Coming
in September
From AK Press
Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More
Today's
Stories
August 13, 2003
Linville and Ruder
Tyson Strike Draws the Line
Gary Leupp
Condi's Speech: From Birgmingham
to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Recent
Stories
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
August
11, 2003
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland Security for Whom?
Mickey
Z.
Bush's Progress
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Meet the New Bitch, Same
as the Old
Elaine
Cassel
Indicting DNA
Dr. Mohammad
Omar Farooq
Civil Liberties and Uncivil Super-Patriotism
Uri
Avnery
Who Will Save Abu Mazen?
Website
of the Day
RIAA Subpoena Clearinghouse
August
9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
August
8, 2003
John
Chuckman
What the US Says Goes
Roberto
Barreto
Defend the Vieques 12!
Bruce Gagnon
Iraq War Emboldens Bush Space Plans
Elaine
Cassel
The Reign of John Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
Website
of the Day
Zero Boy
August
7, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?"
Toni
Solo
Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana
Republic
Adam Lebowitz
Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan
Hanan
Ashrawi
When the Bully Whines
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Conscience Takes a Holiday
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda
Mike Kimaid
What's the Score?
Elaine
Cassel
The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
August 6, 2003
Steve
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not
Easy Confronting King Coal
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Robert
Fisk
The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's War on the National Forests
Elaine
Cassel
No Fly Lists
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
Hugh Sansom
An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Darn Good Resumé
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Hot Stories
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
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
Click Here
for More Stories.
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August
14, 2003
Same Result, New Pretext
Sharon Freezes the Road Map
By RAMZY BAROUD
Although it may appear as casual "tit for
tat" tactics, Middle East violence cannot always be explained
with such simplicity. The nature of the recent escalation at
the Lebanon-Israel border is more complicated than it may appear.
Let's be a bit bold while unveiling the
context that might have influenced the most recent violence engulfing
the Lebanon-Israel border, which so far, has resulted in the
killing of a young Israeli man and the wounding of four others.
The Roadmap peace initiative--introduced
by the United States and accepted by Israel and the Palestinian
leadership--is not going very well, for either party.
Palestinians say that Israel's release
of 350 prisoners--keeping in prison 6,000 more, is simply not
sufficient, especially as Israeli forces have arrested more than
the number of Palestinian prisoners it released since its acceptance
of the roadmap.
Israel seems a bit too nervous because
of the lull in violence. The right-wing government of Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon thrives on violence. Under the banner of shielding
Israel, Sharon managed to pull off a separation wall that is
currently in the process of swallowing up 10 percent of the West
Bank. He is expanding illegal settlements while cracking down
on Palestinian resistance groups with a free hand, under the
pretext that he is "fighting terror".
But none of the pretexts of the past
are of much relevance anymore, at least during this stage; Palestinian
groups halted their attacks, almost completely. Those who wished
to violate the ceasefire--signed by Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas and various Palestinian factions on June 29--were
caught and sent back. Even Israel's frequent raids on the West
Bank, most recently in Nablus, which killed several Palestinians,
are bearing Israel no fruit. Once more, Hamas, along with other
groups, assured Prime Minister Abbas that they would adhere to
the ceasefire. Instead of a violent response, they simply handed
Abbas, during a meeting in Gaza on August 5, a long list of Israeli
violations of the ceasefire.
Confused by the Palestinian reaction,
Sharon kept on playing an old tune, declaring that his government
"will not tolerate roadmap violations." Whose violations?
Despite the complicity of pro-Israeli
media in the Western hemisphere, Israel is slowly regaining the
image of the aggressor, an image maintained by Israel for too
long, yet interrupted occasionally by Palestinian suicide bombings.
But it is not only the PR campaign that
is occupying Israel's mind. Rumors in Washington that were circulated
by the media, indicated that the U.S. government might withhold
aid to Israel over its insistence on constructing the separation
wall in the West Bank. (AFP--5 August). Although President Bush
distanced himself from the reports, his repeated use of the word
"problem" while referring to Israel's wall might have
not been a slip of a tongue after all.
True, the right-wing alliance of the
current Israeli and American government is too robust to be hampered
by a lousy 1000km long wall--so what if 100,000 Palestinians
will be encaged by tons of steal and concrete--but Israel who
labored to forge that alliance is not the least ready to be in
a defensive mode again, alone taking the flak while Palestinians
are lauded.
On August 02, Ali Hussain Salih, a top
Hezbollah official was assassinated in Beirut when a bomb ripped
through his car. Since the Israeli intelligence is known to be
active in Beirut, Hezbollah was convinced that Israel is the
one responsible for the assassination.
A few days later, Hezbollah fired on
Israeli positions in the occupied Shebba farms (the only remaining
Lebanese territory in Israel's hands.) Israel fired back, bombing
villagers in South Lebanon. Hezbollah, once again fired, this
time reaching a population center in northern Israel, killing
a 16-year-old teenager. Hezbollah dubbed its attacks the "Martyr
Ali Hussain Salih Operation," after the man believed to
have been assassinated by Israel.
Was Israel taken by a surprise by these
sudden attacks? Not in the least.
What was truly sudden about these attacks
is how Israel, (with the help of its friends in the United States
government) managed to change the standings in the Middle East
game of politics.
First, the escalation at the border helped
transfer the pressure onto Lebanon, Syria and Iran, evoking condemnation
from the U.S. government and top U.N. and European officials.
The question of linking Iran and Syria to terrorism has once
more resurfaced, which has played well in the hands of pro-Israeli
pundits in the U.S. government and media.
Second, the separation wall, which has
occupied the imagination of politicians in the Middle East and
around the world for weeks, has been cast aside. The construction
of the giant wall continues unabated with little or no criticism.
Third, Israel is once more the victim,
as portrayed in the media. In fact, the Jerusalem Post tells
us that Sharon doesn't intend on retaliating with a major military
strike. Instead he'll allow the diplomatic channels to help "neutralize"
Hezbollah; a sound move, indeed. A major strike against Lebanon
will archive the border violence under the "tit for tat"
file. Israel wants to prolong the fiasco by engaging the United
Sates, the United Nations, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, the Arab League,
the European Union and the world's media in the less urgent matter
as long as possible, so that it avoids the accountability pressures
of the Roadmap.
But in the midst of all this, few have
noticed that Israel has practically "froze" the Roadmap
for peace, with Sharon telling his Cabinet on Sunday, August
10, that the Roadmap of peace is "on hold" until the
Palestinians dismantle all of the anti-Israeli occupation groups,
even though the occupation continues.
It no longer matters who provoked the
border violence starting with the assassination of the Hezbollah
official on August 02. What matters, at least to Israel, is that
for now, it won an important round. Now, Sharon, a pressure-free
man, is likely to pressure the Palestinians further over dismantling
resistance groups, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in particular.
Sharon's call is likely to resonate,
this time much stronger in Washington and its influential media,
for as far as the untrained-eye of U.S. media and officials believe,
Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, are all synonymous to al-Qaeda.
This is what Israel has been pushing
for since September 11 until this day, and by far, this has been
its most valuable card.
Ramzy Baroud
is the editor-in-chief of PalestineChronicle.com
and the editor of the anthology "Searching
Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion 2002."
50 percent of the editor's royalties will go directly to assist
in the relief efforts in Jenin.
He can be reached at: ramzy5@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
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