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Abunimah: Rays of hope from the Gaza ceasefire

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:21:00 GMT

Rays of hope from the Gaza ceasefire By Ali Abunimah The Electronic Intifada 20 June 2008 <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9636.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9636.shtml</a> After the unremitting hell that Israel has inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza, one can only feel relief and even joy at the ceasefire agreed between Hamas and the Jewish state that took effect this week. Its significance extends well beyond Gaza and opens new possibilities as the disastrous Bush Doctrine begins to lose influence. Since the beginning of this year, Israeli occupation forces and settlers have killed over 400 Palestinians, including dozens of children and several babies, already exceeding the entire death toll for 2007. One hundred and fifty were killed during a few days of Israeli bombing of Gaza in early March. This year seven Israelis have been killed in conflict-related violence, including four by mortars or rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Some have sought to exclusively blame Hamas for the high Palestinian death toll, saying that the rockets resistance fighters were firing into Israel were "useless" and "toys," and gave Israel the excuse to "retaliate" implying that resistance itself was to blame for the occupier's violence. But the fallacy of this claim is exposed by the fact that the absence of rockets fired from the West Bank and the renunciation of resistance by the US-backed Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, has not spared Palestinian communities there from daily and escalating Israeli violence. Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed dozens of Palestinians all over the West Bank and injured hundreds of others, including many civilians in their homes, or taking part in peaceful demonstrations against the ongoing destruction and seizure of their land. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, up to mid-June, Israeli occupation forces had carried out over 827 military incursions into West Bank communities (an average of five per day) and had kidnapped or arrested 1,334 civilians since the start of the year. In addition to land confiscation and settlement construction, the Israeli army ransacked, destroyed or closed dozens of non-governmental organizations, radio stations, bakeries and other civic institutions and demolished many homes in the West Bank. Abbas' appointed prime minister Salam Fayyad called on Israel to extend the truce to the West Bank, demanding "All those Israeli military operations in areas under our control must cease." Although Hamas has announced it will unilaterally observe the truce in the West Bank, Israel has not agreed to extend it there. Israel's massacres in Gaza were never about stopping rocket fire; as Israeli leaders repeatedly stated, they were intended to break the will of the civilian population and force it to turn against the resistance factions and towards the US and Israeli-backed Ramallah Authority. If Israel had wanted to stop the rockets the easy way to do that would have been to accept any one of the truce offers repeatedly proffered by Hamas. Instead, as Haaretz's Akiva Eldar put it, Hamas by refusing to buckle under, "once again proved that force is the only language Israel understands." Hamas has achieved a mutual ceasefire and negotiations with Israel are under way to reopen Gaza crossings and exchange prisoners. The ceasefire also suggests that -- at least for now -- Hamas has managed to achieve some measure of tactical deterrence. Despite constant Israeli threats to wage an all-out war in Gaza, there is a pervasive sense among Israelis that "a lengthy presence, even partial, in the Gaza Strip could turn into a copy of the First Lebanon War, where our soldiers became sitting ducks, targets of roadside bombs and ambushes, for 18 years," as Haaretz military analyst Yoel Marcus put it. The Israel-Hamas agreement underscores the failure of the policy of military terror, siege and starvation against Gaza supported by the US, the EU and some Arab states. But it also fits into a wider regional picture of the declining influence of the Bush Doctrine. For years, the US has tried to divide the region into US-backed "moderates" (Jordan, Egypt, the Gulf states, Abbas' Palestinian Authority and the Fouad Siniora government in Lebanon) in an alliance anchored by Israel and Saudi Arabia, and arrayed against so-called "extremists" (including Hamas, Hizballah and Syria) whom the US alleged were mere pawns of Iran. The US banned its clients from having any dealings with "extremists," even though this brought Palestine and Lebanon to the brink of civil war. Despite constant injunctions by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that talking to the "extremists" is useless, governments are doing it anyway. If not peace, then rapprochement has been breaking out all over the place: after tense confrontations and fighting in May, the Lebanese government and Hizballah-led opposition struck a power-sharing accord mediated by Qatar. Israel and Syria have been engaged in negotiations mediated by Turkey. The Gulf States have moved to patch up relations with Iran. Even Jordan's King Abdullah II, who coined the notorious term "Shiite Cresent" to describe the sphere of influence Iran is allegedly trying to create, has backed off. Asked by The Washington Post's Lally Weymouth last week if he viewed "Iran as the number one threat in this region," he answered, "I think the lack of peace [between Israel and the Palestinians] is the major threat" and warned as he has before that time for a "two-state" solution was about to run out. The "major threat to the region," the king asserted, was the prospect of "another 60 years of 'fortress Israel.'" (Perhaps baffled that the king was off-script, Weymouth asked again, "But aren't you concerned that Iran is a threat both to your country and to other countries in the region?" Again he did not take the bait.) The most spectacular shift on the Palestinian front is that Abbas, after refusing to talk to Hamas for a year, on Rice's orders, has opened an unconditional dialogue aimed at restoring power-sharing. Many Palestinians hope this could bolster national unity and put Palestinians in a better position to formulate a joint strategy for peace talks in the long-run, and to face Israeli aggression in the immediate future. The Gaza ceasefire provides an opportunity, slim though it may be, to fundamentally change the course of Israeli-Palestinian relations. This depends first on Israel and its backers using the opportunity to recognize that they must now deal with Hamas as an integral and indispensable part of the Palestinian scene and move gradually from ceasefire and conflict management talks to a political dialogue. The US-British dialogue with the Irish Republican Army which led to peace in Northern Ireland remains an excellent model. Second, Abbas has a short time to show whether he can act independently of the US, Israel and his corrupt entourage which thrives on internal conflict, and rebuild internal unity. (This is by no means certain -- already there is jockeying to succeed him should the US or Israel abandon him as a result of his thawing relationship with Hamas.) If any of these parties tries to use the calm as a chance to prop up their failed strategy of isolating Hamas and the resistance it will guarantee a descent into misery. The shadow that hangs over the region is the US and Israeli escalation towards Iran. For while Arab states have backed away from confrontation, and other adversaries are talking to each other, the US continues to threaten another war. As frightening as that prospect is, let us hope that the rays of hope emerging from Gaza will spread. Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli- Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006). -- ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI, found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More information about our work can be found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml">http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml</a> To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi">http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi</a> SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: ei Weekday Press Picks Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/&gt</a>; If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. 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Haaretz promotes website advocating genocide and terrorism

