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Today's
Stories
February 28 / 29, 2004
Stephen Green
Serving Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel
and the Bush Team
Mike Whitney
Dismantle
the Military Goliath
February 27, 2004
Thomas C. Mountain
A
White Jesus During Black History Month?
Laura Carlsen
Americans
Abroad: Bush is Persona Non Grata
John B. Anderson
Nader's Campaign Brings Back Memories: Creating an Open Electoral
Process
Jason Leopold
Spying
on Kofi Annan
John Chuckman
Nader,
Risk and Hope
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Putin's Russia
Ray McGovern
Punished
for Honest Intelligence
Saul Landau
The
Haiti Redux
Website of the Day
Bush: Why I'm Running for Re-election
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February 26, 2004
Brandy Baker
Is Nader
on to Something?
Jacques Kinau
AEI
to Colombia: "Can't Give You Anything But Guns, Baby"
Norman Solomon
Bugging Kofi Annan: UN Spying
and the Evasions of US Journalism
Greg Weiher
A Purloined Letter: the Zarqawi Gambit
Walt Brasch
Janet Jackson, Bush & No. 542: There are No Halftime Shows
in War
Shadi Hamid
The Music World Explodes in Anger
Norman Madarasz
As Canadian as Corruption
Chris Floyd
Bullets and Ballots
Virginia Tilly
The
Deeper Meaning of the Wall
Amy Goodman / Jeremy
Scahill
Haiti's
Lawyer Says US is Arming Haiti's Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
Website of the Day
Clear Channel Sucks
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February 25, 2004
Dr. Susan Block
Saddam's
Sex Therapist and the Rape of Free Speech
Bruce Anderson
Treacherous Bastards: The Greens and the Dems and Nader
Ron Jacobs
Our Power is on the Streets and
in Our Hearts
Mike Whitney
Bush
and Gay America: the Politics of Duplicity
Sam Husseini
Jesus in 100 Words
John L. Hess
Kick Off or Flub?
Sam Hamod
Bush's Newest Red Herring
Cockburn / St. Clair
Winning
with Nader
Website of the Day
VotePact
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February 24, 2004
Ralph Nader
Why
I'm Running for President
Greg Moses
Rally
the Mob! Bush, Gay Marriage and the Constitution
Douglas O'Hara
The
Merchants of Fear: Smearing Nader
Phillip Cryan
Frozen in Time: The WSJ's Paranoid
Lens on Latin America
David Lindorff
John Kerry's China Connection
Jason Leopold
Cheney's Shame: Halliburton Faces New Charges
Gary Younge
Haiti: Throttled by History
Kromm, Masri & Purohit
Why No Democracy in Iraq?
Steve Perry
Tangled Up in Red and Blue: Beware the Electoral College
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February 23, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial
at The Hague
Kurt Nimmo
Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll"
Jonathan Franklin
US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Al Krebs
The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader
Josh Frank
Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance
Bruce Jackson
Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush"
Gary Leupp
A Misguided
Attack, The Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels
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February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
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February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
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February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
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February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
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Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
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Hitchens
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Israel's
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Dardagan,
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CounterPunch Exclusive:
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Weekend
Edition
February 28 / 29, 2004
Sharon the Ringmaster
The
Dancing Bear
By URI AVNERY
Once upon a time there was a popular kind of street
show: a bear would dance for the amusement of passers by, who
would throw coins into his box. The bear was big and frightening,
but his clumsy movements made people laugh. He was much stronger
than his master, who kept him on a chain, but submitted to him
completely. A wonder to behold.
The national symbol of the United States
is the eagle. The bear, as everybody knows, is the national symbol
of Russia. But looking at the Sharon-Bush relationship, it is
the old master-and-bear show that inevitably springs to mind.
Ariel Sharon plays games with the American
bear. He makes him dance, jump, lie down and get up again, turn
around and perform somersaults, much to the amusement of the
Israeli public.
Every few months Sharon invents a new
act. The bear applauds and does what he is commanded to do, until
the performance loses its novelty. Then Sharon comes up with
something new.
That happened with the act called the
Road Map. To be accurate, this one was not invented by Sharon,
but by the bear himself. Bush had a Vision. A real inspiration.
"Two States for Two Peoples". Something new and revolutionary.
(Never mind that the 1947 UN resolution establishing Israel included
this, and that Israeli and Palestinian peace activists had been
preaching this idea for decades. The bear's brain works slowly,
and, as the saying goes, better late than never.)
This vision brought forth the Road Map.
A very complex and convoluted map. If an ordinary driver had
to find his way with such a map, he would never see his destination.
But the map bore the personal stamp of the President of the United
States, as well as the signatures of Europe, Russia and the United
Nations. So who could have any doubts about it?
The act started in Aqaba. George Double-U
likes to have his picture taken against impressive backgrounds.
