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Now Available from CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included) 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   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 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 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 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 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   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   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"     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 Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate 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 Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

Weekend Edition February 28 / 29, 2004 Exploiting Bereavement Down and Out in The Hague By YOEL MARCUS It's been a long time since I've felt so small, uncomfortable and red-faced as during the show of whining and whimpering organized by Israel at The Hague. Colorful posters displaying photographs of 935 terror victims; Zaka rescue team workers led by Yehuda Meshi Zahav wearing their "work clothes"; memorial candles; parents talking about the pain of bereavement; doctors describing the savage nature of the suicide bombers; the wreckage of a burnt-out bus with a bereaved mother standing next to it, distributing "one-way tickets"--these are just some of the sights. At the Foreign Ministry, these demonstrations are seen as an appropriate "J'accuse" against those who dare to put us in the guilty seat. In practice, it is a display of wretchedness and woe designed to tug at the heartstrings of international public opinion--like beggars who show off the stump of an arm or leg to make the world feel sorry for them. These sights create a lingering sense of discomfort, not least because Israel is thought of--not only in the Middle East, but all over the world--as a powerhouse. In keeping with that image, the last thing one would think Israel needed was pity. Just this week, Israel received two snazzy new F-16s capable of flying to anywhere from Libya to Timbuktu. When the rest of the shipment arrives, Israel, with all its problems, will be bigger and stronger than ever before. To see it playing "poor Samson," as Levi Eshkol liked to say, is just not credible. At their demonstrations, the Palestinians could pull out photographs of more than 3,000 victims. As for playing on the emotions, they could easily flaunt their suffering. They could dwell on their destroyed homes and the torment they endure at army checkpoints. But instead of harping on their misfortunes, they have focused on Israel's occupation policies and the security fence. They have appealed to the world's sense of justice, while we seek the world's pity. The legal experts were divided over whether Israel should appear at the international court in The Hague. But the moment they decided not to, they should have carried that decision to the end. If Israel is not in the courtroom, it should not be standing outside playing the poor victim--first of all, because this won't affect what goes on in the courtroom anyway, and second of all, because out on the street, the Palestinian argument is more convincing. Instead of moaning, they talk about occupation, about human rights, about the theft of their land. They don't have to wave around pictures of their dead. The fence has dropped into their laps like a PR gift from heaven just as the anti-Semitic stigma of the Jewish thief is making a comeback in Europe. Israel hasn't made up its own mind yet about whether the thing going up is a fence or a wall. It depends where you're standing. But whether you see barbed wire or eight-meter high concrete slabs, it is clear that this barrier symbolizes Israel's slapdash mentality at its worst. From Sharon's anti-fence days until today, when he enthusiastically supports its completion, the government has never been handed a neatly-typed, bound copy of anything remotely resembling a master plan for the fence. Constructing it has been like playing with Lego blocks, adding sections as needed. If the only reason for the fence were preventing terror, presumably it could just as well have been built on the Israeli side of the Green Line. But once it goes past the boundaries established by the British Mandate, Israel is unilaterally creating a new border which takes bites out of Palestinian Authority land. Israel's slapdash policies have not taken into account how badly the route of this fence can tarnish Israel's image. Call it a fence, or call it something else, but it is bound to become a symbol. There is no power in the world that can stop a suicide bomber from entering Israel, and no weapon that can't get around the fence, from the top or the bottom or the sides. The Palestinians are fighting occupation and we want the world to stand by us as we pay the price for that occupation. Sooner or later, the fence will fall, just like the Berlin Wall. The bereaved parents from Mitzpeh Aviv, shocked to see a photograph of their son, who was killed in a terrorist attack a year and a half ago, being waved around by a protester at The Hague as they sat watching TV, were right to protest to the Foreign Ministry. "You have made cynical use of our son's memory and nationalized our sorrow," they wrote. Exploiting bereavement and wallowing in self-pity is fitting for soap operas--not for the strongest country in the Middle East. Yoel Marcus writes for Ha'aretz, where this column originally appeared.   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 Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /