weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/714/re1.htm
Israel's green light
By Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 10/28/2004
The US appeases Sharon, the rest of the world looks on, and even more Palestinian civilians are murdered. — As Palestinians were reeling from the 18-day Israeli rampage in northern Gaza which saw over 100 people killed, mostly innocent civilians, Israeli tanks stormed Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The invading forces attacked on the two defenceless refugee camps. Once again, the vast bulk of the dead and the injured were innocent civilians, including an eight-year-old boy, gunned down by an Israeli army sniper as he stood on the rooftop of his home. There were also two policemen among the victims who were reportedly taking their Ramadan fast-breaking meal when shot.
www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1338877,00.html
Frail Arafat arrives in France
The Guardian 10/29/2004
A French military plane believed to be transporting the ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today landed at an airport outside Paris. Mr Arafat, 75, has flown to France for urgent treatment for a serious illness and many of his supporters fear he may never return to the Palestinian territories. He will be treated at a military hospital, the Hopital d'Instruction des Armees de Percy, which has a major trauma centre and staff of 1,200, including 110 physicians.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=9733
Current and former PMs stand in for ailing Arafat
Daily Star 10/30/2004
Hamas wishes president well — Ailing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's powers have been temporarily passed to two veteran associates – both have served under him as prime minister – until he recovers or dies, officials said on Friday. But they emphasized that Arafat, 75, remained president and no major policy making was likely while he was ill and undergoing treatment in France. In a change of tone, Hamas said Friday it was setting aside its differences with Arafat and called for a united Palestinian leadership to work toward general elections.
www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/detainees.htm
Two detainees severely tortured and abused
International Middle East Media Center 10/29/2004
Lawyer Hanan Al-Khateeb, from the Palestinian Prisoners Society said that she met with two detainees in Al-Ramlah‰ detention camp, who told her about the dangerous situation and continuous assaults they are subject to in detention. Detainee Ahmad Mohammad Zaghari, 23 years old, and Khaled Nayef Salem, 24 years old, both from Deheishe refugee camp, in Bethlehem, told Al-Khateeb that the situation in detention is deteriorating, and that they have been subjected to sever torture during interrogation in Al-Maskobiyya detention in Jerusalem.
www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/Three%20youths.htm
Three youths shot wounded in Jenin refugee camp
International Middle East Media Center 10/29/2004
A medical source in Jenin said that soldiers shot wounded three residents in Jenin refugee camp, in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank, on Friday afternoon. The source identified the wounded residents as Islam Sobhi Al-Jabareen, 17 years old, Jihad Monther Shalabi, 15, Mohammad Ibarhim Abu-Ali, in his twenties. Moreover, a local source in the camp said that soldiers broke into tens of homes, conducted vast searches in the camp, and withheld tens of youths for several hours.
www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/Two%20youths.htm
Refugee Camp, a Vilage Raided, Two youths arrested near Bethlehem
International Middle East Media Center 10/29/2004
A local source in Bethlehem said that soldiers arrested two youths from Al-Azza refuge camp in Bethlehem, and from the village of Al-Khader, near Bethlehem, in the West Bank, on Friday afternoon. The source said that soldiers raided Al-Azza refugee camp, conducted vast searches and arrested Mohammad Al-Marazeeq, 26 years old. Moreover, in the village of Al-Khader, near Bethlehem, a huge military force broke into and searched few homes, and arrested Raed Mohammad Salah, who suffers from paralysis in his right leg as a result of a gunshot injury.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494992.html
Doctors examining Arafat in hospital in France
Ha'aretz 10/30/2004
Doctors were examining Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in a hospital outside Paris on Friday evening. Specialists at the Percy hospital's state-of-the-art hematology clinic – where patients ailing from blood disorders are treated – were conducting tests on Arafat, the French Defense Ministry said. Doctors will need “several days” to diagnose Arafat's illness but the Palestinian leader was conscious and in good shape when he arrived in France on Friday, a Palestinian diplomat said.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494964.html
Israel would not allow burial on Temple Mt.
