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June 27, 2002
Ralph Nader
Reclaiming
Our Commons
Neve Gordon
Jerusalem
Under Attack
Robert Jensen
Alternative
Futures
David Vest
Darryl Kile's
Great Day
Gary Leupp
The Loya
Jirga Joke
Rahual Mahajan
Arafat
Says US Needs New Leadership; Calls for Fair Elections
June 26, 2002
Robert Fisk
Sharon as
Bush Speechwriter
Mokhiber / Weissman
Brokerman
June 25, 2002
Dave Marsh
The RIAA,
Library of Congress and the Web Pirates
Uri Avnery
Reform
Now!
Bahour / Dahan
Bush:
Off with Arafat's Head
Walt Brasch
Bush:
the Compassionate Exerciser
June 24, 2002
Bernard Weiner
Talkin'
About the F-Word
David Bates
Portland
Gets Dicked:
Cheney Does Oregon
Jo Freeman
Will
the War on Terror Follow the Path of the Cold War?
Tom Gorman
The Only
Thing "Generous" is the Propaganda
Bezhad Yaghmaian
Caught
Between Borders
in a Borderless World
Ben Sonnenberg
Ted
Hughes' Spell
June 22/23, 2002
Douglas Valentine
Sex,
Drugs & the CIA
June 21, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Brazil
Over England:
The Gaucho's Wild Ride
John Borowski
Stossel
and Disney's Crimes Against Nature
Chris Floyd
Southern
Cross: The US Takes Aim at Brazil
David Martin
Of Lies
and Oil: an interview with Rahul Mahajan
James T. Phillips
Serbian
Reservations:
Kosovo 2002
June 20, 2002
Chris Kromm
The South
at War: a Tour of the US Military/Industrial Complex
Jacob Levich
The War
on Terror is
Not a Suicide Pact
Mark Weisbrot
What
are They Doing to Argentina?
Jeffrey St. Clair
and Alexander Cockburn
Fire
Walk With Me:
Terry Lynn Barton and the Flames of Colorado
June 19, 2002
Gary Leupp
Red Targets in Terror War
Lenni Brenner
The Road
Forward for the
Palestinian Movement
Bernard Weiner
Inside
Cheney's Diary:
Cakewalking Through Minefields
Alexander Cockburn
The
Incredible Shrinking President
Resources:
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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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Reviews of Gore:
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Weekend
Edition
June 28/30, 2002
Bush's Speech: a Setback for
Peace
by Stephen Zunes
On the one hand, it is reassuring that, after
thirty years of rejecting the international consensus that peace
requires the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside a
secure Israel, an American president now formally recognizes
that need. The bad news is that President Bush is simply perpetuating
the unfair assumption that while Israel's right to exist is a
given, Palestine's right to exist--even as a mini-state on the
West Bank and Gaza Strip--is conditional.
This comes despite the fact that Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has at least as much blood on his
hands as does Palestinian President Yasir Arafat. Indeed, far
more Palestinian civilians have died at the hands of Israeli
occupation forces than have Israeli civilians died from terrorist
attacks.
Furthermore, despite Arafat's many faults,
the Palestinian leader's positions on the outstanding issues
of the peace process--the extent of the Israeli withdrawal, the
fate of the settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the right
of return for refugees--are far more moderate and far more consistent
with international law and UN Security Council resolutions than
are the positions of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Despite
that, President Bush insists that it is the Palestinians, not
the Israelis, who must have new leadership in order for the peace
process to move forward.
The current administration's distorted
priorities could not have been more apparent than in the fact
that, in the course of his speech, the president mentioned terrorism
eighteen times but did not mention human rights or international
law even once. Nor did he mention the peace plan of Saudi Prince
Abdullah--endorsed by the Palestinian Authority and every single
Arab government--which offered Israel security guarantees and
full normal relations in return for withdrawal from the occupied
territories seized in the 1967 war. This is largely a reiteration
of UN Security Council resolution 242 and 338, long considered
to be the basis for Middle East peace. While President Bush mentioned
these resolutions briefly in his speech, he failed to challenge
Israel's false claim that it does not actually require them to
withdraw from virtually all of the Arab lands they conquered
34 years ago.
The Palestinians are only insisting on
control of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, which is just
22% of Palestine. They have already recognized Israeli control
of the remaining 78%. However, not only did President Bush fail
to demand a total withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces, he
called only for a freeze on additional Israeli settlements, when
international law--reiterated in UN Security Council resolutions
446 and 465--requires Israel to abandon the existing settlements
as well.
The fact is that, as the occupying power,
the onus for resolving the conflict rests upon Israel, not the
Palestinians. Just as occupation and repression can never justify
terrorism, neither can terrorism justify occupation and repression.
The Palestinians have such a strong case,
in fact, the Bush Administration has chosen to focus instead
upon their weakest link: their corrupt and inept leadership and
the terrorist reaction to the occupation.
Even Israeli foreign minister Shimon
Peres was quoted saying "Making the creation of a Palestinian
state dependant upon a change in the Palestinian leadership is
a fatal mistake. Arafat has led the Palestinians for 35 years,
kept their head above the water in the international arena. No,
no, you can't just brush him aside with one speech."
While many if not most Palestinians would
love to see Arafat go, President Bush's insistence that the United
States has the right to say who the Palestinians choose as their
leaders will likely breed enormous resentment. Indeed, Arafat--in
his desperate attempt to hold on to power--can now use this American
pressure as an excuse to label any reformist effort, even those
led by sincere nationalists, as a form of collaboration with
Israel and a tool of Western imperialism.
It is remarkable how President Bush insists
on democratic governance and an end to violence and corruption
as a prerequisite for Palestinian independence when his administration,
as well as administrations before him, has strongly supported
a series of violent, corrupt and autocratic regimes throughout
the Middle East and beyond. How can anyone take seriously his
demand that the Palestinians create a political system based
upon "tolerance and liberty" when President Bush arms
and supports misogynist family dictatorships like Saudi Arabia,
not to mention Israeli occupation forces that have engaged in
brutal repression against Palestinian civilians?
It should be apparent that Bush's criticisms
of Arafat's regime, however valid, are not the reason for denying
the Palestinians their right to self-determination. They are
simply the excuse.
Stephen Zunes
is an associate professor of Politics and chair of the Peace
& Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.
He serves as Middle East editor for the Foreign
Policy in Focus Project and is the author of the forthcoming
book Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism
(Common Courage Press.)
Today's
Features
Ralph Nader
Reclaiming
Our Commons
Neve Gordon
Jerusalem Under Attack
Robert Jensen
Alternative
Futures
David Vest
Darryl Kile's
Great Day
Gary Leupp
The Loya
Jirga Joke
Rahul Mahajan
Arafat
Says US Needs New Leadership;
Calls for Fair Elections
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