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Why Hillary Clinton Has Always Been a Republican In the first of a series of profiles, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair chart the formative years of Hillary Clinton. Watch her as she zigzags from Nixon campaigner and vote-fraud investigator in 1960 to Goldwater Girl and President of Young Republicans at Wellesley to her internship for Gerald Ford and campaigner for Nelson Rockefeller. Witness her reaction to the student protests at Yale and the demonstrations at Grant Park during the Democratic Convention in 1968. Learn how she and Bill vowed to "remake" the Democratic Party--using the Nixon model HRC learned about as a member of the House impeachment staff. And much more! Plus: David Price on anthropologist Andre Gunder Frank.
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Today's Stories July 2, 2007 Andy
Worthington Paul
Craig Roberts Bill
Williams Louay
Safi June 30 / July 1, 2007 John
Ross Alan
Farago Peter
Quinn Christopher
Brauchli Robert
Fisk Uri
Avnery Judith
Siers-Poisson Saul
Landau Abbas
Zaidi Ron
Jacobs Ralph
Nader Donald
Worster Mike
Whitney Jacob
Hill Kenneth
Couesbouc Missy
Beattie Mohammad
Kamaali Ramzy
Baroud Leonard
Peltier Phyllis
Pollack Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
June 29, 2007 St.
Clair / Frank Brian
Cloughley Patrick
Cockburn Gilad
Atzmon Dave
Lindorff Jennifer
Matsui / Kevin
Zeese Daniel
Klimek David
Michael Green John
Chuckman Website
of the Day
June 28, 2007 Bill
Quigley Vijay
Prashad Margaret
Kimberley Winslow
T. Wheeler Philip
Rizk D.
K. Wilson Bill
Williams Mahmoud
El-Yousseph Richard
Rhames Paul
Krassner Website
of the Day
Marjorie
Cohn Dr.
Susan Rosenthal, MD Alan
Farago Carla
Blank Matthew
Abraham Sunsara
Taylor Russell
D. Hoffman Robert
Weissman Sen.
Russ Feingold Paul
Buchheit Website
of the Day
June 26, 2007 Jonathan
Cook Ralph
Nader Corporate
Crime Reporter Ron
Jacobs Martha
Rosenberg John
Chuckman Denny
Haldeman Anthony
DiMaggio Stephen
Fleischman William
S. Lind Website
of the Day
Paul
Craig Roberts Jennifer
Loewenstein Bob
Anderson Robert
Pollin Patrick
Cockburn Eva
Liddell Dan
Bacher Larry
Atkins Mark
Brenner James
Rothenberg Website
of the Day June 23 / 24, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Jeff
Taylor Oren
Ben-Dor Gary
Leupp Robert
Fisk David
Rosen Russell
Mokhiber Alison
Weir Robert
Fantina D.
K. Wilson Nicole
Colson Stephen
Soldz, Steven Reisner and Brad Olson Dave
Lindorff Benjamin
Dangl Michael
Dickinson Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
June 22, 2007 Andy
Worthington Sherwood
Ross Eliana
Monteforte Robert
Weissman Richard
Rhames Christopher
Brauchli Ramzy
Baroud Ehud
Krinis, David Shulman and Neve Gordon David
Michael Green Kathryn
Webber Website
of the Day
June 21, 2007 Peter
Linebaugh Natsu
Saito Ron
Jacobs Saree
Makdisi John
Stauber Scott
Liebertz Tom
Clifford Robert
Jensen Michael
J. Smith Jeb
Sprague Website
of the Day
Omar
Barghouti Andy
Worthington Margaret
Kimberley Robert
Weissman Russell
D. Hoffman Rannie
Amiri Stephen
Lendman Dave
Lindorff David
Swanson Anne
Dachel Website
of the Day
June 19, 2007 Ralph
Nader Dr.
