tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54137102011-05-31T07:25:20.490+03:00Fresh SqueezingsEverything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask about Middle eastern Politics, cab driving, armed proletarian social revolution and tomato-based barbecuing. Or words to that effect. Plus a few rants and some lousy poems ...Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.comBlogger1041100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1086882600619097742004-06-10T18:46:00.000+03:002004-06-10T18:50:00.620+03:00WHY PALESTINE? A speech on Solidarity prepared for the G-8 Protests
To all of you gathered here together to protest this meeting of leaders in secret, when the fate of nations is determined by the nodding of a few tired old men, where the gathered so-called leaders of the countries bent on dominating the world meet, on the day when they parade their anointed puppet leader of an occupied nation Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1085954307574735902004-05-31T00:49:00.000+03:002004-05-31T00:58:27.573+03:00ULSTER: A NATION?
Sinn Fein and its friends and allies bombard us with claims that they are the progressive voice of the people of Ireland and that they are a purely secular group. They merely want, they say, to expel the British and the Settlers from All Ireland. Simple enough, eh?
Of course, this is premised on several shaky notions, such as the idea that, because Ireland is a geographical Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1085704871408729712004-05-28T03:40:00.000+03:002004-05-30T22:55:03.273+03:00RETURNING REFUGEES
A group of Iraqi exiles who fled when the monarchy was overthrown are considering taking legal action in Iraq to recover former properties while the United States remains in control. Perhaps, they will do it, perhaps not. But what does precedent tell us?
Interestingly, the US authorities and puppets in Iraq could look to
American law for a perfect precedent on this questionTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1085704794629157662004-05-28T03:39:00.000+03:002004-05-30T23:06:41.296+03:00DO WE REALLY NEED LEADERS?
I keep hearing calls from self-proclaimed progressives to develop something called 'leadership' in individuals and 'leaders'. While I'm sure some mean something else than what their words imply, the words themselves raise serious hackles for me.
Come on, do we really need leaders? The term itself implies that the majority of people need to be lead. I think that it Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1085704741042755362004-05-28T03:38:00.000+03:002004-05-30T23:29:42.313+03:00THE KING'S MEN
Recently, we encountered some die-hard Iraqi monarchists (children of those who had fled after the Revolution of 14 July) and they were probably more rabid in denouncing Arab Nationalism and the Palestinians than in theoir spewing of hate towards other Iraqis (Saddam for these guys is only a secondary devil after Abd'el-Karim Qasim).
It is, in my mind, fairly ironic that some of Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1085704648129584682004-05-28T03:36:00.000+03:002004-05-30T23:31:26.103+03:00SUICIDE BOMBING OR MARTYRDOM OPERATION?
I can honestly say I do not understand how anyone can disparage suicide bombing while remaining silent about other forms of violence. Perhaps, I am either very stupid or hopelessly naïve. All I know is that I cannot comprehend what it is about those Palestinian “suicide-bombers” that earns so much moral condemnation from, first, various establishment Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1085704563772829962004-05-28T03:34:00.000+03:002004-05-30T23:36:40.716+03:00THE LAWS OF THE WORLD
A friend has been arguing that using the texts of UN Resolutions, international conventions, and so on as a basis for arguing the Palestinian case is wrongheaded. While I do agree that the UN is often little more than a club of rulers and as the recent history of Iraq shows, is often a tool of oppression, it is the closest thing to a world legislature and as such has a Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1085681360833584042004-05-27T21:08:00.000+03:002004-05-30T23:39:01.500+03:00FRESH MEAT
I did a little research on-line and asked a few people about the question of whether eating raw meat was forbidden in Islam. And, it appears that it isn't but ... some of the rulings I found said it was ok so long as it was of animals with no blood, others said always ok, others that it was permissible but disliked.
I also spoke to some more people and got the same mix of answers, Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1085681274656207842004-05-27T21:06:00.000+03:002004-05-30T23:40:31.530+03:00QUICK DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE
Today, the US occupation authority is saying that they have captured
members of the Saddam Fedayeen - Baathi holdouts - and say that they are responsible for the execution of Nick Berg. The news says that a nephew of Saddam planned and ran the operation but he is still at large.
Last week, they announced that they had conclusively identified the
perpetrators as Abu Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1083875365502114872004-05-06T23:29:00.000+03:002004-05-06T23:32:38.640+03:00ABU GHRAIB
(I'll post more on this, I'm sure, but for now ... )
The thing that I've heard that really sends chills more than anything else
is the story about the insurgent attack on Abu ghreib a few weeks ago; at
the time, it seemed very bizarre. Guerillas shelled the prison and
prisoners ran into the gunfire. No one understood and it sounded like
Iraq was a land of the insane. Now, it Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1083005521416448462004-04-26T21:52:00.000+03:002004-04-26T21:56:23.890+03:00A statement on a statement and a state or two
On the issue of the Rantissi statement that I drafted and the apparent controversy and concerns that it has elicited, I'd like to make a few points.
Several persons have found the last paragraph objectionable and wondered if it meant a change in APS's lack of a position on the One-State-vs.Two-States question. The paragraph reads:
"As Dr Rantissi Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082490718220875642004-04-20T22:51:00.000+03:002004-04-20T22:54:55.106+03:00WHY WE STARTED APS
I think it might be worth rehashing why we started APS almost two years ago rather than simply working through
other organizations and coalitions (like IAC, ADC or NION) that agreed with most of our views:
as i recall it, our idea was that by forming a group that was specifically focussed on Palestine and solidarity with the Palestinian people, we could make sure that, in Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082490305337537052004-04-20T22:45:00.000+03:002004-04-20T22:48:02.233+03:00ETHNIC SUCCESS
Someone recently told me that WASPs (a term I find objectionable) are the most successful group in the USA followed by Irish catholics. But ... Ever been to Appalachia? Plenty of Anglo-protestants with no money, no shoes, nothing ... or go to Southie and places like that to see 'Irish America' ...
