensus: Blame the Victims in Iraq
Joe Bageant
Somewhere a Banker Smiles
Ron Jacobs
A War Washington Can't Win
Norman Solomon
Media Consensus, Stay in Iraq!
Mike Whitney
Rumsfeld's Final Snowflake: "I Was Just About to Change
Everything ... "
Derrick O'Keefe
Regimes Unchanged: Chavez's Victory Strengthen's Cuba
Julian Assange
The Road to Hanoi
Missy Beattie
Bush, the Unhappy Helmsman
Website of
the Day
Lessons of Suez and Iraq
December 4,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Gaza
and Darfur
George Ciccariello-Maher
Tears of the Escualidos: Election Diary, Venezuela
Ray McGovern
Lame Ducks, Hold That Nomination!: a CIA Insider's Take on Gates
John Ross
Repression on the Menu in Mexico
Walden Bello
Hurricane Milton: Friedman, Bayonets and Markets
Peter Rost,
MD
Pfizer's Clueless Executives
Stephen Lendman
The Withering of the Bush Dynasty
Gideon Levy
This Ceasefire will Go Up in Flames
Website of the Day
The "Babes" of Hizbullah?
December 2
/ 3, 2006
Weekend Edition
Barucha Calamity
Peller
The
Dirty War of Oaxaca
Paul Craig
Roberts
Is Bush Sane?: When Denial Goes Pathological
Ralph Nader
The Big Boys of Financial Crime
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Committee of Enablers: Is Gates Fit to Serve? Are the Senators?
Amira Hass
The Checkpoint Generation
Maymanah Farhat
Depoliticizing Arab Art: Christie's and the Rush to "Discover"
the Arab World
Dave Lindorff
Fighting the Iraq War--At Home
Fred Gardner
Dr. Jimenez Defends His Practice Methods
Col. Dan Smith
The Semantics of Civil War
Raed Jarrar
Maliki's Monopoly of Power
Seth Sandronsky
US Prison Nation: Locking Up Surplus Labor
K.-Y. Taylor
The Bride Wore Black: the Shooting of Sean Bell and the Resurgence
of American Racism
Yifat Susskind
Greed, Dogma and AIDS
David Rosen
Made in China: the Global Trade in Sex Toys
Ron Jacobs
All Hands on Deck!: the New Pirates of the Caribbean
Nikolas Kozloff
Venezuela Prepares to Vote
Talli Nauman
Fighting La Choya: the Secret Toxic Dump on the Border
Alan Gregory
Shadow Trout: Why Hatchery Fish Aren't Real
Joe Allen
RFK and Hollywood Mythmaking: Emilio Estevez's Beatification
of Bobby Kennedy
St. Clair /
D'Antoni
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Ford and Orloski
Website of
the Day
Demo for Oaxaca
December 1,
2006
Greg Grandin
Midnight
in Mexico: Calderón's Inauguration Behind Closed Doors
Linn Washington,
Jr.
The
Mumia Case After 25 Years: Still More Keystone Kops Antics
George Ciccariello-Maher
Sleeping with the Enemy: At Home with the Anti-Chavistas
Brian J. Foley
Taking Responsibility for Iraq
Dave Zirin
Rebel Athletes: Organizing the Jocks for Justice
Joshua Frank
The Montana Formula: Jon Tester's Neopopulism
Chris Floyd
Hideous Kinky: Thomas Friedman Comes Undone
Ingmar Lee
Atomic Porker Strikes Indian Point Nuke Plant
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Dark Fire: the Fall of WTC 7
Website of the Day
No Gun Ri Revisited
Video of the
Day
Drunken Hack Goes Ape at Aussie "Pulitzers"
|
January
9, 2007
On
the Wrong Side of the Clash of Civilizations
Israel's Purging of
Palestinian Christians
By JONATHAN COOK
Nazareth.
There is an absurd scene in Palestinian
writer Suad Amiry's recent book "Sharon and My Mother-in-Law"
that is revealing about Israeli Jews' attitude to the two other
monotheistic religions. In 1992, long before Israel turned Amiry's
home city of Ramallah into a permanent ghetto behind checkpoints
and walls, it was still possible for West Bank Palestinians to
drive to Jerusalem and even into Israel -- at least if they had
the right permit.
On one occasion Amiry ventures
out in her car to East Jerusalem, the half of the city that was
Palestinian before the 1967 war and has since been engulfed by
relentless illegal and state-organised Jewish settlement.
There she sees an elderly Jew
collapsing out his car and on to the side of the road. She pulls
over, realises he is having a heart attack and bundles him into
the back of her own car. Not able to speak Hebrew, she reassures
him in English that she is taking him to the nearest hospital.