International Middle East Media Center 10/29/2004
Israel will refuse a *request to bury Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on the Temple Mount, security sources said yesterday. Arafat has previously expressed a desire to be buried on the Mount. The issue came up briefly yesterday in a consultation between Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and senior security personnel following the deterioration in Arafat's health. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is also likely to reject such a request. As reported yesterday in Haaretz, defense officials are considering suggesting a burial plot in Abu Dis, with a view of the Temple Mount.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article3270.shtml
The Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza
Electronic Intifada 10/29/2004
Appeal, The Rebuilding Alliance, 29 October 2004 — Dear Friends, You've heard us say for months that The Rebuilding Alliance is working to build the home that Rachel Corrie stood to safeguard. In the spirit of Ramadan and its call to empathy, we want to let you inside our strategy to build the Nasrallah family home and help end home demolitions in Gaza. With your encouragement, we've done much more than just talk about building in Gaza — we've gone there to forge the partnerships and set-up the procedures needed to buy land and build with integrity.
www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/2004/28-10-2004.htm
Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories 21- 27 October 2004
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 10/28/2004
26 Palestinians, 11 of whom were civilians, including 2 children and a woman, were killed by Israeli troops. / 17 of the victims were killed during an Israeli offensive on Khan Yunis. / 2 of the victims were extra-judicially killed by Israeli troops. / Israeli troops invaded Khan Yunis; they destroyed 34 houses and some civilian facilities. / Israeli troops conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. / 8 houses were destroyed and at least 190 donums[1] of agricultural land were razed in the Gaza Strip. / Houses were raided and dozens of Palestinian civilians were arrested. / 2 houses were destroyed in the West Bank in the context of retaliatory measures against families of Palestinian militants. / Continued shelling of residential areas and civilian facilities, and a number of Palestinian civilians were injured. / Construction of the “Annexation wall‰ in the West Bank has continued. / Israeli troops have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; Israeli troops at military checkpoints fired at Palestinian civilians, wounding 2 civilians.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/495304.html
Beilin: Gaza pullout should be coordinated with Palestinians
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
Yahad Chairman Yossi Beilin said Friday that the neutralization of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has created a rare opportunity for the renewal of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. “Until yesterday, we supported a unilateral withdrawal, but as of today, we are demanding negotiations,” Beilin said. He went on to say that Israel should withdraw from the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, while coordinating security arrangements with the Palestinians.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494968.html
Move afoot for Abbas to assume Arafat's powers
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
Senior Palestinian officials said last night that a move is afoot among leaders of the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), whereby Abu Mazen would replace Yasser Arafat as chairman of the Palestinian Authority after he is flown abroad for medical treatment, or alternatively, after his death. Abu Ala would continue in his current role as prime minister. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised yesterday that Arafat will be able to return to the territories after completing his medical treatment in France.
www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/Hamas_Jihad.htm
Hamas and the Jihad call for a Unified Leadership
International Middle East Media Center 10/29/2004
The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad Movement called for forming a unified leadership which will be a higher political representative of the Palestinian people. The two movements said that all differences should be set aside and unify all efforts in order to overcome the continuous military operations from one side, and to preserve the Palestinian unity from the other. The movements held Israel responsible of the deterioration of Arafat‚s health, who was confined in his Ramallah headquarters since March 2002.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494958.html
Who's afraid of a war of inheritance?
By Amira Hass, Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
Although Yasser Arafat had been ill for more than a week, and people have spoken for years of the day after his demise, the sudden turn for the worse in his condition took his movement by surprise. In the words of one of its members, Fatah people hesitate to speak of an heir, even when it appears that Arafat is dying. Until yesterday no formal meetings were held by the cabinet or any Palestine Liberation Organization or Fatah institution. But even before it was decided to send him to Paris, there were spontaneous consultations about the next steps and how to fill the leadership vacuum, temporarily.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494951.html
Police slammed for breach of court injunction
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
Jerusalem Magistrate's Court Judge Rivka Fridman-Feldman ruled yesterday that Jerusalem police had violated an order she had issued to present evidence in court in a sealed envelope. The ruling was issued because a question of journalistic privilege regarding the material was pending. The evidence consisted of a tape aired by the cable news show Hadashot Hayom and later by Channel 1, in which a Beitar soccer team fan threatened to kill a team member, Ibrahim Nadala, because he was Arab.
