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CIA's Overthrow Plans for Iran

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Today's Stories

August 19, 2005

Gary Leupp
The Pandora's Box of Iraq's Constitution

August 18, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
A Short History of Meat, Part 3: Vegetarians, Nazis for Animal Rights, Blitzkrieg of the Ungulates

Greg Moses
Cindy, the Peace Train and the Little Ditch that Could

Ramzy Baroud
Theatrics in Gaza: the Disengagement That Isn't

Joshua Frank
Bush's Emotional Incapacities

Monica Benderman
For Cindy: There's No Glory in Dying

Paul Craig Roberts
Courthouse Jackboots: Corrupted Justice

August 17, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
A Short History of Meat: Part Two, the March to Porkopolis

Robert Jensen
America's Good Germans?

Carl G. Estabrook
News Notes from the Global War on Terrorism

Mike Whitney
Greenspan and the Housing Bubble

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Shaming the Shameless

Norman Solomon
Slurs, Lies and Innuendos: Blaming the Antiwar Messengers

Dave Zirin
In Defense of Felipe Alou

Jennifer Loewenstein
The Shame of It All: Watching the Gazan Fiasco

CounterPunch
Clarification

 

August 16, 2005

Greg Moses
Mona in a Field of Crosses at Camp Casey, Texas

Thomas Larson
The Unmitigated Gall of Dinesh D'Souza

Diana Barahona
Uneasy Standoff in Venezuela's Media Wars

Dave Lindorff
The Inquirer's Minds Don't Want to Know

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
A Letter to President Bush: Meet with Cindy Sheehan

Elisa Salasin
Hitchens Slimes Cindy Sheehan

David Krieger
Amazing Grace and Cindy

Alexander Cockburn
A Short History of Meat: Part One, Peter's Dream

Website of the Day
Reclaiming Appalachia: a Mountain Takeover

 

August 15, 2005

Greg Moses
Pilgrims of Protest in Crawford

Paul Craig Roberts
Slouching Toward Armageddon?

Mike Whitney
Failing in Iraq

Robert Jensen
The Challenges We Face

CounterPunch Wire
Judge Fines Voices in the Wilderness $20,000 for Taking Medicine to Iraq; Voices Refuses to Pay

Norman Solomon
Someone Tell Frank Rich the War Isn't Over

Kathleen Christison
Camp David Redux: Anatomy of a Frame-Up

 

August 13 / 14, 2005

Cockburn / St. Clair
When Down is Up: the "Stricken" President

William Blum
The al-Dubya Training Manual

Gary Leupp
High Tide for the Neocons?

Jack Z. Bratich
Secreting the News: Anonymous vs. Confidential Sources

Brian Cloughley
The Ridiculous Rice

Ron Jacobs
Klan Justice: Mississippi is Still Burning

John Farley
"Beyond Chutzpah" Too Hot for Harvard Bookstore?

Dave Lindorff
Making the World Safer...for Nukes

Tim Wise
Animal Whites: PETA and the Politics of Putting Things in Perspective

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
There's Not One Real Liberal or Conservative in the Senate

John Gershman
The Bolton Opportunity

Felice Pace
Saving Northwest Forests: Time for a Fresh Look

Fred Gardner
Feds Takeover Prosecution of Dustin Costa

David Krieger
The Fable of the Emperor and the Grieving Mother

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Being a Protestant Fundamentalist

Ben Tripp
GWAT: a Tone Poem

Poets' Basement
Reiss, Nettnin, Engel and Louise

 

 

August 12, 2005

Christopher Brauchli
Courting God: Justice Sunday II

Greg Moses
A Crawford Peace House Morning with Cindy Sheehan

Ramzy Baroud
Israel's Nuclear Puzzle

Norman Solomon
Cindy Sheehan's Message: Repudiating Bush and Dean

Chris Genovali
Why is a Canadian Politician Trying to End Protections for US Grizzly Bears?

Chris Floyd
Cheney and Halliburton, the Stench Gets Worse

Tariq Ali
Blair's New Authoritarianism

 

 

August 11, 2005

Saul Landau
Globalization and Its Discontents

Dave Lindorff
Privatization will Harm Same Sex Couples

Ralph Nader
Dear Cindy Sheehan: May You Prevail Where Others Have Failed

Talli Nauman
Radioactive Border: the Hot Mounds of Samalayuca

Gary Leupp
Politics of an Outing: Plame, Ledeen and Iran

Sharon Smith
The New Anti-War Majority

Paul Craig Roberts
Why is Cheney Lobbying for a Boost in China's Nuclear Capability?