With the descendants of English settlers, one definitely finds many wild Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082490087704013162004-04-20T22:41:00.000+03:002004-04-20T22:44:24.640+03:00WHITE SUPREMACY, CAPITALISM AND ZIONISM
White Supremacy in the USA and South Africa was invented by capitalism as a means of imposing upper class rule; before the middle of the seventeenth century, race simply wasn't a conscious factor in determining the course of empire but race was'invented' as a concept to divide working people against one another as a form of false consciousness so as to Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082489697599394612004-04-20T22:34:00.000+03:002004-04-20T22:37:54.623+03:00COLONIALISM'S PLAN B
On the issue of Christians & colonialism in the Middle East, I think it might be worth recalling that, just a few miles north of Palestine, there is an Arab Christian community that made itself readily available for European dominance: the Maronites of Lebanon. This community approached the West asking that it be able to play a role as colonial wedge into the Middle East Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082488037986837362004-04-20T22:07:00.000+03:002004-04-20T22:10:15.373+03:00WHAT'S WHITE?
I've been in some discussions lately about white supremacy and it seems to me that a fundamental question is often unanswered:
-- What is 'white'?
It seems like it is used in several non-synonymous ways. Is it a racial/physiognomic description and if so what does that
mean (the old paper bag test?)? Is it an ethnic description and if so where do 'white' people come from Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082485477278805802004-04-20T21:24:00.000+03:002004-04-20T21:29:04.546+03:00WHEN A JOLT IS NEEDED
Sometimes, one finds that one cannot help but to offend; calling a racist a racist or a fascist a fascist may cause them to turn a deaf ear but ...
and sometimes a jolt is needed, even though it may turn people off.
A personal anecdote:
Growing up in the South in the 70's and 80's, I had never thought of the Confederate flag as being particularly racist. it was simply aTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082484817320860132004-04-20T21:13:00.000+03:002004-04-20T21:16:34.576+03:00HOW NOT TO SPEND YOUR WINDFALL
Once upon a time, there was an Arab state that had huge oil reserves and, rather than investing its money in US banks while the common people languished, built roads, schools, hospitals and invested heavily in building factories for import-substitution of everything from cigarettes to cars --
They also spent some money on funding inter-Arab cultural and politicalTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082484565227248122004-04-20T21:09:00.000+03:002004-04-20T21:12:22.543+03:00BUSH MEETS SHARON
On April 14, American President George W. Bush met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and afterwards publicly announced a new American policy that contradicts stated American policy goals of the past and effectively endorses all the worst aspects of current Israeli policy. Some are already calling Bush's announcement a 'new Balfour' (after
the 1917 British declaration Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1082484203214423632004-04-20T21:03:00.000+03:002004-04-20T21:06:20.653+03:00STATEMENT ON RANTISSI
Atlanta Palestine Solidarity Condemns the Assassination of Dr Abd al-Aziz Rantissi
October 23, 1947 - April 17, 2004
Atlanta Palestine Solidarity condemns in the strongest terms possible the cowardly assassination of Dr Abd al-Aziz Rantissi Saturday by Israeli Occupation Forces. We extend our sympathies and condolences to the families, friends, comrades and compatriots of Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1080514182656776192004-03-29T00:49:00.000+02:002004-03-29T00:52:16.500+02:00RACISM AS MOTIVATING FORCE
I believe that there is a crucial difference between the role of racial supremacy in Israel/Palestine on the one hand and in the USA or South africa on the other. And that is that, fundamentally, racism here or in South Africa was always a secondary consideration while, in Israel, it was primary. Realizing that is something fundamental to our understanding of what Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1080092640837386412004-03-24T03:44:00.000+02:002004-03-24T03:46:29.890+02:00YOUTHS WITH GUNS
Recently, I ran into a series of pictures of Palestinian youths training with what appeared to be guns and hand grenades. I was told that I should be shocked and dismayed by this slander.
But I'm not.
I personally don't see much particularly disturbing about images of children with guns. Of course, that may be because of my own background; where I grew up (in rural Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1080091797413879742004-03-24T03:29:00.000+02:002004-03-24T03:33:55.496+02:00THE ASSASSINATION OF SHEIKH YASSIN
Atlanta Palestine Solidarity condemns in the strongest terms possible the
cowardly assassination of Sheik Ahmad Yassin along with nine others
Monday by Israeli Occupation Forces. We extend our sympathies and
condolences to the families, friends, comrades and compatriots of all
those who died in what APS considers to be the essence of state-supported
terrorism. Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1077121030216393332004-02-18T18:17:00.000+02:002004-02-18T18:19:05.356+02:00KERRY AND FONDA
In the past few days, John Kerry has tried to disassociate himself from jane Fonda after pictures showing the two of them at an anti-war rally during Vietnam came to light. Fonda has been attacked for several decades now for going to Hanoi and being shown with a North Vietnamese flag while American soldiers were dying not terribly far away.
Yet, Fonda, so far as I know, never Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1077120548046140782004-02-18T18:09:00.000+02:002004-02-18T18:11:03.246+02:00SELF FULFILLING PROPHECIES
Mel Gibson's film on the Passion is about to be released widely and some interests are campaigning against it, saying that it will lead to heightened anti-semitism by depicting scenes from the Gospels that might be interpretted as anti-semitic. They attack him for not consulting with learned rabbis and other Jewish elders. So what of that?