Indeed, it seems that he spends considerable time and energy
choosing the backdrop for his next photo - an aircraft carrier,
a full army division on parade, jubilant soldiers in Baghdad...
This time, too, he found an impressive background: tropical shore,
blue sea, tall palm-trees, exotic landscape. Sharon and Abu-Mazen
performing as extras. They received the Road Map in a solemn
ceremony, much as Moses received? not far from there? the tablets
of the Ten Commandments.
But photos can lie, and this one was
misleading, too. It was not Sharon who was the extra in this
act, but Bush. It was not the bear who made his master dance,
but the other way around.
The act was devoid of content. The Road
Map was already dead before it was born, because Sharon never
dreamt of following its course. He has a different map, different
routes and different destinations.
On the face of it, Sharon's response
was "Yes, but..." He added 14 reservations that emptied
the document of any content. They stipulated that the Sharon
government would implement its part of the deal only after the
Palestinians had accomplished a number of impossible tasks. The
Palestinians, of course, could not, and the result was that Abu-Mazen
disappeared from the scene.
And Sharon? He played the game to the
end. Sent emissaries to Washington, conducted talks, received
American functionaries, visited the White House and swore at
every opportunity that he had no aim more sacred that realizing
Bush's Vision. The American President melted and sang the praises
of this "Man of Peace".
According to the Road Map, Sharon was
obliged to remove all the settlements set up since the beginning
of his term in early 2001. But he had the bear dance to the left
and to the right, until the poor beast did not know the difference
anymore. So, not all the settlements should be removed. Only
the "illegal" outposts. (Illegal according to the laws
of the occupation authorities, of course.) And not all the illegal
outposts, by any means, just one or two. In the end, not a single
one was removed. But the American bear danced on happily.
In the meantime, scores of new outposts
have sprung up, all of them "illegal". The Israeli
government connected them up with water and electricity and built
new roads for them. Huge sums were spent on them? money taken
from the education, health and welfare budgets. The older settlements,
too, were expanded at a frantic pace. The landscape of the West
Bank was changing visibly. Everywhere, new roads for the convenience
of the settlers came into being. And the bear danced on.
To all of this, the Wall was added. At
first, it was presented as a security fence and it was assumed
that it would follow, more or less, the 1967 Green Line. But
soon it became apparent that it was cutting deep into the West
Bank, annexing large tracts of land and turning the declared
aim of the Road Map? a viable Palestinian state - into a mockery.
The American satellites took pictures, and the bear still danced
on. The main thing was, after all, that Sharon continued to praise
the Road Map.
And then Sharon got fed up with the act,
and perhaps he was afraid that the bear would get tired or nervous.
So he invented a new dance: Unilateral Disconnecting. We leave
the Gaza Strip, dismantle 14 settlements there, and, for good
measure, some settlements on the West Bank, too.
So everything has started again right
from the beginning. Emissaries are being sent to America. Emissaries
from America are being received in Jerusalem. Sharon's confidant,
Dov Weisglas, will go and see Condoleezza. An Israeli general
will meet with an American general. Sharon will visit the White
House. And in Israel itself the proper backdrop for the performance
is being set up in the form of stormy demonstrations of the settlers,
fierce denunciations by rabbis, threats of cabinet crises, dozens
of articles by learned pundits promising that this time, this
very time, the 101st time, he is serious. This time Sha! ron
truly means what he says.
Washington is jubilant. Well, maybe it
is not exactly the Road Map, but one can pretend that it is.
The main thing is that Sharon is again shown to be a Man of Peace,
ready for withdrawal and the dismantling of settlements. Who
would have believed it?
This week, Bush sent Three Wise Men to
Sharon (including Elliot Abrams, a gentleman slightly more Zionist
than Sharon himself, if such a thing were possible) in order
to ask politely: From where exactly does Sharon intend to withdraw?
Exactly which settlements does he plan to give up? When exactly
is it going to happen? And, please, could one perhaps have a
look at a map?
Sharon laughed in their faces. No map.
No timetable. No nothing. It is still an idea. People are working
on it. Here in the corner, a Real General is thinking about it
all the time.
Certainly. They will think, prepare papers,
fly to Washington and back, Dov will meet Condoleezza, Sharon
will see Bush. (In the meantime, the Americans are being asked
to give some billions for the payment of compensation to the
settlers. Since the Americans paid billions for installing the
settlers in the first place, it is only right that they should
pay a few more billions to move them out again.)
And so it will continue, until Sharon
gets tired of this act, too. Then he will invent a new one. After
all, the main thing is for the bear to keep on dancing.
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 is also
a contributor to CounterPunch's hot new book The
Politics of Anti-Semitism. He can be reached at: avnery@counterpunch.org.
Weekend
Edition Features for February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
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