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April 9, 2002
Wayne Madsen
Anthrax and the Agency:
Thinking the Unthinkable
April 8, 2002
David
Vest
From
Birmingham to Nashville:
The Making of Tammy Wynette
Rick Giombetti
Paxil, Suicide and Science
Dr. Neve
Gordon
Letter
to an IDF Colonel:
How Did You Become
a War Criminal?
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
This Week's Top 10 CDs
Jordy
Cummings
Not
in My Name Anymore
Gavin Keeney
Bush and the Middle East:
Mouth Wide Shut
Edward
Said
The
Future of Palestine
April 7, 2002
Beth Daoud
Accompanying Ambulances
in Bethlehem
Nancy
Stohlman
After
the Invasion:
The Search for Bread
Among the Ruins
Thomas Mountain
"Yellow Peril" In Hawai'i:
Judge Orders Chains and Shackles for Chinese Witnesses
Tariq
Ali
Who
Killed Daniel Pearl?
April 6, 2002
Philip Farruggio
War, Snake Oil and Circuses
Viktor
Litovkin
Russian
Generals Raise Questions About Pentagon Victories in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
CIA Survey of Iraqi Airfields
May Herald Attack
Walt Brasch
Oil
Slick George:
Bush-whacking the Environment
Ralph Nader
Campaign Finance Sham
Sam Bahour
The
Blind Leading the Criminal
Bill Christison:
A Former CIA Official on
Oil and the Middle East
April 5, 2002
Charmaine
Seitz
In
Ramallah: The Grueling Reoccupation Grinds On
Nancy Stohlman
The Invasion of Bethlehem
and Our Tax Dollars at Work
Beth Daoud
The
Siege of Bethlehem:
"What Do You Mean God Is Punishing Me?"
Fareed Marjaee:
Demonizing Iran
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Philip
Morris to Canada:
"Drop Dead"
Alex Lynch
Tampa Campus Mirrors
Middle East Strife
Alexander
Cockburn
Sharon's
Wars: How the
News Gets Through
April 4, 2002
Ray Hanania
Sharon's Latest Lie About the Church
of the Nativity
Mike Leon
Rightwing
Assault on Madison Progressives Misfires
Tom Turnipseed
Stop the Killing Now!
Nancy
Stohlman
An
American Under Siege in a West Bank Refugee Camp
Christopher Reilly
Kissinger, Chile and Justice
at Long Last?
M. Shahid
Alam
The
Lies of Thomas Friedman
April 3, 2002
Don Henley
Dear Loathsome Trade Hacks
Bernard
Weiner
An
American Jew Talks
About His Shame
David Vest
Sting of Stings
Gabriel Ash
America's Bravest
John Chuckman
Of
War, Islam and Israel
Robert Fisk
The Siege of Bethlehem
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Sins of the Church
April 2, 2002
Uri Avnery
Murdering Arafat?
Jeff Chang
Is
Protest Music Dead?
Lev Grinberg
Israel's State Terrorism
Norman
Madarasz
Bullying
Brazil
Robert Fisk
Farce and Terror
in Ramallah
Steve
Perry
Let's
Roll! ®:
The Marketing of Lisa Beamer
April 1, 2002
Stanton / Madsen
America's War Inc.
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
Peace
and Nuclear Disarmament: a Call to Action
Bahour / Dahan
Bloodshed in Palestine:
A Way Out
Molly
Secours
Tennessee's
Kangaroo Court
Phyllis Pollack
The Making of Exile
on Main Street
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
This Week's
Top 10 CDs
Francis Boyle
The Big Lie:
Palestine, Palestinians
and International Law
March 31, 2002
Jordan
Flaherty
Last
Night the Israeli
Military Tried to Kill Me
Kristen Schurr
Live from Bethlehem
Maha Sbitani
The
Israeli Army Took Over My House
Robert Fisk
Lies Leaders Tell When
They Want to Go to War
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
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Cockburn
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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 New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
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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Reviews of Gore:
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April 9, 2002
Buyer Beware
By Ron Jacobs
Recent news items concerning the possibility of
outside intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should
be considered very warily. Most importantly, any plan that would
send US troops to the region should be opposed. There is only
one fundamental reason for the US to do such a thing-so it can
have even tighter control in the region. There is no indication
from Colin Powell, the White House or the Pentagon that Mr. Powell's
upcoming mission will be to insure that Israel ends its occupation
of the territories it has illegally occupied since the 1967 war.
