Iraq: A massive failure - conditions worse than ever

Originally Published: June 15, 2006

This is an excellent report by Bill Neely on the appalling conditions that exist in southern Iraq's biggest hospital.

Shortages of drugs and blood.

More kids die because of diarrhea now than they did under Saddam.

This is a top report highlighting the chaos there.

This video was originally aired in Response to a video called, “Iraq’s Missing Billions."






Iraq’s Missing Billions

Condi Asks For Israel Help?

All is Right with My World

Sleeping blue Parakeet

by Housewife4Palestine

It is always interesting how a simple change in a schedule can make changes in our daily life, like for instance my husband doesn’t drive and automobile; so he must rely on other’s to take him to and from work. For a time it was a cousin that mostly took him to and from his job because they work there also. And ever so often I would help with the driving. But since my cousin and his family has moved, I take my husband to work every morning and pick him up closer to home at night. This takes a little more time out of my usual day.

Then not long ago, we got a new addition to our family, a very beautiful blue Parakeet we named, Ali. While he is not particularly friendly yet, being in a new home; he has found that he loves to watch movies during the day. Actually if you turn the movie off, he complains. Also, I think he enjoys the company of not just the movie; but he has my undivided attention.

I have to admit Ali being here has really brightened up our home, especially with his singing and his constant need for attention that he seems to be developing. I actually laugh when I open the shade off our back patio and he sees the geese eating in the yard or playing in the lake, he actually gets very excited.

Then having the normal day to day routine of keeping our home in order, I sometimes am a little slow in posting these days which for this I apologize, but I think when we all get use to our new schedule it should improve. I have to admit I was always taught that family and home has to come first.

I think of how many Western women that take an occupation over their family which seems to often times lead to divorce, which I find sad. I am sure her husband and family in these cases feels neglected and that must be a horrible feeling.

I even wonder sometimes if these Western women have forgotten that being a wife and mother is so very important a job and as my mother use to put it that being a mother especially was the most important job a woman could ever have in this life. Mainly because their children are the future and how they are taught and brought up not only reflects on the family but how these same children will manage their lives and be happy.

What may sound silly to some people, I find the little things my husband does even to his unorganized idea of making a bed because he thinks he is helping puts a smile and sometimes a little chuckle inside of me.

Then you have the simple little niceties that your children do to show you are loved, can make more of an impact I think; then if I just made that billion dollar corporate deal.

I have heard a lot of Islamophoic’s suggest that all or most Muslims don’t love their children, I am yet to figure out where this comes from; because I have never met a fellow brother or sister that did not think the world of children.

Myself, I have to admit as old as I am and my arthritis reminds me every once and while, I still tend to be the big child when other children are present. Yes I will admit that occasionally when I find that favorite toy that I know a child I know would love it tends to find its way to the checkout stand and into that particular child’s hands.

Then I get the opinion that they think we are cold hearted and again I find this do to misunderstanding or the Western propaganda machine because like even I with my new parakeet, I think about his happiness and the welfare of other’s; I would hardly think I would be the one doing any kind of harm to another?

Thinking of my husband now, I went an purchased a new lamp for my living room because out of the kindness of someone’s heart they gave us a pair of lamps after we came out of hurricane Katrina, but I have to admit I think they was originally from the 1970’s and really did not fit the décor of my home. My husband was so happy with my purchase that he thought it was a good idea to replace the lamp in our bedroom as well. I am amazed how many modern homes do not come with ceiling fixtures, so you have to have a good lamp or live in what could very well be like a cave.

Then when the electric goes off and it does what seems to often here, we have to have candles and by chance a family member gave my husband a pin light type of flash light; then when the electric does go out with a hand full of batteries you can read that book that otherwise you may not have time. So sitting in candle light with your reading flash light can be an adventure within itself.

So now if you wonder sometimes what is going on in my life these days, now hopefully you know all is right with my world and someday the rest of the world could be just as happy?

In which direction is the Mideast heading?

September 1, 2006


The root cause of violence in the Middle East and of anti-western terrorism outside it is the unresolved Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestinian and Syrian territory for close to 40 years is, without doubt, the main grievance feeding the fury and sense of injustice of the Arab and Muslim world.

It is not, of course, the only grievance. America's smashing of Iraq, and its attendant horrors, runs a close second, followed by the incomprehensible savagery of Israel's recent onslaught on Lebanon, which has left the country in ruins and turned a fifth of its population into refugees.

Feeding the bitter sense of outrage and the thirst for revenge is the fact that the United States, a superpower supposedly responsible for international order, has itself created a climate of international anarchy by its own behaviour and its extraordinary support for Israel's wars.

History is likely to conclude that, by its actions, President George W. Bush's administration has created more terrorists than any other in the whole history of the US.

Many observers fear that if an urgent and determined attempt is not made soon to resolve the region's conflicts once and for all, violence and terror will become endemic, as has already happened in Iraq. In that event, the Arabs, Israel and the West will all be condemned to great suffering as their conflicts become irreconcilable.

These concerns have caused several current and former world leaders to call for the convening of an international conference to seek, in the words of President Jacques Chirac of France, "a global and durable settlement" of the region's conflicts.

Mahmoud Abbas, the beleaguered president of the Palestinian National Authority, has echoed this call for an international conference to save Gaza and the West Bank from further intolerable hardship.

Appeals for America to assume its responsibilities for peace have also come from former US president Jimmy Carter and also from such distinguished former national security advisers as Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In France, a former foreign minister, Hervé de Charette, has recently published in Le Figaro a blueprint for an overall settlement, based on an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders with minor adjustments.

Why then has the peace process not been revived with great urgency? Part of the problem is that the men in power in the US and Israel seem to have no interest in a peaceful settlement of the region's conflicts, but continue to think that they can rout their enemies and impose their will by brute force.

In other words, they cling to a belief in a military solution of the region's problems, even though the evidence from Iraq to Afghanistan, and from Palestine to Lebanon all points in an altogether different direction.

Mistaken assumptions

Rarely have the minds of key decision-makers been so confused by mistaken assumptions and plain errors, some probably unwitting, others deliberate.

Under the influence of right-wing pro-Israeli neoconservatives and especially of Eliott Abrams, chief adviser on the Middle East at the White House's National Security Council Bush appears to believe that all the violence in the Middle East can be attributed to "Islamo-fascists who hate freedom". Such primitive thinking would be laughable if the consequences were not so deplorable.

Even a normally balanced Israeli military analyst such as Ze'ev Schiff has recently written that the Lebanon war "was part of a developing global conflict". This is a mistake. The resistance movements in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Palestine and Lebanon, and indeed Al Qaida itself, do not all dance to the same tune. The one thing they have in common is a burning wish to get rid of oppressive foreign occupation.

It is now clear that Bush's "global democratic revolution" is nothing but a crude attempt to impose US and Israeli dominance. Another gross mistake often made by Bush and his advisers is to believe that if the US does not defeat the "terrorists" in Iraq, they will attack the US on its home ground.

This is the opposite of the truth. It is because of American violence in Iraq and Israel's violence in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories that the US and its British ally have become targets of terrorist attacks.