 

August 10, 2005

Tim Wise
Indian Mascots and White Rage

Ron Jacobs
Rumsfeld's Delusions

Joshua Frank
Dean and the PDA: Don't Believe the Hype

Cynthia McKinney
The 9/11 Op-Ed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Refuses to Run

Rick Wilhelm
Peter Jennings, Excuse Maker for War and Empire

Stan Goff
Homegrown Resistance

 

August 9, 2005

Mike Ferner
What One Mom has to Say to Bush: Cindy Sheehan in Dallas

Monica Benderman
Is Being a Conscientious Objector Now Criminal?

Mike Marqusee
Making Excuses for Killing De Menezes

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Strange Fruit and Tree-Shakers

Paul Craig Roberts
Watching the US Economy Crumble

 

 

August 6-8, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
How the British Destroyed India

Jason Leopold
Halliburton and Iran: Still Doing Business After All These Years?

Ray McGovern
Iran, Truth-Tellers and the Devotees of Preemption

David Krieger
From Hiroshima to Humanity

Sharon K. Weiner / Robert Jensen
From Hiroshima to Iraq and Back

Fred Gardner
The Budtender's View of a Rip-Off

 

 

August 5, 2005

Bill Christison
New NIE Report on Iran's Nukes will Not Deter US's Posture of Extreme Aggressiveness

Paul Craig Roberts
Kelo: a Supreme Assault on Personal Liberty

Alexander Cockburn
The Taj Mahal as Kitsch; the Editor and the Water-Walking Guru

 

 

August 4, 2005

Tom Barry
Inside Bush's "World Democracy Movement"

Lila Rajiva
John Bolton's New Internationalism

Greg Moses
Bush Teaches Intelligent Design in Prison

Alexander Cockburn
Indian Journal: Why Indian Farmers Kill Themselves

August 3, 2005

 

 

August 3, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Broken Arrows and Iran: a B-52 Pilot Remembers

Paul Craig Roberts
The Kelo Calamity: Money, Power and Eminent Domaine

William A. Cook
Innocent Victims: From Hiroshima to Lower Manhattan

Dave Zirin
Bush's Texas Rangers: a Crackhouse for Juiced Players?

Dave Lindorff
Court Packing and Worker Rights

José Pertierra
Why Hamdi Isaac Yes and Posada Carriles No?

 

August 2, 2005

Ramzi Kysia
Disengagement and Diaspora: High Walls and Razor Wire in the Hebron

William A. Cook
Words Without Meaning: Torturing Bodies and Language

Paul Craig Roberts
When Armageddon Gets No Press

Mike Whitney
Chertoff's Preemptive Crackdown: 600 Arrests, Only 76 Charged

Ron Jacobs
Be a Hero: Demand That Johnny Come Home

Norman Madarsz
Before the Stun Gun: Jean Charles de Menezes, RIP

Tim Wise
The Faulty Logic of "Terrorist" Profiling

 

 

August 1, 2005

Virginia Rodino
Why Bono and Geldof Got It Wrong: War and Global Poverty are Linked

Diana Barahona
Return to Venezuela: Land Reform and Neighborhood Doctors

Joshua Frank
Gitmo's Kangaroo Courts: First Torture Them, Then Rig Their Trials

Mike Whitney
The Consolidation of Powers: Rubber Stamp Roberts

Norm Dixon
The Worst Terror Attacks in History

Norman Solomon
Operation Withdrawal Scam

James Petras
The Corruption of Lula's Regime

 

 

July 30 / 31, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Lost Nuclear Warheads Now in Iran?

JoAnn Wypijewski
Scenes and Silver Linings from Labor's Crack-Up: a Special Report from Chicago

Sheldon Rampton
War is Fun as Hell: the Video Games Recruiters Play

Jack Z. Bratich
Fingerprints of Power: a Summer of Double Super Secrecy

Greg Moses
How to Cool Your Heels in Texas When It's Late July Across the World

Jordan Green
From Woolworth to Wal-Mart: Economics and the Race Divide in a Southern City

Patrick Cockburn
Getting Out of Iraq: 5,000 US Troops Have Gone AWOL

Brian Cloughley
The Bush-Cheney Fixation on Iran

Justin Taylor
Harry Potter and the War on Terror

Saul Landau
Enhancements for the Imperial Life: Fashionism Takes Command!

