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From Common Courage Press
Recent
Stories
July
16, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Back to the Future in Guatemala:
The Return of Gen. Ríos Montt
July
15, 2003
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Why We Resigned from VIPS
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft's War on Legal Whistleblowers:
the Ordeal of Jesselyn Radack
Chris
Floyd
Barge Poles: Oil Wars and New Europe's Mercenaries
Jason
Leopold
CIA Warned White House Last October that Niger Docs were Forgeries
Gaius Publius
Considering the Obvious: Fool Us Once, Fool Us Twise...Please
John
Troyer
The Niger Syndrome
Becky Gillette
No Conspiracy at Coffeen Nature Preserve: a Response to David
Orrr
Uri
Avnery
The Bi-National State: The Wolf Shall
Dwell with the Lamb
Website
of the Day
Cost of Iraq War
July
14, 2003
Lisa
Taraki
Hot Days in Ramallah
Walter
Brasch
Bush: the Pretend Captain
SOA
Watch
Training Colombia's Killers in the US
Dan Bacher
Yurok Tribe Denounces Klamath River Salmon Killers
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Unglued
Website
of the Day
Coalition for Democratic Rights and Civil Liberties
July 12 / 13, 2003
Arthur
Mitzman
The Double Wall Before the Future
Standard
Schaefer
The Coming Financial Reality: an
Interview with Michael Hudson
John Feffer
A Fearful Symmetry: Washington and Pyongyang
Ron
Jacobs
Shades of Gray in Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Judicial Terrorism Against the Bill of Rights
Tom
Stephens
Civil Liberties After 9/11
David Lindorff
New White House Slogan: "Case Closed. Just Move On"
Jason
Leopold
The Mini-War Against Iraq Prior to 9/11
Lee Sustar
What's Behind the Crisis in Liberia?
Mickey
Z.
AIDS Dissent and Africa
Sam Hamod
Semitic is a Language Group, Not a Race or Ethnic Group
Ramzy
Baroud
Awaiting Justice on an Old Blanket
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Savage Incongruities: the Photographic Life of Lee Miller
Adam
Engel
Parable of the Lobbyist
Robert
Sanders
A Review of Ralph Lopez's American Dream
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Witherup, Guthrie
July
11, 2003
Conn
Hallinan
The Coin of Empire
Tim
Wise
God Responds to Bush
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The Two Faces of Bush in Africa
Edward
S. Herman
Whitewashing Sandra Day O'Connor
David Orr
Coffeen-gate: What's Going on at the Sierra Club Foundation?
David
Lindorff
An Iraq War & Occupation Glossary
Website
of the Day
Dead Malls
July
10, 2003
Ron
Jacobs
Dealing with the Devil: the Bloody
Profits of General Dynamics
Sean
Donahue
Bush and the Paramillitaries: Coddling Terrorists in Colombia
Yemi
Toure
Who Outted Bush in Afrika?
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Sustainability: an Interview
with Wes Jackson
Ali
Abunimah
US Leaves Injured Iraqis Untreated
Joanne
Mariner
Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions
Website
of the Day
Electronic Iraq
July
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Is the Media Finally Turning on
Bush?
David
Krieger and Angela McCracken
10 Myths About Nuclear Weapons
Mickey
Z.
Why Speak Out?
Lee Sustar
The Great Medicare Fraud
John
Chuckman
The Worst Kind of Lie
Gary Leupp
"Pacifist" Japan and the Occupation of Iraq
Website
of the Day
Hail to the Thief:
Songs for the Bush Years
July
8, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Bully on the Bench: the Pathological
Dissents of Scalia
Alan
Maass
Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor
Chris
Floyd
Troubled Sleep: Getting Used to the American Gulag
Linda
S. Heard
America's Kangaroo Justice
Brian
Cloughley
They Tell Lies to Nodders
Charles
Sullivan
Bush the Christian?
