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From Common Courage Press
Recent
Stories
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Rumseld's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
May
28, 2003
David
Vest
DubyaCo.: It's Not So Funny Any More
Dave
Lindorff
My Grandfather's Medal
John
Stanton
America's Dying: Arts and Philosophy Hold the Key
Bernard
Weiner
A PNAC Primer
Robert
Jensen
Texas Dems Set a Standard for the Rest of the Party
Ahmad Faruqui
The Oil Business of Regime Change:
the CIA and Iran
Hammond
Guthrie
Disarming Conundrums
Steve Perry
What If There's No Such Thing as Al-Qaeda?
May
27, 2003
Kurt
Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli
Myths
Anthony
Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?
Patrick
Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad
John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character
Kathleen
Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
Jeffrey
Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap
Steve
Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands
May
26, 2003
Franklin
C. Spinney
Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated
Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Sacrifice
Sam
Hamod
When Trained Killers Return Home
Stew Albert
The Final Conflict
May
24 / 25, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss
and the Neo-Cons
Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure
Diane
Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
William
S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
William
Cook
Road to Nowhere
David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice
Ilan
Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel
Wayne Madsen
American Idle
Noah
Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields
Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars
Lenni
Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill
Mickey
Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad
Adam Engel
Towers of Babel
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
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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for More Stories.
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June
3, 2003
Middle East
Summit
Of Peace or
Pretense?
By MAZIN QUMSIYEH
The joke being told in Palestinian circles at
home and in the diaspora is that the only part of the speech
of Prime Minister Abbas not scripted by the Israelis is the part
that says "in the name of God the most merciful." To
viewers around the world, he Summit in Jordan was appeared totally
surreal. While supposedly intended to begin implementing a road
map for peace, the other authors of the road map were not invited:
the Europeans, Russia, and the United Nations. Of the Arab countries,
only those dictatorial regimes towing the Bush line were invited.
As expected, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon
talked about Israeli but not Palestinian security. The Palestinian
"Prime Minister" Abbas talked about Israeli security
but not Palestinian security. This is ironic since Israel has
the fourth strongest Army in the world and massive stockpiles
of weapons of mass destruction. The decimated Palestinians who
have not seen security in 55 years were not allowed to talk about
security for their own people but only to talk of "improving
humanitarian conditions." But then again that is what is
expected in negotiations between a jailer and prisoners.
King Abdullah of Jordan talked about
his vision of "lets all get along." President Bush
talked about the New World Order the same as he always does with
minor but important changes. While he had problems saying the
word "contiguous", he was not allowed to utter words
such as sovereignty for Palestine, International law, human rights,
equality, or non-discrimination. In fact, for the first time
a US president supported a theocracy by stating than not only
he supports Israel as a sovereign state but he supports a "Jewish
state" (verbally emphasizing the word "Jewish").
No one mentioned UN resolutions or addressed
whether the envisioned Palestinian State will be analogous to
the Bantustans/Ghettos under Apartheid South Africa. No one mentioned
the massive walls being built around Palestinian enclaves. No
one mentioned Arafat, the elected and yet isolated leader of
the Palestinians. Sharon promised to immediately "begin"
to dismantle unauthorized settlement outposts. No one mentioned
that all Israeli settlements in the areas occupied in 1967 are
illegal per International law and the 4th Geneva Convention.
Israel has not even agreed to abide by the provisions of the
road map calling for freeze on settlement activities.
Everyone plays a game of "let us
pretend." We pretend that the occupied and dispossessed
will stop their resistance before their freedom is attained.
We pretend that refugees will simply forget their rights to their
homes, lands, and businesses. We pretend that settlements do
not exist on confiscated Palestinian lands. We pretend that the
Arab vassal regimes of Washington can keep the lid on their people's
frustrations. We pretend that Israel, which doubled the number
of settlers in the occupied areas after signing the Oslo accords
will "deal with the settlements." And we pretend that
all this talk will bring peace.
The US government is based on a constitution
that includes separation of Church and state, equality, and withholding
support of brutal regimes. Yet, according to Amnesty International
all countries represented at this summit violate human rights.
Further, our taxes finance an Israeli government with no constitution
and a set of basic laws to ensure it remains a country of, by,
and for the Jewish people all while denying return of Christians
and Muslims brutally and ethnically cleansed from their villages.
70% of Palestinians are refugees or displaced persons and their
right of return is not only legal and moral but also logistically
possible as studies have shown. Further, a quarter of Israel's
1.3 million non-Jews are considered by the Israeli legal system
as "present absentees." Lands and homes vacated by
Christian and Muslim refugees and "absentees" are considered
state property and turned over to the Jewish agency that administers
the land and leases it only to "Jewish development."
Thus, the only objection to return is not security nor feasibility
but merely maintaining a discriminatory and illegal behavior
to favor one religion over others.
Incomplete success of the removal of
the natives led Israeli governments to isolate the remaining
Palestinians in ghettos with high walls. Amnesty International
stated that the basic flaw of the Oslo accords and what follows
is that they ignored human rights. This is the essence of the
"plans" to solve the "problem" in violation
of International law. Thus, an alternative International conference
is being held in Toronto June 20-22 and will draw emphasis on
refugee rights as key to enduring peace in the Middle East and
as an alternative to the game of pretense.
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, associate professor at Yale, writes on behalf
of the Palestine Right to Return
Coalition. He can be reached at: mazin@counterpunch.org
Today's
Features
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
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