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July 8, 2002
Tariq Ali
How the
Bush Used 9/11 to Remap the World
Lori Allen
The Tugs
of War:
Palestinian Life Under Curfew
July 7, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
White
House Crooks
July 6, 2002
Gavin Keeney
Loose
Lips:
Liberty, Democracy & Bush
Michael Neumann
What's
So Bad About Israel?
Steve Baughman
Ashcroft's
Vendetta:
Lynching John Lindh
July 5, 2002
Ahmad Faruqui
Bush Freezes Peace Process
Todd May
Independence
and Terrorism
Rahul Mahajan
Why I
Won't Celebrate the Fourth of July This Year
July 4, 2002
S. Brian Willson
What
the Flag Means to Me
Philip Farruggio
Independence Day and
the Working Poor
Tom Gorman
The Uncommon
Pledge
of Allegiance
Chris Floyd
Jungle
Fever:
Bush's Bolivian Mercenaries
July 3, 2002
Francis Boyle
The Death
of the Oslo Accords
Mokhiber / Weissman
Cracking
Down on Corp. Crime
Robert Jensen
Lynne
Cheney's Primer
Behzad Yaghmaian
An Alternative
to the G-8s Africa Initiative
Toward a Global AIDS Fund and a Living Wage
John Borowski
Public
Schools Under Seige
Norman Madarasz
Brazil,
the Workers' Party and the Financial Times
July 2, 2002
Leah Wells
The Wedding
Was a Bomb
CounterPunch Wire
Trial of
the SOA 37
Edward Hammond
Bombing
the Mind:
The Pentagon's Drug Warfare
Sam Bahour
Ramallah
Occupied:
Uninvited Guests Become Neighbors
July 1, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Brazil's
Triumph
June 28/30, 2002
Kathleen Christison
The True Story of Resolution
242 or How the US Sold Out
the Palestinians
Cockburn / St. Clair
Death,
Juries and Scalia
Tarif Abboushi
Bush's
Double Standard
on Israel
N.D. Jayaprakash
Seething
with Rage:
The Palestinian Saga
Michael Yates
Taking
the Pledge:
Teachers and the Flag
Stephen Zunes
Bush's
Speech a Setback
for Peace
Walt Brasch
The Pledge
v. The Constitution
Cockburn / St. Clair
Strikers
as Terrorists?
Tom Ridge Calls Longshoremen
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
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Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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Published March 15, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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July
8, 2002
The BUSHARON Global War
by Lev Grinberg
President George Bush's speech intensified the
plight of the peace supporters in Israel, and in the entire Middle
East. Since 1977, they were accustomed to American presidents
playing the role of "fair mediators": pressuring Israel
to restrain violence and to negotiate with its neighbors. Jimmy
Carter mediated between Begin and Saadat, Ronald Reagan brought
Israel and the PLO to a first ceasefire pact in 1981, and stopped
Sharon before occupying Beirut in 1982. George Bush Senior coerced
Shamir to the Madrid Peace Conference after the Gulf War, and
Bill Clinton was best man to Rabin and Arafat. Then, and all
of a sudden, comes a president that doesn't mediate and unilaterally
supports Sharon. This is not only confusing to the Israeli "peace
camp," but places the Palestinian leadership in an awkward
position, and the rest of the Arab states as well. In March the
Arab League accepted a brave peace plan, initiated by Saudi Arabia,
and now the President Bush dismissed it off hand.
George Bush did not present a peace plan,
but instead, in the subtext, we can understand who are his allies
in his war plans. During the last half a year Bush stands at
Sharon's side and spurs him onwards on his aggressive policies.
The obvious question is: Why did Bush quit playing the "fair
mediator" between Israel and its neighbors? The explanation
I suggest here is very simple: Bush is planning to launch an
attack on Iraq, and in recent months he has come to the conclusion
that, for the purpose of this war Sharon is a more reliable and
worthwhile ally than the moderate Arab states. Bush doesn't care
too much about peace between Israel and Palestine, nor is he
all that bothered by the millions of Palestinians living under
curfew in intolerable and inhuman conditions, and neither is
he really concerned about the Israeli casualties caused by the
despaired suicide bombers. "Let them bleed" was the
Bush administration's motto early on in its reign, until it became
politically incorrect on 9/11. And yet, as long as the Bush administration
continues in its plans to attack Iraq, we, Palestinians and Israelis,
will continue to bleed.