Saul
Landau
The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age
Website
of the Day
Occupation Watch
July
7, 2003
William
Blum
The Anti-Empire Report
Harvey
Wasserman
The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head
Ramzy
Baroud
Peace for All the Wrong Reasons
Simon
Jones
What Progressives Should Think About
Iran
Lesley
McCulloch
Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh
Uri
Avnery
The Draw
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
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.
|
July
16, 2003
Calling It Like It
Is
Defining
Terrorism from the Top Down
By WILLIAM A. COOK
Tony Blair's refusal to acquiesce to Ariel Sharon's
demands to sideline Arafat signals a recognition that sidelining
one terrorist who has limited capacity to stop Hamas pales by
comparison with Sharon's total control of the IDF and other renegade
Israeli terrorist groups. Sharon's current trip to visit Blair
and Bush, a calculated attempt to needle his bedfellows to control
European governments' recognition of Arafat, is designed to force
them to snub the democratically elected Arafat who is preventing
the implementation of the Road Map while Sharon appears to be
the man of peace. Needless to say, Sharon's insidious support
of the settlements and his terrorist acts as he removes troops
from the occupied territories stamps him as the obstacle in the
road to peace. Sharon's trip follows
President Bush's recent demand made to the EU ministers in Washington,
that they declare Hamas a terrorist organization and take action
to interrupt its economic activities, a demand that found little
support among EU representatives.
The issue is complex because the definition
of "terrorist" is not precise. Indeed, the very actions
condemned by Bush about Hamas are actions that other nations
find condemnatory about Bush. Terrorism is as terrorism does,
or so one would think. Dictionary definitions reflect a consensus
in meaning at a point in time, but definitions become the prerogative
of those in power when it is in their interest to impose parameters
on  words
that impact policy direction. To the victor belongs meaning and
historical perspective. Thus it is with the words "terrorism,"
"terrorist," and "terrorize." To terrorize,
according to the dictionary, means "to dominate or coerce
by intimidation." A "terrorist" is one who attempts
to dominate and coerce by intimidation, and "terrorism"
is "a method of resisting a government."
These definitions incriminate Osama bin
Laden and the undeclared leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and
Hezbollah, but they also incriminate the ultra right Zionists
in Israel, and, one could argue, the hard-right Evangelical Zionists
in America. More tellingly, and this is the point of this article,
they incriminate the United States under Bush and Israel under
Sharon. Obviously, our government cannot allow the consensus
meaning to reflect the actuality. Therefore, the United States
defines terrorism (18 USC 2331) as "violent acts or acts
dangerous to human life that appear to be intended (i) to intimidate
or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy
of a government by intimidation or coercion; (iii) to affect
the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping."
While the dictionary definition is open-ended,
allowing for the possibility of governments to be active in terrorist
activities, the USC definition does not. The most recent Encarta
encyclopedia article describing terrorism is quite specific on
this point: "These violent acts are committed by nongovernmental
groups or individuals that is, by those who are neither
part of or officially serving in the military forces " This
description precedes the historical evolution of the word that
marks its origin during the French Revolution (1789-1799), the
regime de la terreur (Reign of Terror), a quite specific reference
to a government!
In his most recent book, The Lessons
of Terrorism (2003), Caleb Carr defines terrorism this way:
"Terrorism is simply the contemporary name given to, and
the modern permutation of, warfare deliberately waged against
civilians with the purpose of destroying their will to support
either leaders or policies that the agents of such violence find
objectionable." Interestingly, Carr does not excuse armed
forces or units of a nation from the definition. Indeed, Carr
includes in his understanding of terrorist the likes of Thomas
"Stonewall" Jackson, William Tecumseh Sherman, Richard
Nixon, and Henry Kissinger to name a few. Each of these individuals
supported deliberate and premeditated attacks against civilians.
Carr's historical survey of terrorism, written in response to
current world wide terrorist activity, is decidedly more inclusive
than the government definition.
Why be concerned with the definition
of a word? The answer is simple. By excluding governments and
nation-states from the definition, the ruling powers can inflict
corrosive and pejorative terms on those opposing them thereby
justifying any actions they use to subdue their enemy.
Hatred, revenge, greed, and insecurity
propel terrorists to act; all four motivations characterize the
behavior of nation-states as well as individuals and groups.
