Under The Holly Tree

AH HA!! THIS article explains things!

"State Department and Israeli foreign ministry officials, and their U.N. counterparts, meanwhile, tried to trace back their steps, two officials familiar with both camps said. They attempted to figure out how Mr. Khalilzad moved to a council action mere hours after Washington decided to have the world body confer its legitimacy on the Annapolis process, and before hearing Israel's possible objections.

Traditionally, Israel had been uneasy about involvement of the council, or any U.N. body for that matter, in its negotiations with Arab counterparts. In the context of the nascent diplomacy that started in Annapolis, the council's "kibitzing" may become harmful, an Israeli diplomat said, adding, "In January, Libya will join the Security Council. Do you want Libya to become an overseer of our talks with Palestinians, which entered a very delicate stage at Annapolis?" Libya is on record opposing the two-state solution that underlines the Annapolis diplomacy."

WAIT a minute now, of course this article is from the New York Sun, but notice the wording, "before hearing ISRAEL'S possible objections" What about the PALESTINIANS? And HELLO, Libya joining the Security Council was a well-known fact, no-one thought of Israel's intransigence BEFORE this. Could it have been Israel's "ace in the pocket"- to BEGIN WITH?

How the hell is there going to be ANY "peace process" without the UN's involvement?

WHAT A JOKE!!!!

at 11:26 AM

News alert:

Hostages Held By Armed Man At Clinton Office

An armed man, possibly with a bomb, has taken people hostage at Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, N.H.

Clinton is attending a National Democratic Committee meeting in Virginia.

Police said a man in his 40s, with salt-and-pepper hair, is in the building and has what appears to be an explosive device strapped to his body, TV station WMUR reported.Witness Lettie Tzizik told the station that she spoke to a woman shortly after she was released from the office by the alleged hostage-taker."A young woman with a 6-month or 8-mont-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape."

Authorities were sending a tactical bomb unit to assist local police, and the area was evacuated, said Maj. Michael Hambrook of New Hampshire State Police.Bill Shaheen, chairman of Clinton's New Hampshire campaign, said someone walked into the satellite office with what appears to be a bomb strapped to his chest. Two staffers, whom he described as volunteers, were held hostage and others were released."Hopefully, they're going to negotiate this so no one gets hurt," Shaheen said.

There are several police officers positioned across the street from the office, crouched down behind cruisers with guns drawn, Boston TV station WCVB reported."I walked out and I immediately started running, and I saw that the road was blocked off. They told me run and keep going," Cassandra Hamilton told WCVB. She works in an office adjacent to the building.

Nearby businesses have been evacuated, and the nearby St. Elizabeth Seaton School and Spalding High School have been locked down.Presidential candidate Barack Obama also has an office in Rochester, and it has been evacuated. There were no reports of any injuries.

SOURCE

(You can link to the source where it says to refresh the page for updates. There is also a link to LIVE COVERAGE where you can go. Apparently the man is well known in the community and has a history of mental illness)

at 11:23 AM

Richard Perle is still at it. Even though he resigned his last government post, he is still hard at work. The below article is a MUST read for all-

All links added by Robin

Grooming the next Ahmad Chalabi

template_bas

Richard Perle is again propping up regime-toppling Mideast dissidents who lack credibility.

By Alan Weisman
November 28, 2007

ON A COLD MORNING last winter, I arrived at the home of Richard Perle outside Washington for a scheduled interview. I was about 10 minutes early, so I chose to shiver a bit on the front porch. Perle, the point man for the neoconservatives' drive for regime change throughout the Middle East, had agreed to spend time me with for a book I was writing about his life and times. Just then, the front door opened and out stepped Perle and a robust young man who was obviously in a hurry.

"Oh, Alan," Perle said with some surprise. "I'd like you to meet . . . " But I already knew who his guest was.

"Yes, sir," I said, extending my hand. "I recognize you from your photographs."

My, my, I thought. Mr. Perle is at it again.

