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July
7, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Draw
July
4 / 6, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
July
3, 2003
Patrick
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
and the US
John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Stan
Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former
Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis
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Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July 2, 2003
Diane
Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress
Justin
Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
Reuven
Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July
1, 2003
Sasan
Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia
and the Sodomy Cops
Susan
Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong
to Ourselves
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name
Gary
Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
of Progressive Politics in America
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
Uri
Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
Website
of the Day
Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?
Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
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Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
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Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
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Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
June
27, 2003
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CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
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David
Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
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Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26
Website
of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy
June
26, 2003
Sen.
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Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
CounterPunch
Wire
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Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
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June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
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Bacher
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Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
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Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
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June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
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John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
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Conn
Hallinan
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Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
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CounterPunch
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Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
Walter
Brasch
Down on Our Knees
Robert
Meeropol
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Russell
Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells
Norman
Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a
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Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
Steve
Perry
Bush's Lies
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Hot Stories
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
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I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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July
7, 2003
From Intifada to Hudna?
The Draw
By URI AVNERY
After "Intifada" (shaking off) and "Shahid"
(martyr), another Arabic term has entered the world's vocabulary:
"Hudna" (truce).
In Islamic tradition, the word evokes
an historical event. The first Islamic truce was declared in
the year 628 AD at Hodaibiya, in the course of Muhammad's war
against the pagan chiefs of Mecca. According to the version now
doing the rounds in Israel, Muhammad broke the truce and conquered
Mecca. Ergo: Don't believe the Arabs, don't believe in the Hudna.
In Arab history books, the same event
is presented quite differently. The Hudna allowed the adherents
of the new faith to enter Mecca on a pilgrimage to the holy rock.
The pilgrims used the opportunity to make converts. When most
citizens had accepted Islam, Muhammad entered the city almost
without bloodshed and was received with open arms. Ergo: already
in their earliest history, Muslims realized that persuasion is
better than force.
Therein lies the answer to the questions
that are being asked now: Will the Hudna last? Will it continue
after the initial three-month period? Will Arafat and Abu-Mazen
succeed in  bringing Hamas along with them?
The answers depend completely on the
mood of the Palestinian population. If it wants the Hudna, the
Hudna will last. If it detests the Hudna, it will collapse. Hamas
does not want to lose public sympathy by breaking a popular Hudna.
On the contrary, it wants to play a major role in the future
Palestinian state. But if the population comes to the conclusion
that the Hudna has borne no fruit, Hamas will be the first to
break it.
On what will this depend? If the Hudna
delivers a major political achievement to the nation and a marked
improvement in the quality of life to individuals, it will be
popular and take root.
That is logical, and that corresponds
with my own personal experience. I have already mentioned in
these columns that in my early youth I was a member of a liberation
and/or terrorist organization (the definition depends on your
point of view). At that time, I learned that such an organization
needs public support and cannot operate without it. It needs
money, means of propaganda, hiding places, new members. For an
organization like Hamas, that has also political and social ambitions,
popularity is doubly important. As long as the Hudna is popular,
Hamas will abide by it.
This is primarily a test for Abu-Mazen.
What can he do to make the Hudna popular? He must secure the
wide-scale release of Palestinian prisoners; the amelioration
of the horrible living conditions; the withdrawal of the Israeli
army from the towns and villages; the removal of the checkpoints
that make Palestinian life miserable; the restoration of freedom
of access to the urban centers, the work places, hospitals and
universities; an ending of targeted assassinations, deportations,
demolition of homes and uprooting of groves; the freeze on building
activities in the settlements and an end to the construction
of the "fence" that is biting off large chunks of land
from the West Bank.
If there is no progress in all these
matters, the Hudna will collapse. Should this happen, the Israeli
military and political establishment will shed no tears. There
the Hudna was received with much gnashing of teeth, as if it
were imposed by some hostile force. As a matter of fact, it came
about by sheer American pressure. The Israeli media, all of whom
have long ago become propaganda instruments of the "security
establishment", received the Hudna in unison, as if by order,
with comments like "It has no chance. It will not last"--a
prophecy that may well prove to be self-realizing.
The army command opposed the cease-fire.
As always, the officers explained that victory was just around
the corner, that all it needed was one last decisive blow. Exactly
this, in the very same words, was said by the French generals
who opposed ending the war in Algeria, and by the American generals
when Nixon finally gave up in Vietnam. This was said by the Russian
generals in Afghanistan, and now they are saying it again in
Chechnya. They are always just about to win. They always need
to deliver just one more blow. And it's always the corrupt politicians
who stick a knife in their backs and bring about defeat.
The truth is that the army commanders
have failed dismally. They have had many small successes, but
they have failed to achieve their main aim: to break the will
of the Palestinian people. For every "local leader"
who was "targeted" and "liquidated", two
new ones arose. The "terrorist infrastructure" was
not destroyed, because there is no way to destroy it. It is not
composed of arms workshops and leaders, but of popular support
and the number of youngsters ready to risk and abandon their
lives.
After 1000 days, in spite of the killing
and the destruction, the Palestinian spirit of resistance and
their fighting capacity were not broken. The Palestinian people
has not given up the demands expressed at Camp David and Taba.
At the beginning of this Intifada, some individuals volunteered
for suicide missions; at its end, hundreds stood in line.
The Palestinians did not win, either.
They have proved that they can not be brought to their knees.
They have prevented the Palestinian cause from being struck from
the world agenda. The Israeli economy has been hit hard. The
Intifada has cast its shadow over daily life in Israel. Many
of the acts that are considered criminal by Israelis look to
the Palestinians like glorious acts of heroism. The destruction
of Israeli tanks, the elimination of a major checkpoint by one
solitary sniper, the attack by Palestinian commandos who crawled
under the "separation wall"--acts like these have filled
the Palestinians with pride. And the very fact that after 1000
days the Palestinian David remains standing and facing the mighty
Israeli Goliath is by itself an achievement that will be proudly
passed down to the coming generations of Palestinians.
But the Palestinians have not succeeded
in imposing their will on Israel, just as Israel has not succeeded
in imposing its will on the Palestinians. Both the Israelis and
the Palestinians are exhausted. This Intifada has ended, for
the time being, in a draw.
Mosh Ya'alon, a chief-of-staff with an
unquenchable thirst for talking, has proclaimed victory. But
on the same day, in a respected Israeli public opinion poll,
73% of those polled expressed the opinion that Israel has not
won, and 33% even saw the Palestinians as the victors. The largest
circulation newspaper in the country headlined a story about
the chief-of-staff with the ironic words: "For your information,
We Have Won!" The majority does not believe that the Hudna
will hold. But in the meantime, every day that passes without
human sacrifice on either side is a pure gain for all of us.
What now? Real negotiations? Negotiations
that are nothing other than make-believe? Efforts by both sides
to court the Americans? American pressure on both parties to
come up with some real actions?
Ask Condoleezza.
Uri Avnery
is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He
is one of the writers featured in The
Other Israel: Voices of Dissent and Refusal. He can be
reached at: avnery@counterpunch.org.
Weekend
Edition Features
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
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