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:42:00 GMT

Haaretz promotes website advocating genocide and terrorism Report, The Electronic Intifada, 2 June 2008 <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9579.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9579.shtml</a> Haaretz.com, the website of the Israeli newspaper often cited as an example of Israel's liberal, critical media carries paid advertisements from a website openly advocating the total destruction of the Palestinian people, the murder of large numbers of Muslim civilians, the assassination of the family members of Arab rulers, and the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons against dozens of countries. The website, Samson Blinded, claims that Google banned its advertisements from its adwords program. If that is true, it would be consistent with Google's policy that prohibits advertising promoting violence or advocating against any group based on race, ethnic or national origin or religion. Yet the Samson Blinded advertisements appear prominently on the main page and article pages of Haaretz's website. For example the ad appeared on the front page of Haaretz.com on 1 June, and also prominently on an article page headlined "Who didn't attend New York's pro-Israel march? Israelis" on the same date. (visit this article on EI to see the images: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9579.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9579.shtml</a>) Samson Blinded, whose publishers keep their identities secret, calls on Israel to eliminate all Palestinians from the territory it controls and to annihilate their culture. The site demands that Israel "destroy the Palestinian settlements [sic] and exile them far away -- not to refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries, or the conflict would be perpetuated." It argues that "Forced cultural assimilation of Palestinians should accompany deportation," adding that "With demise of Palestinians, Arab Israeli conflict would lose its impetus [sic]." The hate site advertised on Haaretz incites religious war, exploitation of children, and terrorism. It states for example that "Slavery is not an option in the modern world, but Israel adopting children from the poorest countries, indoctrinating them with anti-Islamism, and training them for low-rank military service in Israel Defense Forces may be feasible." It also proposes that "Israel could invite Western Christian radicals to police the Palestinian territories" as "they would be happy to get a training ground in Israel for their militia." The site adds that "To succeed, Israeli violence against Arabs should be immediately overwhelming. Israel should show itself a bloodthirsty monster to scare the Arabs into submission." Among the violence advocated by the site is the unprovoked wholesale murder of relatives of the rulers of Arab countries, civilians, and prisoners of war. The site even calls for nuclear strikes against neighboring countries: "Israel should legislate that a nuclear attack against her from whatever source means immediate, simultaneous nuclear destruction by Israel Defense Forces of everything Muslim -- capitals, temples, population centers -- by the hundred or so nuclear weapons in Israel's possession. Islamic terrorists who plan to use nuclear weapon against Israel must understand that the Jewish state will be commemorated with a really big bang." The website's call for the destruction of the Palestinians appears to violate the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The convention defines as genocide acts including killing, expulsion and causing bodily and mental suffering "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." The Convention, adopted in the wake of the Nazi holocaust, also defines as crimes "Direct and public incitement to commit genocide" and "Complicity in genocide." The treaty, ratified by over 130 countries including Israel and the US, calls for the prosecution and punishment of these acts whether the individuals committing them "are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals." Contacted by EI, Osnat Kohali, the manager of Haaretz.com stated that the newspaper and its website have a clear policy of not allowing any advertisements that include "incitement against any side." In reaction to some of the statements on the Samson Blinded site quoted in this article, Kohali noted that the offensive statements were on the advertised website itself rather than in the advertisements that appeared on Haaretz. Kohali added, "We don't go through each and every website and make a complete review about what it says." However she undertook to review the Samson Blinded advertisements noting that "mistakes can be made." But the Samson Blinded ads are not the only case of Haaretz apparently profiting from extremism; its website has often carried advertisements for an organization called "The Jerusalem Summit" which also advocates the removal of the Palestinians from their homeland and holds that "the de-legitimization of the Palestinian narrative becomes a vital prerequisite to any comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian issue." This kind of militant Jewish extremism has been making steady inroads into Israel's political mainstream, as numerous parties openly advocate the "transfer" (expulsion) of Palestinians and Israeli leaders have done little to marginalize and discourage it. What is surprising is that the widely respected Haaretz, which publishes jointly in Israel with The International Herald Tribune, would profit from hate groups and their possibly criminal incitement. In 2006, the German newspaper publisher M. DuMont Schauberg bought a 25 percent stake in Haaretz, a move German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised as an instance of German reconciliation with Israel. In Germany, as in many other European countries, incitement to racial hatred is illegal. -- ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI, found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More information about our work can be found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml">http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml</a> To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi">http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi</a> SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: ei Weekday Press Picks Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/&gt</a>; If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. 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EI EXCLUSIVE: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:30:00 GMT

EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia Report, The Electronic Intifada, 21 April 2008 <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9474.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9474.shtml</a> A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged. A series of emails by members and associates of the pro-Israel group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), provided to The Electronic Intifada (EI), indicate the group is engaged in what one activist termed a "war" on Wikipedia. A 13 March action alert signed by Gilead Ini, a "Senior Research Analyst" at CAMERA, calls for "volunteers who can work as 'editors' to ensure" that Israel-related articles on Wikipedia are "free of bias and error, and include necessary facts and context." However, subsequent communications indicate that the group not only wanted to keep the effort secret from the media, the public, and Wikipedia administrators, but that the material they intended to introduce included discredited claims that could smear Palestinians and Muslims and conceal Israel's true history. With over two million articles in English on every topic imaginable, Wikipedia has become a primary reference source for Internet users around the world and a model for collaboratively produced projects. Openness and good faith are among Wikipedia's core principles. Any person in the world can write or edit articles, but Wikipedia has strict guidelines and procedures for accountability intended to ensure quality control and prevent vandalism, plagiarism or distortion. It is because of these safeguards that articles on key elements of the Palestine-Israel conflict have generally remained well-referenced, useful and objective. The CAMERA plan detailed in the e-mails obtained by EI appears intended to circumvent these controls. In the past, CAMERA has gained notoriety for its tactic of accusing virtually anyone who does not toe a right-wing pro-Israel line of bias. The group has even accused editors and reporters of the Israeli daily Haaretz of being "extreme" and participating in "radical anti-Israel activity." Jeffrey Dvorkin, the former ombudsman of National Public Radio (NPR), frequently criticized by CAMERA for an alleged pro-Palestinian bias, wrote on the web publication Salon in February 2008 that "as a consequence of its campaign against NPR, CAMERA acted as the enabler for some seriously disturbed people," citing persistent telephone threats he received in the wake of CAMERA campaigns. Need for stealth and secrecy Throughout the documents EI obtained, CAMERA operatives stress the need for stealth and secrecy. In his initial action alert, Ini requests that recipients "not forward it to members of the news media." In a 17 March follow-up email sent to volunteers, Ini explains that he wants to make the orchestrated effort appear to be the work of unaffiliated individuals. Thus he advises that "There is no need to advertise the fact that we have these group discussions." Anticipating possible objections to CAMERA's scheme, Ini conjectures that "Anti-Israel editors will seize on anything to try to discredit people who attempt to challenge their problematic assertions, and will be all too happy to pretend, and announce, that a 'Zionist' cabal (the same one that controls the banks and Hollywood?) is trying to hijack Wikipedia." But stealth and misrepresentation are presented as the keys to success. Ini suggests that after volunteers sign up as editors for Wikipedia they should "avoid editing Israel-related articles for a short period of time." This strategy is intended to "avoid the appearance of being one-topic editors," thus attracting unwanted attention. Ini counsels that volunteers "might also want to avoid, for obvious reasons, picking a user name that marks you as pro-Israel, or that lets people know your real name." To further conceal the identity of CAMERA-organized editors, Ini warns, "don't forget to always log in before making [edits]. If you make changes while not logged in, Wikipedia will record your computer's IP address" -- a number that allows identification of the location of a computer connected to the Internet. A veteran Wikipedia editor, known as "Zeq," who according to the emails is colluding with CAMERA, also provided advice to CAMERA volunteers on how they could disguise their agenda. In a 20 March email often in misspelled English, Zeq writes, "You don't want to be precived [sic] as a 'CAMERA' defender' on wikipedia [sic] that is for sure." One strategy to avoid that is to "edit articles at random, make friends not enemies -- we will need them later on. This is a marathon not a sprint." Zeq also identifies, in a 25 March email, another Wikipedia editor, "Jayjg," whom he views as an effective and independent pro-Israel advocate. Zeq instructs CAMERA operatives to work with and learn from Jayjg, but not to reveal the existence of their group even to him fearing "it would place him in a bind" since "[h]e is very loyal to the wikipedia [sic] system" and might object to CAMERA's underhanded tactics. "Uninvolved administrators" The emphasis on secrecy is apparently not only to aid the undetected editing of articles, but also to facilitate CAMERA's takeover of key administrator positions in Wikipedia. For Zeq a key goal is to have CAMERA operatives elected as administrators -- senior editors who can override the decisions of others when controversies arise. When disputes arise about hotly contested topics, such as Israel and Palestine, often only an "uninvolved administrator" -- one who is considered neutral because he or she has not edited or written articles on the topic -- can arbitrate. Hence, Zeq advises in a 21 March email that "One or more of you who want to take this route should stay away from any Israel realted [sic] articles for one month until they [sic] interact in a positive way with 100 wikipedia [sic] editors who would be used later to vote you as an administrator." Once these CAMERA operatives have successfully infiltrated as "neutral" editors, they could then exercise their privileges to assert their own political agenda. In addition, Zeq suggests making deliberately provocative edits to Palestine-related articles. He hopes that editors he assumes are Palestinian will delete these changes, and then CAMERA operatives could report them to administrators so they could be sanctioned and have their editing privileges suspended. Passing propaganda as fact Gilead Ini's 17 March email provides specific advice on how to pass off pro-Israel propaganda or opinion as fact meeting Wikipedia's strict guidelines: "So, for example, imagine that you get rid of or modify a problematic sentence in an article alleging that 'Palestinian [sic] become suicide bombers to respond to Israel's oppressive policies.' You should, in parallel leave a comment on that article's discussion page (either after or before making the change). Avoid defending the edit by arguing that 'Israel's policies aren't 'oppression,' they are defensive. And anyway Palestinians obviously become suicide bombers for other reasons for example hate education!' Instead, describe how this sentence violates Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. One of the core principles is that assertions should adhere to a Neutral Point of View, usually abbreviated NPOV. (The opposite of NPOV is POV, or Point of View, which is basically another way of saying subjective statement, or opinion.) So it would be best to note on the discussion page that 'This sentence violates Wikipedia's NPOV policy, since the description of Israel's policies as 'oppressive' is an opinion. In addition, it is often noted by Middle East experts that one of the reasons Palestinians decide to become suicide bombers is hate education and glorification of martyrdom in Palestinian society ...'" In fact, there have been numerous studies debunking claims about Palestinian "hate education," or "glorification of martyrdom" causing suicide bombings (such as Dying to Win by University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape) though this claim remains a favorite canard of pro-Israel activists seeking to distract attention from the effects of Israel's occupation and other well-documented and systematic human rights abuses in fueling violence. Zeq specifically names articles targeted for this kind of treatment including those on the 1948 Palestinian Exodus, Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus, Hamas, Hizballah, Arab citizens of Israel, anti-Zionism, al-Nakba, the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian right of return. Interestingly the CAMERA editors also target the article on the early Islamic period concept of Dhimmi, a protected status for non-Muslims which historically allowed Jews to thrive in Muslim-ruled lands while other Jews were being persecuted in Christian Europe. Pro-Israel activists have often tried to portray the concept of Dhimmi as akin to the Nuremberg laws in order to denigrate Muslim culture and justify ahistorical Zionist claims that Jews could never live safely in majority Muslim countries. Also among the emails is a discussion about how to alter the article on the massacre of Palestinian civilians in the village of Deir Yassin by Zionist militiamen on 9 April 1948. Unable to debunk the facts of the massacre outright, the CAMERA activists hunt for quotes from "reputable historians" who can cast doubt on it. Their strategy is not dissimilar from those who attempt to present evolution, or global climate change as "controversial" regardless of the weight of the scientific evidence, simply because the facts do not accord with their belief system. Zeq has already made extensive edits to the Wikipedia article on Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist murdered by an Israeli soldier in the occupied Gaza Strip on 16 March 2003. As a result of these and other edits Zeq has himself been a controversial figure among Wikipedia editors, suggesting his own stealth tactics may not be working. "We will go to war" Zeq, however, counsels CAMERA operatives to be patient and lie low until they build up their strength. "We will go to war after we have build our army, equiped it trained [sic]," he wrote on 9 April. "So please if you want to win this war help us build ou[r] army. let's not just rush in and achieve nothing, or abit more than nothing [sic]." DOWNLOAD CAMERA'S EMAILS: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/080421-camera-wikipedia.pdf">http://electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/080421-camera-wikipedia.pdf</a> -- ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI, found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More information about our work can be found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml">http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml</a> To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi">http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi</a> SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: ei Weekday Press Picks Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/&gt</a>; If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi?f=list&l=eimedia>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi?f=list&l=eimedia&gt</a>; If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: <<a href="mailto:news@electronicintifada.net>">mailto:news@electronicintifada.net&gt</a>; The following physical address is associated with this mailing list: MECCS/EI Project 1507 E. 53rd Street, #500 Chicago, IL 60615, USA <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail <a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/</a>