www.imemc.org/newsbriefs.htm
News Briefs, October 29, 2004
International Middle East Media Center 10/29/2004
Anti-Tank shell fired at the army in Rafah / Several homes raided in Qalqilia / Six youths shot wounded in Jenin / Military Helicopter fires at homes in Beit Hanoun / Tight siege imposed over Jerusalem / Tens of residents withheld east of Tubas / Agricultural fields and Barracks bulldozed in Rafah / Several homes shelled in the south of Khan Younis / Soldiers shell Abraj Al-Nada area, north of Bet Hanoun / Army to demolish homes and wells near Bethlehem / Four more months in administrative detention / Girl held in Nablus / Resistance fires at the army in Jenin / 16 arrested in the West Bank / West Khan Younis refugee camp shelled / Soldiers shell Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494965.html
Arafat's death would alter PLO's UN mission
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
NEW YORK – Yasser Arafat's death or departure from the Palestinian leadership will have very significant impact on the workings of the PLO mission at UN headquarters in New York. According to one version of events discussed by diplomats yesterday, the death of the Palestinian leader would mean a moderation in the position of the PLO's New York mission toward Israel.
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12362&Cr=palestin&Cr1=
Annan gives full backing to head of UN agency helping Palestinians
United Nations News 10/27/2004
27 October 2004 ˆ Secretary-General Kofi Annan today gave his complete backing to the head of the United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees after Israel's allegation that a rocket had been loaded into a UN ambulance was disproved. “The Secretary-General reiterates his full confidence in the integrity and impartiality” of Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), according to a statement issued by Mr. Annan's spokesman.
www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20041029&hn=13428
EU Takes Initiative to Guarantee Arafat's Return Home
Zaman 10/29/2004
The European Union (EU) have reportedly undertaken an initiative to provide a guarantee that the Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat can return home safely after his treatment is completed in France. In a news articles printed in the Al Hayat newspaper, it is noted that EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana briefed Palestinian delegate in Brussels, Sevki Al-Armali, about the content of his talks with Israeli officials regarding the guarantee of Arafat's return.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=495186&contrassID=
1&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
Palestinian stocks weighed down by Arafat's health
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
Palestinian stocks sank in light trading yesterday, weighed down by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's deteriorating health. The Palestine Securities Exchange's main index fell 4.1 percent in what market participants said was very thin trading of 171,634 Jordanian dinars…”This is a big issue,” said one market player from the Jordan & Palestine Financial Investment Co. He said turnover is typically 2-3 million dinars a day and indicated that a 4 percent drop is not a market collapse.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494967.html
Senior Palestinian leaders vie for power
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
Senior Palestinian sources confirmed yesterday that the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, among them Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), and other senior leaders in the territories, are orchestrating a move, whereby after Yasser Arafat is flown abroad, or alternatively, after his death, Abu Mazen will act as chairman of the Palestinian Authority and Abu Ala will act as prime minister.
www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102904/kach-taxes.htm
Jerusalem Municipality exempts a Kach affiliated organization from Taxes
International Middle East Media Center 10/29/2004
The Municipality of Jerusalem approved on Thursday a tax exempt order to a religious institute in the city called “Hara'ayon Hayehudi” meaning the Jewish Idea, which is affiliated with the outlawed right wing movement Kach. The order exempts this institute of paying NIS 31 thousand (around $7000) of local tax. Media sources in Israel said Israeli police raided this center several time in the past looking for Terrorist Jewish groups shortly after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494959.html
Officer accused of `confirmed kill' held for 5 days
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
The Southern Command Military Court yesterday extended for five days the remand of the company commander accused of “confirming the killing” of 13-year-old Aiman Alhamas of Rafah. Alhamas was shot dead a month ago by soldiers of the Givati Brigade on the Philadelphi Route in Rafah. After the incident, some of the troops claimed that the company commander, who had left the fortification after the shooting, shot the girl at close range while she was lying on the ground.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article3265.shtml
Photostory: Palestinian refugees, Ein Hilweh
By Arjan El Fassed, Electronic Intifada 10/28/2004
In October 2004, EI's Arjan El Fassed traveled to Jordan and Lebanon. He visited a number of refugee camps and offices of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Lebanon and Syria. In Lebanon he visited Rashidieh, Ein al-Hilwa, and Wavel camp. Ein Hilweh refugee camp lies 45 km south of Beirut near Saida. It is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, both in area size and population. Ein el-Hilweh has been frequently assaulted, particularly between 1982 and 1991, resulting in a high number of casualties and near total destruction of the camp.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article3263.shtml
Photostory: Palestinian refugees, Rashidieh
By Arjan El Fassed, Electronic Intifada 10/28/2004
In October 2004, EI's Arjan El Fassed traveled to Jordan and Lebanon. He visited a number of refugee camps and offices of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Lebanon and Syria. In Lebanon he visited Rashidieh, Ein al-Hilwa, and Wavel camp. Rashidieh camp lies on the Lebanese seashore, 10 km from the northern part of Palestine and 5 km from the southern port of Tyre or Sour. Rashidieh camp was heavily affected by the war in Lebanon and the Israeli invasion of 1982. The camp's inhabitants are only able to find work in seasonal agriculture and construction. There is no sewerage network and sewage flows into open ditches along roads and pathways.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article3262.shtml
Photostory: Palestinian refugees, Wihdat
By Arjan El Fassed, Electronic Intifada 10/28/2004
In October 2004, EI's Arjan El Fassed traveled to Jordan and Lebanon. He visited a number of refugee camps and offices of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Lebanon and Syria. In Jordan, he visited Wihdat, or Amman New Camp, south east of the Jordanian capital. Wihdat, Jordan's second largest Palestinian refugee camp is one of the four refugee camps established after 1948 in Jordan. The camp was set up in 1955 to host some 5,000 refugees on an area of 488,000 square meters. Currently, more than 50,000 registered refugees are living in Wihdat. Jordan has the largest concentration of Palestinian refugees, with nearly two million in 13 camps.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/495301.html
Sweden rejects nuclear whistleblower Vanunu's asylum bid
Ha'aretz 10/30/2004
STOCKHOLM – Sweden said on Friday it had rejected an asylum application by nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu because he made it while still living in Israel. Vanunu, freed in April after serving 18 years in jail for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets to a British newspaper, has said several times he wanted to leave Israel because he felt threatened. “Our law says that the application must be outside his homeland,” said a spokesman for Sweden's Migration Board.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494966.html
Arafat's wife arrives at Ramallah bedside
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
Yasser Arafat's wife, Suha, arrived in Ramallah yesterday for her first visit with her husband in more than four years. For the first 10 days after Arafat fell ill, officials in his bureau, who have frequently had bitter disputes with Suha, prevented her from coming. Suha has spent the last eight years in Paris with her daughter Zahawa, who is Arafat's only child. According to Palestinian officials, she has an expensive apartment there and spends much of her time shopping in the high-priced boutiques along the Champs Elysees.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/495321.html
Al-Jazeera broadcasts tape by bin Laden
Ha'aretz 10/30/2004
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said in a video tape aired late Friday that one of the reasons his organization carried out the September 11 attacks was because of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. He also said that the United States could face renewed attacks because the reasons for mounting the Sept. 11 strikes still existed. The video tape was aired on the Qatari-based Al Jazeera satellite television channel.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/494954.html
Columbia professor under fire for alleged anti-Israel hostility
Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
Jewish and pro-Israel organizations are demanding that Columbia University in New York fire a Jordanian professor of Palestinian origin who allegedly expressed anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic views in class and displayed a hostility toward Israeli and Jewish students. Joseph Massad is assistant professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia's Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department. The organizations claim that Massad's lectures compared Israel to the Nazis and argued that the Jewish state has no right to exist.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article3268.shtml
Video: EIectronic Intifada on FOX News
Electronic Intifada 10/29/2004
EI's Ali Abunimah was invited on to FOX News' “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on 28 October 2004 to speak about the fallout in the event of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat not being able to continue to serve in his office. [includes link to video clip]
www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=popper20041027911
Kerry Rails Against Bush on Holocaust Restitution
Forward 10/29/2004
Survivors: Poland Got Pass on Shoa In Iraq Trade — Stepping up his bid for Jewish votes in Florida, Senator John Kerry accused the Bush administration Monday of “dragging its feet” on the contentious Hungarian Gold Train case, a Holocaust restitution suit against America's government that is moving through federal court in Miami. Hungarian Holocaust survivors brought the class-action case in 2001. They are seeking compensation for a trainload of valuables, looted by the Nazis, that came under the control of the U.S. Army shortly after World War II and then vanished. The federal judge in the case appointed a mediator to negotiate a settlement earlier this year, after the administration came under bipartisan criticism for delaying tactics.
