The cover-up of the massacre in Jenin by the Israeli government is alarming, but I find the cover-up in the American press even more disturbing. National Public Radio is considered to be an independent and respected news source. Most Americans trust NPR, but NPR's 'coverage' of the Jenin massacre has left me speechless. Fortunately I can still type.
Morning Edition is one of NPR's standard news programs and is the bread and butter source of information for millions of liberal and educated Americans. On May 2, 2002, Blake Edwards, the host, interviewed Michele Keleman in the UN regarding Kofi Annan's decision to abandon the UN mission to Jenin. Edwards asked Keleman, "What happened last night during the Security Council debate?" and Keleman responded "...Arab nations put forward this resolution that would have forced Israel to accept the UN mission, the UN team to investigate Jenin.
Eventually they found that they did not have enough support and they withdrew that - the Americans, for instance, were opposing this resolution, and the United States put forward its own resolution just simply to express regret at Israel's decision..."
Friday, May 10, 2002
CAIRO: Arab ministers and officials met at the Arab League yesterday to follow up on a plan initiated by Crown Prince Abdullah that seeks to end 19 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Progress on new peace initiatives has stalled amid Israeli incursions into Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank.
Arab League officials said foreign ministers from the Kingdom, Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain met with senior PLO official Farouq Qaddoumi, as well as Morocco’s transport minister, the permanent League representatives of Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, and League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.
The meeting was held in closed session.
League spokesman Hesham Youssef said there was no set agenda for the meeting, but the group would review the outcome of the recent visit of Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, to the United States.
US President George W. Bush met with Crown Prince Abdullah late last month, and officials said they agreed on a joint effort to ease Middle East tension by getting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to halt Israeli attacks and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to take steps to curb bombings.
RAMALLAH: A militant Jewish group distributed a leaflet this weeks claiming responsibility for killing eight Palestinians in the past year, saying that the killings were revenge for attacks against Israelis.
Police spokesman Rafi Yaffe said that they were investigating the group.
The Jewish militants who call themselves the “Fighters of the Kingdom of Israel,” named the places where the shootings took place and warned Palestinians to “prepare shrouds” for more burials.
“In the actions of our fighters ... eight Arabs were killed and many wounded,” read the leaflet, which was obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. “Jews who are fed up have arisen and decided to get revenge against the Arab enemy!”
The leaflet mentioned an attack in an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem where a bomb planted at a school in March injuring a teacher and four children.
Local sources indicated that the group has been actively recruiting Israeli civilians to join them to “inflict additional death on the Palestinians and their children.”
In the 1980s, a group of Jewish extremists bombed the cars of Arab mayors in the West Bank, seriously injuring two of them and an Israeli police bomb-disposal expert. Another group plotted to blow up mosque in the walled-Old City of Jerusalem but was arrested before it carried out the plot.
- Middle East News Online. This news item is distributed via Middle East News Online
Israel may not have ratified the treaty establishing the international criminal court on July 1 but "every Israeli is subject to its jurisdiction," Supreme Court President Justice Aharon Barak said Monday.
Speaking at the second annual conference of the Israel Bar Association in Eilat, Barak said "terror does not justify abandoning legal norms, even if the war against terror is that of a law-abiding state and law-abiding citizens against those who crudely and without any human feelings violate the law. Neither are human rights a platform for national suicide and self-defeat."
The 1,000-person conference on "The Law under Fire" heard Barak, Judge Advocate General Maj. Gen. Menachem Finkelstein, and other leading jurists and attorneys - including prominent human rights lawyer Avigdor Feldman on the integrity of the law and the courts during war.
The Likud Central Committee is slated to meet on Sunday with an agenda that includes a proposed resolution against the establishment of a Palestinian state. The decision is meant to require Likud representatives in the government, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to foil any political move that might lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The resolution is meant to establish a binding principle and be permanent. If Ariel Sharon does not manage to prevent the debate and vote on the resolution, the members of the Likud Central Committee will be responsible for a disastrous policy. National history will remember them as bringing calamity to the state, endangering its development, if not its actual existence.
The national Palestinian demand for political independence and sovereignty is accepted by the entire international community, and is anchored in moral imperative, norms of behavior between nations, and decisions of past Israeli governments. The ruling party's decision to turn its back on this consensus is an expression of emotional outrage, outdated ideological zealotry, and a worrisome failure in the ability to perceive reality and foresee events.
IDF forces were in action in several locations in the West Bank on Friday morning, making several arrests and confiscating weapons and ammunition.
Troops also operated overnight in Tul Karm, where they blew up a house belonging to a Hamas activist arrested earlier this week. The house contained a laboratory for assembling explosive devices. Soldiers also uncovered several large explosive devices, suitcases containing explosives and cellular phones rigged up to act as remote detonators. They also found homemade explosives. The IDF has been active in Tul Karm for the past week, entering and leaving the city several times.
Palestinian sources in Hebron reported that the IDF fired missiles at a house in the south of the city, in which a wanted terrorist was holed up. The house was destroyed and the terrorist surrendered to IDF soldiers.
Early Friday morning, the IDF arrested three wanted Palestinians in Kfar Ramana, near Jenin, and an Islamic Jihad activist in Kfar T’koah, neat Bethlehem. Palestinian sources also reported that the IDF entered Azoun, east of Qalqilyah, imposed a curfew and arrested many suspects.
Four people were lightly injured when two Palestinians detonated an explosive device near a branch of Bank Hapoalim in the Old City of Be'er Sheva, at around 9:40 Friday morning.
By-standers apprehended and beat one of the assailants, who was later taken to hospital for treatment, while local police caught the second terrorist near Shocket junction, several kilometers outside the city limits. Police believe that the terrorists may have arrived in Be'er Sheva by taxi.
The four people injured in the blast were evacuated to Soroka Medical Center, where doctors defined their injuries as light. Two other people, suffering from shock, were also treated.
"Two terrorists ... threw a bomb or planted a bomb. One was captured and the other escaped and we are searching for him," said Yossi Koppel, the southern district police commander.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) fired a missile at an Afghan warlord from an unmanned spy aircraft this week but missed the target, who was plotting to bring down the country's interim government, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.
"I believe some others were killed in the strike, but the target escaped," the official told Reuters, confirming a New York Times report of Monday's attack by a Predator drone against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, head of a hardline Islamic group.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and veteran of the war against Soviet occupation, was also plotting to launch attacks on U.S. and coalition military forces in Afghanistan (news - web sites).
The Hellfire missile strike would signal a new U.S. tactic in embattled Afghanistan and a sign of the Bush administration's determination to support the interim government of leader Hamid Karzai.
WASHINGTON - May 9 - In light of mounting evidence calling into question former Enron Executive Thomas White's credibility and conduct as Army Secretary, a group of national consumer and citizens groups today call upon President George W. Bush to take responsibility for his appointment and remove him from office.
Led by American Family Voices (AFV), the groups cited numerous conflicts of interest, questionable divesting practices, deceptive responses to Congressional inquiries, and pending FBI and DOD investigations as ample cause for his removal. Joining AFV with their concerns were Campaign for America's Future, and USAction.
White, an 11-year Enron executive, had previously headed Enron Energy Services before being appointed Army Secretary by Bush last year. White's department has been accused of misrepresenting earnings and misleading investors, contributing directly to the company's downfall. As Secretary, White continued to hold Enron stock and collect an Enron pension, even after promising legislators that he would divest himself completely.
One of the deepest mysteries in the collapse of Enron has been the role that the power crisis in California played in the company's rise and fall.
This spring, as authorities focused their attention on the off-balance-sheet partnerships that Enron used to inflate its profits, it seemed that the question might be forever buried under more pressing inquiries.
Now, though, newly released documents about Enron's practices during the crisis in 2000 and 2001 are causing regulators and prosecutors to re-examine the connection. Some outside experts say they may find that California played a crucial role in the company's demise.
Jerusalem district police and the Shin Bet security service detained four Jews on suspicion of planning mass terror attacks against Palestinian residents of A-Tur and in East Jerusalem. Two of those detained were arrested some two weeks ago as they were apparently planting a bomb near a hospital in East Jerusalem.