Another example of mischievous misinformation is the hyping of the alleged threat from Iran's nuclear activities.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regularly portrays Iran as a deadly threat to his country.

Influential Americans, in turn, continue to portray Iran as posing a grave strategic threat to US national security a threat which needs to be actively confronted.

These fears are misjudged. It is widely accepted in intelligence circles that even if Iran intended to build a bomb, which is by no means certain, it would need five to ten years to do so.

If Iran is indeed seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon, it is not to attack others, but to protect itself from attack.

As Iran seems determined to pursue its perfectly legitimate attempt to master the uranium fuel cycle for peaceful purposes, a confrontation with the US and Israel cannot be ruled out.

If military action seems for the moment improbable, and if Russia and China refuse to agree sanctions against Iran at the Security Council, then Washington will very probably impose its own punitive sanctions outside the UN framework.

Part of the present dangerous uncertainty in the Middle East stems from the shock Israel has suffered in Lebanon, a shock similar to the one the US is suffering in Iraq.

All in all, the Middle East seems to be heading for more conflict rather than any serious attempt at conflict resolution. Israel and its superpower ally seem a long way from recognising that a lasting peace is made by negotiation and mutual compromise and not by one side imposing its terms on a defeated enemy.

New U.S. Lie: “Islamo-Fascism”

September 1, 2006

"The (Saudi) Kingdom is on its guard against those who throw the accusation of terrorism or fascism at Muslims without considering the glorious history of Islamic civilization that stands against the labels being hurled at Islam today, such as fascism, which itself is, primarily, a Western cultural product."

This was Saudi Arabia’s response to misleading and unwise remarks made by the U.S. President George W.Bush following the announcement by the British authorities of having foiled a “terror plot” to use homemade liquid explosives to bring down several airliners over the Atlantic on the way from Britain to the United States, said an article on Saudi Arabia's Al-Riyadh.

Are we “at war with Islamic fascists”? That’s what President Bush said right after news of the “terror plot” in UK had broke up.

President Bush used the term "Islamo-fascism," which is being used with increasing frequency in the blogosphere and in conservative journals as an all-purpose label for Muslim 'extremists', and the biased U.S. mainstream media attempted to switch around the phrase to read "fascist Islamists."

It’s just another U.S. lie.

Webster defines fascism as “a system of government characterized by rigid one-party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized government control, belligerent nationalism, racism and militarism.”

Fascism originally emerged in Italy as a mass movement that Mussolini rode to power in 1922. But the term is widely used to cover almost any authoritarian movement or bully.

So fascism is merely a political doctrine. Numerous Muslim critics, angered by Bush's remarks, said that the American President’s term defames their religion.

Since September 11 attacks on the United States, President Bush has been trying in every possible way to blame everything on Islam, both as a religion and as an ideology, rather than a particular sect of Muslims. Same policy had been pursued by the U.S.'s main ally; UK, which while disingenuously toying with expressions such as "religious tolerance," "mutual interest," and "religious co-existence," behaves completely opposite of this, instigating negative sentiments against Islam and the Muslim Community, joining by that the U.S.’s defense by openly opposing Islam as a religion and an ideology, rather than genuinely tackling the problem of extremism.

The West insists on viewing Muslims with “the mindset of a colonizer with guardianship over Arab land,” the editorial added.

The U.S. looks upon the [Arab or Persian] Gulf and Iraq as merely oil fields with rich natural resources, and this explains Bush’s administration’s attention to Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Somalia, and Sudan, for all these are producers of petroleum and other strategic economic commodities.

The West’s view of the Arab and the Muslim world remains, and this is what drives U.S. behavior; what has motivated America and Britain into a headlong rush to the East”.

One can describe the current conflict between the Muslims or the Arabs on one hand and the West on the other as a Colonial War.

It was Britain and France who divided up the Arabs like they were a piece of cheese following World War I and World Way II.

The Arab world has been since divided into triangles and squares, states, pseudo-states and regions. However, this division never satisfied the U.S. ambitions.

America prefers being involved in the cheese-cutting herself to redraw the Middle East map as it wishes.

"It seeks a country overlooking the Mediterranean, a second on the Atlantic Ocean, a third on the boundaries of the Red Sea, a fourth state on the waters of the Gulf, and a fifth country, landlocked and desert-like, such that its waters are neither from a sea or river but only shallow salt lakes and winding dry river beds," Al Riyadh article further stated.

According to The Lawrence Journal-World, “raising the “Islamo-fascist” cry fosters false hope that terrorism can be halted with one great military strike — a Berlin or Hiroshima.”

The term Islamo-fascism “has political wings and plays to the president’s mantra of good vs. evil. But it obscures the complex nature of the struggle Americans will face over the next decade. It misleads more than it informs.”

Link:

Vendors display Islamic educational products in the bazaar at the 43rd annual ISNA convention encourages participants to register to vote Friday, Sept, 1, 2006 in Rosemont, Ill. The four-day convention will focus on a range of issues facing American Muslims and their evolving role and identity in the American society.(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Muslim group: Bush distorts 'Islamic'

United States Catch 22 with Iran?

Sanctions may push Iran out of treaty

September 1, 2006

Gulf News

United Nations: The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog Mohammad Al Baradei was to report to the Security Council on Thursday on whether Iran has stopped enriching uranium.

Here are some of the key questions surrounding sanctions.

What is the UN Security Council's mandate?

The council passed a legally binding resolution on July 31 demanding Iran suspend "all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities including research and development" within 30 days. Iran hid nuclear work from non-proliferation inspectors for 18 years and has since dodged UN probes.

Will Iran comply?

Unlikely. The Islamic Republic insists on its right to enrich nuclear fuel for civilian energy generation, as a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

What will the council do next?

If Iran remains defiant, the July 31 resolution authorises the council to "adopt appropriate measures" under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which refers to commercial or diplomatic sanctions, but excludes military force.

What sanctions would the council consider?

The council would probably focus on "graduated" steps hinging on Iranian responses. It would look first at largely symbolic sanctions such as a visa ban for Iranian officials and a freeze on their assets abroad, as well as a ban on exports to Iran with nuclear applications. Resort to wide-ranging economic embargoes and diplomatic isolation might come only later.

But Moscow and Beijing have baulked at sanctions. They want more effort to reach a diplomatic compromise. Many key European Union states, including Germany, France and Italy, may prove loath to join in tough sanctions that would jeopardise major export contracts with Iran and the flow of Iranian oil.

Military action as a last resort?

The United States and Israel have talked of air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. But Security Council approval seems out of the question with even major US allies fearing military action would ignite the Middle East and still fail to destroy widely dispersed, well-hidden atomic sites.

How might Iran react to sanctions steps?

Iran could drop out of the NPT as well as speed up enrichment work, curb oil exports to the West and foment violence via proxies in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestinian areas.

Muslims in America

Part 1




Part 2

A is for Allah by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)

A gift for a Friend who seeks truth.

(If you have trouble viewing click here.)

Grandmother

 

Once Upon A Time...

