Coming
in October
From AK Press
Today's
Stories
September
19, 2003
Ilan Pappe
The
Hole in the Road Map
Bill Glahn
RIAA is Full of Bunk, So is the New York Times
Dave Lindorff
General Hysteria: the Clark Bandwagon
Robert Fisk
New Guard is Saddam's Old
Jeff Halper
Preparing
for a Struggle Against Israeli Apartheid
Brian J. Foley
Power to the Purse
Clare
Brandabur
Hitchens
Smears Edward Said
Website of the Day
Live from Palestine
September
18, 2003
Mona Baker
and Lawrence Davidson
In
Defense of the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions
Wayne
Madsen
Wesley
Clark for President? Another Neo-Con Con Job
Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Wesley Clark and Waco
Muqtedar Khan
The Pakistan Squeeze
Dominique
de Villepin
The
Reconstruction of Iraq: This Approach is Leading Nowhere
Angus Wright
Brazilian Land Reform Offers Hope
Elaine
Cassel
Payback is Hell
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Leavitt
for EPA Head? He's Much Worse Than You Thought
Website
of the Day
ALA Responds to Ashcroft's Smear
Recent
Stories
September 17, 2003
Timothy J. Freeman
The
Terrible Truth About Iraq
St. Clair / Cockburn
A
Vain, Pompous Brown-noser:
Meet the Real Wesley Clark
Terry Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Moore on Gen. Wesley Clark
Mitchel Cohen
Don't Be Fooled Again: Gen. Wesley Clark, War Criminal
Norman Madarasz
Targeting Arafat
Richard Forno
High Tech Heroin
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Website of the Day
The Ultimate Palestine Resource Site!
September 16, 2003
Rosemary and Walt Brasch
An
Ill Wind: Hurricane Isabel and the Lack of Homeland Security
Robert Fisk
Powell
in Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
Imperial Sociopaths
M. Shahid Alam
The Dialectics
of Terror
Ron Jacobs
Exile at Gunpoint
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's War on Wages
Al Krebs
Stop Calling Them "Farm Subsidies"; It's Corporate
Welfare
Patrick Cockburn
The
Iraq Wreck
Website of the Day
From Occupied Palestine
September 15, 2003
Stan Goff
It Was
the Oil; It Is Like Vietnam
Robert Fisk
A Hail of Bullets, a Trail of Dead
Writers Bloc
We
Are Winning: a Report from Cancun
James T. Phillips
Does George Bush Cry?
Elaine Cassel
The Troublesome Bill of Rights
Cynthia McKinney
A Message to the People of New York City
Matthew Behrens
Sunday Morning Coming Down: Reflections on Johnny Cash
Uri Avnery
Assassinating
Arafat
Hammond Guthrie
Celling Out the Alarm
Website of the Day
Arnold and the Egg
September 13 / 14, 2003
Michael Neumann
Anti-Americanism:
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jeffrey St. Clair
Anatomy of a Swindle
Gary Leupp
The Matrix of Ignorance
Ron Jacobs
Reagan's America
Brian Cloughley
Up to a Point, Lord Rumsfeld
William S. Lind
Making Mesopotamia a Terrorist Magnet
Werther
A Modest Proposal for the Pentagon
Dave Lindorff
Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation
Toni Solo
Fiction and Reality in Colombia: The Trial of the Bogota Three
Elaine Cassel
Juries and the Death Penalty
Mickey Z.
A Parable for Cancun
Jeffrey Sommers
Issam Nashashibi: a Life Dedicated to the Palestinian Cause
David Vest
Driving in No Direction (with a Glimpse of Johnny Cash)
Michael Yates
The Minstrel Show
Jesse Walker
Adios, Johnny Cash
Adam Engel
Something Killer
Poets' Basement
Cash, Albert, Curtis, Linhart
Website of the Weekend
Local Harvest
The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!