Officers from the Shalem police station, who were patrolling the A-Tur neighborhood of Jerusalem when the spotted a suspicious vehicle with two passengers - Shlomo Davir and Yarden Morag, both residents of the Bat Ein settlement. The officers followed the suspect vehicle and called for reinforcements. When they approached the Al-Mukasad hospital, the suspects unhooked a trailer from the rear of the vehicle, and placed it at the side of the road, next to the hospital and a nearby all-girl high school.
The officers approached the two suspects and asked then to explain their actions, but the two refused to answer. The officers took the two suspects into custody. A search of the vehicle discovered unlicensed weapons. An army sapper was called to the scene and found a powerful explosive device, with a time-delayed detonator, inside the trailer. The device was programmed to explode the following morning. Bomb squad officers neutralized the device.
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Thursday he believes Enron Corp. broke laws while manipulating electricity supply and prices during the California energy crisis.
"I don't think there's any doubt that somebody ought to go to jail and that we ought to find a way through public policy to fix a system that needs to be addressed," said Daschle, D-S.D.
California Republicans sought to blunt any partisan advantage for Democrats on the issue. Reps. Mary Bono and George Radanovich joined Democrats in calling for a Justice Department (news - web sites) investigation of Enron's energy trading practices as explained in internal company memos made public this week.
"We now have reason to believe that illegal acts took place," Bono said.
The Enron documents described how the energy trading company sought to cash in on California's energy crisis in 2000 and 2001. During the crisis, wholesale energy prices shot up tenfold.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. – We Americans are so fortunate! We are so blessed by the protections the Constitution gives us that many of us find it hard to imagine what it's like to live in a place where no such protections apply.
A place like the West Bank, or Gaza.
Amid the hoopla surrounding this week's visits to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Jordan's King Abdullah, Americans should remember that the 3.5 million Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza have lived under one version or another of foreign military occupation for nearly 35 years.
This situation makes assurance of their basic rights and liberties quite impossible. Such rights as may temporarily be "allowed" by the occupation authorities can – as we have seen recently – be trampled under the treads of advancing tanks at a moment's notice.
JERUSALEM - The Israeli army has issued indictments against six soldiers suspected of stealing money, jewelry, computer parts, and other items from Palestinians in the West Bank.
Palestinians had accused soldiers of looting. In response, the army said on April 25 that it was looking into the allegations and had arrested four soldiers. An army statement said such cases ''have been and will be dealt with harshly.'' It did not say what punishment the charges carry.
According to the indictments, the soldiers stole cash, jewelry, a gilded sword, pipes, cellphones, and computer parts in four incidents.
In one case, three soldiers at a roadblock near the West Bank town of Qalqilya stopped a Palestinian for an identity check on April 20.
They allegedly removed about 700 Israeli shekels (worth $146) from the Palestinian's wallet and distributed the money among themselves. The Palestinian later filed a complaint. When the soldiers' commander confronted them, they confessed, and turned in the money, which was returned to the Palestinian. The commander then pressed charges against the soldiers.
> http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=162747
>
> Saturday, 24 February 2001 11:28 (ET)
>
>
> Israel gave major to aid to Hamas
> By RICHARD SALE, Terrorism Correspondent
>
> NEW YORK, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
speaking
> of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas recently described it as
"the
> deadliest terrorist group that we have ever had to face."
>
> Active in Gaza and the West Bank Hamas wants to liberate all of
Palestine
> and establish a radical Islamic state in place of Israel. It has
gained
> notoriety with its assassinations, car bombs and other acts of
terrorism.
>
> But Sharon had left something out.
>
> Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but,
according
> to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning
in the
> late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas
over a
> period of years.
>
> Israel "aided Hamas directly -- the Israelis wanted to use it as a
> counterbalance to the PLO," said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst
for the
> Center for Strategic Studies.>
> Israel's support for Hamas "was a direct attempt to divide and
dilute
> support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious
> alternative," said a former senior CIA official.
>
> According to documents obtained from the Israel-based Institute for
> Counter Terrorism (ICT) by UPI, Hamas evolved from cells of the
Muslim
> Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928. Islamic movements in Israel
and
> Palestine were "weak and dormant" until after the 1967 Six Day War
in which
> Israel scored a stunning victory over its Arab enemies.
>
> After 1967, a great part of the success of the Hamas/Muslim
Brotherhood
> was due to their activities among the refugees of the Gaza Strip.
The
> cornerstone of the Islamic movements success was an impressive
social,
> religious, educational and cultural infrastructure, called Da'wah,
that
> worked to ease the hardship of large numbers of Palestinian
refugees,
> confined to camps, and many of whom were living on the edge.
>
> "Social influence grew into political influence," first in the Gaza
Strip,
> then on the West Bank, said an administration official who spoke on
> condition of anonymity.
>
> According to ICT papers, Hamas was legally registered in Israel in
1978 by
> Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the movements spiritual leader, as an Islamic
> Association by the name Al-Mujamma Al Islami, which widened its base
of
> supporters and sympathizers by religious propaganda and social work.
>
> Funds for the movement came from the oil-producing states and
directly and
> indirectly from Israel, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
The PLO
> was secular and leftist and promoted Palestinian nationalism. Hamas
wanted
> set up a transnational state under the rule of Islam, much like
Khomeini's
> Iran.
>
> What took Israeli leaders by surprise was the way the Islamic
movements
> began to surge after the Iranian revolution, after armed resistance
to
> Israel sprang up in southern Lebanon organized by an Iran-backed
movement
> called Hezbollah that bore similitaries to Hamas, these sources
said.
>
> "Nothing stirs up the energy for imitation as much as success,"
commented
> one administration expert.
>
> A further factor of Hamas' growth was the fact the PLO moved its
base of
> operations to Beirut in the 1980s, leaving the Islamic movements to
> strengthen their influence in the Occupied Territories "as the court
of last
> resort," he said.
>
> When the intifada began, the Israeli leadership was further
surprised when
> Islamic groups began to surge in membership and strength. Hamas
immediately
> grew in numbers and violence. The group had always embraced the
doctrine of
> armed struggle, but the doctrine had not been practiced and Islamic
groups
> had not been subjected to suppression the way groups like Fatah had
been,
> according to U.S. government officials.
>
> But with the triumph of the Khomeini revolution in Iran, with the
birth of
> Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorism in Lebanon, Hamas began to gain
strength
> in Gaza and then in the West Bank, relying on terror to resist the
Israeli
> occupation.
>
> Israel was certainly funding the group at that time. One US
intelligence
> source who asked not to be named, said that not only was Hamas being
funded
> as a "counterweight" to the PLO, Israeli aid had a more devious
purpose: "to
> help identify and channel towards Israeli agents Hamas members who
were
> dangerous terrorists."
>
> In addition, by infiltrating Hamas, Israeli informers could listen
to
> debates on policy and identify Hamas members who "were dangerous
> hardliners," the official said.
>
> In the end, as Hamas set up a very comprehensive
counterintelligence
> system, many collaborators with Israel were weeded out and shot.
Violent
> acts of terrorism became the central tenet, and Hamas, unlike the
PLO, was
> unwilling to compromise in any way with Israel, refusing to
acknowledge its
> very existence.
>
> Even then, some in Israel saw some benefits to be had in trying to
> continue to give Hamas support: "The thinking on the part of some of
the
> right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the other
groups, if
> they gained control, would refuse to have anything to do with the
pace
> process and would torpedo any agreements put in place," said a U.S.
> government official.
>
> "Israel would still be the only democracy in the region for the
United
> States to deal with," he said.
> All of which is viewed with disapproval by some former U.S.
intelligence
> officials.
>
> "The thing wrong with so many Israeli operations is that they try
to be
> too sexy," said former CIA official Vincent Cannestraro. Former
State
> Department counter-terrorism official Larry Johnson told UPI: "The
Israelis
> are their own worst enemies when it comes to fighting terrorism.
They are
> like a guy who sets fire to his hair and then tries to put it out by
hitting
> it with a hammer.They do more to incite and sustain terrorism than
curb it."
>
> Aid to Hamas may have looked clever, "but it was hardly designed to
help
> smooth the waters," he said. "It gives weight to President George W
Bush's
> remark about there being a crisis in education."
>
> Cordesman said that a similar attempt by Egyptian intelligence to
fund
> Egypt's fundamentalists had also come to grief because of
overcomplication.