Shepherd Bliss Bill
and Kathleen Christison Jeff
Leys Dave
Zirin Chris
Floyd Ben
Terrall Anthony
Papa VIPS Linda Flores Website
of the Day
John
Ross Paul
Craig Roberts Martha
Rosenberg Norman
Solomon Don
Santina Isabella
Kenfield James
Brooks Eva
Liddell Sam
Husseini Akiva
Eldar Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn John
Halle Robert
Fisk Andy
Worthington Uri
Avnery Fred
Gardner Saul
Landau P.
Sainath Missy
Comley Beattie Alan
Gregory Walter
Brasch Website
of the Weekend
June 15, 2007 Alan
Farago Andy
Worthington Michael
Simmons Franklin
Lamb Gary
Leupp John
Ross Website
of the Day
June 14, 2007 Michael
Donnelly
Faisal
Kutty Harry
Browne Charles
Jonkel Steven
Higgs Bruce
Dixon Bruce
K. Gagnon
Website
of the Day June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Marjorie Cohn Bill Christison Charles Jonkel Silvia Cattori Richard Gott Firmin DeBrabander William S. Lind Keith Rosenthal Website of the Day June 12, 2007 Jeffrey St.
Clair Paul Craig
Roberts P. Sainath Ralph Nader Omar Waraich Dave Lindorff Harvey Wasserman Malini Johar
Schueller Ramzy Baroud Website of
the Day
June 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Norman Solomon Eva Liddell Rannie Amiri Rachel Voss Christopher
Brauchli D. K. Wilson Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn George Ciccariello-Maher Saul Landau Robert Fisk Brian Cloughley Ron Jacobs Ward Boston Conn Hallinan Leonard Peltier Lawrence Davidson John Ross Kate Allan Fred Gardner Stephen Fleischman Monica Benderman Geoff Bailey Missy Beattie Patrick Dyer Tim Lengerich James Irani
Gary Leupp Michael Tillery Michael Simmons Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
June 8, 2007 Serge Halimi Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair
Paul Craig Roberts William Blum Joshua Frank Lance Selfa Dave Lindorff Lawrence Ferlinghetti Website of the Day
Marjorie Cohn Soldz, Reisner
and Olson: Soldz, Reisner
Paul Craig Roberts Bill Quigley Silvia Cattori Carl G. Estabrook Ellen Taylor Corporate Crime
Reporter Brenda Norrell D. K. Wilson Kevin Zeese Website of
the Day
Alain Gresh Gary Leupp Steven Sherman Bruce Dixon Corporate Crime Reporter Brian M. Downing Ron Jacobs George Bisharat Nicole Colson Bruce K. Gagnon Website of the Day
June 5, 2007 Michael Neumann Jonathan Cook David Vest Robert Fantina Hoffman, Parsneau and Chowdhury John V. Walsh Richard Cretan Adam Engel William S. Lind Myles Hoenig Jim Minick Website of
the Day
Nizar Latif Diana Johnstone Gregory Wilpert Paul Watson Susan Rosenthal,
MD Richard Ward Eva Liddell Zahi Khouri Evelyn Pringle China Hand Karyn Strickler Website of the Day
June 2 / 3, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Marc Levy Martin Smith Diana Johnstone John Ross Uri Avnery Sunsara Taylor Richard Neville P. Sainath Missy Comley
Beattie Nisrine Abiad Rannie Amiri Margot Pepper Eric Stewart Ralph Nader Dan Bacher Shaun Harkin Richard Rhames Frederick Hudson Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Dave Marsh Saul Landau David Phinney Robert Jensen Stanley Heller Yifat Susskind Robert Weissman Paul Buchheit William S.