The exiting guest was Farid Ghadry, an exiled Syrian dissident who, like Perle, believes it's past time to replace Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Ghadry, who heads a Washington-based group called the Syrian Reform Party, hopes to be the man in charge one day in Damascus. When I met him, he had already been granted audiences with David Wurmser, Vice President Dick Cheney's top Middle East advisor and Perle protege, and with Cheney's daughter, Elizabeth, who headed the State Department's Iran-Syria desk from 2005 until last June. I asked Wurmser about Ghadry. Was he another Ahmad Chalabi, the checkered Iraqi exile whom the United States backed as a Saddam Hussein replacement in Iraq?

"He's not asking for money, and we're not advocating money for him," Wurmser told me. "As for him wanting power, sure, he probably has an agenda. But it doesn't matter. This is where you go back to the Soviet Union, because it's the same question that we always work with, from Lech Walesa to Vaclav Havel: 'Did they have an understanding of the malady and danger posed by the totalitarian regime in their country?' "

The scenario of the U.S. backing exiles to aid in "democratizing" Middle Eastern countries is so appealing to Perle, Wurmser and their like-minded friends that they continue to pursue it despite past failures. Perle, of course, was the most prominent and aggressive advocate of Chalabi, dubbed the "Jay Gatsby of Iraq" for his social life and financial scandals, as the leader of a new Iraq. That effort collapsed when the Iraqi people, finally given a chance to vote in January 2005, did not award Chalabi's party a single seat in the new parliament.

Perle insists that his man, who has a new job with the Baghdad government, was the victim of a smear campaign led by the State Department and the CIA. The Chalabi experience has not muted Perle's unabashed affection for dissidents. "I think the best way to bring about regime change," he told me, "is to help decent people who are powerless without outside help."

People such as 32-year-old Amir Abbas Fakhravar, an Iranian dissident now living in exile in the United States. In a 2006 Washington Post Op-Ed article, Perle promoted Fakhravar as a heroic and inspirational figure around whom oppressed Iranians could rally, if only he were given America's support. Fakhravar is president of the Iran Enterprise Institute, which takes its name and some of its financial support from the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, of which Perle is a resident fellow. In the coming weeks, Fakhravar will be speaking at a conference in Palm Beach, Fla., on the subject of regime change in Tehran, addressing the Heritage Foundation in Washington and then heading to Rome to deliver a lecture on "Democracy in the Islamic World." Just recently, he was the honored guest at DePaul University's "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," where he was introduced as "the hero of our age."

His story, as he and his supporters tell it, could be a Hollywood script. Young, handsome, bold Iranian student leads the oppressed and downtrodden against the crushing tyranny of the mullahs, rising up, a la "Les Miserables." He stands atop the barricades during student protests in Iran in 1999 and is then imprisoned and tortured. He communicates with the West from Tehran's maximum-security Evin prison via a cellphone and escapes to freedom, with a shoot-to-kill order hanging over his head.

Unfortunately, Fakhravar's detractors, including some Iranian dissidents and exiles, insist that his story might as well be a Hollywood script. In a report last November in Mother Jones, Laura Rozen interviewed Iranian dissidents and journalists who cast doubt on Fakhravar's story. They claim, for example, that in their experience, political prisoners at Evin weren't allowed to use cellphones to communicate with the outside world. And, they say, he did not so much escape from prison, he simply went AWOL while on a kind of furlough that prisoners could sometimes arrange. As for other harrowing details, in reality he took a regular flight to Dubai (where he was met by Perle). Most important, Rozen's sources told her, Fakhravar was never a major figure in the student uprising of 1999.

Writing in Progressive magazine, Muhammad Sahimi, a chemical engineering professor at USC, lists Fakhravar among the exiles who have no credibility in Iran: "They are not even known there." Although Amnesty International lists Fakhravar among those tortured by the Tehran regime, it uses the word "reportedly" to describe his ordeal.

Perle insists that Fakhravar is being smeared by forces opposed to aggressive regime change. But the fundamental problem for Perle and like-minded others is that the men they are supporting lack the stature of their successful and illustrious predecessors, the Walesas and Havels. In the first place, Walesa and Havel did not operate in exile; they remained in their countries despite repeated imprisonment, government pressure and threats. There was never any question that they were recognized as the real thing -- opposition leaders -- by the throngs in the shipyards of Gdansk and St. Wenceslas Square. They may have had personal as well as altruistic ambitions and motives, but they were nothing if not authentic.