www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1339149,00.html
Middle East sees benefits of Bush
The Guardian 10/29/2004
There is surprising support for a second Bush term in Iran and the Arab world — President Bush's election campaign received support from an unusual quarter last week when Hasan Rowhani, head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, said that four more years of George W would be good for Iran. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, was asked about the Bush-Kerry contest at a meeting with journalists a couple of weeks ago (before he was taken ill) and replied: “It makes no difference.”
weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/714/in1.htm
Not for the love of Kerry
Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 10/28/2004
Arab and Muslim Americans are expected to vote overwhelmingly for Kerry, basically to drop Bush. —Observers in the Arab world noted with concern the absence at the United States presidential debates of a serious discussion on what the candidates would do to revive the stalled Middle East peace process. “Supporting Israel is a cornerstone of US foreign policy for any candidate, whether Republican or Democrat,” said Ziad Assali, director of an Arab-American think- tank, the American Task Force on Palestine.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=9732
Lebanon can't implement Resolution 1559 just yet
Daily Star 10/30/2004
Policy statement warns of destabilization — BEIRUT: The government's ministerial policy statement is expected to insist that Lebanon cannot fully implement UN Resolution 1559 because doing so will”lead to a security destabilization that the country will not be able to cope with.” The government's 12 member ministerial committee met on Friday to draft its policy statement. One source, who contributed to drafting the statement, said: “Lebanon does not wish to confront the UN council over the resolution; especially since it has become a part of international law. But the resolution's implementation is not possible since it would lead to a security destabilization that the country will not be able to cope with.”
weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/714/re4.htm
Short on miracles
Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 10/28/2004
Lebanon has a new prime minister, but the worst political crisis to hit the country since the civil war is far from being over. — Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami is not promising “miracles”, although he could use one to placate growing internal and international opposition to Syria's role in Lebanon and mounting United Nations pressure on Damascus to withdraw troops from its smaller neighbour. Karami took over from the globally connected Rafiq Al- Hariri who was forced out of office in a bitter row with President Emile Lahoud, as Lebanon's immunity to geopolitical changes in the Middle East appears to be eroding.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=9722
Women need better representation in politics
Daily Star 10/30/2004
Laws discriminate against females – Conference promotes report on status of women, developments in applying CEDAW — BEIRUT: Lebanese women are still under-represented in political life and Lebanese laws discriminate against them, said participants in a Thursday news conference on Lebanese women's status. Representatives from the UN's Population Fund (UNFPA), the Research and Training Institute for Development Issues (RTIDI), and the Civil Association to Follow-up Women's Issues (CAFWI), attended the conference held at the Lebanese Press Syndicate (LPS).
Articles
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/494977.html
Don't interfere, they're looking for an heir
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha'aretz 10/29/2004
From the Palestinians' point of view, Arafat's removal from the political stage leaves a big vacuum that will be hard to fill. During his political life over more than 50 years, Arafat managed to revive the National Palestinian Movement. It had fallen apart after Israel's War of Independence in 1948, known as the tragedy – the “Nakba” – of Israel's Arabs. He is considered the “father” of the new Palestinian nation.
In the modern era the Palestinians have only had one leader who can compare to Arafat in status and prestige – the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who led Israel's Arabs at the time of the British Mandate against Jewish settlement and against the British.
Since his election in 1968 as chairman of the PLO's executive committee, Arafat's status and political power soared to heights that cast a shadow even on the mufti's position in his heyday. …There is no senior Palestinian figure who can win this respect.
The consequence may be that law and order will totally collapse in the West Bank and Gaza after Arafat. The Palestinian Authority's mechanisms for rule may even crumble to the extent that outside intervention is required. How should Israel prepare for these developments?