September 12, 2003
Writers Block
Todos
Somos Lee: Protest and Death in Cancun
Laura Carlsen
A Knife to the Heart: WTO Kills Farmers
Dave Lindorff
The Meaning of Sept. 11
Elaine Cassel
Bush at Quantico
Linda S. Heard
British
Entrance Exams
John Chuckman
The First Two Years of Insanity
Doug Giebel
Ending America as We Know It
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Blank Check Military
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Website of the Day
A Woman in Baghdad
September 11, 2003
Robert Fisk
A Grandiose
Folly
Roger Burbach
State Terrorism and 9/11: 1973 and 2001
Jonathan Franklin
The Pinochet Files
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Postcards to the President
Norman Solomon
The Political Capital of 9/11
Saul Landau
The Chilean Coup: the Other, Almost Forgotten 9/11
Stew Albert
What Goes Around
Website of the Day
The Sights and Sounds of a Coup
September 10, 2003
John Ross
Cancun
Reality Show: Will It Turn Into a Tropical Seattle?
Zoltan Grossman
The General Who Would be President: Was Wesley Clark Also Unprepared
for the Postwar Bloodbath?
Tim Llewellyn
At the Gates of Hell
Christopher Brauchli
Turn the Paige: the Bush Education Deception
Lee Sustar
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
Elaine Cassel
McCain-Feingold in Trouble: Scalia Hogs the Debate
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Hammond Guthrie
When All Was Said and Done
Website of the Day
Fact Checking Colin Powell
Hot Stories
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
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
Click Here
for More Stories.
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September
20, 2003
The Prime Minister
of Chaos
Sharon,
With Eyes Wide Open
By GILA SVIRSKY
Jerusalem.
The other morning at 7 a.m., I joined Peace Now
for an early morning demonstration to 'wake up' Ariel Sharon
to the fact that his policy of assassinations only feeds the
cycle of violence, and does not end terrorism.
"You're making a terrible mistake!"
said our signs, "Your decisions will only create further
havoc!" And yet, it turned out that few of us actually think
that this policy is a mistake at all. Questioning the 5 or 6
people standing near me, I discovered that all of us really believe
that Sharon's moves are the product of deliberate policy--that
they are carried out in the full knowledge that further death
and destruction in Israel would be an inevitable result.
Here is a partial list of Sharon's decisions
that are usually referred to by critics as policy blunders because
of their unwelcome consequences:
* Targeted assassinations and attempted
assassinations, even during the recent ceasefire, which provoke
increased terrorist activity;
* Failure to support the moderate abu
Mazen by meaningful confidence-building measures, thereby leading
to his downfall;
* The decision to sideline and then 'eliminate'
Arafat, whether by expelling or killing him, knowing that, dead
or alive, chaos and instability would ensue, thereby delaying
indefinitely any peace negotiation until the regime stabilizes
and an alternative leader emerges;
* Rejection out of hand of the new ceasefire
proposal; and
* Excessive force against the Palestinians
at large--limiting access to health, education, and employment,
ongoing house demolitions, curfews, harassment, etc.--all of
which only serve to fan the flames of bitterness and hostility
among the population.
The consequences of these acts seem so
dire, commentators cannot believe that Sharon would deliberately
pursue them. But analysts have begun to add things up, and some
have even begun to alert the Israeli public to the deliberate
nature of these moves. Writes Ze'ev Sternhell in Ha'aretz (12
Sept. 2003):
"There's no reason to complain to
the prime minister and the defense establishment. The present
policy is exactly what Ariel Sharon, the chief of staff, the
government, and the settlement leaders think is correct and desirable.
They know this policy has a price and they are willing to pay
it with eyes wide open."
The price? More death and destruction
inside Israel. Then why would the prime minister of Israel agree
to this price?