Which brings us back to America's Middle East wannabe heroes. Take Ghadry, an American-educated Arab with a passion for technology start-ups as well as saving Syria. Unfortunately for Perle, Ghadry is seen in many quarters as a front man for Israel. Not only is he a dues-paying member of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful Israeli lobby in Washington, but a recent column on his website, titled "Why I Admire Israel," seems to play right into the hands of those who believe the Bush administration's obsession with regime change in the Middle East is really all about protecting Israel. Did Perle, the savviest of Washington power players, believe that Ghadry's tub-thumping for Tel Aviv would make him more popular in Syria?

"No," Perle replied. "I don't. But he's his own man. I don't always understand what he's doing and why he's doing it."

So, in his quest for idealistic dissidents to do in the Middle East what the Walesas and Havels achieved in Eastern Europe, Perle and his acolytes have tapped the discredited Ahmad Chalabi for Iraq, the suspect Amir Abbas Fakhravar for Iran and the allegiance-challenged Fahrid Ghadry for Syria. They're just not making heroes like they used to.

Alan Weisman is the author of the first biography of Richard Perle, "Prince of Darkness -- Richard Perle: The Kingdom, the Power, and the End of Empire in America."

Source

at 11:01 AM

Two more items critical to understanding the "peace process" of Annapolis, both from Phyllis Bennis:

The 12 Myths of Annapolis
Phyllis Bennis
Institute for Policy Studies, 29 November 2007

* Myth 1) The Annapolis meeting was designed to launch serious new negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians that aimed at ending the occupation and producing a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the region based on a two-state solution.

In fact, the two main reasons for the conference had virtually nothing to do with Israel or Palestine. The real reasons for convening the conference were 1) to strengthen Arab government support for U.S. strategies in the Middle East, including the war in Iraq and particularly the escalation of pressure aimed at Iran. 2) To provide a photo-op to reframe Condoleezza Rice’s legacy, now largely shaped by her embrace of Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon in 2006, to the legacy of a would-be peacemaker.

* Myth 2) The time is right for new talks because, as President Bush said, “Palestinians and Israelis have leaders who are determined to achieve peace.”

In fact, both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are so weakened politically, so compromised as legitimate leaders and so unpopular among their own electorates, that they have little or no choice but to follow the demands of the White House. Both Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Abbas were democratically elected, but both of them were chosen as replacements for the powerful and popular icons of national symbolism they served.

Like his predecessor, Yasir Arafat, Abbas is simultaneously president of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the PLO; unlike Arafat, he is not viewed as a hero of the Palestinian national movement and a symbol of Palestinian unity. In his Annapolis speech Abbas mentioned key Palestinian national goals, including UN resolution 194 on the right of return, but his political weakness as well as his long-standing confidence in U.S. backing means he remains unable to insist on those rights; it is unclear whether he will ultimately agree to sign on to a “final” treaty denying key internationally-mandated Palestinian rights to return, to real independence in all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, to dismantling of the settlements, etc.

Olmert replaced the right-wing General Ariel Sharon, known as the Butcher of Beirut from his role in the Sabra/Shatila massacre of 1982 and a continuing hero of the Israeli right-wing, when Sharon fell into a coma in January 2006. Olmert’s poll numbers are in the low single digits, and an Israeli criminal court judge had to issue a special hold on Olmert’s anticipated indictment on corruption charges even as his plane was about to take off for Annapolis this week.

* Myth 3) The Annapolis conference will provide hope for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank so Hamas supporters will be won over to support Abbas and the new peace process.

The only reference to the continuing U.S.-Israeli boycott and isolation of Gaza that has turned the Gaza Strip into a humanitarian disaster, a huge Israeli-controlled prison with what the World Bank calculates at 87% of Gazans living below the poverty line, came from Abbas’ call “To my people and relatives in the Gaza Strip, you are at the core of my heart.” But even he had nothing to offer them beyond the assertion that “the hours of darkness will end in the face of your resolve and determination. For your insistence on the unity of our people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as one geographical political unit without any divergence, your suffering will end. Right and peace will prevail.” Olmert referred to Gaza only as a place of terrorism and kidnapping. Bush described Gaza as the place where freedom rises, as in “when liberty takes root on the Iraqi soil of the West Bank and Gaza, it will inspire millions across the Middle East who want their societies built on freedom and peace and hope.” [yes, that is the accurate quote.] But unfortunately Palestinian children can’t eat Freudian slips.