One wonders whether StevenTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1077072882378758922004-02-18T04:54:00.000+02:002004-02-18T04:56:44.043+02:00THE BEGINNING OF THE END?
Did today see the beginning of the end of the American Empire? It just might have ...
Before the US government set out to reshape the Arab East to its liking, before the Cold War, before the World wars, there was the Monroe Doctrine. The United States declared in 1823 that outside powers were not to intervene in the independent states of the Americas; that was to be Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1075757656102763692004-02-02T23:34:00.000+02:002004-02-02T23:35:55.170+02:00THE PENTATEUCH
I've read recently a few things dismissing the accounts given in Genesis and Exodus of Hebrew origins but I don't agree with such dismissals. I don't know of how much value it is to argue that the events of the Patriarchal narrative and the Exodus couldn't have happened really is.
From my understanding, the patriarchal narrative (the saga of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob-et al), isn't Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1075757265811057372004-02-02T23:27:00.000+02:002004-02-02T23:29:24.936+02:00SADDAM'S FLAG?
A friend recently objected to people flying the Iraqi flag with "Allahu Akhbar" at demonstrations. While it was designed by Saddam himself, that flag with "God is Great" is still the official flag of Iraq. There were debates about changing it but no one could agree as
to what to change it to (the pre-1958 flag, the Qassim flag, the pre-1991 flag) so it has been left for now. SoTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1075757044154403442004-02-02T23:24:00.000+02:002004-02-02T23:25:43.310+02:00NON-VIOLENCE TAKES TWO PARTIES
Regularly, we hear the same complaint and critique come from many would-be
friends of the Palestinian people that, if only the Palestinians would
embrace non-violence and abandon armed struggle, their demands would be
met. But is that necessarily so?
Such arguments are based on what we see in the western press; endless
accounts of the horrible violence of the Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1073244066051853402004-01-04T21:21:00.000+02:002004-01-04T21:22:16.280+02:00DRAFT INTRODUCTORY SPEECH, "Why Palestine?"
Thank you all for coming out tonight.
Most of us are gathered here, I think, to hear David sing his songs of love and solidarity and of resistance to the oppression that threatens to overwhelm the world. We are also here to celebrate the release of his new album, Behind the Barricades.
But we are not just here for that, reason enough though it Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1073243947368511752004-01-04T21:19:00.000+02:002004-01-04T21:20:17.623+02:00PALESTINE CALENDER PROJECT
JANUARY
1/1 Fatah launches armed struggle (1965)
1/14 Dbayeh camp sacked (1976)
1/14 Abu Iyad and Abu al-Hol assasinated (1991)
1/18 Tel Aviv gets scudded (1991)
FEBRUARY
2/17 Israeli Defense Minister Lavon forced to reisgn after exposure of spy
ring terror attacks in Egypt "Lavon Affair" (1955)
2/22 Jerusalem day
2/25 Napoleon invades Palestine (1799)
2/25 Hebron Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1071178330073328612003-12-11T23:32:00.000+02:002003-12-11T23:32:56.530+02:00GETTING WHAT YOU ASKED FOR
In the summer of 1989 when I was still fairly politically naive, I worked as a dishwasher alongside several Palestinian guys. I recall talking to one Palestinian friend at that time about the PLO's recent recognition of the State of Israel and what that meant for him. He had come to the US from a refugee camp in Beirut; his family was from the city of Akko. I asked Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1069969667098116092003-11-27T23:47:00.000+02:002003-11-27T23:48:19.716+02:00,,,Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1069969586699838552003-11-27T23:46:00.000+02:002003-11-27T23:46:59.340+02:00VIRTUES OF POVERTY/POVERTY OF VIRTUE
Recently, I've been thinking of how the necessities of our daily lives shape our ideals, goals, and the things we value in ourselves. Of course, since economic station is one of the greatest factors in development, it is only natural that relative economic poverty will shape some of us to find virtue in our economic status.
When I was in school, I knew manyTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1069732721672707182003-11-25T05:58:00.000+02:002003-11-25T05:59:11.233+02:00 GOD AND RACISM
Recently, I got into an argument with some friends as to whether Zionism derived its colonialist racism from general European thought exclusively or from Jewish teachings. I argued that it was a far more dialectic process. To say that it is purely an importation is to absolve the religions at least as much as to call it a purely Talmudic matter is to engage in anti-Semitism.
Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1069728216131074392003-11-25T04:43:00.000+02:002003-11-25T04:44:05.840+02:00RELIGION AND OPPRESSION
One of the most aggravating things, in my humble opinion, is that all Muslims are held culpable by the West for the actions of all other Muslims. Muslims around the world are expected to defend or to criticize issues affecting any muslim society.
Yet the same standard is never used for Christians. consider: Rios Montt in Guatemala
justified the slaughter of Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1069727442110225422003-11-25T04:30:00.000+02:002003-11-25T04:31:12.000+02:00HIDDEN VICTIMS OF THE OCCUPATION
recently, I've seen the same article on Honor-Killings in Palestine several times. It is an important issue but I think one of the most important aspects to those of us in the USA is how the women killed in honor-killings are among the "hidden" victims of the occupation.
