The DISH

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Volume 9 Issue 5…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…February 3, 2004

Venue for an Artist

Hamas behind the wheel

By Raja Chemayel

Who has won: Hamas or Palestine?

Do you want the adventurers and the opportunists,

who went to Oslo, to be eternally rewarded??

Were the secret-negotiations of Oslo a democratic deed??

Or simply an opportunist and selfish adventure??

Democracy is about a choice

and preferably the free-choice .....

and most of all a popular choice!!

There you have it, Palestine has spoken!!

Like it or not !!

The fact that Israel and the USA are now unhappy

with those unsurprising results

means already that Hamas

must be better for Palestine

meaning, also worse for Israel

meaning.......better all in all.

You cannot, “have the whole cake and eat it!!”

An air-conditioned Mercedes

never brought any liberation.

A Nobel Peace Prize never liberated anything

except its recipient .....

Freedom is a Gun!!

If you have no gun,

you are not on your way to liberation.

And finally,

what is wrong with religious-Fundamentalism??

Didn't we see Israel, itself, being born

from a (Jewish) Fundamentalism???

About Me: A Lebanese residing in the Netherlands since 1975, Chemayel is a semi-retired businessman that has traveled extensively in the Middle East. A Christian leftist vegetarian and Arab-Nationalist, he is married to a Czech-Baroness and has two children.

Politics Y2K6

AIPAC Spying?

As part of a plea agreement, former Pentagon Iran analyst Lawrence Franklin admitted to giving classified information to two pro-Israel lobbyists and an unnamed Israeli diplomat. In exchange for a reduced prison sentence, Franklin agreed to testify against former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) employees Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, who are scheduled to go on trial April 25, 2006. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Appearing before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis, III in Virginia, Franklin testified that between 2002 and 2004, he gave classified information to Rosen and Weissman. He claimed to have been motivated by his dissatisfaction with aspects of US foreign policy as it related to Iran and hoped the men would raise the issue with their political contacts.

Dismissing Franklin’s motives for violating the law, Judge Ellis quadrupled the prosecution’s recommended sentence from three to more than 12 years. Judge Ellis made it clear that civilians are just as liable as government employees under laws governing classified information.

Rosen, AIPAC's former director of policy issues and the organization's chief strategist, and Weissman, AIPAC's top Iran specialist, passed the information on to others in AIPAC and the media. Israel has denied any involvement in the matter. However, some Jewish leaders have voiced concern over the ongoing investigation. Unlike Franklin, Weissman and Rosen are duel US-Israeli citizens.

Comments from the Bat Cave

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro faces an unending battle between the forces of good and evil. As it is for most mere mortals, deciding what is good and right is a serious struggle waged day and night. Evil, like unhealthful treats, can be ever so tempting and sweet. When queried about this never-ending fight, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro vowed, “I’ll beat that two-faced rat!”

Bit of History

Foundation of Conflict (1947-1993)

For centuries Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in harmony in the land of Palestine. In the late 1800s, a group of European colonists, known as “Zionists,” decided to create a Jewish homeland. Initially, this group of Jewish extremists considered locations in Africa and South America, before finally settling on Palestine, home to approximately 400,000 Muslims, 75,000 Christians and 25,000 Jews.

A wholly Jewish nation meant displacing the indigenous population. Land disputes between the colonists and Palestinians led to armed conflict. The United Nations (1947) intervened. However, contrary to the democratic principle of self-determination on which it was established, the UN created the Jewish state on 55 percent of Palestine, when Jews owned less than 7 percent of the land at that time.

War ensued. The outcome of the armed conflict, which pitted well-trained and equipped Zionists, backed by the West, against poorly trained and ill-equipped Arabs, was never in doubt. By the end of the 1948 war, the Jewish state of Israel had conquered 78 percent of Palestine. The conflict left three-quarters of a million Palestinians homeless. More than 400 towns and villages were destroyed. A new map of the region was drawn with Hebrew names for every landmark. For all practice purposes, any pre-existing Palestinian culture was erased.

In 1967, Israel conquered still more land. At the conclusion of the Six Day War, Israel occupied all of Palestine. In violation of international law, it confiscated the Golan Heights, West Bank of the Jordan River, Gaza Strip and Sinai Desert. It returned the Sinai to Egypt when relations with that country improved following the Camp David Agreement (1978). However, Israel retained much of the West Bank of the Jordan River and Gaza Strip lands for military use and/or Jewish settlements.