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Hamas: Villain, Victim or Missing Ingredient?"

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:04:00 GMT

Dear Friends, President Carter is doing the sensible thing, that other world leaders who lack courage and independence should be doing -- talking to Hamas. For this he is being villified by Israel to the point that the Shin Bet, Israel's secret police, has refused to provide security for the former US president while at the same time Israeli leaders incite against him. On April 11, I participated in a panel in Washington, sponsored by the Middle East Policy Council on the question "Hamas and the Two-State Solution: Villain, Victim or Missing Ingredient?" The transcript of the presentations and the Q&A session which covered Hamas, the one-state solution, and other matters is available here: <a href="http://www.mepc.org/forums_chcs/52.asp">http://www.mepc.org/forums_chcs/52.asp</a> Video of the event can be seen here: <a href="http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=202712-1">http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=202712-1</a> Ali Abunimah <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> -- ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI, found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More information about our work can be found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml">http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml</a> To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi">http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi</a> SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: ei Weekday Press Picks Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/&gt</a>; If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi?f=list&l=eimedia>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi?f=list&l=eimedia&gt</a>; If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: <<a href="mailto:news@electronicintifada.net>">mailto:news@electronicintifada.net&gt</a>; The following physical address is associated with this mailing list: MECCS/EI Project 1507 E. 53rd Street, #500 Chicago, IL 60615, USA <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail <a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/</a>

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Abunimah: The Senator, His Pastor and the Israel Lobby

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:46:00 GMT

The senator, his pastor and the Israel lobby By Ali Abunimah The Electronic Intifada 31 March 2008 <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9427.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9427.shtml</a> US senator Barack Obama was widely hailed for his 18 March speech calming the media furor about the sermons of his pastor for twenty years Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright's remarks, Obama said, "expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country -- a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam." It might seem odd for Obama to mention Israel and "radical Islam" in a speech focused on US race relations, especially since Wright's most widely reported comments were about America's historic and ongoing oppression of its black citizens. But for months, even before most Americans had heard of Wright, prominent pro-Israel activists were hounding Obama over Wright's views on Israel and ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In January, Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), demanded that Obama denounce Farrakhan as an anti-Semite. The senator duly did so, but that was not enough. "[Obama has] distanced himself from his pastor's decision to honor Farrakhan," Foxman said, but "He has not distanced himself from his pastor. I think that's the next step." Foxman labeled Wright "a black racist," adding in the same breath, "Certainly he has very strong anti-Israel views" (Larry Cohler-Esses, "ADL Chief To Obama: 'Confront Your Pastor' On Minister Farrakhan," The Jewish Week, 16 January 2008). Criticism of Israel, one suspects, is Wright's truly unforgivable crime and Foxman's vitriol has echoed through dozens of pro-Israel blogs. Since his early political life in Chicago, Barack Obama was well-informed about the Middle East and had expressed nuanced views conveying an understanding that justice and fairness, not blinkered support for Israel, are the keys to peace and the right way to combat extremism. Yet for months he has been fighting the charge that he is less rabidly pro-Israel than other candidates -- which means now adhering to the same simplistic formulas and unconditional support for Israeli policies that have helped to escalate conflict and worsen America's standing in the Middle East. Hence Obama's assertion at his 26 February debate with Senator Hillary Clinton that he is "a stalwart friend of Israel." But Obama stressed that his appeal to Jewish voters also stems from his desire "to rebuild what I consider to be a historic relationship between the African American community and the Jewish community." Obama has not addressed to a national audience why that relationship might have frayed. He was much more candid when speaking to Jewish leaders in Cleveland just one day before the debate. In a little-noticed comment, reported on 25 February by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Obama tried to contextualize Wright's critical views of Israel. Wright, Obama explained, "was very active in the South Africa divestment movement and you will recall that there was a tension that arose between the African American and the Jewish communities during that period when we were dealing with apartheid in South Africa, because Israel and South Africa had a relationship at that time. And that cause -- that was a source of tension." Obama implicitly admitted that Wright's views were rooted in opposition to Israel's deep ties to apartheid South Africa, and thus entirely reasonable even if Obama himself did "not necessarily," as he put it, share them. Israel supplied South Africa with hundreds of millions of dollars of weaponry despite an international embargo. Even the water cannons that South African forces used to attack anti-apartheid demonstrators in the townships were manufactured at Kibbutz Beit Alfa, a "socialist" settlement in northern Israel. Until the late 1980s, South Africa often relied on Israel to lobby Western governments not to impose sanctions. And the relationship was durable. As The Washington Post reported in 1987, "When it comes to Israel and South Africa, breaking up is hard to do." Israeli officials, the newspaper said, "face conflicting imperatives: their desire to get in line with the West, which has adopted a policy of mild but symbolic sanctions, versus Israel's longstanding friendship with the Pretoria government, a relationship that has been important for strategic, economic and, at times, sentimental reasons" ("An Israeli Dilemma: S. African Ties; Moves to Cut Links Are Slowed by Economic Pressures, Sentiment," The Washington Post, 20 September 1987). In 1987, Jesse Jackson, then the world's most prominent African American politician, angered some Jewish American leaders for insisting that "Whoever is doing business with South Africa is wrong, but Israel is ... subsidized by America, which includes black Americans' tax money, and then it subsidizes South Africa" ("Jackson Draws New Criticism From Jewish Leaders Over Interview," Associated Press, 16 October 1987). As a presidential candidate, Jackson raised the same concerns in a high profile meeting with the Israeli ambassador, as did a delegation of black civil rights and religious leaders, including the nephew of Martin Luther King Jr, on a visit to Israel. For many African Americans, it was intolerable hypocrisy that so many Jewish leaders who staunchly supported Civil Rights and the anti-apartheid movement would be tolerant of Israel's complicity. Thus, Reverend Wright, who has sought a broader understanding of the Middle East than one that blames Islam and Arabs for all the region's problems or endorses unconditional support for Israel, stood in the mainstream of African American opinion, not on some extremist fringe. That is not to say that Jewish concerns about anti-Semitic sentiments among some African Americans should simply be dismissed. Racism in any community should be confronted. But as they have done with other communities, hard-line pro-Israel activists like Foxman have too often tried to tar any African American critic of Israel with the brush of anti-Semitism. Why must every black candidate to a major office go through the ritual of denouncing Farrakhan, a marginal figure in national politics who likely gets most of his notoriety from the ADL? Surely if anti-Semitism were such an endemic problem among African Americans, there would be someone other than Farrakhan for the ADL to have focused its ire on all these decades. By contrast, neither Senator Joe Lieberman (Al Gore's running mate in 2000 and the first Jewish candidate on a major party presidential ticket), nor Senator John McCain have been required so publicly and so repeatedly to repudiate extremist and racist comments by Israeli leaders or some well-known radical Christian leaders supporting the Republican party. Foxman, whose organization devotes enormous resources to burnishing Israel's image, has rarely spoken out about the escalating anti-Arab racism and incitement to violence by prominent Israeli politicians and rabbis. That is no surprise. African Americans, Arab Americans and Muslims all share some things in common: individuals are held collectively responsible for the words and actions of others in their community whether they had anything to do with them or not. And the price of admission to the political mainstream is to abandon any foreign policy goals that diverge from those of the pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian lobby. Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006). -- ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI, found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More information about our work can be found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml">http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml</a> To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi">http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi</a> SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: ei Weekday Press Picks Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/&gt</a>; If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. 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Revealed: The US plan to start a Palestinian civil war