To exclude nation-states from the definition is to accept terrorist
behavior against civilians and ultimately to justify it. That
is the case with the Bush administration's acquiescence to the
Sharon government's terrorism against the Palestinians. It also
allows Bush to lie to the American people to incite them to invading
another nation that is of no threat to them and to intentionally
inflict harm, including death, on innocent civilians. Exclusion
of nation-states allows for simplistic judgments on those who
oppose government action by labeling dissenters as "anti-government,"
as in anti-Semitic or anti-American or unpatriotic, thus avoiding
analysis of the government's actions by blanket condemnation.
Indeed, the power of the respective governments, that of Sharon
and that of Bush, to silence criticism and to marginalize vocal
dissenters are well-documented and only points to the need to
keep the issue alive.
For the past six months, criticism of
Israeli IOF actions against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
has increased exponentially as reported in British, French, and
Greek newspapers, and in Ha'aretz. Ha'aretz has condemned this
reaction as "rising anti-Semitism." The nature of the
criticism, however, is not against the Jewish people, but against
the kinds of actions taken by the Sharon forces against civilians,
actions that can only be labeled as "terrorist" acts.
Consider the recent actions taken by
Sharon against the Palestinian people. These deliberate, provocative
acts have predetermined consequences designed to intimidate and
coerce the people to relinquish their rights to their homeland
and livelihood. They are acts that force another government to
accept the perpetrator's intended goal; that other government
is the United States and the goal is the erosion of the "Road
Map" and the acquisition of additional land, belonging to
the Palestinians, to the state of Israel. The Jerusalem Post
reported on April 8, "The construction of over a dozen Jewish
enclaves in predominantly Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem
is aimed at blocking any possibility of dividing Jerusalem in
the future." Edward Sheehan reports in The New York Review
on June 5, "Israeli settlements in eastern suburbs effectively
detach the Palestinian West Bank from Jerusalem. The final result
of this strategy 'will be the transformation of Arab Jerusalem
into a ghetto and slum.'"
Earlier this spring, Tikkun magazine
provided its readers with an inventory of terrorist behaviors
by the Sharon government. There are too many to list here but
they include awakening residents in the town of Beit Lahiya in
the middle of the night, over two hundred, "including small
children and women who had given birth 2 days earlier were forced
to huddle together for hours in the cold winter night until the
army let them return to their homes." "Preventing the
residents of entire cities from leaving their houses for weeks
on end (no exceptions-not for chemo, dialysis, childbirth, buying
food, attending school, or visiting your sick mother)",
damaging ambulances, assassinating "people without the niceties
of trial and due process, killing children including infants
and toddlers, etc. These kinds of behaviors brought condemnation
on Sharon's government by Bishop Tutu; he likened Israel's treatment
of Palestinians to the oppression of blacks by the white apartheid
government in South Africa. He added, "I can't believe the
United States really believes in its impotence" to halt
Israel's military reprisals.
Sheehan's recent report details Israeli
actions and their consequences to the people. "I visited
the town of Beit Hanoun the army destroyed twenty-five water
wells and the sewage system, which resulted in drinking water
being mixed with raw sewage." "Paved roads were broken
up by Israeli bulldozers; great tracks of farmland citrus
groves, olive trees, greenhouses as well were uprooted
to create no man's lands around the Israeli settlements of Alai
Sinai, Nevets Sala, and Nissanit." Such actions force civilians
to move from their homes either because they have been destroyed
or because their source of livelihood has been destroyed. These
are terrorist acts.
Sharon's savagery against the Palestinian
people has given rise to reactions in France, Germany, and Greece,
especially Greece, and to the anticipated condemnation of these
reactions as anti-Semitic. The European Union's Greek presidency
"condemned the Israeli raid on Tulkarem and Ein Shams refugee
camp last week, where at least 1000 Palestinians were detained
and prevented from going back to their homes " Ha'aretz
condemned the Greek papers for reporting Sharon's actions as
comparable to those of the Nazis against the Jews, the image
of Israel as a "Nazi country " that attacks "defenseless
Palestinians."