John Walsh
Dems Field Another Pro-War Candidate: Meet Hack the Hawk

Joshua Frank
Color-Coded Justice: John Roberts's Racial Hang Up

Ron Jacobs
Who Needs Feminism? We Have Condi Rice!

Fred Gardner
The Ethan and Gavin Show

John Chuckman
Friedman on Terrorism: the Dumbest Story Ever Written

Liaquat Ali Khan
Lessons City Bombers Need to Learn from Newton and Donne

Remi Kanazi
Annexing Justice in Palestine

Naveen Jaganathan
The Gurgaon Riots Rock India

Richard Heinberg
Where is the Hirsch Peak Oil Report?

Max Watts
Francis Ona, the Napoleon of Mekamui

Ben Tripp
Write Your Own Editorial!

Poets' Basement
Whalen & Engel, Landau, Albert and Krieger

 

 

 

July 29, 2005

Cockburn / St. Clair
Who's the Real Martyr? Judy Miller or Jim DeFede?

P. Sainath
The Class War in Gurgaon

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How the West Was Lost: CAFTA and the Disassembling of America

Dave Lindorff
Marvelous Marvin Bush

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
America's Racist Inventory: Oppression Breeds Violence

Pat Williams
Giving Away the Last Best Place

Norman Solomon
In Praise of Kevin Benderman: a Moral Leader of the Nation Goes to Prison

Sen. Russ Feingold
The Bad News About the Energy Bill

 

 

July 28, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
Departing Iraq

William S. Lind
The Duke of Alba and George W. Bush

Gilad Atzmon
Blair the Camera Man

Joshua Frank
Passing CAFTA: Blame the Democrats

Lila Rajiva
Vision Mumbai Submerged

Amina Mire
Pigmentation and Empire: the Emerging Skin-Whitening Industry

Website of the Day
Gateway to Underground News

 

 

July 27, 2005

Roger Morris
The Source Beyond Rove: Condoleezza Rice at the Center of the Plame Scandal

Gary Leupp
Is Iran Being Set Up?

Paul Craig Roberts
US Falling Behind Across the Board

Jackie Corr
Class War on the Ruby River: the Billionaire with His Foot in His Mouth

Mike Whitney
The Coming End of the Housing Bubble

Dave Zirin
Why Lance Armstrong Must Break with Bush

Christopher Bradley
Why I Have Trouble Reading the News

Norman Solomon
Thomas Friedman, Liberal Sadist?

Website of the Day
Stormin' Norman

 

 

July 26, 2005

Suren Pillay
The Enemy Within: When the "Other" is One of "Us"

JoAnn Wypijewski
Fission and Fizzle in Chicago: SEIU and Teamsters Quit the AFL

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: the Unwinnable War

David Anderson
When the Greatest Outrage is the Lack of Outrage: NYC's Subway Searches

Joshua Frank
Hillary Clinton: Outflanking Bush from the Right

Lenni Brenner
Biography as Wish-Fulfillment: Jefferson, Hitchens and Atheism

David Swanson
Nuking Native Land

 

 

July 25, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
China-Mart Takes Over

M. Shahid Alam
Terrorism: America Defines Its Targets

Uri Avnery
March of the Orange Shirts

Stan Cox
Kreationism in Kansas

Norman Solomon
"Wagging the Puppy"

Ramzy Baroud
London Bombings: Barbaric, But Not Unexpected

Mickey Z.
No Gun Ri: 55 Years Later

Website of the Day
The Birth of a Hummingbird in 15 Images

 

 

July 23 / 24, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Islamo-Anarchs or Islamo-Fascists?