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:06:00 GMT

REVEALED: THE US PLAN TO START A PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR Report, The Electronic Intifada, 4 March 2008 <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9366.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9366.shtml</a> United States officials including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice participated in a conspiracy to arm and train Contra-style Palestinian militias nominally loyal to the Fatah party to overthrow the democratically-elected Hamas government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, an investigative article in the April 2008 issue of Vanity Fair has revealed. ("The Gaza Bombshell," Vanity Fair, April 2008, (<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/">http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/</a> gaza200804) The allegations of such a conspiracy, long reported by The Electronic Intifada, are corroborated in Vanity Fair with confidential US government documents, interviews with former US officials, Israeli officials and with Muhammad Dahlan, the Gaza strongman personally chosen by Bush. The article, by David Rose, recounts gruesome torture documented on videotape of Hamas members by the US-armed and funded militias under Dahlan's control. Hamas had repeatedly alleged such torture as part of its justification for its move to overthrow the Dahlan militias and take full control of the interior of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Vanity Fair reported that it has "obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the US and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams to provoke a Palestinian civil war." The magazine adds that the plan "was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America's behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically-elected Hamas-led government from power." Abrams was one of the key Reagan administration figures involved in the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s, whereby the US illegally armed militias in Nicaragua to overthrow the ruling Sandinista government. Abrams was convicted and later pardoned for lying to Congress. While it has been known that the US engaged in covert activity to subvert Palestinian democracy and provoke Palestinians to shed each other's blood, the extent of the personal involvement of top US officials in attempting to dictate the course of events in Palestine -- while publicly preaching democracy -- has only now been brought to light. Bush met and personally anointed Dahlan as "our guy" in 2003. In July 2007, The Electronic Intifada reported on a leaked letter written by Dahlan and sent to the Israeli defense minister in which he confirmed his role in a conspiracy to overthrow then Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat for whose replacement Bush had publicly called. Dahlan wrote: "Be certain that Yasser Arafat's final days are numbered, but allow us to finish him off our way, not yours. And be sure as well that ... the promises I made in front of President Bush, I will give my life to keep." The US planning to overthrow the government elected by Palestinians under occupation began immediately after the Hamas movement won a clear victory in the January 2006 election for the Palestinian Legislative Council. Hamas, however, proved "surprising resilient." At a meeting at Abbas' Ramallah headquarters in October 2006, Rice personally ordered Abbas to dissolve the government headed by Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh "within two weeks" and replace it with an unelected "emergency government." When Abbas failed to act promptly on Rice's order, the US stepped up its efforts to arm Dahlan in preparation for the attempted coup. Hamas foiled the coup plot by moving preemptively against Dahlan's gangs, many of whom refused to fight despite being furnished with tens of millions of dollars in weapons and training. The US-conceived "emergency government" headed by a former World Bank official, Salam Fayyad, was eventually appointed by Abbas, but its authority is limited to parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. While the United States and Israel were the driving forces behind the civil war and coup plot, others had a hand including several Arab states and their intelligence services. "The scheme," Rose writes, "bore some resemblance to the Iran-contra scandal" in that "some of the money for the [Nicaraguan] contras, like that for Fatah, was furnished by Arab allies as a result of US lobbying." Related Links: Politics of fear, Osamah Khalil (8 October 2007) <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9028.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9028.shtml</a> Overcoming the conspiracy against Palestine, Ali Abunimah (18 July 2007) <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7116.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7116.shtml</a> Subverting democracy, Joseph Massad (4 July 2007) <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7083.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7083.shtml</a> A setback for the Bush doctrine in Gaza, Ali Abunimah, (14 June 2007) <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7030.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7030.shtml</a> Palestinian Pinochet Making His Move?, Tony Karon, (21 May 2007) <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6925.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6925.shtml</a> The American proxy war in Gaza, Ali Abunimah (3 February 2007) <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6494.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6494.shtml</a> Who is Mohammad Dahlan?, Arjan El Fassed (20 December 2006) <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6275.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6275.shtml</a> Pinochet in Palestine, Joseph Massad (11 November 2006) <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6018.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6018.shtml</a> -- ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI, found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More information about our work can be found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml">http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml</a> To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi">http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi</a> SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: ei Weekday Press Picks Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/&gt</a>; If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi?f=list&l=eimedia>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi?f=list&l=eimedia&gt</a>; If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: <<a href="mailto:news@electronicintifada.net>">mailto:news@electronicintifada.net&gt</a>; The following physical address is associated with this mailing list: MECCS/EI Project 1507 E. 53rd Street, #500 Chicago, IL 60615, USA <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail <a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/</a>