From 1967 to 1982, Israel demolished 1,338 Palestinian homes on the West Bank and detained, without trial and for various periods, more than 300,000 Palestinians. Under the UN Charter, nations cannot lawfully gain territory as a result of war, even in wars fought in self-defense. Yet, in defiance of a number of UN resolutions, Israel continues to occupy and control lands confiscated in the 1967 war. According to the Oslo peace accords (1993), these areas were designated to become part of a new Palestinian state. (Sources: Encyclopedia Americana and www.ifamericaknew.com/history)

Hood Notes

Statistics on Suffering

A major source of global instability, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has embroiled successive US administrations in efforts to resolve the issues pitting Palestinians against Israelis. For most of the last twenty years, the US has been viewed as an ‘honest’ broker in the Middle East peace process. Under the leadership of George W. Bush, it has discarded any pretense of impartiality. While paying lip-service to a two-state solution, it has financed Israeli armament, illegal settlements and construction of a wall on land belonging to Palestinians.

As portrayed by US mainstream media, most US citizens think only Palestinians senselessly kill innocent Israelis. They ignore Palestinian suffering. Only Israel is a democracy and only Israelis have the right of self-determination in the region.

Frustrated with conditions on the ground, Palestinians started the current uprising or intifada, which began in September 2000. The conflict has resulted in 1,084 Israeli and 3,786 Palestinian deaths. Of those killed, 828 were children, 705 were Palestinians. While 7,633 Israelis have suffered injuries, far more Palestinians (29,393) have been hurt as a result of Jewish retaliation.

As documented in reports by the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Israelis intentionally murdered and crippled Palestinian protestors armed only with rocks. Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutions; none has targeted Palestinians.

The U.S. gives the Israeli government and military $15,139,178 per day, while Palestinian NGO’s receives $232,290 per day. The Israeli unemployment rate is 10.4%, while the Palestinian unemployment is estimated at 37-67%. Palestinians are holding no Israeli prisoner; 8,279 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel.

Palestinians have demolished no Israeli homes, while the Israeli government has demolished 4,170 Palestinian homes. From March 2001 to July 2003, more than 60 new Jewish-only settlements were built on confiscated Palestinian land. There has been no case of Palestinians confiscating Israeli land and building settlements. For more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, see www.ifamericaknew.com/.

Intuit’s Vibe

Walls

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

Throughout the tides and turns of history, some people have erected barriers against feared foreigners and to protect their lands from those who would threaten their peace.

History has shown the mighty efforts of nations and empires to erect barriers against the ever present other, yet it has rarely shown success.

In human history, few societies have erected as formidable a barrier as the Great Wall of China, constructed during the Chi'n dynasty (around the 3rd century, B.C.) and both rebuilt and expanded for a thousand years thereafter. The wall was built to defend against the nomadic hordes to the North, but the land was repeatedly invaded by the nomads, as the wall provided little real military use.

In the latter years of the Roman Empire, the Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a massive wall in Britain. The wall marked the northern boundaries of the Roman Empire. Fragments remain of it today.

After the division of Germany into East and West, the Berlin Wall was erected to protect the East from Western contamination and to keep Easterners from fleeing to the West. Less than 30 years later, it was reduced to rubble, its bricks and slabs now used as museum pieces to reflect a bygone era.

In the Middle East, we see the erection of concrete and steel walls, to mark the separation of Israel from Palestine. The Israelis call it a protective barrier; the Palestinians call it an apartheid wall. Now, legislators in Washington are fast-tracking a plan to build a wall across the expanse of the Mexican border -- all 1,933 miles of it!

Walls are funny things. Although the builders see them as evidence of state power, they often come to be seen, not as emblems of power, but as harbingers of weakness. They are markers of national fear, not symbols of confidence.

The Ch'in dynasty, which sought to unite various peoples into one, began a work that would continue for generations. But the hated foreigners, the fierce nomadic Mongols of the North, would clash against the wall, go over and around it, and for a century under the Khan, sit on the imperial throne in the heart of China.

The Roman Empire began as a city that welcomed outsiders, and used the ideas of those many visitors to build their city-state. Hadrian's Wall, over 73 miles long, marked the end of expansion, and a wish to preserve the accumulated wealth and privilege on the inside from the hungry hordes looking in. Rome, once the mightiest of empires, went into decline, and, as the sacking of Rome in 410 A.D. by Alaric, the Gothic king shows, walls offered little protection.

The Great Wall of China was 1,500 miles long. Hadrian's Wall was over 73 miles long. The Berlin Wall was 29 miles long. The Israeli barrier/wall will surround the whole country. The Mexican border, being 1,933 miles long, logic suggests, will require a wall longer than the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall, and the Berlin Wall combined!

Walls, even great ones, are barriers reflecting fear of the outsider. They are not achievements of confidence, but actions of people deeply anxious about 'the barbarians' beyond the barrier. They reflect the closing and decline of nations and empires, not their expansion nor strength.

The events of 9/11 unleashed waves of national anxiety and fear in many Americans. National myths, in times of great conflict, often die first. The idea that the US is an open nation, that welcomes the people of the world, is fast eroding. Foreigners, especially those from Islamic countries, are now seeking other venues to study, to play, and to live. For they know that the legend emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty's base, the Emma Lazarus poem about welcoming 'your tired, and your poor', doesn't refer to them. It's just another wall.