What makes so clear that Bush is mainly
concerned by his plans of war? It is a matter of timing. In his
speech Bush suggests the establishment of a Palestinian state
within three years, focusing in the meantime on replacing Arafat
and installing a new democratic, uncorrupted, transparent and
efficient Palestinian administration during the coming year and
a half. This means the Palestinian state will be established
only AFTER the war against Iraq, if at all. Bush wants a strong
and deterring Israel during the attack on Iraq, first of all
because Sadam Hussein might bomb Tel-Aviv, as he did in 1991,
and then Sharon will surely join the war. Second, because the
"US's enemies" throughout the Arab world might awaken
during such a war. Israel's job would then be to deter, and eventually
fight, the US's enemies within its "area of influence":
the Occupied Territories, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
How did this full understanding between
Bush and Sharon crystallize? It developed smoothly since 9/11.
Immediately after the attack on the Twin Towers Sharon tried
to get on the "War-On- Terrorism" wagon, declaring
that "Arafat is our Bin Laden." This position was firmly
rejected by the US administration, mainly because they were planning
an attack on Afghanistan, and did not want to endanger the expected
cooperation with the pro-American Arab states. However, during
the war in Afghanistan, the Bush Administration was disappointed
with the positions of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. After the end of
the war and the demolition of the Taliban's regime, Sharon was
invited to Washington "to coordinate the next moves in the
war against terror", this time against Iraq. In his meeting
with President Bush on December 3rd Sharon received a "green
light" to attack Arafat. On December 4th, Arafat's helicopters
were bombed, and he was placed on a "city arrest" in
Ramalla for five months. Even when Arafat declared a ceasefire
on December 16th, the US ignored it, and when Israel breached
the ceasefire by assassinating Raad Carmi on January 14th (to
avoid the upcoming political negotiations), Bush continued to
support Sharon. Since December 3rd the President of the USA has
defined Israel's actions against the Palestinians as "self
defense," while Arafat is always found guilty. Sharon has
systematically undermined Arafat's authority in the eyes of the
Palestinians, disbanded the forces that were loyal to his command,
destroyed their infrastructure, and even sabotaged the Palestinian
Authority's computers. When the UN Security Council decided to
send an inquiry committee to investigate war crimes committed
in Jenin in April 2002, the US administration collaborated with
Israeli Government in preventing the committee to enter Israel.
In the present conditions, under military occupation and without
international protection, it is hard to imagine how can the Palestinians
establish democratic and efficient institutions.
The Bush Administration adopted and augmented
Sharon's big lie that Arafat is the problem (not the 35-year
Israeli occupation), and that a Palestinian State would be established
later on (when, where and how remain constantly deferred questions).
Bush decided to back Sharon's strategy due to his own political
interests. His political axiom is that the US must attack Iraq,
and the question was whether he wanted a weakened Sharon in confrontation
with the US, or a strong Sharon on US's side. Bush's speech indicated
that the administration has decided in favor of full coordination
with Sharon. Bush has understood that a thorough solution of
the Israeli- Palestinian conflict requires two elements: time,
and confrontation with the Israeli government. Since Bush is
neither willing to postpone the offensive on Iraq for three years,
nor is he interested in confronting Israel before the war, Sharon
has become an ally. Sharon knows that "all is open"
in war. He is deeply satisfied with Bush's "Middle East
Plan", that practically means a global war managed by the
BUSHARON team, in which Bush will play the role of the global
sheriff, imposing a new order in the Islamic States. Sharon has
been nominated as the "regional sheriff", and he will
be allowed to impose a new order in his "area of influence".
Indeed, it is hard to believe that these
are the plans of the "leader of the globe", but Bush
behavior doesn't leave too much room for doubts. He is leading
with Sharon to a global war that, according to our experience
with Sharon in Israel, is expected to be disastrous. We also
know that in times of war the civil society, democracy and freedom
of opinion are marginalized, so it is about time to start criticizing
the expected war, before it starts. Neglecting harsh realities
has never been helpful.
Dr. Lev Grinberg
is a political analyst, senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University,
Israel.
Today's
Features
Tariq Ali
How the
Bush Used 9/11 to Remap the World
Lori Allen
The Tugs
of War:
Palestinian Life Under Curfew
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