The article in Ha'aretz does not attempt
a comparison that might suggest to the Greeks and others how
similar the actions of the Sharon government are to those of
Nazi Germany. This past March, at an international conference
on human evil, held in Prague, Professor Karen Doerr compared
the terminology used by the Germans to that used by Sharon and
the Zionist forces in Israel. The Germans "evacuated"
and "resettled" the Jews; the Israelis "transfer"
and "resettle" the Palestinians. The Nazis used the
term "selection" to choose a concentration inmate for
murder; Sharon uses "extrajudicial execution." The
Germans detained Jews in "work camps"; Sharon uses
Palestinian "territories" and only recently added,
"occupied" territories. The Nazis had a "final
solution" to their problem with the Jews; Sharon adopted
"terrorists" following 9/11, a term used generally
about the Palestinian people since they are guilty of harboring
terrorists, to signify those he had to eliminate. Language always
suffers from those who wish to camouflage the reality of their
actions. Israeli forces make "incursions," never invasions,
into Palestinian territories; they assault to "flush out"
top fugitives, they do not assassinate; helicopter gunships "exchange
fire" with Palestinian gunmen, they don't attack with overwhelming
force; Arafat is "confined" to his compound, not imprisoned;
he could be "expelled" from Palestine, never deported
or forcefully removed from office by an occupying power; tanks
"roll" into the territories, they do not crush and
destroy homes and vineyards. Such is the abuse of language.
Is it not possible, then, to understand
the reaction of people sitting outside Israel, witnessing the
actions of the Sharon government and his IOF as they devastate
a defenseless population? Are not these actions comparable to
those used by the Nazis? Is not the walling in of the Palestinians
with the cement fence and electrified wires, the destruction
of water wells and diversion of others to Israeli use, the rounding
up of Palestinian civilians in the night, the assassination without
trial of leaders of those oppressed, the humiliation and dehumanization
of the people, the forceful taking of their means of livelihood,
the intentional intimidation of civilians, are not these actions
comparable to those of the Nazis against the innocent Jews in
Germany? If the ultimate purpose of Sharon's government is the
eradication of the Palestinian people, not by use of gas chambers,
but by forced removal, euphemistically called "transferal,"
from their land through intimidation including incremental killings,
then the comparison, like that made by Bishop Tutu to the apartheid
regime in South Africa, is apt. This is not condemnation of the
Jewish people but of their government that acts in their name.
For Americans, who must live with the Bush administration's acquiescence
of Sharon's slaughter paid for by their tax dollars, the dilemma
is the same, dissent and be damned as un-American or stay silent
and be the means of support for terrorism.
Ran HaCohen writes of the "Hebron
terrorists," the fanatical Jewish settlers who "ransack
Palestinian shops, cut electricity lines and water pipes, wreck
cars, and attack schoolchildren," that they are a "criminal
gang actively nurtured by the State," a group of 450 protected
by 4000 Israeli troops. This is terrorism defended and accepted
by the state. How effective is this terrorism? "So far,
the junta's policy has proven quite effective," according
to HaCohen, "Driven away by economic strangulation and fear
of settlers' violence, the population of 12,000 Palestinians
who inhabited Hebron's Old City has dwindled to 5,000 souls since
the division of the city in 1997." That is premeditated
intimidation and coercion of civilians, the very definition of
terrorism, done by the state of Israel supported by the Bush
administration.
Hamas has been condemned by the Bush
and Sharon administrations for using bombs strapped around the
body as terrorism against innocent civilians, and indeed they
are. Yet these same men find the use of "flechette"
bullets that scatter pellets of death into multiple civilians
legitimate weapons to use against Palestinians. They find no
problems using missiles fired into crowded city streets or the
use of cluster bombs in Iraq as legitimate weapons of war. Both
accept as legitimate weapons for use in civilian areas high altitude
bombing whether from F-16s or Apache helicopters. Yet such use
anticipates civilian deaths and is, therefore, deliberate slaughter
and cannot even be placed in the category of "collateral
damage." The day Sharon left Washington, having conferred
his blessings on Bush, Israeli tanks again fired into a crowded
Gaza neighborhood in Rafah and killed six civilians including
children. This is terrorism.