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News and Analysis from EI: More than 100 Palestinians killed in Gaza

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:46:00 GMT

EI's ongoing coverage of the Gaza siege: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/685.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/685.shtml</a> SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> -------------------------------------------------------- Palestine : Opinion/Editorial: THE TIME FOR WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT IS NOW By Omar Barghouti, The Electronic Intifada, 2 March 2008 On Friday, 29 February 2008, Israel's deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatened Palestinians in Gaza with a "holocaust." This date will go down in history as the beginning of a new phase in the colonial conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, whereby a senior Israeli leader, a "leftist" for that matter, has publicly revealed the genocidal plans Israel is considering to implement against Palestinians under its military occupation, if they do not cease to resist its dictates. Omar Barghouti comments for EI. <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9358.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9358.shtml</a> ---------------------------------------------------------- Palestine : Opinion/Editorial: ISRAEL KEEPING TRUE TO ITS RACIST WORDS By Rami Almeghari, The Electronic Intifada, 2 March 2008 Dehumanizing the Palestinians has been necessary for Israel to justify its actions ever since, and even before, the state was declared on destroyed historic Palestine in 1948 and then in 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Taken together, they indicate the historic effort to destroy Palestinian national aspirations and this is what Israel is trying to do in Gaza, which Nobel prize winner and late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin once wished would be swallowed by the sea. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari comments from Gaza. <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9361.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9361.shtml</a> ---------------------------------------------------------- Palestine : Human Rights: GAZA DEATHS SURPASS 100; HUNDREDS INJURED Report, PCHR, 2 March 2008 During the last 24 hours, another 39 Palestinians were killed throughout the Gaza Strip. Twenty-two of them were unarmed civilians, including nine children. Six of the victims were from one family, including three women and three men who were killed in an air strike in Gaza City. The death toll since 27 February currently stands at 101 victims, including 49 unarmed civilians. <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9360.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9360.shtml</a> ---------------------------------------------------------- Palestine : Diaries: Live from Palestine: THE GAZA GENOCIDE By Laila El-Haddad, Live from Palestine, 2 March 2008 We celebrated Yousuf's fourth birthday today. We ate cake. And we counted the bodies. We sang happy birthday. And my mother sobbed. We watched the fighter jets roar voraciously on our television screen, pounding street after street, then heard a train screech outside, and shuddered. Yousuf tore open his presents, and asked my mother to make a paper zanana, a drone, for him with origami; we were torn open from the inside, engulfed by a feeling of impotence and helplessness, fear and anger and grief, despondence and confusion. Laila El-Haddad writes on the "long-term" Gaza genocide. <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9359.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9359.shtml</a> ---------------------------------------------------------- Palestine : Human Rights: ISRAEL KILLS SOME MORE CHILDREN By Mohammed Omer, The Electronic Intifada, 1 March 2008 GAZA CITY, 1 March (IPS) - Tamer was nine, and no child soldier. He did not live in the area from where homemade rockets are launched into Israeli territory. The day he was killed, he was at least two kilometers from the place Israeli troops had entered Gaza, and met with return fire by Palestinian resistance. His tragedy was that the family home was near Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip, close to the area the Israelis have set up as their Kussfim base. <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9356.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9356.shtml</a> ---------------------------------------------------------- Palestine : Development: EGYPT BEGINS PUMPING GAS TO ISRAEL DESPITE GAZA SIEGE By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani, The Electronic Intifada, 29 February 2008 CAIRO, 29 February (IPS) - On Monday, Egypt began pumping natural gas to Israel in accordance with an energy accord between Cairo and Tel Aviv. While the Egyptian government defends the move as being in the country's best interest, opposition figures decry the notion of economic cooperation with Israel, especially in light of the latter's ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip. <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9350.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9350.shtml</a> ---------------------------------------------------------- SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> -- ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI, found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More information about our work can be found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml">http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml</a> To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi">http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi</a> SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More information can be found at: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml</a> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: ei Weekday Press Picks Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: <<a href="http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/>">http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi/u/eimedia/[email_name]/[email_domain]/1234/&gt</a>; If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. 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Op-ed: Threats of "holocaust" as public demand ceasefire talks