>
> An Israeli Embassy defense official, asked if Israel had given aid
to
> Hamas replied: "I am not able to answer that question. I was in
Lebanon
> commanding a unit at the time, besides it is not my field of
interest."
>
> Asked to confirm a report by U.S. officials that Brigadier General
Yithaq
> Segev, the military governor of Gaza, had told U.S. officials that
he had
> helped fund "Islamic movements as a counterweight to the PLO and
> communists," the Israeli official said he could confirm only that he
> believed that Segev had served back in 1986.
>
> The Israeli Embassy press office referred UPI to its Web site.
>
>
>
> --
> Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
> All rights reserved.
TONY BLAIR last night proposed sending an international monitoring force to the West Bank to test Yassir Arafat’s claims that he is not secretly supporting the suicide bomb attacks on Israel.
After the murder on Tuesday of 15 people in a pool hall near Tel Aviv, the Prime Minister was last night arranging urgent talks with European Union leaders over ways of restoring order and security within areas run by the Palestinian Authority.
He wants to build on the success of the joint US-UK initiative that allowed Mr Arafat to emerge from his Ramallah headquarters last week while Palestinians wanted for terrorism were detained under the oversight of supervisory wardens or monitors.
He said yesterday that such arrangements — potentially involving hundreds of outside monitors — should be put in place “right across the Palestinian Authority”. He told the Commons that the immediate task was to put a “verifiable security apparatus” in place inside the Palestinian Authority and its territories.
“TARGET GAZA” cried the banner headline across the front page of the broadsheet Ma’ariv when Israel woke up yesterday morning. Less than five miles across the border, inside the Gaza Strip, the man whose name appears at the head of Israel’s target list enjoyed breakfast with his family, unrepentant and apparently unconcerned.
Dr Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi is the second in command of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organisation that has launched 56 suicide attacks during the 19-month intifada and is suspected of being behind Tuesday night’s pool hall bombing.
A retaliatory strike that could claim the lives of dozens of Palestinians and destroy the homes of many more was imminent, yet Dr al-Rantissi seemed to half-welcome an attack. “It will make it easier for us to get at them,” he smiled. “We do not have an army but we do have fighters, and an invasion of Gaza will give our fighters the chance to fight easy targets.
“The Israelis will pay a very high price if they come here. And even if they invade the Strip, they will not be able to stay here for long.”
Thursday, May 09, 2002
Summary
Israel began preparations May 9 for an offensive in the Gaza
Strip, massing troops along the border and calling up reservists.
The government has identified militant group Hamas, which took
credit for a suicide bombing this week, as its key target. An
operation in Gaza, however, will be substantively different from
the recent campaign in the West Bank and likely will be more
intensive.
Analysis
Israel massed troops overnight on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip
in preparation for a military offensive in the tiny territory,
following a suicide bombing near Tel Aviv earlier this week that
killed 16 Israelis. The military will reportedly target bases
belonging to militant group Hamas, which took credit for the
bombing, but the operation will reportedly not be as wide-scale
as the recent Israeli offensive in the West Bank, the Israeli
daily Ha'aretz reported May 9.
STRATFOR has written extensively on the probable shape and scope
of an Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Hamas -- the
government's identified target, which is dispersed throughout
Gaza and engaged in both security and humanitarian operations --
enjoys broad popular support and is well trained in guerrilla
tactics and countermeasures. Unlike the recent West Bank
operation, where urban guerrilla warfare was confined to a few
places, an Israeli military incursion into Gaza will likely be
bloodier and more intensive.
Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya (the
Islamic Resistance Movement). A Palestinian offshoot of the
Muslim Brotherhood, the organization mirrors its Egyptian
counterpart by balancing its militant activities with grassroots
organizing and social services.
Hamas administers thousands of mosques, schools, hospitals,
clinics, youth groups, athletic clubs, daycare and food-
distribution centers in Gaza, providing the bulk of social
services to residents. According to the Jewish Post newspaper, 95
percent of the group's $40 million to $70 million budget goes to
social services.
Such a strategy gives the group broad popular support and also
allows it to operate openly throughout the territories. This
poses the greatest challenge to an Israeli military offensive
aimed at disrupting Hamas' suicide-bombing network. Israel's goal
will be to take out Hamas' infrastructure; the problem for them
is the group's infrastructure primarily consists of people.
Without intelligence to identify specific leaders, the Israeli
military will implement a broadside assault on the entire Hamas
organization, including its social services network in all of the
Palestinian areas in Gaza.
There is no question that the Gaza Strip is smaller than the West
Bank. Indeed, the territory measures a total of 139 square miles,
compared to the 2,262 square miles of the West Bank. This will
make the division of the territory by the Israel Defense Forces
into manageable sections much easier.
Gaza also has approximately 1.1 million Palestinians, almost at
much as the entire West Bank's 1.6 million Palestinians. But the
population density is exponentially larger: approximately 8,000
Palestinians per square mile, compared with 700 Palestinians per
square mile in the West Bank.
Moreover, both residents in the Gaza Strip and Hamas members are
distinctly different in their approach to the conflict with
Israel from their West Bank counterparts. Gazans are a much
poorer, less educated populace, and their attitude toward Israel
is more hard-line and radical. This lends itself to stauncher
resistance and a greater willingness to engage in guerrilla
activities.
In fact, some of the most psychologically devastating attacks
Palestinians have launched successfully against Israel since the
start of the intifada almost 20 months ago have occurred in Gaza.
Palestinian militants in the territory have twice this year
successfully ambushed and destroyed Israeli Merkava tanks,
considered one of the most indestructible tanks in the world.
The Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the militant wing of Hamas, is
also known to use timed and remote-controlled bombs, commando
attacks and armed ambushes including assaults on both military
targets and Israeli settlers. Reports already indicate that Gazan
residents have prepared sand barricades rumored to be armed with
explosives to block an IDF advance into the cities and refugee
camps.
Another advantage the Palestinians in Gaza have is access to
underground tunnels to Egypt. Though the Israeli military
continually monitors activities along the border and shuts down
these tunnels as they are discovered, reports suggest that some
continue operating and are being used to smuggle weapons in from
Egypt. The Gazans are also making their own weaponry, including
the short-range Qassam rocket.
Hamas uses the Gaza Strip's compactness and population density to
its advantage, maintaining a social network that ensures support
among the population and a ready supply of recruits. Though
accurate force numbers for the group are unknown, Hamas
reportedly has a dedicated group of fighters that number in the
hundreds and supporters in the tens of thousands.
Positioned on the edge of Gaza, the IDF faces a geographically
smaller and yet more difficult operation. Given the
circumstances, the geography and the attitude, the IDF must
consider the entire Gazan population hostile and potential
combatants, which is a force multiplier for Hamas.
___________________________________________________________________
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WASHINGTON appealed for restraint last night as Israeli tanks prepared to launch a punitive raid on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the killing of 16 people by a Palestinian suicide bomber.
Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said: "Israel has to be very mindful of its responsibilities to protect peace in the region and work towards a vision of peace."
Two battalions of Israeli armour were massed on the edge of the Gaza Strip, enough for a search and destroy mission but insufficient to hold territory in the area's densely-populated towns and refugee camps.
The Israeli cabinet decided yesterday to authorise "actions against terrorist targets" and the army ordered a new emergency mobilisation of reservists, suggesting that the operation would last weeks.
The IDF was preparing yesterday for a possible military operation in Gaza, massing forces on the border of the Strip, but senior security sources said the "focused, time-limited operation," could be called off at the last minute after American pressure on both sides.
Reservists, mostly from the Southern Command, were called up yesterday under emergency orders (Tzav 8). However, a dispute has broken out within the IDF about the necessity of the operation and that criticism could lead to a smaller-scale action.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres yesterday said the IDF will not reoccupy Gaza and any operation would be "focused." Military sources said there might be an incursion to the edges of the cities and refugee camps in the Strip that would concentrate on Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Most of the infrastructure of both those organizations is in the northern sector of the Strip. In the south, in the Rafah area, the IDF is concerned about intensive weapons smuggling along the Egyptian border. A new tunnel was found yesterday, the fourth in less than a week. IDF officers say the solution is a significant expansion of the military presence along the Philadelphi corridor on the border.