Even as the Israeli military moved out
of Beit Hanoun on July 1, 2003 to begin the process that would
bring into existence the "road map," they "leveled
dozens of homes and factories, tore up roads and uprooted trees,"
according to the Guardian. Why? For "security" reasons.
That's why they destroyed 1,000 acres of citrus trees! "Security"
says it all; it is the cover word for terrorist actions. Bush
uses the same word to detain hundreds of men who have never been
charged with a crime and never had access to a lawyer. These
are the actions of a terrorist state.
Why is it that these two men can act
like terrorists and not be condemned for it? Because a definition
has been designed that excludes them as heads of state and terrorism
cannot be applied to states. Therein lies the power of words.
But the world has not been fooled. Consider the UN resolutions
condemning Israel for such acts: 252 (1968) calling on Israel
to rescind measures that change the legal status of Jerusalem,
including the expropriation of land and properties; 446 (1979)
calling upon Israel to abide by the Geneva Convention regarding
the responsibilities of occupying powers, especially "not
to transport parts of its civilian population into occupied Arab
territories"; 465 (1980) calling on Israel to cease construction
of settlements in Arab territories; 471 (1981) calling on Israel
to prosecute those involved in assassination attempts of West
Bank leaders; 799 (1992) calling upon Israel "to reaffirm
the Fourth Geneva Convention in all occupied territories since
1967, including Jerusalem, and affirms that deportation of civilians
constitutes a contravention of its obligations under the convention";
1405 (2002) calling on Israel to allow UN inspectors to "investigate
civilian deaths during an Israeli assault on the Jenin refugee
camp; 1435 (2002) calling on Israel to withdraw to positions
of September 2000 and end its military activities in and around
Ramallah, including the destruction of security and civilian
infrastructure; and these are only a few. These resolutions describe
terrorist activities, activities supported by the Bush administration
including vetoing such resolutions. Given the severity of the
actions challenged by the UN, one would think Bush would rush
to the UN demanding that Israel be brought before it for defying
its resolutions, something he used as a "gimmick" to
take his "war" to Iraq. But deception and hypocrisy
are the modus operandi of this administration, not openness,
honesty, and reason.
Clearly, Bush's demands to the EU ministers
in Washington to declare Hamas a terrorist organization fell
on deaf ears because they have been involved in the development
of the resolutions listed above. They know the terrorism perpetrated
by Sharon and Bush and would find condemning Hamas, a complicated
organization that provides humanitarian relief to Palestinians
as well as militant activity against the occupying forces of
Israel, a gesture in the wind. The beginning of the end of terrorism
starts with regime change in Israel and Washington.
William Cook
is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern
California. His new book, Psalms
for the 21st Century, was just published by
Mellen Press. He can be reached at: cookb@ULV.EDU
Weekend Edition Features for July 12/13, 2003
Arthur
Mitzman
The Double Wall Before the Future
Standard
Schaefer
The Coming Financial Reality: an
Interview with Michael Hudson
John Feffer
A Fearful Symmetry: Washington and Pyongyang
Ron
Jacobs
Shades of Gray in Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Judicial Terrorism Against the Bill of Rights
Tom
Stephens
Civil Liberties After 9/11
David Lindorff
New White House Slogan: "Case Closed. Just Move On"
Jason
Leopold
The Mini-War Against Iraq Prior to 9/11
Lee Sustar
What's Behind the Crisis in Liberia?
Mickey
Z.
AIDS Dissent and Africa
Sam Hamod
Semitic is a Language Group, Not a Race or Ethnic Group
Ramzy
Baroud
Awaiting Justice on an Old Blanket
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Savage Incongruities: the Photographic Life of Lee Miller
Adam
Engel
Parable of the Lobbyist
Robert
Sanders
A Review of Ralph Lopez's American Dream
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Witherup, Guthrie
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