Sharon rode into power on a double promise:
security and peace. And yet Sharon has not made even one significant
act of progress to achieve either. On the contrary, security
and peace appear to be the victims of Sharon's overriding agenda:
maintaining the occupation. Although one can deliberate Sharon's
motivations for wanting to maintain the occupation--a commitment
to a Greater-Land-of-Israel ideology? a belief that Israel is
in even greater jeopardy without control over Palestinian lives?
a hunger for power that feeds off fear of the other? Regardless
of the reason, one thing is crystal clear: All the abovementioned,
so-called 'errors' are blatant instances of making occupation
the priority, placing it above security and peace.
If maintaining control over the territories
is viewed as Sharon's priority, then all his actions fall into
place. Here are a few of Sharon's impressive accomplishments
after only two and a half years in office:
* He killed the Oslo Peace Process (a
course begun by Netanyahu).
* He exponentially increased the fear
and loathing of Palestinians among Israelis (which had declined
during Oslo days).
* He brought the Palestinian economy
to ruin.
* He resurrected Arafat's power and influence
among Palestinians by appearing to ostracize him.
* He continues to delay construction
of a 'Security Wall', because it would de facto create a Palestinian
state on the other side of it. And,
* He increased support for settlements
by forming the most right-wing government in the history of Israel.
These 'accomplishments' all lead to the
same conclusion: a dead end to all avenues leading to reconciliation.
Sharon's efforts have destabilized Palestinian society economically
and politically, dehumanized Palestinians to an extent not seen
even in pre-Oslo days, and destroyed or disrupted all infrastructure
that would enable a properly functioning Palestinian society--roads,
power and water supplies, health and education systems, even
the records and databases. Sharon has sown chaos and misery,
and, above all, has kept the Palestinian population in a constant
state of turmoil. His scorched earth policy is not a mistake,
but a deliberate strategy to grind the population into submission,
to prevent the rise of a sovereign state, to allow Israel to
continue its domination. And if these cruel measures give rise
to belligerent, anti-Israeli activity, all the better. Palestinian
terrorism is what gives legitimacy to Israel--both domestically
and internationally--to maintain its brutal boot on the neck
of 'out-of-control Palestinians'.
A recent Ha'aretz editorial (14 Sept.
2003) called the resolve to eliminate Arafat "a stupid decision"
and remarked, "Once again the government has failed to fathom
a reality that any reasonable person readily grasps."
Is Sharon really stupid, with no grasp
of the consequences of his actions? Please. It is not time for
Sharon to wake up, but for the rest of us to open our eyes. It
is not Sharon who fails to grasp reality, but those of us who
buy into his words and fail to account for his deeds. Sharon
is deliberately leading the Palestinians into a state of chaos
because it leaves Israel in control...and Sharon in power.
Twenty years ago, the prestigious Kahana
Commission of Inquiry, empanelled by the government of Israel,
found Ariel Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacre of
Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila, forcing his resignation
as defense minister, and urged that Sharon never serve a senior
security function in Israel ever again.
The Kahana Commission was right. Wake
up, everybody!
Gila Svirsky
lives in Jerusalem and works with the Coalition
of Women for Peace. She can be reached at: gsvirsky@netvision.net.il
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 13 / 14, 2003
Michael Neumann
Anti-Americanism:
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jeffrey St. Clair
Anatomy of a Swindle
Gary Leupp
The Matrix of Ignorance
Ron Jacobs
Reagan's America
Brian Cloughley
Up to a Point, Lord Rumsfeld
William S. Lind
Making Mesopotamia a Terrorist Magnet
Werther
A Modest Proposal for the Pentagon
Dave Lindorff
Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation
Toni Solo
Fiction and Reality in Colombia: The Trial of the Bogota Three
Elaine Cassel
Juries and the Death Penalty
Mickey Z.
A Parable for Cancun
Jeffrey Sommers
Issam Nashashibi: a Life Dedicated to the Palestinian Cause
David Vest
Driving in No Direction (with a Glimpse of Johnny Cash)
Michael Yates
The Minstrel Show
Jesse Walker
Adios, Johnny Cash
Adam Engel
Something Killer
Poets' Basement
Cash, Albert, Curtis, Linhart
Website of the Weekend
Local Harvest
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