Residents of the Gaza Strip, in particular those in northern Gaza, continued to stock up on food Thursday, especially flour and legumes, and erected sand barricades in expectation of an IDF incursion into the area.
The IDF began a partial emergency call-up of reservists Thursday in preparation for a retaliatory operation in the Gaza Strip following the suicide bomb attack in Rishon Letzion which killed 15 people.
Artillery forces were amassed near the Gaza Strip, despite the fact that the security establishment has not yet ascertained that the suicide bomber came from the Strip.
Palestinian Authority security sources identified the suicide bomber as Zidan Muhammad Vazani, 19, from the West Bank town of Jenin.
Members of national resistance committees announced that they were preparing to fight the IDF, if it enters cities and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.
Sand barricades were set up on many streets in recent days, and according to one rumor, explosive devices were to be placed in the barricades if the army decides to advance towards Gaza Strip cities and refugee camps.
East Jerusalem, 9 May 2002) - I just spoke with my sister over the telephone. Of course as everybody and always we talked about the situation here. We got into a debate about why it seems so difficult to present the stories behind the headlines and the numbers of casualties when it comes to the Palestinian side of the story in the western media. We did not come to a conclusion, but now I finally do feel motivated to write about the stories I heard in Nablus when I visited the city a couple of days ago.
At first side, the city center looks the same as before, crowded and full of activity. I did see damaged buildings and a lot of construction work going on. Besides that life seems to continue as if nothing has happened. Only when talking to people it becomes clear that the horrors of the past month are far from forgotten.
'Soldiers told me to stay in my house,' says an old woman. 'That is all! No further warning before they exploded the building next door. The blast was so immense. First I thought my home including me would collapse as well, then I thought I became deaf. Now, I know I am lucky to be alive and that only my home is badly damaged,' she says. She shows the cracks in the walls, the broken windows, and burned and destroyed furniture. 'The day after, soldiers did come back to my house to check if we survived the explosion.' She asks: 'Why? Why did they explode the building? It was a bakery and empty at that time and they knew it. Why did they not evacuate us as they knew our lives were going to be in danger?'
Two other women, who live at the side where the resistance surrendered, have similar stories. 'Look here! You see the bullet holes, the damage? Here a missile struck our home. You see what happens when I push against this wall? Yes, it is dangerous to stay inside the house, it could collapse. Where to go? No we have no other choice that to stay here. We, twelve family members, now live in one room downstairs. No, we know that it is not suitable for living, but what to do?' says the oldest one. Her voice is quivering. I wonder if this is because of her anger and fear or because of her old age.
Myths are stubborn things. This is especially true in Washington, headquarters of the political mythology industry.
For decades, taxpayers have spent billions of dollars on a farm-subsidy program that is supposed to fulfill a moral duty to save family farmers. Nevertheless, as the cash sluiced out to the fields, the number of family farms has dwindled inexorably downward.
A Star Wars-like missile-defense program survives year after year. It has not yet met performance standards most of us expect of the family sedan. The mythology that keeps it alive is more powerful than the facts.
Another Washington myth is that individuals investing on their own will enjoy a better life in retirement than their stodgy old parents, who wouldn't know a stock from a savings bond.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In light of a memo indicating that Army Secretary Thomas White’s former Enron division was involved in market manipulation and price-gouging during the California electricity crisis, Public Citizen today called for White to resign immediately and the Justice Department to initiate a criminal probe.
The internal company memo describes how White’s division, Enron Energy Services, lied to California officials, enabling the company to charge prices far higher than should have been allowed. As a direct result of his division’s fraud, White is a multimillionaire and California consumers still are paying far too much for their electricity.
The Dec. 6, 2000, memo from Enron attorneys describes how Enron Energy Services deliberately sought from the state’s power broker far more electricity capacity than it needed. By doing so, Enron Energy Services, which was colluding with other Enron divisions, deceived the state into thinking that transmission capacity was full, enabling Enron to charge prices far higher than if capacity was not full.
It was a scam after all.
As California faced desperate electricity shortages in 2000 and 2001, power giant Enron was manipulating the market to drive up prices and turn modest power shortages into critical ones. This arrogant behemoth, since brought down by its own hubris, toyed with the public health and safety of California to boost its own profit, and there's finally a smoking gun to prove it.
Internal Enron documents released by the bankrupt company's new management describe these unethical, if not illegal, trading practices in detail and indicate that other companies were doing the same thing. All the while, everyone from Enron's then-chief Kenneth Lay to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and regulators who should have smelled a rat were saying it was all California's fault. For failing to build enough power plants. For adopting a power deregulation plan that wasn't free-market enough. For environmental laws with a Malibu mind-set. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission refused to accept its legal responsibility to rein in a wildly out-of-control market. Ultimately, commissioners said, the free market would work. For California, that meant a year of crisis, of rolling blackouts, of one major utility going bankrupt and another flat broke, of the state doling out $6 billion to buy daily power and an additional $40 billion for long-term contracts at what we now know are grossly inflated rates. FERC finally acted out of political necessity; it was too little, too late.
Ariel Sharon's "peace" plan presented to President Bush in Washington last night - get rid of Arafat, devise a more obedient Palestinian Authority and keep building settlements for Jews and Jews only on Palestinian land - is fantasy.
That the Americans should smooth his way by claiming that Arafat's need to reform his authority is more important than a halt to settlement-building - the gormless contribution of Condoleezza Rice, the US National Security Adviser, to this sterile debate - shows just how out of touch the Bush administration is.
Sharon's hopeless attempts to suppress a vicious anti-colonial war are accompanied by all the usual psychological weapons: dishonest attempts to label any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, fraudulent assertions that the Israeli army behaves with restraint, mass rallies and continued attempts to portray Palestinians as beast-like, suicidal animals.
Sharon himself has now taken to blaming not just Arafat and his corrupt henchmen for the wicked suicide bombing of Israeli civilians. He now blames the Palestinians as a people. Only last month, in the Knesset, he was referring to "the murderous insanity that has taken hold of our Palestinian neighbours". If Palestinians as a people are now possessed of "murderous insanity", Mr Sharon is not going to make peace with them.
Members of the International Solidarity Movement, who were instrumental in the storming and entering of the Church of the Nativity last week, are being held in an Israeli prison.
According to the activists, they were not granted due process, and they were not granted a lawyer or a fair hearing. For the past five days, the detainees have been carrying out a hunger strike, an action that is taking its toll. 2 of the members were hospitalized and diagnosed with dangerously low blood sugar levels, yet they were returned to detention after the diagnosis.
Other members of the ISM are being held in a settlement in Hebron. According to the detainees, those members being held in Kiryat Arba are in grave danger, due to recent violence in the region.
In a letter drafted by the group, they stated, "If any country other than Israel was doing this, all states involved would have condemned the action. Why the double standard? In particular , the United States government is welcoming the Prime Minister of a state that holds U.S. nationals against their will illegally."
The group called for pressure on the United States government to intervene in the situation.
Recently, a grassroots movement cropped up, an attempt to expel the State of Israel from the United Nations.
The movement was in response to recent violence in the region, but outlines in detail the resolutions passed by the UN Security Council through the years that have been disregarded by the State of Israel.
In the petition, (which can be viewed in full at www.petitiononline.com)a number of violations were addressed, from illegal house demolition to the targeting of civilians and the extra-judicial killing of civilians. UN resolutions in violation were pointed out, as well as the disregard for the International Declaration of Human Rights.
The petition, which addressed the former Apartheid Government of South Africa as an example, called on Secretary General Kofi Annan and the five permanent members of the Security Council to reject the credentials of the State of Israel, until they are in full compliance with international law.
The petition concluded stating, "We, citizens of the world concerned with the respect of international law, human rights law, humanitarian law and the decisions and resolutions of the bodies of the United Nations, call on the members of the United Nations Security Council to recommend to the General Assembly the expulsion of the State of Israel from the United Nations until such a time as the State of Israel has implemented the said resolutions and meets its obligations under international law as a full-fledged member of the international community."
President George Bush has made another bad deal with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In exchange for lifting the restrictions on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, Mr. Bush has agreed to back Israel in blocking a United Nations investigation of the Jenin refugee camp killings.