Palestinian Ethnic Cleansing

'Israelis want Palestinian ethnic cleansing'

Ahmed Bahar: Deep sorrow over Arab and Islamic silence

30 August 2006

By Motasem A Dalloul in Gaza

Israel has stepped up its policy of forcibly detaining members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

On August 20, Israeli forces seized Mahmoud al-Ramhi, Hamas secretary and the fourth-highest ranking official in the Palestinian legislature.

Two days later, an Israeli court charged Abd al-Aziz Dweik, the speaker of parliament, with membership in an outlawed organisation - the Islamist movement and governing party, Hamas.

To date, Israel has detained 30 Hamas politicians and five cabinet ministers, including Nasser Shaer, the deputy prime minister.

Thirty other senior and mid-level members of Hamas were also seized on June 29 as part of an Israeli campaign against the Islamist movement following the capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit by fighters on the border of the Gaza Strip on June 25.

Ahmed Bahar, the former deputy and acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), considers the kidnapping of the parliamentarians as well as an alleged assassination attempt against Ismail Haniya, the prime minister, part of a conspiracy to undermine the Hamas-led Palestinian government (PG).

Aljazeera.net: In pursuing its policy of detaining Hamas and government officials, what message is the Israeli government sending the Palestinian people?

Ahmed Bahar: The main message is that they want to undermine the Palestinian political regime at both levels: The government and the PLC.

They also want to humiliate Dweik, who they have put in a small dirty cell, as well as the Arabs and Muslims and all those who sympathise with them.

Despite strong condemnations and continuous contact with a lot of parliaments and parliamentarians, they are pursuing their policy as they clearly don't want a PG or a PLC.

The coincidence of the imprisonment of Dweik with the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Ismail Haniya shows that there is a previously manipulated plan to undermine the Palestinian regime.

What is the Palestinian government doing to secure the release of its officials in Israel jails?

We've conducted many demonstrations inside the country and abroad. We've called for demonstrations in Gaza and Ramallah, invited consuls and ambassadors, called human rights and Red Cross activists and so on.

We've sent more than 80 letters to Arab, Asian and European parliaments in order to keep them abreast of the crimes of the Zionist state. We've organised a sit-in last week and many Arab speakers of parliaments spoke with us by telephone as well as some European parliamentarians.

We've sent letters to Arab foreign ministers but regrettably, they have discussed neither the letter nor any other Palestinian issue.

We really feel deep sorrow for the Arab and Islamic silence toward the Palestinian issues.

Do you fear being seized by Israeli forces?

Yes, of course. The occupation troops may imprison or assassinate me because they want to disrupt the work of the PLC completely. If they take me away from the scene and remove second deputy speaker Hasan Khoraisha [not a member of Hamas] as well, the PLC will be formed by the second majority party and they can do whatsoever they want in the PLC and the government also.

Does the absence of about one-third of the PLC members affect it?

Of course. The absence of about 40 members from the Change and Reform bloc, a Hamas bloc in the PLC, affects the work of the parliament. But I assert that the performance of the parliament will continue regularly despite the absence of those members.

We are sure that the Israelis are implementing a well-constructed plan in order to undermine the work of the PLC as well as toppling the PG.

But I want to tell them that if they want to undermine stability in the Palestinian political arena this time, they themselves will bear the responsibility for the instability and disorder that will surely follow and affect all the Middle East.

A big part of this plot is implemented by local Palestinian hands beside the Israeli and the American hands. In addition, Arab silence is considered a supportive factor for this conspiracy.

But I am sure that the national and international position against Hamas's victory in the PLC proves that Hamas is on the right way. Hamas has adopted real democracy; however, they adopt the false democracy. Hamas will continue in its path.

How has Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, reacted to these developments?

In fact, Mr Abbas sometimes adopts ambiguous positions. He issues decrees that hinder the work of the PG. For example, he has the ability to help alleviate the financial siege on the PA as he has the authority on the Palestinian Investment Fund and the Monetary Palestinian Fund which have billions of US dollars in their coffers.

He can facilitate the transfer of funds collected by the PG or the Arab League as the US and EU currently refuse to transfer monies except under his control. He doesn't act positively.

We should all be united against the Israeli siege on Palestine, but sometimes and unfortunately, we feel that his positions harm that national goal.

Israel has maintained a siege and crackdown on Palestinian territories after fighters in the Gaza Strip infiltrated southern Israel and captured an Israeli soldier. Are you working towards getting this siege lifted?

We have two bitter choices ahead of us: Either patience and vigilance, or submission.

But I think that we won't submit or make any change in our stance as this will be considered betraying the Palestinian voters who elected us and our political platform of national resistance to Israeli occupation.

Our people who live in Palestine and practised resistance by their hands and lived long years under the Israeli occupation recognise clearly what such a programme means. We are determined to follow this path.

Why won't you return Gilad Shalit to the Israelis?

Our key demands - the freeing of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails – have not been met.

Some Palestinian observers believe Israel will exchange the PLC officials for the safe return of Shalit. Do you see this as likely?

At first, I want to say that the Palestinian fighters captured the Israeli soldier from a tank; however, the Palestinian PLC members and ministers were kidnapped from their homes.

Their issue isn't related to Shalit at all, but it is a kind of pressure on the Palestinian people to abdicate their principles.

Secondly, different mediators – such as our Egyptian brothers - spoke about the release of the soldier. I hope to reach a satisfactory deal. But, I say that any satisfactory and acceptable deal for Palestinians is to release a reasonable number of the prisoners in return of the Israeli soldier. I myself suggest the release of all the prisoners in the Israeli jails. Then, there will be no need for kidnappings of any Israelis.

Ismail Haniya has proposed dissolving the Palestinian Authority. Will this help in lifting the siege?

The PM asked only for discussing the gains of the existence of the PA in its current form, not for the dissolution of it. He has put the issue up for debate: How can we face this siege and whether this step would be a successful solution to the crisis or not.

We believe the only solution is to form a national unity government; and we have started the discussion with other political parties in that regard.

But Abbas has said that George Bush, the US president, will not deal with any Palestinian government which contains members of Hamas.

I want to say to those who support the removal of Hamas from the government that Israel will one day want them out as well. If the Israelis want Hamas out today and place Fatah in power, tomorrow they will turn around and fight Fatah.

They themselves nominated Arafat for the Noble Prize, and then at the end they killed him.

I want all sides to know clearly that the Israelis want ethnic cleansing for all Palestinians.

__________

Israeli official proposes 'ethnic cleansing'

04 January 2004

A member of the Likud party has proposed "massive ethnic cleansing" of non-Jews in Palestine-Israel as a "final solution" of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Uzi Cohen, a member of Ariel Sharon's right-wing party and a deputy mayor of the town of Raanana, told Israeli public radio on Sunday there was widespread support in Israel for "the idea of ethnic cleansing".

"Many people support the idea but few are willing to speak about it publicly," he said.
Cohen, an influential figure in Likud, proposed that Israel, the United States, the European Union as well as oil-rich Arab states make concerted efforts to create a Palestinian state in northern Jordan.

He suggested the Hashimi royal family in Amman "might view favorably this idea".

Cohen said Palestinians should be given 20 years to "leave voluntarily".