Lind Sherwood Ross Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
Robert Bryce Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Kathy Kelly Marjorie Cohn Chris Kutalik
Corporate Crime Reporter Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
May 30, 2007 James Ridgeway Franklin Lamb Terrence E. Paupp Uri Avnery Alan Maass Rock and Rap
Confidential Ralph Nader Nirmal Ghosh Jean Daniels Tom Barry Website of the Day
Stephen Soldz Eliza Ernshire Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Evelyn Pringle Mike Whitney David Swanson John Holt Cynthia McKinney Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day
Bill Quigley Col. Dan Smith Cindy Sheehan Dr. Susan Block Jeeni Criscenzo Douglas Valentine Website of the Day 
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July 2, 2007 Squirming Under Israel's Security MatrixWho Will Save Palestine?By SONJA KARKAR These days the Hamas acting government and Fatah "emergency government"are sapping the interest from any news story that might report on Israel's criminal deeds inside Gaza and the West Bank. Both these Palestinian enclaves are still under Israel's military occupation--one shunned and isolated by political intrigue and the other apparently working at cooperating with the occupier, and there's the tragedy of it all. Nothing that has happened in the last fortnight has stopped Israel in its tracks. Life for the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is just as bitter and just as terrifying as it ever was only with a new dimension --no one knows whom to believe or if there is a viable Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) left to champion their struggle against Israel's unrelenting land theft, apartheid practices and violent human rights abuses. Israel swaggers on the world stage as if it has had no hand in the whole miserable Palestinian drama. This arch enemy--never given to negotiating a genuine peace--is now being sought out as a negotiating partner when it has never accepted any Palestinian leader on an equal footing, much less given an inch. Its highly vaunted disengagement from Gaza did not give the Palestinians their freedom: instead, they found themselves in a vice-like grip from outside. In the West Bank, Israel has continued its settlement expansion uninterrupted, and for all the talks, Palestinians have only ever seen their land and property rights taken away and their freedom further curtailed. For the Palestinians to forget that in the current climate, would truly spell the end of the final status issues for which so many have given their lives and so many others have waited decades to see justly resolved. If such a travesty of justice were to occur, peace would be forever elusive. It would be nice to think that Israel is simply weary of occupying 4 million people after 40 years, but Israel's economy is booming and there is a chilling reason for the rapid growth in what Israel calls the homeland security sector. Writing in the Guardian (16/6), Naomi Klein says that "Israel has learned to turn endless war into a brand asset, pitching its uprooting, occupation and containment of the Palestinian people as a half-century head start in the 'global war on terror'." How that will marry with the new political developments that should see Israel ease the punishing restrictions in the West Bank and opening the way for a Palestinian state, is anyone's guess. Chaos in the occupied territories has been extremely lucrative for Israel, enabling it to experiment with ever-more rigorous methods of population control using hi-tech surveillance systems. And a majority in Israel are not in the least perturbed by the mess of humanity squirming under Israel's formidable "security" matrix, as long as the demographic threat is controlled, even eliminated. If we take just the past week when Israel's Prime Minister Olmert and the Palestinian President Abbas met with other leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss the way forward for Palestinians, what emerged was the usual proviso--any concessions made by Israel would depend on Abbas' progress in bringing an end to violence. This completely ignores the ongoing violence of Israel's occupation and, in effect, requires the Palestinians to submit to that occupation before they will get any concessions from Israel. A cursory glance at the realities on the ground in the occupied territories would show just why Abbas would find that as difficult to achieve as his predecessor Arafat. Even as these leaders spoke and smiled for the world's cameras, Israeli army tanks lumbered into the Gaza strip backed by Apache helicopters and F16 fighter planes while around 80 Israeli army jeeps rolled into Nablus city in the northern West Bank. In Gaza, 14 Palestinians were killed and many more were injured; in Nablus some 30 Palestinians were arrested after Israeli soldiers began randomly shooting and blowing open the front doors of homes as they went from house to house in search of militants. This is Israeli violence which apparently does not need to be reined in --a violence the Palestinians are living with daily. People are constantly being arrested in large numbers: Israeli jails are overflowing with more than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, amongst them women and children. People can be held for up to 18 days without charge and with no way of telling their families; they have no recourse to a fair trial and