Tariq Ali
The War Comes Home

Robert Fisk
Something Happened

Dave Lindorff
Return of the Academic Witch Hunts

Ricardo Alarcón
Kidnapping in Miami: the UN, the US and the Cuban 5

Col. Dan Smith
Living in a Twilight Zone: Troop Strength, Recruitment and the Draft

Brian Cloughley
The Pentagon's China Hypocrisy

Kevin Zeese
Growing Republican Opposition to Iraq War

Bill Quigley
Harrowing Hours in Haiti

Fred Gardner
The Reverberations of Raich

Rep. Ron Paul
The Patriot Act is a Threat to Liberty

Joshua Frank
Framing Abortion: Gonadal Politics and the Democrats

Shivali Tukdeo
Project Mumbai Makeover: Casualties of Development

Gilad Atzmon
Blair's "Evil Ideology"

James Petras
Baghdad: Barbarism and Civilization (a Fiction)

Ben Tripp
When Being American Was Fun

Poets' Basement
Krieger, Louise, Buknatski, Albert and Engel

Website of the Weekend
Remember the West Memphis 3

 

July 22, 2005

Heather Gray
Home Grown Axis of Evil: Corp. Agribusiness, the Occupation of Iraq and the Dred Scott Decision

David Domke
The American Press and Credibility

Lance Selfa
Battle of the Insiders: No Heroes in the Plame Leak Scandal

JoAnn Wypijewski
Is This Really an "Insurgency" to Shake Up the Labor Movement?

 

July 21, 2005

Rose Ann DeMoro
The Top 10 Problems with the "Crisis" in the Labor Movement

William Blum
London: Another Casualty in the War on Terror

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
Whites Need to Learn Something: Dixie is Everywhere

Christopher Brauchli
Strange Affairs: Liberals and Alberto Gonzales

Joshua Frank
Plame Blame Game: the 5 Ws

Brian Concannon, Jr.
Haiti's Elections: Time for a Reality Check

Patrick Cockburn
The True, Terrible State of Iraq and the Link to London

Website of the Day
Who Blew Up the Murrah Building?

 

 

July 20, 2005

Cockburn / St. Clair
Judge Roberts: Business as Usual

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Red Christmas

Ray McGovern
Did Dick Finger Valerie?: the Hand of Cheney

Chris Floyd
Judge Dread: John Roberts and the "Enemy Combatants"

Uri Avnery
"Silence is Filth"

Dave Lindorff
Westmoreland's Body Count Goes Up by One

Norman Solomon
Gen. Westmoreland's Death Wish

Bill Quigley
Travels in Haiti with a Wanted Priest

 

 

 

July 19, 2005

Tariq Ali
An Isolated Regime

John Ross
Jihad Meets G-8

Davey D.
More Clear Channel Censorship: "Don't F--K Around with Tha Police"

Greg Weiher
Muzzling Saddam: the Old Bait-and-Switch in Iraqi Jurisprudence

Brian McKinlay
An "Arse Licker" Goes to Washington: John Howard's Grand Tour

Norman Solomon
Nukes for India; Threats for Iran

Dave Lindorff
Get Back to Where We Once Belonged

Bill Christison
Bush's Itinerary: First Stop Syria, Next Stop Iran

Joshua Frank
Laura's Justice?: Meet Edith Brown Clement

 

July 18, 2005

Joshua Frank
An Interview with Ward Churchill

M. Shahid Alam
A Muslim Problem: Did Thomas Friedman Flunk History?

Jude Wanniski
Memo to Patrick Fitzgerald

Ron Jacobs
A Weekend to Stop the War

Mike Whitney
The Straight Line Between Falluja and King's Cross Station

William MacDougall
From "Bring It On" to "London Can Take It"

Seth Sandronsky
Temporary Recovery: New Frontiers in Labor Flexibility

Richard Lichtman
The Consolations of George Lakoff

Paul Craig Roberts
Can Congressional Republicans End Bush's Wars?

Website of the Weekend
Novels of the Neo-Cons

 

July 15 / 17, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Don't You Dare Call It Treason

Jeffrey St. Clair
Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton

Paul Craig Roberts
Economic Treason

Harry Browne
"What They Do to Us, They Will Do to You": Shell Oil in Mayo, Ireland

Uri Davis, Ilan Pappe and Tamar Yaron
A Warning from Israel

Andrew Rubin
End of the Enlightenment: an Open Letter to Stephen Plaut

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq's Ghost Battalions

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
Changes in Selma: Standing Up to Racism in the South

Fred Gardner
A Professional Bust

Christopher Brauchli
An Olympic Feat: How to "Double" Aid with No New Money

Chris Floyd
The Great Iraq Oil Giveaway

Ben Tripp
The Dark Incontinent

Col. Dan Smith
General Abizaid, I'm Glad You Asked

Jason Leopold
What Did Rove Say and When Did He Say It?