"In case they don't leave, plans would have to be drawn up to expel them by force."

'Israel's ugly face'

Cohen's racist ideas have drawn strong reactions from Palestinian leaders in Israel. Israeli Arab Knesset member Ahmad Taibi described Cohen as representing "Israel's ugly face".

This man espouses Jewish fascism and he is trying to foster his venomous ideas, and I must say he is achieving remarkable success," Taibi told Aljazeera.net.

"The idea of ethnic cleansing is no longer confined to the far-right parties in Israel; many in the Likud support ethnic cleansing."

Taibi said tabling a racist proposal for discussion is in itself a grave development.
"It is not important what the result will be. The important thing is that they are going to dignify a fascist proposal like this by discussing it in a formal meeting."

Demographic threat

Israeli leaders have lately been warning of an "encroaching Palestinian demographic threat".
On Friday, a leading Jewish demographer warned Jews were on the verge of becoming a minority in mandatory Palestine, the historic region administered by Britain until late 1947 from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has so far been circumspect about the idea of banishing the Palestinians from their ancestral land.

Last year, when members of his Likud party approached him with the idea, Sharon reportedly told them: "The international situation wouldn't be conducive to expelling the Palestinians.

In 1948, the newly-born Jewish state expelled the bulk of the Palestinian population from what is now Israel and destroyed more than 460 Arab towns and villages.

Israel has consistently refused to allow the repatriation of the refugees, arguing that allowing some or all of them back to their homes, many of which no longer exist, would undermine the "Jewish identity" of Israel.

Links:

Israeli MP proposes 'ethnic cleansing'

__________

Israel: Ethnic cleansing is now official government policy

By Jean Shaoul
3 December 2002

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his ministers have openly declared that Palestinians must be driven out to make way for Jewish settlements in land occupied illegally since the 1967 war.

Sharon and his cabinet utilised the November 15 ambush of Israeli security forces in Hebron by Islamic Jihad and the ensuing gun battle that killed 12 members of the Israeli armed forces and injured 15, as well as three of the Palestinian attackers, to make their announcements.

Sharon himself called for “territorial contiguity” between Kiryat Arba, a settlement overlooking Hebron, the tiny Zionist enclaves and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a religious site venerated by both Moslems and Jews, inside the city. Palestinians living between the settlement, the enclaves and the Tomb would be forced to leave their homes to make way for the settlers—a policy known throughout the world as ethnic cleansing. He told army commanders in Hebron that Israel had to “take advantage of the opportunity” to “minimise the number of Palestinians living among Jewish settlers” and establish “Jewish points of presence”. He described this as “an appropriate Zionist response” to such attacks.

Sharon’s newly appointed foreign affairs minister and main leadership rival, Benyamin Netanyahu, was even more explicit. “We are going to cleanse the whole area and do the work ourselves.” he declared.

Israeli security forces immediately imposed a curfew, arrested and blindfolded at least 40 Palestinians, bulldozed the homes of Palestinian families and uprooted their olive groves.

This gave the ultra-nationalist settlers the green light to establish an “outpost”—the basis for a new settlement—on the vacant land and daub it with the racist slogan “Death to Arabs.” The settlers own language echoed the government’s calls for ethnic cleansing. The leader of the Hebron settlement, Zvi Katsover, said, “We have to cleanse the ground to ensure an Israeli territorial continuity between Kiryat Arba and Hebron.” A thousand new homes are to be built in the area. “I trust Sharon to implement the project,” he added.

At a rally in Hebron, Benny Elon, leader of the ultra-right wing Moledet (Homeland) party, declared, “There won’t be just a Jewish neighbourhood here. There will be a Jewish town here.”

According to the New York Times, “In a turbulent crowd, they [the settlers] pounded on the doors of nearby Palestinian houses and then smeared the pale stone with blue graffiti: ‘Every Arab killed for me it’s a holiday,’ and, over and over, ‘Vengeance’.”

Later the government issued an order for the demolition of a further 15 Palestinian homes on the route from Kiryat Arba to the Jewish enclave in Hebron.

Silence from Western leaders

The expulsion of communities from their homeland, like genocide, is recognised as a crime against humanity. The 1948 International Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants, including the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, outlaw expulsions, population transfers, resettlement and forced relocation of any kind.

But the statements by Sharon and Netanyahu elicited no response from Israel’s main backer, the United States, or any other Western power. And even the liberal media did little more than report the words of Sharon and Netanyahu. Not one of the editorial writers of the New York Times or Britain’s Guardian has seen fit to comment on Israel’s explicit advocacy of ethnic cleansing.

The deafening silence on Sharon’s gross abuse of human rights is particularly marked, given that it takes place against the backdrop of the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. The central purpose of The Hague tribunal is to find Milosevic guilty of having politically sanctioned the ethnic cleansing of Albanians from the Yugoslav province of Kosovo—to confirm the existence of a “chain of command” between the Serb irregular forces in Kosovo and Belgrade, and so justify the US-led bombardment of Yugoslavia.

That trial has cost millions of dollars, lasted more than nine months and taken evidence from more than 100 witnesses. Despite this, to date the prosecution has failed to demonstrate that Milosevic himself either masterminded the ethnic cleansing or ever explicitly ordered the expulsion of the Albanian population of Kosovo.

There would be no such difficulty were Sharon to be brought to trial for his treatment of the Palestinians, or if Netanyahu joined him in the dock. The Israeli government has explicitly issued instructions to the armed forces and publicly announced policies that are universally recognised as constituting ethnic cleansing. Yet the world’s statesmen, the United Nations, the press and mainstream political commentators keep silent.

The West’s political blind spot serves to underline the hypocrisy of their claim to have gone to war against Milosevic based on moral considerations. The break-up of Yugoslavia was desired by the Western powers in order to secure control of the strategically vital Balkan region.

As the World Socialist Web Site explained in its statement of May 24, 1999, “Why is NATO at war with Yugoslavia? World power, oil and gold”:

“The immediate material gains that might be plundered from Kosovo are dwarfed by the far greater potential for enrichment that beckons in regions further to the east where the NATO powers have developed immense interests over the past five years.... [T]he dismantling of the USSR has created a power vacuum in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia that makes a new division of the world inevitable. The principal significance of Yugoslavia, at this critical juncture, is that it lies on the Western periphery of a massive swathe of territory into which the major world powers aim to expand.”

The statement continued, “Involved in the reintegration of the territory of the former USSR into world capitalism is the absorption, by massive Western transnational companies, of trillions of dollars in valuable raw materials that are vital to the imperialist powers. The greatest untapped oil reserves in the world are located in the former Soviet republics bordering the Caspian Sea (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan). These resources are now being divided among the major capitalist countries. This is the fuel that is feeding renewed militarism and must lead to new wars of conquest by the imperialist powers against local opponents, as well as ever-greater conflicts among the imperialists themselves.”