most are tortured. It makes a mockery of the 250 prisoners from the Fatah party whom Olmert has offered as a goodwill gesture to Abbas' "emergency government". Abbas may well find himself in the same position as Arafat when he was given the role of policing his own people after Oslo. Then, Arafat's police force was constantly subjected to arrests and attacks from the Israeli military in what soon became clear was a deliberate attempt by Israel to dismantle Arafat's administration. Emasculated, Arafat was unable to stop Palestinian armed resistance to the occupation and Israel took matters into its own hands and punished the Palestinians. Last week, Israel did not even bother to wait for Abbas to stabilise the situation in the West Bank. Its military decided to enforce "order" arbitrarily by raiding homes and arresting those it suspected of armed resistance. As long as the Palestinians remain under Israel's belligerent occupation, Abbas or anyone else, will find it very difficult to build good governance as every attempt is sure to be undermined by Israel. If Abbas needs a more recent reminder of just how impossible it is to normalise the governance of his people under Israel's conditions, he need look no further than the ceasefire he and former Israeli Prime Minister Sharon announced in 2005 to kick start US President Bush's "Road Map" negotiations and the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state. Abbas was required to end violence and suppress all armed resistance to Israel; Sharon agreed to end "operations". Well, Israel's belligerence did not stop then and it continued to take Palestinian land. That week, the Israeli government announced the construction of 400 housing units in a new illegal Jewish settlement near Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem just after the Israeli High Court had decided to allow building to continue on the Apartheid Wall, contrary to the opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Weeks later, Israel announced another 3,500 housing units in the largest illegal settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, effectively cutting Jerusalem off from the West Bank. And to put that in perspective, every one of those housing units and every addition to the Wall, has taken land away from the Palestinians and has made more Palestinians homeless. They have had to watch their homes being demolished, crops and trees uprooted, land razed and not a single penny paid in compensation. Interestingly, Hamas did agree to a ceasefire or hudna which they held for 18 months, and other militant groups also complied, but it made no difference. Israel refused to enter into this ceasefire with Hamas and continued to assassinate its leaders even though Hamas held resolutely to the ceasefire. It was Hamas that held out the olive branch and Israel that rejected it. None of this should give any Palestinian party confidence in Israel's current promises or offerings. Over and over again, Israel has demonstrated a complete disdain for negotiating peace with the Palestinians. The danger in cooperating with Israel when it is continuing to violate international law and ignore the ICJ advisory opinion is that it actually "normalises" Israel's colonial efforts and may also prejudice any final status negotiations. Israel has been repeatedly told by the UN and the US to freeze all settlement activity, but it has not done so and has not been pressed to do so. Neither is Israel admonished nor held to account. The attempts to treat the Wall as a humanitarian rather than a political issue by the UN, also takes the pressure off Israel. There has been little talk of bringing the Wall down as advised by the ICJ, but plenty of talk about its path; without anyone realising it, the Wall becomes "normalised". Every official discourse has edged away from insisting that the Wall violates international law: it has become expedient to ignore the rule of law, especially amongst those who should be upholding it. Without checks and balances in place and adhered to by everyone, Israel will always do what it wants and it is very evident from Israel's unresponsive past that waiting for Israel's cooperation alone will not be enough gain its compliance. The situation is so dire now that Palestinians and their supporters are finding other ways of forcing Israel's compliance. Already, there is a growing move towards boycotts and sanctions which is being taken up globally, despite nasty campaigns to intimidate those prepared to take such non-violent action. This form of resistance is very powerful because it is really the only effective way of bringing Israel's economic boom to a halt, particularly in the area of homeland security which impacts so drastically on the Palestinians under occupation. That is not in anyway to minimise the courageous non-violent resistance against the Apartheid Wall and other Israeli violations in communities affected all over the West Bank. The Palestinians' on-the-ground experience of the Wall's insidious effects on their personal lives and society has mobilised them as neither the Palestinian Authority nor the PLO has been able to do. They are refusing to accept any "normalisation" of the Wall's presence, not just its path. The ICJ opinion is very clear on that --the wall must be dismantled. Their non-violent, but determined protests challenge its legitimacy with barely a mention in the Western media, if at all. In