But as it starts to dawn on
him that she is Palestinian, Amiry realises the terrible problem
her charitable act has created: his fear may prompt him to have
another heart attack. "What if he had a fatal heart attack
in the back seat of my car? Would the Israeli police ever believe
I was just trying to help?" she wonders.
The Jewish man seeks to calm
himself by asking Amiry if she is from Bethlehem, a Palestinian
city known for being Christian. Unable to lie, she tells him
she is from Ramallah. "You're Christian?" he asks more
directly. "Muslim," she admits, to his utter horror.
Only when they finally make it to the hospital does he relax
enough to mumble in thanks: "There are good Palestinians
after all."
I was reminded of that story
as I made the journey to Bethlehem on Christmas Day. The small
city that Amiry's Jewish heart attack victim so hoped she would
hail from is today as much of an isolated enclave in the West
Bank as other Palestinian cities -- or at least it is for its
Palestinian inhabitants.
For tourists and pilgrims,
getting in or out of Bethlehem has been made reasonably straightforward,
presumably to conceal from international visitors the realities
of Palestinian life. I was even offered a festive chocolate Santa
Claus by the Israeli soldiers who control access to the city
where Jesus was supposedly born.
Seemingly oblivious to the
distressing historical parallels, however, Israel forces foreigners
to pass through a "border crossing" -- a gap in the
menacing grey concrete wall -- that recalls the stark black and
white images of the entrance to Auschwitz.
The gates of Auschwitz offered
a duplicitious motto, "Arbeit macht frei"  (Work
makes you free), and so does Israel's gateway to Bethlehem. "Peace
be with you" is written in English, Hebrew and Arabic on
a colourful large notice covering part of the grey concrete.
The people of Bethlehem have scrawled their own, more realistic
assessments of the wall across much of its length.
Foreign visitors can leave,
while Bethlehem's Palestinians are now sealed into their ghetto.
As long as these Palestinian cities are not turned into death
camps, the West appears ready to turn a blind eye. Mere concentration
camps, it seems, are acceptable.
The West briefly indulged in
a bout of soul-searching about the wall following the publication
in July 2004 of the International Court of Justice's advisory
opinion condemning its construction. Today the only mild rebukes
come from Christian leaders around Christmas time. Britain's
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was foremost among
them this year.
Even those concerns, however,
relate mainly to fears that the Holy Land's native Christians,
once a significant proportion of the Palestinian population,
are rapidly dwindling. There are no precise figures, but the
Israeli media suggests that Christians, who once constituted
as much as 15 per cent of the occupied territories' Palestinians,
are now just 2 or 3 per cent. Most are to be found in the West
Bank close to Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, Ramallah and neighbouring
villages.
A similar pattern can be discerned
inside Israel too, where Christians have come to comprise an
ever smaller proportion of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.
In 1948 they were nearly a quarter of that minority (itself 20
per cent of the total Israeli population), and today they are
a mere 10 per cent. Most are located in Nazareth and nearby villages
in the Galilee.
Certainly, the continuing fall
in the number of Christians in the Holy Land concerns Israel's
leadership almost as keenly as the patriarchs and bishops who
visit Bethlehem at Christmas -- but for quite the opposite reason.
Israel is happy to see Christians leave, at least of the indigenous
Palestinian variety.
(More welcome are the crazed
fundamentalist Christian Zionists from the United States who
have been arriving to help engineer the departure of Palestinians,
Muslims and Christians alike, in the belief that, once the Jews
have dominion over the whole of the Holy Land, Armageddon and
the "End Times" will draw closer.)
Of course, that is not Israel's
official story. Its leaders have been quick to blame the exodus
of Christians on the wider Palestinian society from which they
are drawn, arguing that a growing Islamic extremism, and the
election of Hamas to lead the Palestinian Authority, have put
Christians under physical threat. This explanation neatly avoids
mentioning that the proportion of Christians has been falling
for decades.
According to Israel's argument,
the decision by many Christians to leave the land where generations
of their ancestors have been rooted is simply a reflection of
the "clash of civilisations", in which a fanatical
Islam is facing down the Judeo-Christian West. Palestinian Christians,
like Jews, have found themselves caught on the wrong side of
the Middle East's confrontation lines.
Here is how the Jerusalem Post,
for example, characterised the fate of the Holy Land's non-Muslims
in a Christmas editorial: "Muslim intolerance toward Christians
and Jews is cut from exactly the same cloth. It is the same jihad."