Jack Random
Miller Time

Norman Solomon
War and Venture Capitalism

George Ochenski
Liberate Montana's Rivers: Come One, Come All!

Website of the Weekend
Vote for CounterPuncher David Vest

 

 

July 14, 2005

Jeffrey St. Clair
Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton

Subcomandante Marcos
This is What Will Do and How We Shall Do It: the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona

Dave Lindorff
No More Moral Relativism: the US is a Terrorist State

Joshua Frank
Rove Agency: Liberals and the CIA

Jude Wanniski
Those 8 Black Pages: What's the Real Story on Karl Rove?

Dave Zirin
Storming the Castle

Kevin Zeese
Exit Strategy: Within Reach?

Robert Jensen
War Myths and the Press

Reza Fiyouzat
A Worldwide Call to Free Akbar Ganji

Carol Norris
Governor Paranoid: Schwarzenegger Comes Unhinged

Website of the Day
Nate Osborn: Heroic Human Rights Activist and CounterPuncher

 

July 13, 2005

Brian Cloughley
Cold Blooded Murders in Iraq

George Galloway
We Can't Separate the London Bombings from the Political Backdrop

Carlos Fierro
A Supreme Waste of Time

Sarah Knopp
Hate on the Border

Norman Solomon
"Isolated Pockets of Problems": the Fake Optimism of Washington's Warriors

Mickey Z.
Water on the Brain

Jim Minick
The Right Tree in the Right Place

Pat Williams
American Indian Education for All

Andrew N. Rubin
Life Behind the Wall: "We are No Longer Able to See the Sun Set"

Website of the Day
"London's Burning": the Mikey Mix

 

 

July 12, 2005

Laith al-Saud
Voices of Resistance: an Interview with Dr. Mohammed al-Obaidi of Iraq's Peoples' Struggle Movement

Kara N. Tina
"This is How We Do It": Report from the Gleneagles Battlefield

William A. Cook
The London Bombings: Why Has It Come to This?

Jack Bratich
2 Live Cruise: Tom Cruise v. Big Pharma

Amina Mire
The Problem with Speaking in the Name of Others

Dick J. Reavis
Lessons from the Christian Jihadists: the Virtues of Burning Crosses and Colored Smoke

Kevin Zeese
Depleted Uranium: States Take Action to Protect Their Vets

Paul Craig Roberts
No-Think Nation

Website of the Day
Coke Gags Indian Artist

 

 

July 9 / 11, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
After the Bombings

Uri Avnery
War of the Colors in Israel

Sheldon Rampton
Blaming Galloway: Rhetoric vs. Reality in London

Bill Christison
Hiroshima's 60th Anniversary and Nukes in Iran: an Opportunity or Just More Hand-wringing from the Peace Movement?

Robert Fisk
Blair's Alliance with Bush Bombed

Stephen Winspear
Collateral Damage in London?

Saul Landau
Mission Accomplished: Iraq is Broken

Behrooz Ghamari
Thomas Friedman's Muslim Problem

Karl Beitel
False Promises and Real Debt Relief

Brian Concannon, Jr.
Throwing Gasoline on Haiti's Fires

Fred Gardner
Sentencing Season

John Whitlow
And What Does the Market Say?

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The London Blasts: Who's Being Transformed, Them or Us?

Lila Rajiva
Witches and Bastards

Laura Carlsen
CAFTA: Deepening the Inequities

Jackie Corr
Ted Turner and Jiminy Cricket

Dave Lindorff
"My Brother Went Over There Gung Ho; Now He's Just Bitter"

N. D. Jayaprakash
Why the CIA Tried to Kill Chou En Lai at the Bandung Conference

Seth Sandronsky
Meet the "Truth Tour": Rightwing Radio Hosts Go to Iraq

Norman Madarasz
The Choking of Brazil's Worker Party

Ben Tripp
The Inevitability of George W. Bush

Poets' Basement
Louise, Albert, Landau, Davies and Engel

Website of the Weekend
The Mother of All Enemies Lists

 

 

July 8, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
Blowback Hits Britain: Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception

Tariq Ali
The London Bombings: Why They Happened

Monica Benderman
One Soldier's Fight to Legalize Morality

Rick Jahnkow
Beyond Opt-Out: the Counter-Recruitment Movement

Christopher Brauchli
Dear Vet: If You Want to Eat While You Recuperate, You Gotta Pay Extra

Kim Peterson
Bombs in the Underground: Terror Begats Terror

Joshua Frank
Leakers and Liars: Inching Toward Indictments?