The same base economic and political considerations that in reality shaped the hostility of the Western powers towards Milosevic’s regime now determine their acquiescence in face of Sharon’s criminal actions. In short, nothing must be allowed to get in the way of the drive by the US and the major imperialist powers to secure control of the oil riches of the Middle East. On occasion Sharon’s actions against the Palestinians have been criticised because they have been considered counterproductive by Washington at a time when it is seeking to secure the support of the Arab regimes for war against Iraq. But fundamentally the US views Israel as the dominant military power in the region and its main and most reliable proxy.

Israel’s record of ethnic cleansing

Israel was founded in 1948 on the basis of the forcible expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians as the precondition for establishing a religious state with a Jewish majority population. Ever since it has repeatedly resorted to expulsion, population transfer, resettlement and forced relocation of the Palestinians.

In the aftermath of World War II and the Nazi holocaust, the United Nations voted in 1947 for the partition of Palestine into separate states for the Jews and the Palestinians. During the 1947-49 war between the Jews and the Arab states that followed, the actions of Zionist terror gangs played a major role in driving the Palestinians from their homes. In all, some 700,000 Palestinians became refugees in other countries and were not allowed to return to Israel. According to the UN, the original refugees and their descendants now number some four million. Many of those who remained were expelled from their homes and resettled elsewhere within Israel. The Law of Return, passed in 1950, and the Citizenship Law of 1952 granted every Jew the right to immediate citizenship upon arrival in Israel.

In 1967, after the defeat of the Arab states in the June war, there was another population transfer. About 250,000 of the 1948 refugees who had lived in refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza for 20 years fled.

Afterwards, there were attempts by successive governments to implement a forced transfer. The Israeli forces expelled Palestinians living near the cease-fire lines and destroyed their villages and towns. Kalkilya was only the most well-known example. The Israeli authorities offered financial incentives and free transportation to Palestinians who were willing to leave, but there were few takers. Some of the refugees in the Gaza Strip were transferred to camps in the Jordan valley. The security forces demolished the homes of suspected militants and those of their families and neighbours and deported them to Lebanon.

In 1982, following the invasion of Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese moved north to the suburbs of Beirut to avoid the war and Israeli control of southern Lebanon. An international investigation by six jurists, including the cofounder of Amnesty International, found Israel guilty of attempted “ethnocide” and “genocide” against the Palestinian people. The report stated that there were no valid reasons “under international law for its invasion of Lebanon, for the manner in which it conducted hostilities, or its actions as an occupying force.”

Ever since 1967, Israel has illegally built settlements in the territories captured in the June war. More than 200,000 settlers now live in 200 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, while a further 180,000 live in what was once East Jerusalem and its environs. The settlement policy, which escalated after the 1993 Oslo Accords, involved demolishing Palestinian homes, seizing their land by military or legal means, and driving the Palestinians from the towns and villages.

Sharon’s government incorporates or rests on ultra-orthodox and settler-based political movements that explicitly advocate ethnic cleansing under the guise of “population transfer”. The Moledet (Homeland) party is the ideological successor to the proscribed far-right Kach movement of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. Its leader Rehavam Ze’evi was, until his assassination in October 2001, a minister in Sharon’s government. More recently, Gamla, a group founded by former Israeli military officers and settlers and funded by American Jews, published detailed plans for the “complete elimination of the Arab demographic threat to Israel” by forcibly expelling all Palestinians, including Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and Palestinian citizens of Israel within a three- to five-year period.

It is these extreme right-wing elements who now determine official government policy.

To the extent that the policies of ethnic cleansing have now become acceptable to the Israeli government, then the same applies to the US and its allies.

Washington’s support for Sharon signals that no crimes against humanity are too gross for the US to contemplate in the name of “the war on terrorism”. It is a warning of the kinds of methods that the Bush administration will employ to subjugate the Middle East region and so gain control of its oil riches.

See Also:
Israel to expand Jewish settlements in Hebron
[26 November 2002]

Chronology of a pogrom: How Sharon, US prepared assault on Palestinians
[4 April 2002]

Israeli Official Proposes Palestinian 'Ethnic Cleansing'
[10 January 2004]

__________

Further Reading:

Ethnic Cleansing in Jerusalem, Israeli Style

Ethnic cleansing in Silwan

Israel's approved ethnic cleansing (very long)

Israel: Poll Shows 64% of Israeli Jews Favor Ethnic Cleansing

Iran should name a street after Bush

Illustration by Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News


By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News

If US President George W. Bush ever found time between biking, jogging, tree-felling, sleeping and ordering around British Prime Minister Tony Blair to read the papers, he may have said "a curse on British intellectuals" or, at least, a more colourful Texan version.

There he was thinking he was a good fairy sprinkling democracy and freedom all over the Middle East, while trying to wrest the region from "evildoers", when the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) puts a major spoke in the wheel.

In a report titled Iran, its neighbours and the regional crises Chatham House's high-profile team of analysts conclude, "Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East." Oops!

Their reasoning boils down to this: "The wars and continued weaknesses in Afghanistan and Iraq" have strengthened Iran by knocking out two of Iran's major adversaries, the Taliban and Saddam Hussain's Ba'athist regime.

Moreover, Iran has "successfully cultivated relations with its neighbours, even those Arab and Sunni states which fear its influence", goes the report.

The report goes on to suggest that Iran holds more sway over Iraq than the United States and at the same time has consolidated its relationship with Syria, Turkey, Russia, India, Pakistan and China. Its authors omitted Venezuela.

"Iranian influence is seen as posing a strategic threat" to the US "and with the escalation of the nuclear issue and Israel's conflicts with its neighbours, even an existential threat to the US's own influence and hegemony across this key region", it concludes.

Put simply while the US has bungled in Afghanistan and Iraq by failing to deliver promised security and prosperity, thereby alienating local populations, Iran has used "politics and culture to pursue its strategic interests".

No wonder Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a spring in his step nowadays. After all with enemies like the Great Satan, who needs friends?

The US has done half his job for him by not only getting rid of his sworn foes but also being instrumental in pushing up the price of petrol, thus swelling Tehran's coffers.

So much so that Iran can afford to pepper its land with nuclear reactors and uranium enrichment plants, export sophisticated military hardware to its mates and re-house 15,000 Lebanese families.

According to a recent Egyptian poll, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the third most popular figure in the Middle East after Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah and Khalid Meshaal, the leader of Hamas.

Basking in his newfound popularity, Ahmadenijad is reaching out to his fans via his own internet blog and seemed to relish being interviewed by CBS veteran anchor Mike Wallace.

The fact is the Bush administration has made a mother of all messes in this region but like an entrepreneur on the edge of bankruptcy who is psychologically unprepared to cut his losses, the leader of the dwindling free world is doing ostrich impressions.

Less safe

For starters, the "war on terror" has been a mega failure with the world a far less safe place today than it was five years ago. And judging by the erosion of civil liberties and human rights in both the US and Britain the "terrorists" have won.

Oh, how they must be laughing up their sleeves watching British and American mothers having to taste their babies' milk at airport or planes being diverted because a woman had the audacity to smuggle a jar of face cream on board. Wake up people! This is madness. As for the democracy nonsense, there's a civil war playing out in democratic Iraq, although we're not supposed to call it that.