The Post concluded by arguing that only by confronting the jihadis
would "the plight of persecuted Christians -- and of the
persecuted Jewish state -- be ameliorated."
Similar sentiments were recently
aired in an article by Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily republished
on Ynet, Israel's most popular website, that preposterously characterised
a procession of families through Nazareth on Eid al-Adha, the
most important Muslim festival, as a show of strength by militant
Islam designed to intimidate local Christians.
Islam's green flags were "brandished",
according to Klein, whose reporting transformed a local troupe
of Scouts and their marching band into "Young Muslim men
in battle gear" "beating drums". Nazareth's youngsters,
meanwhile, were apparently the next generation of Qassam rocket
engineers: "Muslim children launched firecrackers into the
sky, occasionally misfiring, with the small explosives landing
dangerously close to the crowds."
Such sensationalist misrepresentations
of Palestinian life are now a staple of the local and American
media. Support for Hamas, for example, is presented as proof
of jihadism run amok in Palestinian society rather than as evidence
of despair at Fatah's corruption and collaboration with Israel
and ordinary Palestinians' determination to find leaders prepared
to counter Israel's terminal cynicism with proper resistance.
The clash of civilisations
thesis is usually ascribed to a clutch of American intellectuals,
most notably Samuel Huntingdon, the title of whose book gave
the idea popular currency, and the Orientalist academic Bernard
Lewis. But alongside them have been the guiding lights of the
neocon movement, a group of thinkers deeply embedded in the centres
of American power who were recently described by Ynet as mainly
comprising "Jews who share a love for Israel".
In fact, the idea of a clash
of civilisations grew out of a worldview that was shaped by Israel's
own interpretation of its experiences in the Middle East. An
alliance between the neocons and Israeli leaders was cemented
in the mid-1990s with the publication of a document called "A
Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm". It
offered a US foreign policy tailor-made to suit Israel's interests,
including plans for an invasion of Iraq, authored by leading
necons and approved by the Israeli prime minister of the day,
Binyamin Netanyahu.
When the neocons rose to power
with George Bush's election to the White House, the birth of
the bastard offspring of the clash of civilisations -- the war
on terror -- was all but inevitable.
Paradoxically, this vision
of our future, set out by American and Israeli Jews, is steeped
in fundamentalist Christian religious symbolism, from the promotion
of a civilised West's crusade against the Muslim hordes to the
implication that the final confrontation between these civilisations
(a nuclear attack on Iran?) may be the End Times itself -- and
thereby lead to the return of the Messiah.
If this clash is to be realised,
it must be convincing at its most necessary confrontation line:
the Middle East and more specifically the Holy Land. The clash
of civilisations must be embodied in Israel's experience as a
civilised, democratic state fighting for its very survival against
its barbarian Muslim neighbours.
There is only one problem in
selling this image to the West: the minority of Christian Palestinians
who have happily lived under Muslim rule in the Holy Land for
centuries. Today, in a way quite infuriating to Israel, these
Christians confuse the picture by continuing to take a leading
role in defining Palestinian nationalism and resistance to Israel's
occupation. They prefer to side with the Muslim "fanatics"
than with Israel, the Middle East's only outpost of Judeo-Christian
"civilisation".
The presence of Palestinian
Christians reminds us that the supposed "clash of civilisations"
in the Holy Land is not really a war of religions but a clash
of nationalisms, between the natives and European colonial settlers.
Inside Israel, for example,
Christians have been the backbone of the Communist party, the
only non-Zionist party Israel allowed for several decades. Many
of the Palestinian artists and intellectuals who are most critical
of Israel are Christians, including the late novelist Emile Habibi;
the writer Anton Shammas and film-makers Elia Suleiman and Hany
Abu Assad (all now living in exile); and the journalist Antoine
Shalhat (who, for reasons unknown, has been placed under a loose
house arrest, unable to leave Israel).
The most notorious Palestinian
nationalist politician inside Israel is Azmi Bishara, yet another
Christian, who has been put on trial and is regularly abused
by his colleagues in the Knesset.
Similarly, Christians have
been at the core of the wider secular Palestinian national movement,
helping to define its struggle. They range from exiled professors
such as the late Edward Said to human rights activists in the
occupied territories such as Raja Shehadeh. The founders of the
most militant wings of the national movement, the Democratic
and Popular Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine, were Nayif
Hawatmeh and George Habash, both Christians.
This intimate involvement of
Palestinian Christians in the Palestinian national struggle is
one of the reasons why Israel has been so keen to find ways to
encourage their departure -- and then blame it on intimidation
by, and violence from, Muslims.
In truth, however, the fall
in the number of Christians can be explained by two factors,
neither of which is related to a clash of civilisations.