As stated in this article, the number of victims seems to have increased since the Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1069726788681532422003-11-25T04:19:00.000+02:002003-11-25T04:34:45.293+02:00FROM FORT BENNING TO THE GAZA STRIP
(Between November 22-23, 2003 Atlanta Palestine Solidarity joined the thousands of people from across the Americas in protest at the gates of the U.S. military base Fort Benning in Georgia - the home of the School of the Americas. The article I prepared below explains the connections between the Palestinian/Israeli struggle and the wars in Latin America.)
Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067481995823049292003-10-30T04:46:00.000+02:002003-11-25T04:16:31.593+02:00ROCK THE BOAT
A letter I wrote printed in creative loafing:
I feel that I must take exception to Roni Sarig's recent comments regarding David Rovics' song, "Jenin" (Sharp Notes, Nov. 6). Sarig states, "One that'll get Rovics crossed off our not-just-a-knee-jerk-lefty-with-no-moral-compass list: 'Jenin,' in which he romanticizes the suicide bomber as a freedom fighter with a valid mission, Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067474734350467722003-10-30T02:45:00.000+02:002003-10-30T04:32:30.460+02:00IS IRAQ VIETNAM II?
I've been thinking lately whether there is a historical analogy to the current war in Iraq. Some are already calling it a second Vietnam War for the US. Is it?
I don't think so. In Vietnam, the US intervened in a civil war. The government of the South faced both regular troops of the North and guerillas aligned with the North; the US stepped in on what was clearly the Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067454135687660942003-10-29T21:02:00.000+02:002003-10-29T21:02:15.103+02:00ORIGINS OF HIJAB
A friend recently sent me an article that claims that the hijab, the Islamic women's head covering, is a modern invention. The article is so far fetched as to be almost funny; it claims the hijab was invented in 1977!
After reading it, I went to my bookshelf and pulled off the first book I saw published before 1977, a 1963 tour guide to the Holy Land. Within about twenty Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067453277324014392003-10-29T20:47:00.000+02:002003-10-29T20:47:56.100+02:00here are some old poems I just found:
SURAT 115
Thus spoke the Living One to me, saying:
I am fever breaking, I am an Earthquake shaking
I am the Sun arising
I am the oppressed, I am the distressed
I am the masses
I am no mystery, I am true history
I am what is
I am all things possible, I am the least probable
I am True Revolution
I am what must be, I am what will be
I am what I am.
Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067451467753305662003-10-29T20:17:00.000+02:002003-10-29T20:17:46.950+02:00IRGUN
Someone else said to me recently that the left supported groups like the FLN when they fought for independence, so why not smile on the Irgun? Well ...
The violent acts of the Irgun are hardly comparable to those of the FLN in the War of the Million Martyrs in Algeria (1954-1962). Yes, the Irgun and the Stern Gang were fighting to create an independent state out of a European Empire Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067450973157783052003-10-29T20:09:00.000+02:002003-10-29T20:09:32.473+02:00THE GROWING NAZIFICATION OF ISRAEL AND THE USA
Lately, counter-terrorism experts and their hangers on have been talking about wrapping Muslim corpses in pigskins and things like that; settlers in the West Bank are talking of employing pis as guard dogs. These ideas about having pigs guard against Muslims or spattering people with pigs' blood because it offends their religious (islamic) Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067450754489202712003-10-29T20:05:00.000+02:002003-10-29T20:06:19.363+02:00WHO'LL USE WMD's?
Recently, I was challenged as to whether or not I thought that Iran or the Palestinians could be trusted with nuclear weapons. Yes, I reply.
I don't think that the Iranian government (or that of any of the Arab states including the now defunct Iraqi regime) is any more likely to use a nuclear weapon or would be any less "trustworthy" as custodians of nuclear weapons than wereTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067450255655650272003-10-29T19:57:00.000+02:002003-10-29T19:57:34.293+02:00THE GENEVA ACCORD
We grees the recent Draft Permanent Status Agreement (the Geneva Accord) drawn up by independent, non-governmental delegations of Israelis and Palestinians as a positive step but assert that, while a step in the correct direction, it is only a beginning.
The Geneva Accord breaks through many of the stumbling points of the so-called Road Map and other recent initiatives in Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067450069786230332003-10-29T19:54:00.000+02:002003-10-29T19:54:28.470+02:00ANTI-ZIONISM IS ANTI-SEMITISM?
The idea that "Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism" and that criticisms of Israel are bey definition anti-Semitic is often expressed but is based on several unanswered hypotheses.
First, what exactly is a nation?
Are Jews a nation? Or are they members of a religious group? Are all religions nations and is denying a right to an independent state whatever the appropriateTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067449815144463202003-10-29T19:50:00.000+02:002003-10-29T19:50:13.876+02:00IF JORDAN IS PALESTINE, THEN MICHIGAN IS VIRGINIA
The argument that "Jordan is Palestine" and that the Palestinians have no rights in their homeland is fallacious and stupid. Yes, between 1920 and 1922, what is now the kingdom of Jordan was administered as part of the British Mandate of Palestine but that does not change the facts of Palestinian oppression west of the Jordan.
A perfect analogyTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067449709426313192003-10-29T19:48:00.000+02:002003-10-29T19:48:28.190+02:00"WHY DO THEY HATE US?"
A little while ago, the US Occupation authorities closed down two Iraqi businesses -- for the crime of trying to set up cel-phone services in Baghdad.
Apparently they were competing with the exclusive contracts being given out to Israeli and American companies (MCI also received one).
So, as I understand it, the occupiers claim they are there to bring the benighted Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1067449183325073192003-10-29T19:39:00.000+02:002003-10-29T19:47:39.050+02:00THE ARAB STREET?
OK, we all hear these claims that the collectivity of the Arabs (all three hundred million or so without exception presumably) are all united in blaming all their problems on Israel repeated endless in all types of Western media.
