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July
11, 2003
David
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An Iraq War & Occupation Glossary
July
10, 2003
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Dealing with the Devil: the Bloody
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Bush and the Paramillitaries: Coddling Terrorists in Colombia
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US Leaves Injured Iraqis Untreated
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Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions
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Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor
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S. Heard
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Bush the Christian?
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The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age
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7, 2003
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The Anti-Empire Report
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The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head
Ramzy
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Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh
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Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July
4 / 6, 2003
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Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
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Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
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Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
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How Free Are We?
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Madsen
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Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
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Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
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Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
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of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
July
3, 2003
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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
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John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Stan
Goff
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Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July 2, 2003
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Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
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Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
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Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
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1, 2003
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Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
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Cassel
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Block
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Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
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Weapons in Search of a Name
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Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
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Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
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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
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Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
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Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
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Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
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Rehnquist Family Values
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Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
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Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
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The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
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Vest
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26, 2003
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Indonesia's War on Journalists
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Bacher
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July
12, 2003
Semitic Semantics
Semitic
is a Language Group, Not a Race or Ethnic Group
By SAM HAMOD
One of the myths that has been perpetrated on
the world is that only Jews are semites. This is totally inaccurate.
Unfortunately, the ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) has made
a fortune in donations and has conned most media networks and
most people in the world into believing this untruth.
If one looks into the history of the
word, "semite", it has to do with a language group
and no more. The semitic languages are, at least according to
most linguistic experts, Amharic (spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea,
the lands once known as Abyssinia), Arabic (spoken in all the
Arab countries and in many Muslim countries because it is the
language of the Qur'an), Hebrew (spoken in Israel and by some
Jews and others outside of Israel), Aramaic (spoken primarily
by the Chaldeans of Iraq and by some Catholic and Maronite Christians
in the world, at least in their church services if not in their
homes or business) and Syriac (spoken by a few in various parts
of Syria and in the Middle East). Incidentally, according to
most linguists, Abraham, the father of the Jews and Arabs, spoke
Aramaic, that was the language of the land at the time, not Hebrew.
To get back to facts about semites, Jews,
language and genetics, let me go futher. The actual genetic Jews
were born in the Middle East and are known as Sephardic Jews.
These Jews did speak a semitic language, Hebrew , from their
earliest incarnation, but also, some at the time of Christ, also
spoke Aramaic, Arabic and Amharic because of their location in
Jerusalem and other Middle Eastern cities such as what isnow
Addis Abbabba, Cairo, Baghdad and Damascus. One rarely hears
a Sephardic Jew yelling, "anti-semite" because the
know better and because he is aware of his own history within
semitic language speaking lands.
Let me be clear about another important
matter; I am not touting for people who are anti-Jewish or anti-Arab,
or anti-any ethnic or racial group; those people who stereotype
or attack others based on their race or ethnicity are dead wrong
and should be condemned_so too should those who abuse labels
and use them wrongly to stop others from being justifiably critical
should also be condemned (and in this case, I am referring to
the ADL and other groups of that sort who label people with impunity
and carelessness, sometimes wrecking their careers, their reputations,
their businesses and their lives!)
Thus, when a person from the ADL calls
someone who is critical of Israel, Zionists or Zionism, an "anti-semite",
this is pure nonsense. The person speaking is simply critical
of Israel or Zionism. Also, if a person speaks against an Arab,
and as I pointed out, Arabs speak a semitic language, he may
be anti-Arab, but he is not "anti-semitic.". In both
cases, the person may be anti-zionist or may be a racist and
be anti-Jewish or anti-Arab, but the person is SIMPLY NOT ANTI-SEMITIC.
This abuse of the term and our language
reached new heights recently when some of the Zionists in the
American media began saying that Robert Novak, himself a Jew,
was "anti-semitic." First of all, most of those Ashkenazim
Jews who were born and raised in America, such as Paul Wolfowitz,
Richard Perle and Feith, are not even Jews genetically because
they are descended from Slavic tribes known as the Khazars who
converted to Judaism and whose native language was Slavic and
whose first language in America has been English, as was the
case of Robert Novak. I am not saying all Ashkenazim are not
Jews, but the way some of them behave is certainly not in the
way Moses brought Judaism from God through the Torah. One has
but to look at the haters and war-mongers in the Bush circle
of influence and this is evident; no God would want them to be
associated with his name. Thus, as a friend of mine, Rabbi Shmuel
Handelman put it, "They may call themsevles Jews, but I
doubt very much if I'd them that, and if I did, I'd say they
were the worst of what any person might be. I'd rather not be
associated with them."
However, Novak is intelligent and educated
enough to know the difference between a Jew, a Zionist and what
semitic actually is! An excellent and accurate source for this
history is Arthur Koestler (himself an Ashkenazi), THE THIRTEENTH
TRIBE. The ADL and others have attacked, and continue attacking
this book, but scholars know of its truth. The book is difficult
to find, but one may find it with tenacity. This is not a condemnation
of Ashkenazis and their intent to convert to Judaism, but it
does mean they have enough genetic DNA in them not to have the
same feelings about Judaism and life in the Middle East as do
the Sephardic genetic Jews.
Unfortunately, the misuse of the label,
"anti-semitic" and its consequences have been so bad
that even presidents, senators, congresspeople, media giants
and all others in the world cringe at being labeled, "anti-semitic"
by some Zionist, Israeli or ignorant religious, media or social
group. Little do they know they are being victimized by charlatans
of the language who have found a label that they throw around
with impunity and for which there has been little or no come-back.
Those who read this article and do further research may now correct
those who speak this nonsense_they can throw this nonsense back
in the faces of the ignorant or the charlatans.
It is time our media people and non-linguistically
literate "scholars", politicians, religious leaders
and others became educated about the truths about "semitic"
and its misuse (intentional or unintentional).. If not, we'll
keep allowing charlatans to abuse our language and to continue
their name-calling, abusing others, including Jews, Arabs, Americans,
Brits and others case, I am referring those individuals and groups
who label people with impunity and carelessness, sometimes wrecking
their careers, their reputations, their businesses and their
lives!) by calling them "anti-semites" if they speak
against Israel ( which is not a semitic state) or Zionists (a
political group, not exclusively Jewish and which has nothing
to do with semitic).
Until we clean up our language and stop
this incorrect name-calling at the whim of a few politically
ambitious and unscrupulous people, we shall remain victims of
a misuse of a legitimate language categorization that has been
abused for the benefit of a few.
Sam Hamod
is an expert in world affairs, especially the Arab and Muslim
worlds. He is also the former Director of The National Islamic
Center in Washington, DC and editor of Third World News. He publishes
often in CounterPunch and todaysalternativenews.com;he
may be reached at shamod@cox.net
Copyright, Sam Hamod, 2003.
Weekend
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Cockburn
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Frederick
Douglass
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Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
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The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
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Lenni Brenner
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Cassel
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Wayne
Madsen
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John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
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John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
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Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
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Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
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