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:08:00 GMT

ISRAELI MINISTER THREATENS "HOLOCAUST" AS PUBLIC DEMAND CEASEFIRE TALKS By Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada 29 February 2008 <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9354.shtml">http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9354.shtml</a> Israeli officials began damage limitation efforts after the country's deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatened Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip with a "holocaust." The comments came a day after Israeli occupation forces killed 31 Palestinians, nine of them children, one a six-month-old baby, in a series of air raids across the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for a barrage of rockets fired by resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip which killed one Israeli in the town of Sderot on Wednesday, 27 February. Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, said the rockets were in retaliation for the extrajudicial execution of five Hamas members carried out by Israel on Wednesday morning. Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians since the US-sponsored Annapolis peace summit last November. In the same period, five Israelis have been killed by Palestinians. Speaking to Israeli army radio today, Vilnai said, "the more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." A report on the BBC News website headlined "Israel warns of Gaza 'holocaust'" noted that in Israel the word "holocaust" -- shoah in Hebrew -- is "a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War II." The BBC later reported that "many of Mr. Vilnai's colleagues have quickly distanced themselves from his comments and also tried to downplay them saying he did not mean genocide." An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Arye Mekel, claimed that Vilnai used the word "in the sense of a disaster or a catastrophe, and not in the sense of a holocaust." The attempt to limit the damage of Vilnai's comments is not surprising. It was recently revealed how another Israeli official, Major-General Doron Almog, narrowly escaped arrest at London's Heathrow airport in September 2005, in connection with allegations of war crimes committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. British police feared a gunfight if they attempted to board the El Al civilian aircraft on which Almog had arrived and on which he hid until he fled the United Kingdom back to Israel as a fugitive from justice. Incitement to genocide is a punishable crime under the international Genocide Convention, adopted in 1948 after the Nazi holocaust. "The 8 Stages of Genocide," written by Greg Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, sets out a number of warning signs of an impending genocide, which include "dehumanization" of potential victim groups and preparation, whereby potential victims "are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved." [1] Vilnai's holocaust threat, however much Israeli officials attempt to qualify it, fits into a consistent pattern of belligerent statements and actions by Israeli officials. Israel has attempted to isolate the population of Gaza, deliberately restricting essential supplies, such as food, medicines and energy, a policy endorsed by the Israeli high court but condemned by international officials as illegal collective punishment. As The Electronic Intifada has previously reported, dehumanizing statements by Israeli political and religious leaders directed at Palestinians are common (see "Top Israeli rabbis advocate genocide," The Electronic Intifada, 31 May 2007 and "Dehumanizing the Palestinians," Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 21 September 2007) On 28 February, Vilnai's colleagues added their own inflammatory statements. Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit stated that Israel should "hit everything that moves" in Gaza "with weapons and ammunition," adding, "I don't think we have to show pity for anyone who wants to kill us." And today, Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party said that Israel should invade Gaza to "topple the Hamas terror regime" and that Israeli forces, which now enforce the occupation of Gaza from the periphery and air, should prepare to remain in the interior of the territory "for years." While Israeli leaders escalate the violence and threats, some other top officials and a vast majority of the Israeli public support direct talks with Hamas to achieve a mutual ceasefire, something Hamas has repeatedly offered for months. "Sixty-four percent of Israelis say the government must hold direct talks with the Hamas government in Gaza toward a cease-fire and the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on 27 February citing a Tel Aviv University poll. The report noted that half of Likud supporters and large majorities of Kadima and Labor party voters support such talks and only 28 percent of Israelis still oppose them. Knesset Member Yossi Beilin, leader of the left-Zionist Meretz-Yahad party, called for an agreed ceasefire with Hamas, noting that "there have been at least two requests from Hamas, via a third party, to accept a cease-fire," Haaretz reported on 29 February. Israel's public security minister, Avi Dichter, visiting Sderot the previous day, criticized Israel's military escalation, saying, "Whoever talks about entering and occupying the Gaza Strip, these are populist ideas which I don't connect to, and in my opinion, no intelligent person does either." And, in an interview with the American magazine Mother Jones, published on 19 February, the former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Efraim Halevy, repeated calls for Israel and the US to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas. Dismissing lurid rhetoric about the group, Halevy stated that "Hamas is not al-Qaida," and "is not subservient to Tehran." The question remains as to why when the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians, some senior Israeli officials, and Hamas leaders are all talking about a ceasefire, the Israeli government refuses to accept one and the US refuses to call for one. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has blamed the escalating bloodshed entirely on Hamas, and has failed to call for a ceasefire. This echoes her support for Israel's merciless 2006 bombardment of Lebanon which she notoriously celebrated as being "the birth pangs of a new Middle East." The Palestinian and Israeli populations are exhausted by the relentless bloodshed, however unequal its toll. They are paying the price of a failed policy, pushed by Washington and its local clients, which attempts to demonize, isolate and destroy any movement that resists the order that the United States seeks to impose on the region. -- Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006). Endnotes [1] See: <a href="http://www.genocidewatch.org/aboutgenocide/8stagesofgenocide.html">http://www.genocidewatch.org/aboutgenocide/8stagesofgenocide.html</a> -- ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI, found at <a href="http://electronicIntifada.net">http://electronicIntifada.net</a> provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 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