While living and travelling in several Arab states and following the Arabic press, I never heard this said by anyone other than by hypothetical "Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1061047839342457582003-08-16T18:30:00.000+03:002003-08-16T18:36:13.473+03:00ELON VISITS ATLANTA
So, the Israeli Minister of Tourism is coming to town as part of an American tour where he'll be primarily visiting conservative Christian leaders. What's the big deal? It would seem logical that someone charged with increasing tourism to the Christian Holy Land might want to reach out to people who would be most interested in pilgrimages to Nazareth, Bethlehem and the HolyTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1060806583844884302003-08-13T23:29:00.000+03:002003-08-13T23:34:27.940+03:00NAWAL EL SAADAWI
Recently, I had several conversations regarding Nawal el Saadawi. Several years ago (1992), she was supposed to speak at a conference in Chicago that I attended but had to cancel due to illness (it was of a leftist Palestinian women's organization whose name I forget). At the time, I knew little of her other than of the general awe many of the conferees had of her; Samiha Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1060806030678786972003-08-13T23:20:00.000+03:002003-08-13T23:25:14.986+03:00MIDEAST "CALM"
Today's AJC (8-12-03) ran a headline saying "Bombers shatter calm in Mideast" and stating that the killing of two Israelis in a pair of suicide-bombings rattled a "shaky mideast truce". While the bombings are deplorable and certainly do nothing to build an environment conducive to building a lasting peace, they are hardly the first events to shake the truce.
Israel has in July Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1059613210261244042003-07-31T04:00:00.000+03:002003-07-31T04:00:10.120+03:00ISRAEL-IRAQ CONNECTION
A recent New York Times article discusses the flight of an Israeli plane bearing six Iraqi Jews to Israel. In it Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1059609960029166102003-07-31T03:06:00.000+03:002003-07-31T03:06:00.026+03:00THE BLOOD SUCKERS OF IRAQ
A group of American war criminals who were captured red-handed in their genocidal activities (murdering Iraqi civilians in indiscriminatory terror bombings) in 1991 have had the gall to sue the Iraqi state and people for psychological damages, alleging that they were tortured (a fact that was disproved in 1991).
These cowardly mercenaries, hired killers for the first Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1059605655472579422003-07-31T01:54:00.000+03:002003-07-31T01:54:15.333+03:00REBUILD THE MUKHABART?
The New York Times ran an article the other day about how the US Occupation government is working closely with Ahmed Chalbi to revive the Iran arm of the former Iraqi government's intelligence service. The possibility of recruiting the other international Iraqi espionage units is also raised as well as the fact that the US is trying to establish firm contacts and control Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-105901028734502742003-07-24T04:31:00.000+03:002003-07-24T04:41:23.473+03:00US EXPERIENCE IN IRAQ EXPLAINS SUPPORT OF ISRAEL
For years, I've heard people wondering why the USA sends billions every year to aid Israel. It's obvious to nearly everyone what the Israelis get out of their relationship with the USA ... but what does the American government gain?
It's simple, really.
Israel does for itself -- and on the American behalf -- exactly what the US is now trying Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1057204378212633042003-07-03T06:52:00.000+03:002003-07-03T06:52:58.090+03:00ARAB JEWS: FORGOTTEN REFUGEES?
In the past few months, various Zionist groups have begun promoting the cause of Jewish "refugees" from the Arab states as an equivalent cause to that of the Palestinian refugees. Some have gone even further and have begun to press the United States to restore lost properties to them in Iraq and elsewhere.
The tragedy of the Arab Jewish communities is one that Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1057201450198858112003-07-03T06:04:00.000+03:002003-07-03T06:04:10.140+03:00THE REJECTIONISTS OF TODAY
Conventional wisdom in the USA says that the potential for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors has collapsed because the Arabs reject peace and refuse to live alongside Israel. But is this really true?
Among the Arab groups who have publicly stated their willingness to live in peace with Israel so long as it withdraws completely from the West Bank and Gaza Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1057200701514975632003-07-03T05:51:00.000+03:002003-07-03T05:51:41.416+03:00IRAQI SOVIETS?
Yesterday morning, I heard an interesting piece on NPR. It discussed how, at the Sumer Cigarette Factory in Baghdad, workers had driven off the former Ba'th Party management and elected their own Workers' Council to run the plant. As one of the few state run enterprises that wasn't looted, the Cigarette Factory could easily serve as a model for a democratizing Iraq.
One couldTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1057199564975260982003-07-03T05:32:00.000+03:002003-07-03T05:32:44.930+03:00SOME THOUGHTS ON ZIONISM
Lately, some people have been expressing the idea that Anti-Zionism equals Anti-Semitism. They argue that this is so saying that "it denies, by definition, Jews a right to national self-determination." Of course, this notion is based on several extremely debatable hypotheses, namely that 1) Jews are a Nation, 2) That Zionism is the expression of Jewish Nationalism, 3)Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1056509559072906552003-06-25T05:52:00.000+03:002003-06-25T06:17:55.466+03:00THE SELLING OF IRAQ
Paul Bremer, Bush's Vice-roy in Baghdad, has proven himself as incompetent as any of the other neo-cons at rebuilding Iraq (of course, we all know that was never their real objective). He claims to want to see an Iraqi democracy but, when one of the American generals actually took the Administration seriously and began working towards fair and free elections in Najaf (Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1056505056416473312003-06-25T04:37:00.000+03:002003-06-25T04:37:36.353+03:00U. S. INVADES SYRIA!!!!!!!!