* Myth 4) U.S. presidential “engagement” in Middle East diplomacy is inherently useful; the problem so far has been Bush’s lack of engagement.

Since 1967 the U.S. has been way too engaged in Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. The U.S. already provides almost $4 billion/year in economic and military aid to Israel, has just announced an additional new $30 billion gift of military aid to Israel over the next ten years, consistently uses its UN Security Council veto to protect Israel from being held accountable for its violations of international law (half of all U.S. vetoes cast since 1970), is providing $85 million in police/military assistance to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah while maintaining the devastating complete embargo and isolation of Gaza. That’s engagement. The U.S. needs to engage differently – not more.

* Myth 5) At Annapolis the U.S. appropriately recognizes Israel and the Palestinians as two equal players, with equal responsibility for the conflict and equal obligations to compromise.

This is not a conflict between equal players. The U.S. remains the key power. The “Joint Understanding” read by President Bush at Annapolis states, “implementation of the future peace treaty will be subject to the implementation of the road map, as judged by the United States.” In fact, even the road map’s “Quartet,” the diplomatic fiction that provided political cover for the U.S. by anointing Europe, Russia and the United Nations as back-up singers for Washington’s solo act, was abandoned in Annapolis.

While the US has succeeded in preventing the SC from acting (vetoes) – like Madrid – UN silenced – here can speak, but

After Iraq – Art 14 – then arming spree – outcome of Madrid was new arms (even paletinians) – peace for the arms dealers – nothing to do with well-being on the ground

Israel is the occupying power, maintaining its occupation of Palestinian land in violation of scores of UN resolutions calling for an immediate end to the occupation of all of the West Bank, all of Gaza and all of occupied East Jerusalem. Israel is required to abide by – not to negotiate, but to abide by – all the obligations the Geneva conventions and other international laws impose on occupying powers, including the absolute prohibition of settlements, prohibition against collective punishments, and more. The Palestinians are the occupied population, whose protection is the primary obligation of the occupying power and the international community. In 1988 Palestinians made the historic (though largely forgotten) compromise when they gave up their claim to and recognized Israel as a state in 78% of historic Palestine (when even the UN Partition Agreement only assigned Israel 55%). The idea that now Palestinians should be expected to negotiate away additional major pieces of the meager 22% of the land that remains, and compromise away their other inalienable rights to self-determination and return, makes a mockery of international law and the international community.

* Myth 6) The discussions in Annapolis prove that a “two state solution” remains the only possible and legitimate outcome.

Creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state – in all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – remains the mandate of the United Nations and international law, and the official Palestinian position. Formal support for creation of some kind of Palestinian state represents the official positions of Israel and the U.S., along with many other countries. But creation of a viable, contiguous and independent state in all the 1967 territory, as mandated by the UN and international law, would require the dismantling of huge blocs of city-sized settlements and the removal of (or agreement to become non-privileged, ordinary Palestinian citizens by) over 450,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. This is not just “small and mutually agreed adjustments” to the border. With the settlements continuing to expand, their reality and that of the Apartheid Wall are increasingly making a real two-state solution impossible. What many Israeli and U.S. policymakers quietly intend is the anointing of a Palestinian “virtual state” – it would have passports and a full seat at the UN, internet identity and a telephone country code all its own. But it would be made up of Gaza and less than 50% of the West Bank in the form of a set of non-contiguous bantustans linked by Israeli-controlled roads and bridges, with Israel remaining in control of borders, airspace, military and security capacity, and more.
As creation of a viable Palestinian state becomes less realistic, the alternative of recognizing all of historic Palestine – including what is now Israel as well as the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – as one country, with equal rights for all its citizens, begins to look like a more realistic option.