Nor is there any indication that IDF soldiers and commanders
responsible for war crimes in the current invasion will be brought
to justice a la the various members of the Serbian forces accused
of similar crimes in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Indeed,
according to the right-wing sounding board The Washington Times,
the first actions of any US "peacekeeping" troops that
are sent to the region would be to neutralize leadership of Palestine
dissenting factions [and] prevent inter-Palestinian violence."
(4/5/02) What this means in plain English is that the US troops
would either take over Israel's current operation to "uproot
terror" or, at the least, assist the Israeli army in the
operations continuation.
The scenario that seems to be envisioned
by the strategists in Washington is similar to that used by any
imperial military-when the natives get restless the empire sends
in its troops to calm the troubles. Britain did this in India
and Africa, the United States did this in its own west when it
was chasing indigenous peoples off their lands and killing those
who refused to leave and the United States continues to do this
in countries to its south. The motivation for these actions has
very little to do with goodwill and very much to do with maintaining
access and control over resources and territories considered
important to the empire's functioning.
If US troops were to end up in between
Israel and the Occupied Territories under the auspices of an
Israeli-approved peacekeeping agreement(and that's the only way
the US would send troops), the likelihood of a truly independent
Palestinian state would be even further away than it is now.
Instead, the Palestinians would end up with the worst aspects
of the agreements framed in Oslo. In other words, they would
be forced to live in Israeli-controlled regions administered
by a combination of Palestinian bureaucrats and Israeli edicts.
Their freedom of movement would be subject to the whims of the
Israeli authorities and the power of the elected Palestinian
officials would be limited to everyday matters. If one wants
a scenario to compare such a setup to, s/he can take a look at
how South Africa administered its bantustans under apartheid
or, even closer to home, one can study the governance structure
of most of the Indian reservations in the United States. In short,
this option offers an illusion of freedom, not an independent
nation. Of course, even this limited independence might be preferable
to the blatant occupation and accompanying repression that currently
exists in the Occupied Territories.
Another aspect to consider is this. If
US troops are put in place in Israel and/or the Territories,
the possibility of another staging area for any attack on Iraq
would exist. This also means that the possibility of Iraqi attacks
on Israel would increase should the US go ahead with its desire
to kill Saddam and replace his regime with one more amenable
to US designs.
In short, there can be few positive benefits
for most Palestinians should the US send troops to patrol the
borders the Territories share with Israel. One certainly understands
the symbolic hope that Mr. Powell's trip means to a people who
currently have very little hope at all. Without anything substantive,
sometimes hope is all that keeps one going. Mr. Powell's trip
is just such an event, despite the fact that he has no plans
to meet with the elected president of the Palestinian people,
Mr. Arafat, choosing instead to meet with what the US is terming
"alternative Palestinian leadership."
Furthermore, if the intention of the
US is to send troops, there is little likelihood that those troops
will either bring or maintain peace, nor is there much hope that
their mission would include any serious attempt to restrain the
Israeli army should the Israeli government decide to re-occupy
any regions it might withdraw from. If the United States truly
wanted to restrain Israel and create a semblance of hope for
a just peace in the region, it would suspend all the aid it currently
provides to Israel until that country ended its occupation of
the Territories, closed down the settlements, and began serious
negotiations with a coalition of Palestinian forces that would
lead to an independent sovereign state of Palestine. Of course,
this is not the intention of Israel or the United States. Such
a peace will only come when enough of the world's people demand
it.
Ron Jacobs
can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
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