Democratic Palestine is being starved and strangled by those very powers that provided impetus for free and fair elections. And democratic Lebanon was abandoned by its US backer when it faced off against Israel, which is still being billed as "the region's only democracy".

It's hard to see what Bush and his born-again mentors have gained from any of this. I used to think that one of their main goals was to protect poor little Israel at least until its eventual annihilation as a prelude to the Second Coming. Now I'm not so sure.

Indeed, due to its scrap with Hezbollah, apparently planned in cahoots with Washington last spring, Israel has never been so vulnerable.

How about oil? Is the US benefiting from Iraq's? Not likely since oil fields and pipelines are regularly blown up and in any case, America only receives a minor portion of its oil from the Middle East. Furthermore, maintaining up to 135,000 troops in Iraq is keeping the country firmly in the red.

This series of abject failures has been too much for the neocons. Many have defected to write a litany of mea culpas. Others are blaming the White House for its faulty management. One of the most notable, poor old Bernard Lewis, warned Iran was preparing for an apocalyptic "end of time" that it would trigger by attacking Israel on August 22. Well, we're still here but is he all there?

And so dear emailing detractors, including Ed, a regular who recently forced me to reach for the Kleenex when he vowed never to darken my inbox again, if you can convince me that Bush's policies have positively influenced this region and reduced the terror threat, I promise to join Bill O'Reilly's fan club. Now there's a challenge for you.

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com

_________________

Link:

Iran fails to stop nuke work

Strike against "those behind the siege", not the government, governmental spokesman tells Palestinian workers

Demonstrations are turning violent (Ma'an)

August 31, 2006

Gaza - Ma'an – The Palestinian government is worried that the planned public sector strikes may turn against them, and start an internal Palestinian conflict. Spokesmen are telling the Palestinian demonstrators to direct their anger at Israel and "those who are behind the siege".

The spokesman for the ministry of the interior, Khalid Abu Hilal, warned on Thursday that the demonstrations by governmental employees may turn into an internal conflict that could "distort the Palestinian image".

The spokesman announced that they have received information about some elements who wish to use the protests as an excuse to attack governmental departments such as hospitals and schools. He said that many precautionary steps have been taken by the ministry to confront these groups, such as deploying police forces around various departments. He said that information had been received that some groups were planning to shoot at certain departments.

Abu Hilal stressed however that "the school year will start as scheduled".

"Whoever wants to protest peacefully", Abu Hilal said, "that is a personal freedom, but he should direct this protest at those who are the reason why the salaries are delayed and against those who are behind the siege imposed against the Palestinian people". Abu Hilal believes that the government is not responsible for the delay in the salaries, but Israel and the USA. He added that he believes that the protest should be held at the Beit Hanoun Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

He continued, "If anyone is killed, his family should not ask why he was killed - the family should carry the responsibility - but they should ask, why the killed person was carrying a weapon and shooting, and they should question the attempts to create internal conflict or strife."

Abu Hilal told Ma'an that "the siege is political not economic, the solution to this problem is not to pay the salaries, but it includes everything". He said that what the government requires is political recognition and concessions in the national principals.

Forbidden Meat

Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah. that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows: that is impiety. This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of your religion: yet fear them not but fear Me. This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. But if any is forced by hunger, with no inclination to transgression, Allah is indeed Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
( سورة المائدة , Al-Maeda, Chapter 5:3)

حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةُ وَالْدَّمُ وَلَحْمُ الْخِنْزِيرِ وَمَا أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللّهِ بِهِ وَالْمُنْخَنِقَةُ وَالْمَوْقُوذَةُ وَالْمُتَرَدِّيَةُ وَالنَّطِيحَةُ وَمَا أَكَلَ السَّبُعُ إِلاَّ مَا ذَكَّيْتُمْ وَمَا ذُبِحَ عَلَى النُّصُبِ وَأَن تَسْتَقْسِمُواْ بِالأَزْلاَمِ ذَلِكُمْ فِسْقٌ الْيَوْمَ يَئِسَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ مِن دِينِكُمْ فَلاَ تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَاخْشَوْنِ الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الإِسْلاَمَ دِيناً فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ فِي مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِّإِثْمٍ فَإِنَّ اللّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

End Gaza Offensive: UN Chief

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday. (AFP)

31, August, 2006

Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News

GAZA CITY, 31 August 2006 — UN chief Kofi Annan demanded an immediate end to the offensive in Gaza as nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops yesterday, taking the toll to more than 200 killed in two months.

Eight people died in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, where Israeli soldiers have been operating since late Saturday in the latest thrust of a wider assault designed to retrieve a captured soldier and fight Palestinians.

They included a 14-year-old boy shot in the chest, two men in their 30s also shot and five others who died from tank fire, medical officials said.

The operation is part of a two-month Israeli offensive in the territory that has targeted fighters but killed scores of civilians and left Gaza riddled with electricity shortages after its power plant was bombed.

Although Palestinian medical sources said most of those killed yesterday were civilians, the Israeli Army said its troops only opened fire in response to attacks, admitting that forces were coming under heavy attack.

“I know of four different incidents in which gunmen either fired anti-tank missiles or they were approaching the forces,” a spokeswoman said.

She said troops were operating in Shejaiya to “destroy terror infrastructure” and that everything the military did in the Gaza Strip is to create the right conditions for the return of Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Yesterday’s deaths bring to 19 the number of Palestinians killed in the Shejaiya neighborhood since Israeli tanks and troops rolled in on Saturday.

At least 204 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed in Gaza since June 28, when Israel launched its offensive to stop rocket attacks and recover the missing Shalit, captured three days earlier.

Annan, in the West Bank on the third leg of a major Middle East tour, called for Israel to stop its offensive, “all incursions” and its closure on Gaza, and demanded Palestinian fighters to stop firing rockets into the Jewish state. “Two hundred Palestinians have been killed since the end of June,” Annan told a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

“This must stop immediately,” he said. “The closure of Gaza must be lifted, the crossing points must be opened.” He also called for a “cessation” of the Qassam rockets fired at Israel by fighters, and for Israel to release Palestinian parliamentarians and officials from the Hamas-led government arrested in the West Bank in late June.

“The creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel is the key to solving the problems in this troubled region,” he said.

Abbas, whose moderate Fatah party is working toward a possible national unity government with the governing Islamist party Hamas, warned there could be no security until Israel ends its occupation and a Palestinian state emerges. “Continued occupation of the Arab and Palestinian territories will not achieve peace,” he said. The Palestinian leader earlier renewed calls for fighters to stop firing rockets into Israel, warning that such missiles were sowing “death and destruction” for the Palestinians.

Five Israelis have died as a result of homemade rockets fired from Gaza since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, with most of the missiles causing property damage or landing in open spaces. Back in Gaza, the Israeli Army said it had discovered a large tunnel, 13 meters deep and 150 meters long, running from a house in Shejaiya toward the Karni Crossing with Israel, and released photographs.

When is Bush going to get tired of trying to cover His Bottom and Just Helping the Good Old boys?