The first is a lower rate of
growth among the Christian population. According to the latest
figures from Israel's Bureau of Census Statistics, the average
Christian household in Israel contains 3.5 people compared to
5.2 in a Muslim household. Looked at another way, in 2005 33
percent of Christians were under the age of 19, compared to 55
percent of Muslims. In other words, the proportion of Christians
in the Holy Land has been eroded over time by higher Muslim birth
rates.
But a second factor is equally,
if not more, important. Israel has established an oppressive
rule for Palestinians both inside Israel and in the occupied
territories that has been designed to encourage the most privileged
Palestinians, which has meant disproportionately Christians,
to leave.
This policy has been implemented
with stealth for decades, but has been greatly accelerated in
recent years with the erection of the wall and numerous checkpoints.
The purpose has been to encourage the Palestinian elite and middle
class to seek a better life in the West, turning their back on
the Holy Land.
Palestinian Christians have
had the means to escape for two reasons. First, they have traditionally
enjoyed a higher standard of living, as city-based shopkeepers
and business owners, rather than poor subsistence farmers in
the countryside. And second, their connection to the global Churches
has made it simpler for them to find sanctuary abroad, often
beginning as trips for their children to study overseas.
Israel has turned Christian
parents' financial ability and their children's increased opportunities
to its own advantage, by making access to higher education difficult
for Palestinians both inside Israel and in the occupied territories.
Inside Israel, for example,
Palestinian citizens still find it much harder to attend university
than Jewish citizens, and even more so to win places on the most
coveted courses, such as medicine and engineering.
Instead, for many decades Israel's
Christians and Muslims became members of the Communist party
in the hope of receiving scholarships to attend universities
in Eastern Europe. Christians were also able to exploit their
ties to the Churches to help them head off to the West. Many
of these overseas graduates, of course, never returned, especially
knowing that they would be faced with an Israeli economy much
of which is closed to non-Jews.
Something similar occurred
in the occupied territories, where Palestinian universities have
struggled under the occupation to offer a proper standard of
education, particularly faced with severe restrictions on the
movement of staff and students. Still today, it is not possible
to study for a PhD in either the West Bank or Gaza, and Israel
has blocked Palestinian students from attending its own universities.
The only recourse for most who can afford it has been to head
abroad. Again, many have chosen never to return.
But in the case of the Palestinians
of Gaza and the West Bank, Israel found it even easier to close
the door behind them. It established rules, in violation of international
law, that stripped these Palestinians of their right to residency
in the occupied territories during their absence. When they tried
to return to their towns and villages, many found that they were
allowed to stay only on temporary visas, including tourist visas,
that they had to renew with the Israeli authorities every few
months.
Nearly a year ago, Israel quietly
took a decision to begin kicking these Palestinians out by refusing
to issue new visas. Many of them are academics and business people
who have been trying to rebuild Palestinian society after decades
of damage inflicted by the occupying regime. A recent report
by the most respected Palestinian university, Bir Zeit, near
Ramallah, revealed that one department had lost 70 per cent of
its staff because of Israel's refusal to renew visas.
Although there are no figures
available, it can probably be safely assumed that a disproportionate
number of Palestinians losing their residency rights are Christian.
Certainly the effect of further damaging the education system
in the occupied territories will be to increase the exodus of
Palestine's next generation of leaders, including its Christians.
In addition, the economic strangulation
of the Palestinians by the wall, the restrictions on movement
and the international economic blockade of the Palestinian Authority
are damaging the lives of all Palestinians with increasing severity.
Privileged Palestinians, and that doubtless includes many Christians,
are being encouraged to seek a rapid exit from the territorities.
From Israel's point of view,
the loss of Palestinian Christians is all to the good. It will
happier still if all of them leave, and Bethlehem and Nazareth
pass into the effective custodianship of the international Churches.
Without Palestinian Christians
confusing the picture, it will be much easier for Israel to persuade
the West that the Jewish state is facing a monolithic enemy,
fanatical Islam, and that the Palestinian national struggle is
really both a cover for jihad and a distraction from the clash
of civilisations against which Israel is the ultimate bulwark.
Israel's hands will be freed.
Israelis like Amiry's heart
attack victim may believe that Palestinian Christians are not
really a threat to their or their state's existence, but be sure
that Israel has every reason to continue persecuting and excluding
Palestinian Christians as much, if not more, than it does Palestinian
Muslims.
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in
Nazareth, Israel. He is the author of the forthcoming "Blood
and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State"
published by Pluto Press, and available in the United States
from the University of Michigan Press. His website is www.jkcook.net
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