I don't know whether anyone else noticed but the US military invaded yet another country over the weekend.
In an operation that was mainly publicized for the possibility that, this time, the US might finally have succeded in assasinating Saddam and his sons (a posibility that had been dismissed by the time I sat down), US Special Forces attacked a convoy believed Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1056502479297251272003-06-25T03:54:00.000+03:002003-06-25T03:54:39.163+03:00SETTLERS
This was sent to me as an email:
Subject: Exchange With a Zionist
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 08:32:02 -0700
One of my students, a self-described "ardent Zionist", in a brief exchange, asked me why I was concerned about the slaughter of Palestinians by the Israeli forces but said nothing about the "terrorism"--and victims--of the Palestinians. I responded "Could I answer your question Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1056501615518465262003-06-25T03:40:00.000+03:002003-06-25T03:40:15.436+03:00Pro-Israel Resolution in Georgia House Sparks Debate
Sara Totonchi, an activist involved with Atlanta Palestine Solidarity, was at the Georgia State Capital on other business one morning lin February. She happened to take a glance at what business the State Legislature was taking up that day and saw, in addition to numerous local concerns, a bill that would put the State of Georgia on record Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1055815346722897342003-06-17T05:02:00.000+03:002003-06-17T05:02:26.723+03:00A ROAD MAP TO NOWHERE
After much anticipation, the so-called "Quartet" of the United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russian Federation has belatedly offered its long-awaited "Roadmap" for a comprehensive and final solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
While we applaud any and all genuine efforts to achieve a lasting and just peace to this conflict, we cannot help but lookTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054767010451063052003-06-05T01:50:00.000+03:002003-06-05T01:50:10.436+03:00SOME CLAIMS FROM YESHA REFUTED
A friend of mine passed on an e-mail to me and asked me for comments. The e-mail reads almost as though it originates with the "Yesha Council", the settlers' main advocacy organization in Israel and is a bit, um, out in right field.
The article was really poorly researched, relying heavily on a small handful of secondary sources that are far from unbiased and Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054764955735516102003-06-05T01:15:00.000+03:002003-06-05T01:15:56.226+03:00WHY CAN'T G.I. JOE DRIVE?
I've been following the news over the past few months and, every couple of days, similair stories appear:
- American soldiers in Iraq flip their Humvee in freak accident, killing all.
- American soldiers killed in head-on collision with other American soldiers.
- Helicopters collide in mid-air.
etc., etc. ...
It seems like nearly as many American soldiers have been Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054157226435263052003-05-29T00:27:00.000+03:002003-05-29T05:33:49.436+03:00ALL FALL DOWN
I.
Guns! Tanks! Airplanes!
Rolling carcasses of steel
Caress the levelled hillsides
With Death's Icy Gaze
Leaders chanting endlessly:
"Deutschland uber alles,
Brittania rules the waves,
Roma aeterna victoriaque,
God Bless the USA"
America, Germany, Britain,
Rome, Babylon, and Ur
"Dust to Dust,
And Ashes to Ashes"
Hurry up now and get past the "to"!
Who shall be next?
Stand in Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054154286169507692003-05-28T23:38:00.000+03:002003-05-28T23:38:06.210+03:00DR. KNOWITALL’S ALL-IN-ONE PERSONALITY AND INTELLIGENCE EXAM
This test is infallible and shows both personality and intelligence. Scoring is based on an elaborate and scientific procedure I have developed in my lavatory. You gain points by answering correctly, lose by answering incorrectly. Some answers have more weight than others. On the factual questions, you can still gain points even Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054151688035634082003-05-28T22:54:00.000+03:002003-05-28T22:54:48.060+03:00SURAT AL-THAWRA
Then, the Merciful put these words about himself in the mouth of the Teacher and caused him to recite them, saying:
I am fever-breaking, I am an earthquake shaking
I am the sun arising
I am the oppressed, I am the dispossessed
I am the teeming Masses
I am no one's special mystery, I am the force of all history
Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054151259308488572003-05-28T22:47:00.000+03:002003-05-28T22:47:39.340+03:00ON THE DAMASCUS ROAD:
An Adventure
Summer 1992, I am studying Arabic at the University of the Yarmouk in Irbid, Jordan. The school is named for the battle fought nearby where the young armies of the newborn Caliphate destroyed the Byzantines, opening the gates to Syria, Jerusalem and the lands beyond. The city is even older; this is the land called Gilead, where once a balm was found. Ruins Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054151214490326922003-05-28T22:46:00.000+03:002003-05-28T22:46:54.520+03:00MIRROR TO HEART TOLD IN ELLIPSIS
A young man lost in wandering clouds of hero-tales of former ages half-absorbed, here is where I begin. Too long lonely, I dreamed myself a champion and imagined tales where it was I who slew the dragon, saved the princess, freed the land. And, so, when I met her, it was easy to weave a web of fancy around ourselves. I had had dreams of a white horse running Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054148105220745312003-05-28T21:55:00.000+03:002003-05-28T21:55:05.243+03:00SHOULD THEY ASK
I wrote this poem in the voice of a Palestinian refugee, somewhere not far from the border looking homeward:
Battles lost and battles won
yet nothing changes but the names
of martyred sons and widows newly made.
Over there, come spring, they'll laugh and sing and play
as they have for forty springs. And, they won't ask,
'Whose house is this? Whose field?
Whose tree is this Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054146449890051722003-05-28T21:27:00.000+03:002003-05-28T21:27:29.910+03:00Next Saturday, there's going to be a big anti-war march in Atlanta. Here's the e-mail flyer I drafted for our organization:
NO TO ENDLESS WAR!
