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December 4, 2001
Rep. Ron Paul
Keep Your
Eye on the Target
Susan
Herman
Ashcroft
and the Patriot Act
Tariq Ali
The Afghan
King and the Nazis
November 30, 2001
Jordan
Green
Disappeared
in the Southland
Willliam Blum
Rebuilding
Afghanistan?
November 29, 2001
Phillip
Cryan
Defining
Terrorism
Robert Fisk
We Are the
War Criminals Now
November 28, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
A
Continuum of Terror
Patrick Cockburn
Tribal
Council:
Don't Blame It All on Taliban
Robert
Fisk
At
Last, The Truth about the Sabra and Chatila Massacres
Harry Browne
The Bill of
Rights:
They Threw It All Away
Sunil
Sharma
Suffer
Palestine's Children
November 27, 2001
Paul Coggins
Kafka and
the Patriot Act
Tariq
Ali
Tigris
and Euprhates
November 26, 2001
Robert Fisk
Blood and
Tears in Kandahar
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Boeing's
Sweet Deal
CounterPunch Wire
Human
Rights Abuses and
Nuke Waste Shipments
Alexander
Cockburn
Harry
Potter and Terrorism
November 25, 2001
Ralph Nader
The Crisis
in Leadership
Sam Bahour
Israel's
Choice
November 24, 2001
Patrick Cockburn
He Who
Has
the Guns Rules
November 20, 2001
Sam Bahour
Plain
Truths About Palestine
Michael Ratner
Moving Toward
a
Police State
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
November 19, 2001
Edward
Said
Suicidal
Ignorance
November 18, 2001
John Farley
Shame on You,
Chelsea!
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Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
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Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
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Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
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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
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December
5, 2001
It's About the Occupation
By Sam Bahour and Michael
Dahan
RAMALLAH, Palestine
In the wake of the horrific suicide bombings
in Israel over the last 48 hours hawkish Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon made his address to the nation as he simultaneously
increased, by yet another step, Israel's part of the violence
in the ensuing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Sadly,
no end is in sight and it is likely to get worse, much worse.
If this statement sounds like a broken record, it's because
it is.
The suicide attacks, brought on by the
deplorable Israeli
policy of yet another state sanctioned extra-judicial assassination
of a Hamas member last week, have brought Israelis and the Palestinians
to the brink of total war. Unfortunately, neither Israel nor
the US Administration has come to their senses to realize that,
after 34 years of military Israeli occupation, the burning question
is not why was there was another suicide bomb attack, but rather,
why there are not more?
Some things in life are either right
or wrong. Slavery and Apartheid were wrong. Not wrong until
African Americans proved their worthiness of freedom. Not wrong
until South Africans reached the brink of annihilation.
No. These historical flaws were not partially
wrong; not debatably wrong, they were outright outcasts to humanity,
each worthy of abrupt termination. The Israeli occupation of
the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem joins these ranks,
albeit this historic wrong comes during an era of media clips,
political spin, and satellite TV. Nevertheless, the time has
come for the world community to bring Israeli occupation tumbling
down, and with its fall will be the start of the end of the
breeding grounds that suicide bombers feed upon.
More and more voices are being heard
within the Israeli leadership to either kill Arafat or to remove
him from the area, and to 'topple' the Palestinian Authority.
Most Israelis are now firmly convinced that there is absolutely
"no partner" for peace, nor is peace possible. Naively,
the Israeli public is taking security refuge in the graphic
missile attacks on Palestinian cities while forgetting that
for each missile fired into Palestinian neighborhoods more
and more potential suicide bombers make the decision to take
innocent lives while taking their own. Destroying Arafat's
helicopters will not bring hope to the growing number of Palestinians
who have equated life under occupation to death.
The Israeli side must realize that the
solution for the occupation is not, nor can it ever be, more
occupation, more bombings, and more state assassinations. It
is the occupation itself and the closures and the resultant
levels of poverty, unemployment and utter despair that provide
a fertile ground for the recruitment, deployment and support
of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. It is the senseless
death of children and adults that are feeding the flames of
hatred on both sides.
As the legitimate elected representative
of the Palestinian people, Arafat must make sure that his voice
and intentions are clear, and that there is a national, not
only personal, strategy for working toward a negotiated agreement.
It is up to Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to convince
the Palestinian and Israeli public that there is indeed hope
for an agreement, that there is indeed a future neighbor on
the Palestinian side. Much of the action needed to make this
conviction a reality are the same issues that are being called
for by Palestinians themselves, the establishment of rule of
law, accountability of decision making and collective leadership
--in other words, concrete progress toward the competency to
establish a viable state. Occupation being 100% wrong does not
give credence to chaotic, non- transparent development and solo
leadership.
The only way to break the brutal circle
of violence is to end the occupation immediately, unilaterally
if need be, institute a peacekeeping force in the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip, and to begin to dismantle the settlements.
The only solution that we can see is the establishment of an
independent Palestinian state along the lines of the 1967 borders,
with a capital in East Jerusalem, and to work toward a just,
fair and creative solution for the right of return for the Palestinian
refugees. The occupation, as such, is evil. Further occupation
as being proposed now by senior decision-makers on the Israeli
side would only increase that evil, raise the stakes on both
sides, and the past 48 hours will repeat endlessly.
Sam Bahour
is a Palestinian-American living in the besieged Palestinian
City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com. Michael
Dahan is an Israeli-American political scientist living
in Jerusalem and can be reached at mdahan@attglobal.net
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