Israel should not try to encourage or promote a certain Palestinian figure. If even a shadow of doubt surfaces that Israel is trying to push someone's candidacy, he would immediately be declared a foreign agent and lose any chance of being a legitimate leader in his nation's eyes.
www.counterpunch.org/christison10262004.html
Why I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
By Kathleen Christison, CounterPunch 10/26/2004
I read two articles on Sunday that made quite an impact. The first was a Thomas Friedman column. Reading Friedman is always an interesting, usually an angering, experience. This one didn't anger me right off the bat, but his thesis disturbed me.
Friedman said some startling things, for him. It was gratifying to see that, after three post-9/11 years of blaming the root causes of terrorism on Arab backwardness and lack of democracy, he is finally ready to acknowledge that the obscenely close U.S. relationship with Israel and what he frankly called Israeli “bashing” of Palestinians has something to do with arousing Arab and Muslim anger and the kind of hatred of Israel and the U.S. that provokes terrorism. He even went so far as to remark that the Bush administration's embrace of Ariel Sharon is so tight that “it's impossible to know anymore where U.S. policy stops and Mr. Sharon's begins.” Way to go, Tom!
But something about the main thrust of Friedman's column gnawed at me until finally I realized what was wrong. After recounting a conversation with another journalist, just returned from Iraq, about the fact that Americans are frequently referred to by angry Iraqis as “the Jews,” a handy moniker for anyone seen to oppress Arabs, Friedman worries that this identification of Americans with Jews and Israel seriously endangers all three parties and makes them vulnerable to Islamic terrorism. The widespread perception across the Arab and Muslim world that these three are one and that they together constitute the “great enemy of Islam” seriously endangers all three.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article3260.shtml
Iman: Executing another child in Rafah
By Omar Barghouti, Electronic Intifada 10/29/2004
Iman al-Hams was a 13-year old refugee schoolgirl who was executed — after being wounded — by an Israeli platoon commander on the sad sands of Rafah.
According to testimonies given by soldiers in the same company to the mass Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, a soldier in the watchtower identified Iman and cautioned his commander shouting, “Don't shoot. It's a little girl.” The company commander, the soldiers testified, “approached her, shot two bullets into her [head], walked back towards the force, turned back to her, switched his weapon to automatic and emptied his entire magazine into her.”(1)
Eyewitnesses corroborated the soldiers' account, saying that Iman was shot almost 70 meters away from the Israeli military position. After a bullet hit her leg, Iman, who was wearing her school uniform, fell. Then, they said, the officer went over to her, saw that she was bleeding from her wounds, but still shot her twice in the head to “confirm the killing,” an Israeli euphemism for the practice of executing a wounded Palestinian. A cursory army investigation later cleared him of any “unethical” conduct, as is customary, and suspended him only because of “poor relations with subordinates.”(2)
electronicintifada.net/v2/article3264.shtml
How could it have been different?
By Ahmad Sub Laban, Electronic Intifada 10/29/2004
Sixty-eight years ago,..claimed an Israeli newspaper article.., Ghoul's grandfather had saved a neighboring Jewish village from any harm during the Palestinian revolt of 1936. The fates of the two Ghouls is an interesting illustration of the understandings of the two peoples about their histories. — On October 21, Israel assassinated Adnan Ghoul, the number two man on its hit list in the Palestinian territories, after three previous assassination attempts on his life over the past four years had failed. Sixty-eight years ago, however, claimed an Israeli newspaper article two days later, Ghoul's grandfather had saved a neighboring Jewish village from any harm during the Palestinian revolt of 1936.
The fates of the two Ghouls is an interesting illustration of the understandings of the two peoples about their histories. The Israeli writer, the grandson of one of the leaders of that Jewish village, was nonplussed as to how a grandson could turn out so different, and relatives of Adnan for their part could not see how that author did not understand that it could not have been otherwise.
Israel considered Ghoul, 47, Hamas' chief manufacturer of Qassam rockets. He was killed, along with his companion, Imad Abbas, when an unmanned Israeli surveillance plane fired a missile at his car, which also injured six passersby on Yaffa Street in the Tuffah Quarter of Gaza City. |