THIRTY SIX YEARS IS TOO LONG!
June 7, 2003, 2 pm
March and Rally Against Endless War and Occupation
From Grant Park to the King Memorial
A CALL FOR A PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY BLOC
On June 7, 1967, to the day 859 years after the Crusader armies Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054007566067719032003-05-27T06:52:00.000+03:002003-05-27T11:43:21.716+03:00TRUSTAFARIANS?
One of the myths that the Right Wing likes to spread is that those who protest their wars are a pack of wealthy college students living off trust-funds and in rebellion against their parents' mores. They push the idea that these "dope-smoking trustafarians" are in no way representative of the American people but are mere dupes of left-wing professors.
Perhaps this was true in Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1054003863251057292003-05-27T05:51:00.000+03:002003-05-27T05:51:02.943+03:00HOLLYWOOD
I keep seeing Rightists express contempt for every actor or musician who expresses an opinion regarding war and empire. They suggest that these people have no business having opinions on political matters and, even if they do have them, they should not share them.
Well, while I agree that many of the "Hollywood Left" sound like idiots when opining on politics and many pop stars Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053921728376650152003-05-26T07:02:00.000+03:002003-05-26T07:02:08.520+03:00IS THE NAME "PALESTINE" MODERN?
It's sad that certain hard-line partisans of Israel refuse to acknowledge actual history, even when it comes to easily discernable names. Lately, I've seen it said that the name "Palestine" is a fiction. They claim that, while the name derives from the Philistines (who are denounced as invaders from Crete), it was imposed on the land by the Romans as a means ofTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053917559402465842003-05-26T05:52:00.000+03:002003-05-26T05:52:39.470+03:00EULOGY FOR JENIN
(also from last spring)
Today, all across the globe, persons of good will find themselves in mourning. We have all heard the bitter news coming from Palestine. We have heard of the thousand new made martyrs, of mother-less sons, and sonless mothers, of widows and orphans newly made. We have heard of the bodies piled in the streets, of the torture of innocents, of the destructionTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053916553282454722003-05-26T05:35:00.000+03:002003-05-26T05:35:53.313+03:00Fascism in the name of "PEACE"
The self-appointed spokespeople for the oh-so-sacred and sanctified mythical mainstream denounce the people who kept bringing up "irrelevant" issues like the Palestinian Struggle at anti-war rallies. I have seen more than one article circulated suggesting that the anto-war movement failed to stop the war, not because Bush and his posse were unstoppable but Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053915737645533942003-05-26T05:22:00.000+03:002003-05-26T05:22:17.656+03:00WARSAW AND JENIN
(from last Spring)
In the summer of 1944, the Polish Home Army heard the news of the D-Day landings, of the advance of the Red Army across the Eastern Front. After five long years of steadfast resistance to the Nazi Occupiers of Poland, the KA began a massive and sustained popular uprising throughout the city of Warsaw. They believed, falsely, that the Allies would aid them.
Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053915373921530962003-05-26T05:16:00.000+03:002003-05-26T05:16:13.373+03:00A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR PEACE
(From a few months ago)
As I listened to Congressman Dick Armey’s call for the transfer of the Palestinian people out of the territory under Israeli control and thought about how, over the past few days, both houses of the United States Congress (as well as numerous state legislatures) have competed in showing their unequivocal support of the continued existence of anTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053913972519219642003-05-26T04:52:00.000+03:002003-05-26T04:52:51.953+03:00AM I NAIVE? OR MERELY STUPID?
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I am either very stupid or hopelessly naïve. Why? Because I cannot comprehend what it is about those Palestinian “suicide-bombers” that earns so much moral condemnation from the political and military leadership of the United States and of Israel and from the various establishment commentators when they remain silent on soTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053873170987875092003-05-25T17:32:00.000+03:002003-05-25T17:32:51.026+03:00BUT IS IT POSSIBLE?
Some have argued that challenging on Israel's Apartheid structure isn't a good use of time but is futile because Israel is unlikely to make such concessions and that it makes more sense to put pressure where it will have an effect (yes, I am simplifying a more complex argument).
I would like to object that saying that Israel is unlikely to unmake itself as a Zionist state isTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053872592254536502003-05-25T17:23:00.000+03:002003-05-25T17:23:12.280+03:00WHY PALESTINE?
American governmental support for Israel making the Palestinian cause a moral imperative for Americans would be true regardless of whether we see the moral issue as one of "occupation" or as one of "apartheid".
Other anti-occupation movements in this country, such as the "Free Tibet" movement, have less of an imperative for Americans because there is less American culpability -- Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053872322903745422003-05-25T17:18:00.000+03:002003-05-25T18:33:54.823+03:00IRAQ AND ME
As you might have noticed, the items I've posted on this site so far have been heavy with Iraqi content. Of course, that has a lot to do with the fact that a war has just ended with the American Conquest of Iraq and that land has now become an American colony, de jure and de facto. So, of course, just writing topical comments would give things a heavy Iraqi flavor.
But I have a Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053798816233278502003-05-24T20:53:00.000+03:002003-05-25T18:44:11.386+03:00
Vote Democrat?