Disgruntled says: Like his ally former AIPAC lobbyist Steven Rosen, former Republican super lobbyist and neo-con operative Jack Abramoff exerted a great deal of influence on Capitol Hill. While George W. Bush claims he does not know the man who raised $100,000 for his re-election campaign and served on his Interior Department transition team, Abramoff used money he collected from tribal clients to grease the machinery of US government. A fundamentalist Jew, Abramoff used some of the money scammed off his Native American clients to fund other organizations, including a Jewish school for boys and a Middle East sniper training clinic. For the hundreds of Palestinians killed by snipers shooting from their illegal settlements, trainees of Abramoff’s clinic were surely as lethal as terrorists trained at Muslim madrasas. Yet, of all the negative labels tacked on Abramoff since his fall from grace, he has never been called a sponsor of terrorism. One must assume that label is reserved for followers of Islam.

Disgruntled wants to know: Iraqi General Abed Hamed Mowhoush was tortured. When he refused to provide his interrogator with the desired information, General Mowhoush’s mouth was covered and his body was stuffed head first into a sleeping bag. The irrationally exuberant interrogator then sat on the general’s chest, suffocating the man to death. The torturer, Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, was charged in the general’s death and convicted of negligent homicide, rather than murder. After all, Welshofer was simply following orders in a climate where torture is acceptable. Welshofer was fined $6,000 in salary and restricted to his barracks and workplace for 60 days. To the global community, what message does this lenient punishment suggest about the value the US places on the lives of Iraqis?

Disgruntled feels: Forked-tongue! George W. Bush promised to restore integrity to the Oval Office and unite the country. His reign has been scandal-ridden and divisive. Born-again, he claims to support a culture of life, yet he avidly embraces the death penalty and lied the nation into a war of rank aggression. He pays lip-service to a two-state solution to end the Middle East conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, yet he supports Israel’s actions that doom such a solution. He claims to want democracy to take root in the region, but refuses to acknowledge certain democratically elected leaders. Bush speaks with forked-tongue, which is why a majority of Americans do not trust him.

The Face of the Future

By John Burl Smith

Reading newspapers following Hamas’ victory in the first parliamentary elections since 1976, I saw the faces of several young Palestinian men waving green flags; these were new images. These were not hooded terrorists waving guns, an image the world is accustomed to seeing in the Middle East. Saeb Erekat of the defeated Fatah Party put it this way, “Today we woke up and the sky was a different color. We have entered a new era.”

Previously, Palestinian elections were about the past. They reaffirmed confidence in the old-guard and sent a message to Israel and the US that they would not be allowed to dictate Palestinian leaders. This election was different for Palestinians; it was about the future. The young faces plastered across US newspapers are that future.

With their votes, Palestinians severed their ties to a past of humiliation, concessions, impotence and inertia. They spoke with one resounding voice and resolute spirit that agreed with Omar Muktar, “You do not have to agree with your oppressor’s claim of a right to oppress you.” Their vote denounced the world’s treatment of them since 1948.

Back then Israel adapted the US’ “manifest destiny” approach in Palestine. That strategy helped US whites take North America from Native peoples. White settlers encroached on land that clearly belonged to the indigenous population. They started wars and took even more land, while slaughtering thousands of women and children. The US government made treaties, which forced Native people to cede lands whites took. The US government made promises it never kept. A classic example, over one hundred years later, the US government still refuses to pay rightful claims for land and resources stolen from Native Americans.

The world helped Jews take Palestinian land to create Israel 58 years ago. Reminiscent of the US government, Israel has continually started wars and confiscated more land. The wall it is building is on Palestinian land, and Israel will eventually claim all the land on its side of the wall.

Today, whites own the whole of North America. Native people live on postage stamp size reservations dependent on the US government to survive. This is the future Israel has planned for the Palestinian people, and neither the US nor Israel wants to change this scenario.

Those faces on the front page have already changed the present by electing the most radical government possible. They used the democratic process, which the US demanded, to select leaders of their own choosing. US citizens are unable to do this; courts and electronic thievery decide elections. An amazing 78% of eligible Palestinian voters participated, compared to less than 50% in the US. They counted all the votes, even though the party in power lost.

It is clear George W. Bush does not really care about democracy as he claims. The US and Israel refuse to accept the vote they demanded by the Palestinian people. It does not matter whether the vote is fair, as in Afghanistan or Iraq, as long as the people accept a US puppet.

The young faces that voted for Hamas sent a message. It says be forewarned that they are dying so that some might live; therefore, the dying will only stop when the living begins. They already live in the hell-fire of Armageddon, so there is nothing to concede.

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