* Myth 7) Israeli participation in the Annapolis conference indicates a willingness to make serious new compromises on the long-standing obstacles to a just and lasting peace.

On settlements: the words “settler” and “settlement” did not appear in Olmert’s speech in Annapolis. Before arriving, there was a high-profile announcement that Israel would refrain from building any “new” settlements in the West Bank; this is complete spin, since the real expansion of the settler population is taking place by expanding the land controlled by and the people populating the existing settlements, not primarily by building new ones.
On Jerusalem: mentioned only as Olmert having come from Jerusalem, and having once been the mayor of Jerusalem; no reference to sharing Jerusalem, ending the occupation of East Jerusalem, Palestinian rights to their capital in Jerusalem, etc.

On Refugees: the words “refugee,” “return,” “rights,” “international law,” “resolution 194” did not appear. Olmert referred in a deliberately obscure reference to “your people who have suffered for many years” and Palestinians who “have been living for decades in camps, disconnected from the environment in which they grew up…” But Olmert, saying he “came here today NOT in order to settle historical accounts between us and you,” did not recognize Israeli responsibility for Palestinian suffering, let alone accept the international law-mandated solution under resolution 194 ensuring the right of the refugees to return. Instead he claimed Israel would “find a proper framework for their future, in the Palestinian state that will be established in the territories agreed upon between us.”
Borders: the words “border,” “Wall,” “fence,” “barrier” did not appear.

* Myth 8) Arab participation reflects U.S. and Israeli acceptance of the 2002 Arab peace initiative as part of the diplomatic framework.

In fact, only Abbas even described the actual requirements of the Arab peace initiative – Israel ending occupation to the 1967 borders, refugees, Jerusalem, the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. For Bush and Olmert, it was referenced only in the context of its consequence: IF Israel ended the occupation, recognized the refugees’ right to return, etc., THEN normalization between Israel and the Arab world was possible. Olmert’s speech included a litany of what he thinks about the Arab initiative: he is “familiar with” it, “acknowledges,” “appreciates” the initiative…but no indication he accepts or would abide by it. In fact Olmert addressed the Arab diplomats directly, reminding them that whatever their views,, the Arab governments would have no place at the table. “[E]ven if the Arab peace initiative presents principles based on the Arab narrative, You have no intention of replacing the Palestinians in the negotiations. Please support them; they need it. Without your support for compromises there will be no peace.” For Olmert, the Arab governments’ job was to collaborate in Palestinian surrender.

* Myth 9) Syria’s participation means Syria is now joining the pro-western anti-Iran contingent in the region.

Syria is a poor and relatively weak country, whose President Bashar al-Assad has never claimed the power and influence of his father, Hafez al-Assad. Despite Syria’s longstanding ties to Iran, it is a key component of the Arab world, and could not afford to insult the Arab League call for participation in Annapolis. Syrian attendance, at a relatively junior level in a partial snub to the U.S. and Israel (and even to Mahmoud Abbas) gets Damascus off the hot-seat with Washington – which continues to hope for being able to wean Syria away from Iran. Syria was able to at least mention the words “Golan Heights” and remind diplomatic listeners that the Arab peace initiative also included ending israel’s occupation of the Golan as a precondition to normalization. And Syrian participation in Annapolis could be viewed as paying a kind of protection money, reducing the influence of the “Syria Next” crowd in Washington.

* Myth 10) The speeches given at Annapolis will inspire new commitments.

The Annapolis meeting did not set forth a grandiose set of “confidence-building measures” to launch the process. The pre-Annapolis announcements of the Israeli government featured a high-profile announcement of the release of 450 prisoners (less than 5% of the more than 10,000 Israel continues to illegal hold) and a promise not to build any new settlements. This was a retreat even from the road map’s alleged call for Israel to “freeze all settlement expansion,” meaning no additional building or adding new settlers. In fact real confidence-building would require Israel to at least begin the process of actually dismantling existing settlements. Not simply the tiny symbolic “outposts” which Israel can shut down with little political and no financial cost (though they have not been shut down as promised in the road map) – but a real move to begin dismantling some of the empty or half-finished apartments currently being built throughout the existing city-sized illegal settlements such as Ariel or Ma’ale Adumim. That would be a step towards not simply preventing further deterioration, but a step towards serious peace-making.