Mountain tribes
Relief for Pain
So long suckas
Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053556670402704172003-05-22T01:37:00.000+03:002003-05-27T11:32:41.343+03:00THE IRAQI CONSTITUTION
So, the new Iraqi Constitution is to be written not by an Iraqi nor even by an Arab but by some Orthodox Jewish professor at NYU, Noah Feldman who just so happens to be a part of the neo-con New America Foundation, one of the groups that campaigned incessantly for the ongoing genocide in Iraq and for an out and out American Empire that would destroy and occupy all the Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053554764179981732003-05-22T01:06:00.000+03:002003-05-22T01:06:04.230+03:00(I drafted this wrap-up summary of Atlanta anti-war activities the other day)
ATLANTA AND THE WAR
The bombs had barely begun falling over Baghdad when the first voices of protest and resistance were raised locally. The War began a few minutes after 10 pm on March 18 as heavy rain fell over Atlanta. Within half an hour, a handful of activists were protesting at Five Points.
The following Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053551913123169942003-05-22T00:18:00.000+03:002003-05-22T00:18:33.170+03:00(I wrote this a while back but am reposting it here)
Had there Never Been a Zionism, Israel Still Would Be:
The Anti-Semitic Analysis of the Palestine Conflict and American Foreign Policy
All too frequently, whenever discussion rises regarding the roots of the American role in the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict, some one or other interjects what we can call the "Anti-Semitic" theory of Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053544939039383432003-05-21T22:22:00.000+03:002003-05-21T22:42:01.360+03:00FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL?
Recently, a friedn forwarded me a piece about how there was no such thing as a Palestinian and that the Palestinians were all interlopers of recent vintage in the land, Arab emigrants who had arrived after the time of Muhammad. (I think this argument is usually based on Joan Peters' book "From Time Immemorial").
I doubt that many people would question the direct Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053544888935908582003-05-21T22:21:00.001+03:002003-05-22T00:49:13.890+03:00LOOTING
If Americans had been paying attention to the rest of the world, maybe somebody in the military might have done something to prevent the burning of the Iraqi museums and libraries. Instead, American soldiers just stood and watched, ignoring the pleas of Iraqis for help, as major monuments of human civilization burned.
Of course, the US military quickly set up a perimeter to defend Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053544912584681582003-05-21T22:21:00.000+03:002003-05-22T00:27:45.036+03:00IRAQI RESISTANCE?
These days, the US is shooting into crowds and killing by the fives and tens all over Iraq; suicide bombers blow themselves up; crowds of thousands scream at American troops to leave; all over Iraq grafitti calls for resistance ...
And who is surprised that the Iraqis have no desire to be occupied? I think it was Gandhi who said that people prefer a bad government of their Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053544857884213232003-05-21T22:20:00.000+03:002003-05-22T00:50:31.323+03:00ON TO SYRIA?
So what's next? Is Syria in the crosshairs? The neo-cons are pressing their case with some of the same fake evidence from this war. They claim Syria supports terrorism, has WMDs, threatens the USA, is a rogue state ...
But maybe they won't.
Syria doesn't have much oil; it used to import from Iraq. They did say that this last war wasn't fought on Israel's behalf; the proof Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053544309780608872003-05-21T22:11:00.000+03:002003-05-21T22:11:49.800+03:00ABU ABBAS
The Americans are bragging about having captured Muhammad Abbas, Abu'l Abbas, the head of the Palestine Liberation Front. His most infamous escapade, of course, was "masterminding' the hijacking of the Achille Lauro back in the 1980's. Rumsfeld is ballyhooing this as the proof that Iraq supported terrorism ...
Of course, he fails to mention a few salient facts:
-- It was well Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053543560590011542003-05-21T21:59:00.000+03:002003-05-21T21:59:20.590+03:00ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS TO RULE IRAQ?
Could someone please remind me what the US claims to be fighting? My memory was that the official "enemy" was Islamic fundamentalism (or at least it was last year). Neo-cons prattled about the need to "drain the swamp" that led to the rise of Islamicist militants, reform education in the Arab states away from religious texts, and so on ...
So, in order Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053542573296074782003-05-21T21:42:00.000+03:002003-05-21T21:42:53.330+03:00BRING BACK THE HASHEMITES?
Here's a dumb idea that was getting some play among the Occupation authorities:
Sharif Hussein Bin Ali, second cousin of the last king of Iraq, has returned from Jordan and wants his family throne back.
Sounds good, right?
Well, the Hashemites came to Iraq in 1921 with the British Army. Earlier, the Hashemites had been the hereditary governors of the Hijaz (Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053539491029528302003-05-21T20:51:00.000+03:002003-05-21T20:51:31.106+03:00SHIAS and SUNNIS
I keep hearing about the implacable hatred of Shia and Sunni Muslims. Could someone tell me what the basis of this is? Yes, there was a Shia Islamicist rising against the government in 1991 but, other than that? I can't recall much of a history of violence ...
Shi'ites and Sunnis are not as far apart as people seem to think, more like Methodists and Baptists than like Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053538056578986312003-05-21T20:27:00.000+03:002003-05-21T20:27:36.620+03:00MESOPOTAMIA
Something that bothered me all during the recent war and that's only now crossing the media consciousness:
Iraq is one of the most prominent nations in world history.
So why didn't any reporters notice where they were? Was it because names have changed? Think about these:
Sumeria: all those southern Iraqi Shia areas used to be called Sumeria. You might recall it from Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5413710.post-1053537311476421582003-05-21T20:15:00.000+03:002003-05-21T20:15:11.473+03:00IRAQ: AN ARTIFICIAL STATE?
In the run-up to the war, we constantly heard from both pro-war hawks and anti-war doves that Iraq was an artificial state, cobbled together from three disparate Ottoman provinces (Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul) by the British and easily broken down into several constituent parts. Comparisons to Yugoslavia (created after World War One from two states recently independentTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608367453137227560noreply@blogger.com0