Bush takes rhetorical aim at war critics

President Bush leaves TSTC airfield in Waco Texas Wednesday Aug. 30, 2006. Bush spent the night at his ranch outside Crawford Texas, before leaving on a day of fundraising. (AP Photo/Rod Aydelotte)

August 30, 2006

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

LITTLE ROCK -President Bush is kicking off another series of speeches to counter opposition to the war in Iraq, Americans' impatience with the rising U.S. death toll and anxiety about possible terrorist attacks.

Bush delivers the first speech Thursday to the annual American Legion convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. The appearances will continue through the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and culminate on Sept. 19 when Bush addresses the U.N. Security Council.

White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said Bush would use the speeches to assess the war on terror, outline the capabilities of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups and remind Americans of steps the administration has taken to protect the nation.

It is the third time in less than a year that Bush has launched a series of speeches on Iraq and terrorism. They come at a time when his approval rate is at 33 percent in the August AP-Ipsos poll. His approval on handling of Iraq also was at 33 percent in the poll.

"At the American Legion annual meeting, the president will put the violence that Americans are seeing on their TV screens and reading in their papers into a larger context," Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Arkansas for a political event. "He will acknowledge that these are unsettling times in Iraq, in Lebanon and the unsettling news about the foiled terror plot out of London."

Bush will assert that all the violence and threats are part of a "single ideological struggle" that pits the forces of freedom and moderation and the forces of tyranny extremism, she said.

He also is expected to provide an update on the security situation in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, but is not — at least in the speech on Thursday — to discuss troop levels.

Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said Wednesday that he believes Iraqi forces can take over security with little coalition support within a year to 18 months, providing an opportunity for a drawdown of U.S. forces.

Bush was to attend a closed-door fundraiser in Little Rock for Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman who is running for governor against Democrat Mike Beebe.

The fundraiser, which attracted some 800 people to the home of former pro basketball player Joe Kleine, was expected to raise an estimated $400,000 for Hutchinson's campaign and the Republican Party in Arkansas.

Before arriving in Salt Lake City Wednesday evening, Bush was stopping in Nashville to attend a $2,100-a-plate fundraiser for Bob Corker's Senate campaign.
___

Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock contributed to this report.

OUR WORLD by Zain Bhikha

This is a song from Zain Bhikha of South Africa.





(If you have trouble viewing click here.)

The Leagues of the Righteous People IED attack on Humvee and Katusha Rocket Launches

August 29, 2006

Video

The Leagues of the Righteous People, a Shia Iraqi Resistance group, released a video of an improvised explosive device (IED) on an American humvee in the area of Nasrya, Iraq.

The video also shows a series of what they claim to be a barrage of Katusha rockets against the US Embassy in the green zone.

For Israel's Security?

Zainab Fawqi-Sleem and the Question of Lebanon

A civil defence worker looks for survivors amidst rubble of a house that was destroyed during an Israeli air raid on the south Lebanese village of Ghassaniyeh August 7, 2006. (Ali Hashisho/Reuters)

August 28, 2006

By RAMZY KYSIA

Houla, Lebanon.

Yesterday, I shed my first tears for Lebanon.

Yesterday, I visited Houla, a stone's throw from the Israeli border.

Yesterday, I was discovered by Zainab Fawqi-Sleem - a young, Lebanese woman who was killed in Houla, alongside her sister-in-law, Selma, on July 15th. Zainab is but one of over 1,300 innocents killed in this war, but she is the one who found me.

On October 31st, 1948, in one of the few massacres of the Nakba to occur inside Lebanon, proto-Israeli militas seized the town of Houla, setting off bombs and burning down several houses. They took eighty-five people captive, and summarily executed eighty-two of the them. There's a memorial to the massacre in the center of town, not far from homes smashed flat by this current war.

According to news reports, Israel bombed and shelled Houla on at least ten separate occasions during this last war. Israeli soldiers repeatedly invaded the town and occupied people's homes. They remain, in one home, in one corner of the village, to this day. If I had run across those soldiers, I wonder what I could have said to them? What might they have said to me?

I was in Houla yesterday with LebanonSolidarity, a local relief and resistance organization. I was in Houla to assess how we might be able to help the people living there. We brought medicines, and arranged for a doctor to come by and give free medical exams. We took down the names and ages of the people made homeless by the bombings, so we might bring them some donated clothes.

Throughout South Lebanon, there are thousands of destroyed homes and buildings, and tens- of-thousands of homeless. Some towns, like Bint Jbeil and Khiam, are more rubble than anything else. Traveling through South Lebanon today, I am reminded so much of Palestine, of Nablus and Jenin and Gaza.

For Israel's security, Arabs must not possess functioning towns or secure homes.

More than anything, the people of Houla need drinking water. The town's main pump was destroyed during the war, and the $20,000 needed to replace it is beyond the scope of our group's resources. And, again, I am reminded of Palestine and the theft of local water sources, taken in the West Bank to supply Israeli settlements with lush, green, desert lawns and private swimming pools.

For Israel's security, Arabs must not possess secure access to potable water.

Short hours before Zainab was killed in Houla, Israel bombed a powerplant in al-Jieh, just south of Beirut. Al-Jieh was one of several powerplants across Lebanon that were destroyed during this war.

For Israel's security, Arabs must not possess electricity.

As in Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly shot at and shelled Palestinian beachgoers, the al -Jieh bombing has stolen Lebanon's oceanfront. The bombing destroyed the powerplant's oil tanks, and ruptured the berm built to protect against a spill. Millions of gallons of heavy fuel oil has leaked into the Mediterranean, ruining Lebanon's once pristine beaches.

For Israel's security, Arabs must not possess beaches.

The ancient port city of Tyre, some twenty-five kilometers from Houla, has one of Lebanon's last, remaining, usable beaches. Some Lebanese still go there, to swim and visit with family or friends and, for a while, escape the disaster that is South Lebanon today. Young men with slicked-back brush cuts pass a beer among themselves, as they watch women in French bikinis jump in and out of the surf. In the heart of "Hezbollah" country, at the center of George Bush's "Islamo-Facist state-within-a-state", you can still see children building sandcastles here.

But, farther out in the ocean, the Israeli navy maintains its blockade of Lebanon. Nothing is allowed in or out. In Washington D.C., Congressman Tom Lantos has blocked all U.S. humanitarian aid until Lebanon's government agrees to deploy UN troops along the border with Syria, to stop and search all cross-border traffic - something that Syria has already said it will not permit. Farther south, Israel's long-running blockade of Gaza has caused, in the UN's words, a "humanitarian catastrophe" as malnutrition rates there skyrocket.

For Israel's security, Arabs must not possess open borders, or engage in free trade with the world.

Like so many places in South Lebanon, the roads in and around Houla are severely damaged from the war. South Lebanon's streets have suddenly come to resemble their sister thoroughfares in Palestine. There, Israeli bulldozers have combined with decades of enforced neglect and the violence to birth a network of degraded and barely passable roads. Here in Lebanon, the same thing has been accomplished in a matter of weeks by dropping over a billion dollars worth of bombs and shells and tanks and soldiers on the South.

For Israel's security, Arabs must not possess modern roads.