Way to go, Mr. Prez. In exchange for Israel doing what it should have done anyway, you agreed to block an investigation of a possible war crime. That makes you look real good in the eyes of the world. In case you haven't noticed, your pal Sharon has become a fat albatross around your neck.
I suppose I should be pleased since, for humanitarian reasons, I'm opposed to Mr. Bush's plan to attack Iraq. As long as he lugs around Sharon and continues his outrageously unfair policy toward the Palestinians, he will get zip cooperation from Arab countries for his little imperial war against Baghdad.
Mr. Bush's first mistake was allowing Sharon to humiliate him in front of the world. It was Mr. Bush's choice to use the imperative when he ordered the Israelis to cease their invasion of the West Bank. Well, when the president of the United States issues an order on global television, he'd darn well better make sure it is obeyed. For two days, Sharon didn't even acknowledge Bush's existence, much less do what he was told.
A stronger president, say a Harry Truman or a Dwight Eisenhower, would have gotten Sharon on the telephone and said: "Listen, if there is any doubt in your mind as to which of us is the big kahuna, it's me. Get those troops out of the West Bank now or see how you like living without $3 billion in American aid. If necessary, I'll freeze every asset the Israeli government has in the United States and suggest a U.N.-sponsored economic embargo.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Navy improperly relied on information from an Internet site in awarding an emergency construction contract to a subsidiary of a company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, a government arbitrator ruled.
The ruling recommends that the Navy reopen bidding on the contract, awarded in 2000 to Brown & Root Services. The Perini/Jones construction company, which had held the contract, protested the award to Congress' General Accounting Office, which decides on such disputes.
The contract was to provide construction services for the Navy to respond to natural and manmade disasters and humanitarian relief projects.
Anthony Gamboa, GAO's acting general counsel, ruled that Navy officials mistakenly relied on information from an Internet site in judging how much construction experience Brown & Root Services had.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Army Radio Thursday that Israel does not intend to take over the Gaza Strip but that the goal of IDF operations there would be "to reach areas where there is a concentration of suicide terrorists."
Peres also said he hoped that the operations would last for a short period of time.
Opposition leader MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) warned against any military incursion into the Gaza Strip.
"An IDF incursion into Gaza Strip refugee camps would invite Jenin-like tragedies and could exact a bloody price from Israel", Sarid said.
The IDF began massing forces on the border with the Gaza Strip late Wednesday night, in preparation for a retaliatory operation following the suicide bomb attack in Rishon Letzion which killed 15 people.
The army was also reportedly preparing to issue additional emergency call-up orders to reservists.
Palestinian security forces arrested 14 members of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after President Yasser Arafat ordered measures to foil attacks on Israeli civilians, a security official said.
"You can call these arrests preventative measures. They are meant to implement President Arafat's orders," the official said as Israel considered a tough military response to Tuesday's suicide bombing in Rishon Letzion that killed 15 Israelis
Asked whether there would be further arrests, the Palestinian official told Reuters security forces would "act in accordance with developments on the ground".
A statement on a pro-Hamas Web site confirmed the arrests, saying the Palestinian Authority had carried them out in connection with Tuesday's attack.
Israel Radio also reported Thursday that official Palestinian media have been ordered not to interview any Hamas officials.
More than half of Israelis believe withdrawing troops from Palestinian territories and dismantling most Jewish settlements there will help put the peace process back on track, according to an opinion poll.
The telephone poll released Wednesday was conducted by the Dahaf Institute and commissioned by the Peace Coalition, an umbrella group comprising several Israeli peace organizations. It surveyed 504 Israeli adults and had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.
In the poll, 59 percent of those questioned said they believed a unilateral withdrawal of troops and settlers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip would lead to the renewal of the peace process while 72 percent felt it would improve the country's international standing.
Some 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Only 42 percent of respondents said the continuous presence of the Israeli army in Palestinian cities gave them hope for the future.
The poll found that 63 percent of Israelis felt peace negotiations were necessary to resolving terrorism. The poll was conducted before Tuesday's suicide attack on a pool hall in Rishon Letzion that left 15 Israelis dead.
Israel's cabinet today approved reprisals for this week's Palestinian suicide bombing while Palestinian police arrested 16 Hamas members.
The arrests were a sign that the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, was taking some action against terror groups and came as expectations rose that Israeli forces would mount offensives in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile in Bethlehem, talks on resolving a five-week standoff at the Church of the Nativity hit a new impasse, after a partial deal had appeared imminent.
The deal foundered over a Palestinian demand to allow a European monitor into the shrine to safeguard 13 suspected militants who were to remain there until they are deported. So far, negotiators have failed to find a country to host them.
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, convened his security cabinet at an air force base early today, immediately after his return from the United States, to approve a response to a Hamas suicide bombing on Tuesday in a pool hall in a Tel Aviv suburb.
WASHINGTON (AP) Congress needs to extend the government's authority to borrow or risk defaulting on the national debt, which would cloud U.S. securities, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Wednesday.
O'Neill made his latest pitch for swift congressional action on raising the debt ceiling in a speech to Republicans gathered at the Capitol Hill Club.
He has repeatedly asked Congress to boost the debt ceiling by $750 billion, but the request has become stuck in a political fight over the budget. The limit now stands at $5.95 trillion.
Treasury last week said it can shift some funds to avoid hitting the debt ceiling in mid-May. But those maneuvers won't be useful in late June, raising the prospect of a default on payments to bondholders.
''If we run into the ceiling that's really bad,'' O'Neill said in remarks to the Republican Main Street Partnership. ''Because world capital markets will say they knew they needed to do it and they've know for six months that they needed to do it and they didn't do it and that casts a shadow on the good faith and credit of the United States.''
If the government were to miss payments on debt coming due, it would be technically in default on the $5.95 trillion national debt. That would cast a cloud over U.S. securities, now considered the world's safest investment, and would mean the government would be forced to pay billions of dollars in higher interest payments on the national debt in future years.
Israel's so-called Book of Terror – designed to prove that Yasser Arafat is a master of terror involved in suicide attacks on Israel – is riddled with errors, omissions and deliberate misinformation.
The dossier, which was presented to President George Bush by the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, characterises Mr Arafat as an evil, scheming warlord funded by Iran and Saudi Arabia.
But in some cases, translations of Palestinian documents allegedly seized by Israeli troops in the West Bank have been doctored to "prove" Arafat's responsibility for anti-Israeli attacks. At least one "translation" of a Palestinian document posted on the Israeli army's website is a palpable falsehood.
Wednesday, May 08, 2002
(Rafah Refugee Camp, Gaza, 2 May 2002) -- "They raise their children to hate." That's what we're told about the Palestinians. Watch the TV news. Listen to the radio. Pick up the dramatic US news magazines. Ask the intellectuals and the political pundits. Palestinian mothers willingly sacrifice their own children to the cause. In school, the teachers reinforce the hatred the children learn at home. How can there be peace in Israel/Palestine if they hate the Jews, the Israelis, and the Zionists so much? How can the lily-white live with such neighbors?
Iyad is four years old. His father doesn't allow him to play outside. In the streets of Rafah there is too much danger he'll be shot by Israeli soldiers -- like six-year-old Samiah Najih Hussan who dared walk home from school along the border road with her schoolmates. A bullet lodged in her brain and she died shortly thereafter. That was April 6th, 2002. Do you know how many children have died in similar circumstances since then? No. You don't. Because the news doesn't report it, just like it didn't report the death of 11-month-old Huda who died in her bedroom in the middle of the night on May 1st, 2002 when a tank shell blew apart the concrete walls of her home. By the time I got there the next day, all that was left of her was a ring of blood on the floor.
Ramzi laughs cynically after mimicking the poisonous claims of the western media.
--We raise our children to hate, don't you know?
He says this sarcastically, but gloom soon overtakes him.
--What am I suppose to say when Iyad asks me why he can't play outside? What am I supposed to tell him when he asks me why there are people shooting guns at us? Why tanks roll into our neighborhoods and fire at anything moving? Why airplanes and tanks destroy our city buildings and his friends‚ houses? What am I supposed to tell him when he wakes up at night because the war is just outside our door? How can I explain to my son why I am home from work for the fifth day in a row? Sixteen hours at the checkpoint on Saturday, 12 on Sunday, 13 on Monday, 10 on Tuesday, and then the rumors that it would soon open just stopped circulating. Don't make me laugh by asking me why. There is no why. There is only that I am not earning money to feed and clothe my family. I sit in my room and watch TV. I am restless and bored and humiliated. My sister is 7 months pregnant and she can't return to her husband in the Nuseirat refugee camp 20 minutes north of here. That's the price she's paying for daring to visit my wife and me. She was so sick in the taxicab at the checkpoint and I couldn't do anything to help her. We came back here after 8pm and she went to sleep on the floor.
Tuesday, May 07, 2002
JEDDAH — Saudi Arabia warned yesterday that the credibility of the United Nations and the Security Council was at stake if they did not take decisive action to ensure Israel complied with international resolutions.
“Israel’s non-compliance with UN resolutions sets a dangerous precedent that undermines the prestige of the Security Council and weakens the credibility of the United Nations,” the Council of Ministers said.
The arrogant Israeli stand also challenges the UN Charter and foils UN efforts to achieve security and peace, the Cabinet said, adding that it will only encourage other countries to flout UN resolutions.
The weekly Cabinet meeting, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, denounced Israel’s rejection of the international fact-finding mission to Jenin and said it was a clear proof of the Jewish state’s crimes.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week disbanded the international fact-finding team after Tel Aviv refused to allow it into the Jenin refugee camp where Israeli troops are accused of having carried out war crimes.
WASHINGTON, 8 May — Israel’s Ariel Sharon has come to Washington with an agenda. Not only does he want to oust President Yasser Arafat as leader of the Palestinians, he also wants to drive a stake between US and Saudi relations.
Sharon says the alleged seized Palestinian documents he plans to show President Bush prove that the Saudi Interior Ministry has paid millions of dollars to families of Palestinian bombers and to the Hamas. "The Saudis wanted to cover this up," said Col. Miriam Eisin, an Israeli intelligence official who provided copies of the documents to reporters at the Israeli Embassy in Washington yesterday.
The Israelis allege the Saudi government gave $135 million in the past 16 months to help the families of Palestinian bombers and fund other aspects of the anti-Israel intifada, the intelligence officer said.
A prominent US Muslim group claimed that Israel was illegally detaining an American doctor who had gone to help Palestinian victims of violence in the decimated Jenin refugee camp.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) said Monday Riad Abdelkarim, a physician from the Los Angeles area, was detained Sunday at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport while trying to return to the United States. According to Khalid Turaani of the Washington-based American Muslims for Jerusalem, Israeli authorities called his wife in California on Sunday and urged her to hire an attorney.
He was detained as he was returning to the United States "after witnessing the devastation caused by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp, details of which he reported extensively on the Internet," MPAC said in a statement.
"In a shocking assault on International standards protecting medical relief workers, Israeli authorities have detained without charge several high-profile Americans," it added.
The U.S. State Department could not confirm the arrests, an official said. But a U.S. diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity to AP, confirmed the arrests and said consular officials in Israel were being given proper access.
Egypt is putting pressure on Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, to make up his mind whether he wants peace with Israel or continuing with the Intifada, the London-based Asharq al Awsat reported on Tuesday.
.
Those were the terms in which Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher put it Sunday when the Palestinian Authority president held his first high-level meeting with an Arab ally after Israel ended the siege that confined him to his Ramallah headquarters.
"Egypt urged President Arafat to define his posture and decide on his future steps, either peace or more intifada," the newspaper quoted Egyptian sources as saying.
(Beit Hanina, 6 May 2002) -- As the Israeli army continues to promote the myth of withdrawal from the Palestinian territories, the situation on the ground remains highly critical for the Palestinian civilian population. The Israeli army has merely redeployed to surround the areas they previously invaded and the military closure and siege is still in force disrupting and directly threatening the lives of thousands of Palestinians every day. The Israeli military aggression continues as the army has re-invaded several Palestinian cities over the last few days killing a number of Palestinians among them several children.
The military closure, enforced by numerous military checkpoints throughout the West Bank, has been tightened and is continuing to pose a direct threat to people‚s life. Villages in the rural areas remain completely isolated and cut off from the city centres and vice versa. This poses a critical threat to people‚s lives as they are prevented from reaching necessary medical treatment and efforts to provide humanitarian assistance have in many instances been hindered. The closure also continues to strangle the Palestinian economy and people‚s ability to maintain their normal daily and social life. Yesterday the closure claimed a new life when 35-year-old Rahme Ali Mirraiye near Jenin lost her newborn baby girl at a military checkpoint. The Israeli army prevented Rahme from reaching hospital in Jenin and she gave birth in a taxi. The infant died shortly before reaching the hospital.
Three other Palestinian children were killed during Israeli invasions into Palestinian areas yesterday. A 9-year-old boy, Tamer Abu Sirriye from the Tulkaram refugee camp, was killed by Israeli troops who fired live ammunition at a group of children during a protest against the Israeli invasion of Tulkaram. Just outside Jenin a mother and her two children were killed by Israeli fire. Fatima Ibrahim Zakarna (32), Basel 5 years old and Abir 3 years old were working and playing in a field when an Israeli military vehicle opened fire on them and killed them instantly. The Israeli army claimed one of their tanks hit a landmine and they opened fire in a defensive act. The Israeli so-called defensive acts have killed more than 240 Palestinian children, or approx. 25% of the Palestinians killed since the Intifada began.
The CIA was suspected of a diplomatic blunder yesterday that disrupted a deal which would have ended the 36-day siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
An agreement stalled at the final hurdle after Italy refused to accept 13 Palestinians, regarded by Israel as terrorists. The Italian government com-plained it had received no formal request to take in the men.
An official blamed the Americans and Britain for the oversight, and complained of being treated in "an arrogant and intolerable" manner.Recent talks to end the siege have been led by the CIA's station chief in Israel. Britain has not been directly involved, apart from organising a RAF flight to transport the men, which was banned from Italian airspace.
Last night Washington was pressuring the Italian government to change its stance to enable the deal to go through, releasing more than 130 people who took refuge in the church.
The US and the European Union moved closer to full scale trade war last night after Britain and Germany caved in to pressure from the rest of Europe and agreed to back tit-for-tat retaliation against US steel tariffs.
In a hardhitting statement, the European commission said it had unanimous support of the 15 member states in its plan to impose punitive duties on goods from sensitive Republican states.
Europe's counterstrike could come as early as next month, despite the fears of Britain and Germany that raising the temperature in the transatlantic battle could prove counter-productive at a time when the global economy is struggling.
Department of Trade and Industry sources said last month that there was "not very much benefit from a tit-for-tat approach".
In return for backing the commission's tough stance, the trade secretary, Patricia Hewitt, has successfully removed brown rice, ballpoint pens, pink grapefruit, Harley-Davidson motorbikes and several other goods from the list of American exports which Europe plans to target.
A Palestinian suicide bomber struck with provocative timing and devastating force last night, killing 15 Israelis in a suburban snooker club, just as Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was sitting down in Washington for talks with President George Bush.
The explosion at Rishon Letzion blew out ceiling tiles and the picture windows of the third floor hall, hurling people down into the parking lot, Israeli television said. It said at least 50 people were wounded, at least 12 seriously.
"The whole building flew in the air," Hanit Azulai told Israeli Radio. "It looked like a terrible dream."
A man filling up his car at a nearby petrol station said: "People were screaming from the windows. It was a terrible scene. People covered with blood, screaming."
"A Palestinian suicide bomber entered the billiard club and blew himself up inside," Israeli police commander Iftach Duchovny told army radio.
"The bomber came suddenly into the club and blew himself up," said another police commander, Haim Cohen, who described the bomb as "very powerful".
Israeli television stations said the explosive device was in a suitcase carried by the bomber.
A complicated agreement to end the 36-day siege of the Church of the Nativity at 2pm yesterday was undone at the last minute by an elementary error of diplomacy: nobody bothered to inform the main player.
Inside the church 123 Palestinian gunmen, clergy and civilians had joined hands in prayer, posed for photographs, and dined on a last supper of spaghetti.
But hopes of ending the standoff foundered as Israeli soldiers began removing barricades ready for the exit of 123 Palestinians trapped inside the church when Italy - whose support was crucial to the deal - announced that it had not been officially consulted.
Under the arrangements overseen by officials from the CIA and the EU, Israel was to withdraw its tanks from outside the church yesterday, freeing the Palestinians trapped inside since April 2.
Thirteen men - hardened Palestinian militants, according to Israel - were to be deported to Italy for an indefinite exile. However, they would not be jailed, and several said they believed their families would join them.
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, went out of his way to embarrass the divided US administration yesterday, openly thanking the Americans for scuttling the proposed UN investigation of Palestinian deaths in the West Bank town of Jenin.
His remarks were made only hours before he met George Bush in the White House.
There are sharp differences between Israel and the US about the role of Yasser Arafat and Saudi Arabia in future peace negotiations.
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, played an important part in setting up the Jenin mission, in response to Palestinian claims of a massacre. It collapsed last month, because of Israeli opposition, before it even reached the West Bank.
Addressing the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish American pressure group, Mr Sharon hinted heavily that the Bush administration had ultimately helped block the inquiry. "No nation in the world has the right to bring Israel to court," he said.
"I would like to thank the American administration and its leadership that helped us, understood us, and supported us to get out of this trap."
The speech put the administration in an awkward situation by suggesting that the US had acted privately to thwart a mission it supported in public.
Tamara Traubman and Amit Ben Aroya, Ha'aretz Correspondents, Ha'aretz Service and agencies
Fifteen people were killed and 57 people injured when a suicide bomber blew up around 11:00 P.M on Tuesday night at the "Spiel Club" pool hall on Sakharov Street in Rishon Letzion, in the town's new industrial zone.
Eleven of the wounded were in serious condition, 10 sustained moderate injuries and the rest were lightly injured. Ronen Bishari, the deputy director of the Magen David Adom first-aid service said that most of the wounded had been hit by shrapnel or had suffered burns.
The injured were evacuated to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Holon's Wolfson Hospital, and Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Tel Aviv.
The blast occurred on the third floor of the building, causing part of the structure to collapse. The other floors of the building were apparently empty at the time of the blast.
May 7 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed Tuesday to continue fighting terrorists until they cease to exist, after learning of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed at least 16 people. Sharon spoke to the press just before leaving the United States, cutting short a diplomatic visit. Signaling that the Israeli invasion into Palestinian areas would continue, Sharon said: “He who rises up to kill us, we will rise up and kill him first.”
It has been quite an eye opening week in Gaza.
Things here are far worse than I ever imagined. After having seen what
I have seen it is clear to me who are the "terrorists" and who are the
victims. The Palestinian people live under an overwhelming occupation
that restricts their freedom of movement, of statement, and their very
right to live. I have visited new houses where peopel cannot live because
the nearby Israeli settlement has shot at them so much that they look
like swiss cheese.
Today we had to wait from 7:30 in the morning to around 7pm just to cross
a street. Yes, I said to cross a street. what happens is that Gaza
is actually sliced up into different parts by "Jewish only" roads. We
wanted to get from the southern part of Gaza back up to Gaza city, but
the only road that takes us there is intersected by one of these settler
roads. (by the way, in the Gaza strip there are 4,000 Jewish settlers
who live on 48% of the land, and 1.3 million Palestinians who live on
52% of it. And all the settlements are built in the best strategic areas
and have the best water.)
May 6, 2002
We are being held hostage by the State of Israel, without due process, without free access to a lawyer or a hearing. Nathan Musselman, Nathan Mauger, Tom Kaoutsoukos have begin a hunger strike in conjunction with Trevor Baumgartner, Huwaida Arraf and Jo Harrison who are in their 5th day. Today, 2 of them were hospitalised and despite the fact that blood test show their blood sugar level is dangerously low, they have been returned in to detention. Are demands are clear. We want to leave this country voluntarily and we want a letter from the Ministry of Interior stating that we are not being deported and that there are no prohibitions on future travel to Israel. We will continue our strike until our demands are met.
We are putting out a call to all those who stand for freedom and democracy to take action and help in the case of the internationals who are being held illegally by Israeli forces in Palestine and Israel. NONE of the internationals has so far been arrested, yet already at least two of them have been deported with NO due process. The rest have been denied access to legal aid and have been denied any information as to their ultimate fate. The men are being held at Kiryat Arba, an illegal settlement in al-Khalil (Hebron) where their lives are in danger at this very moment due to the volitale situation brought about by IDF actions recently. We URGE everyone to flood the embassies/ consulates with calls/ emails, showing up in person if needed to express their concern about this blatant violation of international law. If any country other than Israel was doing this, all states involved would have condemned the action. Why the double standard? In particular , the United States government is WELCOMING the Prime Minister of a state that HOLDS U.S. NATIONALS AGAINST THEIR WILL ILLEGALLY!!! Contact whatever media you can and blast the United States on this!
Over the last several months news reports of Bush Administration plans concerning the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein have appeared with relative frequency in the mainstream media. However, with very few exceptions those reports have emphasized either that these are contingency plans that have not been operationalized or the target date has been postponed until next year. In light of some recent circumstantial evidence and on-going signals from the White House, the later story especially, published in the New York Times, now seems like a case of Pentagon disinformation. The invasion of Iraq may be sooner than we are being led to believe by the propaganda machine.
Among the more telling signals not discussed yet in the mainstream media is the revelation that a number of MASH units are being called up to report for duty in July. These same units will be committed up to a 6 month period from the July date, that is, through the fall congressional elections. Added to this is the increasing reserve call-up of troops and the deployment of more warships to the region, including war games in the coming weeks with India. Further evidence of a push for a late summer/early fall invasion is the churning out of weapons, including the so-called "low-yield" nuclear bunker buster bomb.
Resistance to Israeli Rule
Not only has Israel been allowed to prevent a United Nations investigation into serious allegations of war crimes in Jenin by Israeli troops, it has placed Yasser Arafat in a daunting position. He is now seen to have benefited, personally and politically, from the exchange of his freedom for the truth.
In a deal that shocks the conscience, the United States reportedly agreed to shield Israel from action by the U.N. Security Council to enforce its resolution to send a fact-finding team to discover the truth about what happened in the devastated Jenin camp. This was in exchange for lifting the siege on Arafat's compound in Ramallah.
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have just issued reports accusing Israeli forces of committing serious war crimes in Jenin. These partial and preliminary findings may be the last serious attempts to discover the facts.
Israel, it would seem, is once again to be the exception, shielded by the United States from the enforcement of international law and norms of conduct, allowed to defy any number of U.N. Security Council resolutions with impunity. Since Arafat has become implicated in this exchange as a direct beneficiary, some of the public outrage will inevitably rest on his shoulders. Preferring to change the subject, some official Palestinian rhetoric already has shifted from the "massacre at Jenin" to the "heroic resistance at Jenin."
The Israeli incursion into West Bank towns, the alleged Israeli massacres committed in the Palestinian refugee camps of Jenin, and the spectre of suicide bombers have provoked some stark commentary from luminaries around the world.
In a speech made to members of Seattle's Jewish community, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz warned American Jewry against complacency in the face of what he termed growing global anti-Semitism.
According to an Idaho news portal, Channel 7's KTVB.Com, Schultz told Jewish Americans that "If you leave this synagogue tonight and go back to your home and ignore this, then shame on us." Schultz did not elaborate on whom he referred to as 'us' - Jews, Americans, Israelis, or the general public, leading some to question where his loyalties really were.
Nevertheless, dozens of Jews gathered outside the meeting to protest Israel's invasion of the West Bank and the appalling conditions in which Palestinians live.
"We only get the side that talks about Palestinians as terrorists," Alethea Mundy told Channel 7. She was protesting media bias and coverage of Palestinians in North American media.
BEITAR ILLIT, West Bank (AP) - On what was a bare West Bank hilltop a dozen years ago, construction workers hammer out the walls of yet more new houses in this now massive Jewish settlement.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), who meets Tuesday with President Bush (news - web sites) to discuss efforts to restart peace talks, says he will not uproot any of the settlements built on land the Palestinians claim for their state. Under his government, 34 new hilltop outposts have sprung up.
Israel says they are merely extensions of existing settlements, but Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the new construction sends a clear message that Sharon is more interested in extending Israel's borders than in trying to negotiate peace.
"Sharon is destroying every possibility for peace between our two peoples," Abed Rabbo said.
Bush intends to urge Sharon to curb the settlement building, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Sunday. "Something has to be done about the problem of the settlements," he said. "The settlements continue to grow and continue to expand."
WASHINGTON (AP) - A nuclear reactor in Ohio is found to have a large hole nobody thought possible, burned almost through its six-inch protective steel cover. Cracks of a type never seen before are discovered at a reactor in South Carolina, triggering widespread inspections.
Both events caught industry leaders and government regulators by surprise, and they are fueling new questions about aging nuclear power plants and plant inspection programs.
The cracks found early last year at the Oconee Unit 3 reactor plant in South Carolina and the hole discovered in March in the steel reactor lid at the Davis Besse plant in Ohio were in areas thought largely impervious to such problems.
"It was material degradation that wasn't expected," acknowledges Alex Marion of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group.
The 25-year-old Davis Besse reactor on the shore of Lake Erie is one of four nuclear plants owned by FirstEnergy Corp. It has been shut down since February, waiting for the hole in the reactor dome to be patched.
Sometimes I forget how truly simpleminded the Bushies can be. The front-page of The New York Times reports, "The Bush administration seems to accept and even relish (Attorney General) Ashcroft's role as lightning rod on difficult criminal justice issues."
Since the attorney general has so amply demonstrated his clueless incompetence, it may seem difficult to plumb why it should be so. But it is precisely, you see, because liberals consider John Ashcroft a dangerous nincompoop that the administration thinks he's doing a good job. They really are that simple.
Civilian employees of Dick Cheney's former company are carrying out military missions around the world – for profit.
ISLAMABAD, May 06 (PNS): Local News wire service "Online" claims that more than 2000 British-led Special Commando forces, joined by the US and Canadian troops, under "Operation Snipe" are gearing up efforts to launch a major attack to rescue around 76 soldiers who were arrested by the Taliban and Al Qaida forces during the battle in the snow covered Arma Peaks of Paktia Province in March this year.
May 6, 2002—My parents grew up as Republicans in and around Kansas City, Mo. But I doubt that political convictions are necessarily handed down by one's parents. At the time I grew up (my formative years being the mid-60s to the mid-70s), one was always more likely to counter the views of one's parents rather than parrot them. That was in the days when the cry "REVOLUTION NOW!" was a pop icon. Anything we could do to piss off our parents was the order of the day.
Curiously though, my politics haven't changed much over the years. What is even more curious is that those same people who used to say that I was maybe a step or two to the right of Attila the Hun, now say that I may well be somewhere to the left of Mao Tse-tung. This, however, is neither a good nor a bad thing on anybody's part. I've heard it said that "the only thing sadder than a young Republican is an old Democrat."
My family's Republican tradition started when the party was young. I would bid younger readers to look to their textbooks for the days when the Republican Party espoused social consciousness and environmental protection. The Democratic Party was once the party of wealthy southern landowners, who espoused the virtues of local government that protected their legal ability to hold slaves.
May 6, 2002—How does one describe a government that is intent upon the destruction of "government?" The word contrarian comes to mind because it is, for all intents and purposes, an anti-government movement within the government.
There are those among the citizenry that wish to see the end of the government for a variety of reasons. Some associated with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians were "dooms dayers" or "cultists" and wished a departure from our society—it appears they got their wish. Some militias have attempted secession from the United States (Bo Gritz of Idaho, the Texas Constitutional Militia and the Freemen in Montana come to mind). We can see from the actions of George W. Bush and his administration that he, too, wishes to end our government as we have known it.
Bush has taken our Securities and Exchange Commission and given it to the very folks that it is to monitor. He has taken the Environmental Protection Agency and given it to the polluters. He has taken the State Department and given it to a radical fringe. He has taken the Justice Department and given it to a fundamentalist zealot. He has taken the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and given it to the power companies. He has taken the Department of the Interior and given it to the companies that will profit from the removal of natural resources.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon brought his case to Washington yesterday for banishing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from peace talks, signaling an unwillingness to embark on a new political process until the Palestinian Authority undergoes major internal reform.
With Sharon scheduled to visit President Bush today, an Israeli delegation headed by the prime minister stepped up efforts in meetings with senior U.S. officials to ensure that the administration's new Middle East initiative does not move faster than Israel would like or diverge from its interests.
WASHINGTON, May 6 — California’s two senators called for a criminal probe into Enron Corp.’s trading activities Monday after federal energy regulators released documents describing how the bankrupt energy giant used trading strategies with names like “Death Star” and “Fat Boy” to manipulate electricity supplies and boost profits in the state.
Gaza City, May 6, 2002)The makeshift tank barricade on my street is gone. The twin piles of sand were probably never meant to do much more than provide area residents like myself with some sense of security. I think it only had the opposite effect on me, however. And while the removal of some defensive barriers in Gaza City could be an indication of better times ahead, the majority still remain, ringing the area. The most pathetic perhaps, are the four-foot sand walls lining the beaches along the Mediterranean.
But one can not deny a sense of relief in Gaza. The unannounced blockade of goods and food imposed at the Israeli controlled entry points has been eased. When I’m found at a store buying bundles of vegetables, it is no longer taken as a sign of a foreigner with foreknowledge of an impending invasion. Conversations on the issue have waned, giving way to speculation about what the West Bank will end up like. These are my final days in Palestine.
I feel the guilt of leaving pressing down on me. I can do things my friends here cannot. It has nothing to do with how hard I’ve worked, how wealthy they are, or what dreams any of us have. I can leave Gaza and they cannot. In a few days I’ll be quaffing beers in a Brussels pub and a little after that immersing in a Wisconsin spring brooding over my credit card debts. They will still be here.
(Beit Hanina, Palestine, 6 May 2002)---The breaking points are sometimes small, innocuous. You can't sleep for a week because the Israeli shelling is so bad, there are continuous and horrible reports of death, but we're fine- "I'm fine. No, I'm ok. Really."--- then something as silly as trying to fold an omelette in the frying pan, it breaking, and then- the tears fall.
But other times, your numbness breaks at what you are seeing in front of you. 6am at Qalandia checkpoint. As I approach the checkpoint I am amazed at the line-ups. Is The Cage gone? It seems as though there are just line-ups...but as I get closer I see that it is still there- the 10-foot high fence wire cage where the Palestinians are lined up to be able to cross the checkpoint.
I stand in the line, the one which is vaguely for women, children and older men. But the lines are not moving. The checkpoint in enclosed in thick spools of barbed wire; some women crossing from the other side get their dresses caught as they try to step over it. One woman -carrying her small child- trips on a stray sandbag, but manages not to fall into the sharp grey metal.
There is a halo of blood on the ground where Huda died while sleeping last Tuesday night. Toddler-sized diapers lie strewn on the ground among the concrete heaps where the bedroom wall once was, and a single blue sandal, tiny as my fist, sat perched in a corner of the room on a wooden slab. Huda was 11 months old.
Her mother is in the hospital recovering from her injuries. A pretty, paper-flower ceiling ornament that she made for her daughter still hangs, grit covered above the child’s former room. Sun pours in like golden dust where the other half of the ceiling has disappeared into sky. Deep tank tracks advance almost as far as the back door to the house. Looking at them makes you tremble: four tank shells were fired in the middle of the night at the family in this small home. One shell overshot the house entirely and landed in the road beyond the house. Local boys brought it over to me to examine. It is a huge, ugly lump of gray-blue metal.
NEW YORK - Former President Bill Clinton said a coalition of American-backed international troops would be necessary to achieve peace in the Middle East.
Clinton told about 2,000 Hunter College students in New York City that the world's greatest challenge is working toward an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. He said that will require a coalition of American, Russian and European troops.
"I do believe it will have to be, if not imposed, at least strongly pushed," he said. "I believe it will require international forces ... and I think we ought to show up and do it."
Clinton, who was intimately involved in the Mideast peace process during his presidency, failed to cajole the Israelis and Palestinians into reaching an agreement at the Camp David summit in July 2000.