Norman Solomon
Messages from the Carnage

Website of the Day
An Interview with Ray McGovern

 

July 7, 2005

Cockburn / St. Clair
Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr

John Walsh
More Hawkish Than Bush: Dems in Full Battle Cry

Mike Marqusee
Message from London

Gilad Atzmon
London's Burning

Nicole Colson
Showdown at the Supreme Court

Jack Random
Judith Miller, Anti-Hero

Norman Solomon
Judith Miller, Drum Majorette for War

Len Colodny
Is Bob Woodward Still Protecting Al Haig?

Cockburn / St. Clair
Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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August 19, 2005

Will the Cycle of Violence Intensify?

After the Withdrawal

By NEVE GORDON

Now that the withdrawal from Gaza is underway, and the settlers have failed to transform the personal trauma of the those who are relocated from their homes into a national trauma, it is high time to ask whether or not the dismantlement of Jewish settlements and redeployment of troops will advance Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Although written a couple of years ago, James Ron's thoughtful book Frontiers and Ghettos provides a convincing answer to this question. A sociology professor at McGill University and the Canada Research Chair in Conflict and Human Rights, Ron poses two spatial metaphors -- ghettos and frontiers -- suggesting that until the mid 1990s the West Bank and Gaza Strip were Israel's ghettos. Ghettos are densely institutionalized by the state, since they are within its legal sphere of influence, and serve as repositories for unwanted and marginalized populations. Lebanon, Ron maintains, was Israel's frontier. Frontiers are distinguished from the state by clear boundaries, and are only thinly institutionalized arenas.

The crucial point is that the different institutional settings determine the kind of violence employed by the state. Whereas in its ghettos the state typically uses ethnic policing, mass incarceration and harassment, at its frontiers it is more prone to employ brutal and lawless violence.

These insights are important, even though the dichotomy that Ron poses between ghettos and frontiers can no longer be directly applied to the Occupied Territories. While Israel has in the past years substantially diluted its institutional presence in the territories, particularly in Gaza, it has also placed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in enclaves by surrounding the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank with fences and walls. Thus, from an institutional perspective the Occupied Territories have been transformed into a frontier, and from a spatial viewpoint more and more people have been placed in ghettos.

The crux of the matter is that if the thinning of the institutional system leads to the intensification of violence, then one can predict that the repertoires of violence Israel employs will become more lethal following the withdrawal. This assumption was recently corroborated by the former head of Israel's secret services. Quoted in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, he stated that the withdrawal will provide the military with much more freedom to act, by which he meant that Israel will be able to use forms of violence that it has hesitated to employ.

The change was already noticeable in the months leading to the pull out. According to the Israeli human rights organization B'tselem, in the first ten months after the official decision to dismantle the settlements, Israeli forces killed 563 Palestinians in Gaza, whereas during the previous ten months period 264 were killed. In contrast to earlier periods, Israel is now more willing to employ brutal violence from afar in order to quell any resistance.

Alongside the change in the kinds of violence, Ron's model suggests that one should expect to see a corresponding change in Israel's sense of moral responsibility towards the occupied population. And indeed, it is no longer the case that Israeli liberals underscore their country's ethical obligations toward their occupied neighbors, as they did during the first Intifada. The human rights of Palestinians are no longer part of the liberal agenda.

Insofar as this analysis is accurate, it is likely that at least in the near future the violence Israel employs in the Gaza Strip and West Bank will become more ferocious. Surely, the Palestinians will not sit still and their reactions will no doubt also be extremely bloody. The cycle of violence will, accordingly, intensify. Such developments are, in many respects, a direct consequence of Prime Minister Sharon's unilateral approach, since without negotiations and an attempt to reach a just and comprehensive peace it is naïve to expect that the conflict will end any time soon.

Neve Gordon, who teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, is a visiting scholar in the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the editor of From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights and can be reached at nevegordon@gmail.com