From the hills of Houla, one can see Israel/Palestine. Just over the border, and even before the war, Israel had permanently tethered a videodrone blimp, visible for all to see. The drone is constantly filming Houla, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Overhead, the low, humming sounds of Israel's unmanned reconnaissance planes have become another permanent part of the landscape.

For Israel's security, Arabs must not possess privacy.

On July 14th, 2006, Ibrahim Sleem owned a modest ranch house in Houla. Within the walls of his home now lay a surreal jumble of charred furniture, clothes and children's toys, broken glass, scattered fragments of wood, and chunks of concrete fallen from the walls and ceiling. Sixteen members of his family, including five children, gathered in this home on July 15th, for a quiet meal. As they were visiting after dinner, a bomb or shell exploded among them, killing Ibrahim's daughter Selma and his daughter-in-law, Zainab. It was an American ordinance that destroyed this home, and killed Zainab and Selma. The writing on the bomb's fragments is in English, not Hebrew. It happened at precisely 8:28pm. The clock that used to hang on the wall is now forever frozen at that moment.

Outside the home is a small shed, with tools hanging on its walls. Next to the shed is a modest flower garden, and a beautiful Eucalyptus tree. More than all of the destruction I have seen in these past weeks, much more than simply the damage I saw inside the Sleem family home-- that shed, that garden, and that tree tore a hole inside of me.

Someone lived in this place. Someone used those tools to maintain their home. Someone planted that garden, and carefully tended it. Someone sat beneath that tree in the afternoons and enjoyed a cup of tea. Someone loved this place.

Zainab Fawqi-Sleem was twenty-two years old and two months pregant when, for Israel's security, she was killed. Zainab's nine month old daughter, Nadine, will never know her mother's love. Zainab's unborn child will never know life at all.

Living in Lebanon today, I am left with a single, unanswered question. It's a terribly important question. It is a vitally important question.

The United States speaks for Israel's security from all we Islamo-Facist terrorist Arabs living throughout the Middle East. The United Nations Interim Force speaks for Israel's security here in Lebanon. During the war, Hosni Mubarak, the dictator of Egypt, spoke for Israel's security. During the war, King Abdullah, the dictator of Jordan, spoke for Israel's security. In Marjayoun, a mostly Christian village in South Lebanon, the Lebanese Army even offered the Israelis tea when they invaded.

For the West, and for all its pet Arab dictators, this is the proper moral response to Israeli terror. We Arabs must not only accept all of the bombs and the blockades. We must not only accept the destruction of our homes and dreams. We must, in fact, rejoice in our own devastation. This is, after all, the joyous "birth-pangs of a new Middle East."

My question, our question, Lebanon's question, is simply this: Who will speak for Zainab Fawqi-Sleem?

----- Ramzi Kysia is a Lebanese-American essayist and activist. He is currently working with LebanonSolidarity.org to resist war and renew shattered communities in South Lebanon.

The Worst Kind of Terror: Murder on Rucarb Street

By ELIZA ERNSHIRE

Ramallah.

August 29, Pre-dawn.

It is only now that the gun-fire saluting the killed young man has become sporadic and no longer constant, and that the verses of the Koran, chanted in farewell to him, has ceased. But the streets are full; and full too are the hearts of all who had to witness an attack that should only have been imaginable in the darkest back alleys of some underworld city.

At 9 pm, the 28th, undercover Israeli Special Forces walked down the main street of Ramallah. They wore civilian clothes and Palestinian police-caps. They carried M-16s as all the police force does. No one looked at them twice. They walked straight past us where we stood at Al-Minara discussing work with a third colleague.

They walked straight passed the Palestinian Police Force as well who is always stationed there.

They continued walking straight down Rucarb Street until they were opposite the famous Rucarb Ice-cream shop where families gather every evening in the summertime.

Then they opened fire.

They opened fire after they failed to catch two 'wanted' men who were also in Rucarb Street along with half the population of Ramallah. The two men wouldn't come when called and so the undercover Israeli Officers opened fire.

It is not easy to explain the horror of seeing the cold-blooded murder of the young man who had turned to escape on realizing the situation.

It is not easy to explain the horror of hearing the name of the killed youth spreading from mouth to mouth until the whole of Ramallah knows that the young man killed was A. from the village of Deir Ghassan. Nor is it easy to explain the horror of rushing with everybody else who knows an A. from that village or a nearby one to the hospital.

The relief if the body pulled from the fridge is not your A.

The anguish if it is.

Grown men falling on the ground to beat at the dirt and cry.

The parents of the killed man stumbled into the hospital at midnight. The father could not even see his son because he was temporarily blinded by the shock and the screams of the mother could be heard from the street.

Young men were also in shock, wandering around and wondering why they had not even had a chance to fight back. There was an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness.

Palestine has been so reduced and so humiliated that it is now a country where the Occupying force can walk into a main city on nightfall, can walk down the main street of that city and kill a man and then walk away again as if that is a damn right of theirs and no one is going to blink an eye at it.

It is not their damn right to come and terrorize the people of a city night after night after night on some hyped up 'security' reason! This is no human being's right.

I have been accused of not understanding how people are feeling on the other side of the Wall. People have written to me 'You don't know what it is like to be driving behind a bus when it explodes' and I say this is true. But I do know what it is like to see fifteen thugs walk down a main street of a city at nightfall and murder in cold-blood outside a family restaurant and then walk away again.

I call that the worst kind of terror.

The boy they killed was just a village boy, and the children who witnessed this killing were just children. As in all parts of the world, children who had begged their parents for an ice-cream before going to bed.

Nhow they must live with this violation of their sensitivity forever.

And the thugs could just walk away! They did not even need jeeps to perform their action of terror.

These men were not desperate. Not one of them would tie an explosive belt around his waist.What I am most afraid of is that they enjoy what they do. To them and to too many others, the lives of Palestinians are, at most, only countable.

There was a three-second coverage of this news item on BBC. 'Three militants killed in the West Bank. One in Ramallah and two in Nablus; all were from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.'

One second for each man killed.

I won't begin a discussion on why, by naming the Martyrs Brigade, the West is somehow justifying the deaths, because the purpose of this article is only to register horror at the nighttime terror that came in so particularly a disgusting way to the streets of Ramallah four hours ago.And also to say that now the city is angry.

The young men who have been gathering for hours in groups on street corners are angry. Some have been crying, and all have been voicing their disbelief at how on earth Israel can continue to get away with their inhuman actions; not only nightly midnight raids and arrests but also this gangster plot that has left the main street of their city stained with blood again.

In the past two weeks Israeli forces have come to Ramallah every single night. There is now a vigil in the dark hours of these nights; from 2am till 5am half the city is awake watching and wondering where Israel's eyes are turned and what neighborhood they are targeting.

In the past week Israel has made daily incursions into Nablus and has destroyed houses and killed 16-year old boys in broad daylight, and has raided the city every night. For the past month the whole village district of Ramallah and Nablus have been enduring invasions and raids, house-searches and arrests.

While Olmert is taking a few blows about his conduct of the war in Lebanon, the Palestinians are having to endure being his 'dog-under-the-table'.

How on earth is he and Israel getting away with it?