response, Israel uses tear gas, rubber bullets, beatings and arrests. This is what ought to be making the headlines, not whether Abbas or Hamas are fit partners for "peace". The divisions that have caused so much bitterness internally threaten the national liberation framework. It is not helpful for Abbas to demand that the Hamas movement be isolated, especially since Hamas is calling for the resumption of the unity government. And, it does not look good that Israel's interference in Palestinian affairs is helping Abbas. Israeli Shin Bet interrogators have offered to release imprisoned Palestinian members of parliament and government officials, mostly from the Hamas party, only if they resign from their posts. They have refused. According to Palestinian Basic Law, it is the Legislative Council which must approve any new Cabinet or Prime Minister (Article 78) and with most of the members of parliament in Israeli prisons, no quorum can be formed to "legitimise" Abbas' "emergency government". It would be far better for Abbas to urge both the Fatah and Hamas parties to come together in a show of solidarity and give the people some sense of resisting Israel's arrogant demands. Risking the disintegration of the Palestinian national agenda for a few crumbs will never satisfy the Palestinians: certainly, there is no reason to believe that cooperating with Israel will bring the final status issues any closer to the negotiating table. Olmert has already withdrawn his "peace" offer to Abbas that would have removed some roadblocks in the West Bank. Any party that assumes the mantle of government must encourage unity and must recognise the human potential in every Palestinian regardless of religious or political affiliation. For it is in the people that Palestine has its strongest saviour. Familial and community loyalty, their millennia-long history, their deep attachment to the land and their capacity to endure have made the Palestinians unbelievably resilient. Real leadership must build on that loyalty, not divide it. It means working with the people on a campaign of organised non-violent civil disobedience against Israel's inhuman abuses rather than the hopeless rounds of negotiations that have never delivered a single promise to the Palestinian people and have only further entrenched their occupation and tightened Israel's control. Non-violent civil disobedience inside Palestine will allow Palestinians in the Diaspora and their supporters to increase their own protests even more effectively and inspire others to become involved. We have already seen how horrified people were when they saw the brutality of Israel's actions in its war on Lebanon. Crying "war on terror", "victim", "Israel's security" and "Israel's right to exist" too many times is already beginning to rebound and people are asking what is the other side of the story. In many places now and through different media, people are beginning to listen to the Palestinian narrative, especially as people are becoming more and more sceptical about the honesty and motives of today's leaders. One does not have to look far for inspiration to save Palestine. There are Palestinians in Beit Hanina, Beit Surik, Biddu, Dahya, Ram, Saffa, Beil'in, Hebron, Budrus--and the list goes on--who protest non-violently and creatively in organised groups against the Wall, against Israel's land theft and destruction, against the uprooting of trees, and against home demolitions. These grassroots movements should be emulated at every level of society until those who run the government have no choice but to listen and change. The smallest committed group can have a profound effect in influencing others and it is happening around the world. Churches have begun to divest from Israel; trade unions and universities have begun boycotts; doctors, members of parliament, writers and actors have signed petitions; retired ambassadors, statesmen and even a former US president are speaking out; and there are also Israelis who refuse to accept their government's policies and practices and are saying "not in our name". There is more than the quivering of a movement. The awakening does not always happen immediately, but eventually the "butterfly effect" that notion that the flapping of a butterfly's wings will have a far-reaching ripple effect on events that seem impossibly removed in time and space --takes hold. It already has. We can feel it here in distant Australia. One can only hope that this will give succour to the Palestinians struggling for liberation. If the leaders cannot do it, then the people themselves and everyone who believes in justice and peace the world over may yet indeed find a way to save Palestine. Sonja Karkar is the founder and president of Women
for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia. See www.womenforpalestine.com
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CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy  Click Here to Buy! How the Press Failed The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained!  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order!  Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair           The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn   Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont               CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed        Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh                   |