* Myth 11) The Annapolis conference was based on implementing all relevant UN resolutions.

The presence of dozens of governments and international organizations at Annapolis gave the conference the appearance of a United Nations-style event. But it was all about style – not substance. In that way it reflected a similar scenario in 1991, when the U.S. orchestrated (ostensibly with Soviet co-sponsorship) the Madrid conference to “launch” new peace talks. A huge glittering international gathering – but the official Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Israel, setting the terms for Israeli participation, guaranteed that the sole United Nations representative would be prohibited from speaking. While current UN chief Ban ki-Moon was formally allowed to speak in Annapolis, there was not even the illusion that the world organization, which should be the centerpiece of all international diplomatic efforts on this issue, was to be allowed a serious role.

No UN resolutions were even mentioned in the joint Israeli-Palestinian statement that Bush read to open the conference. Abbas did refer to resolution 194 (ensuring refugees’ the right of return) but it was ignored by the U.S. and Israeli speeches. Olmert did mention 242 and 338, but equated UN resolutions’ authority with that of the April 14, 2004 letter President Bush sent to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promising U.S. support for Israeli annexation of huge settlement blocs and Israel’s rejection of the right of return. There was no discussion, of course, of Washington’s pattern of veto-threats and veto use in the Security Council that has consistently prevented Israel from being held accountable for its violations of international law.

* Myth 12) Annapolis was a failure.

If we understand Annapolis for what it really was, it may prove to be a great success. (See Myth #1) The Arab regimes can go home with transcripts of their own speeches, whether bluster or statesmanlike, and show their people how they stood up to Israel and the U.S., and how they helped the Palestinians. They can then show more willingness the next time Bush asks them for fly-over rights, for base rights, for political support. And Condoleezza Rice got her photo-ops. Her legacy, too early to say.
But based on its real, however unacknowledged, goals, Annapolis may turn out to be a great success.

So what does it all mean? And what do we do now?

There is another myth that says Annapolis, the latest iteration of U.S.-controlled “peace processes,” represents the epicenter of current Israeli-Palestinian peace-making efforts. That was never true. The framework of this conference, shaped by U.S. global power and unilateralism; Israel’s regional expansionism, militarism and apartheid policies; Arab governments’ repression and militarism; and Palestinian division and weakness, never held out much hope for a just or lasting or comprehensive peace. But that does not mean real peace-making work is not underway. Palestinian civil society, backed by global civil society, a few governments and sometimes the United Nations, are building non-violent movements challenging those realities.

In 2005, Palestinian and global civil society called for creation of a movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, to bring international non-violent economic pressure on Israel to comply with international law. That movement is well underway. The rising global use of the framework of an anti-apartheid movement to challenge Israeli policies of discrimination, moved forward by people like former President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and organizations like the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation. Israel’s illegal Apartheid Wall faces challenges from global mobilizations and through the direct action of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals at places like the West Bank village of Bi’ilin, where every Friday activists non-violently gather to protest the Wall. Organizations like the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation, the Stop the Wall Coalition and BADIL in the occupied territories, the International Coordinating Network on Palestine and so many others remain engaged in this work.

While U.S. threats and vetoes have largely prevented the Security Council from the central role it should play in this issue, other parts of the United Nations system remain thoroughly engaged. From General Assembly committees protecting the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, to the courageous work of Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories John Dugard, as well as the analysis of former UN representative to the “Quartet” Alvaro de Soto who exposed U.S. support for inter-Palestinian violence in Gaza, the UN remains an important ally. There are campaigns in U.S., European, Brazilian and many other national courts, as well as in the International Court of Justice, to hold Israel accountable for its violations. Those are the places where real peace-making is underway. There are efforts for real justice – unlike whatever “peace” comes out of Annapolis, which is likely to be neither just nor lasting.

Phyllis Bennis is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies (www.ips-dc.org) and the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. Her most recent book is Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.

Source

Used with permission under Copyright/Creative Commons

at 10:41 AM

ACTION ALERT
November 29, 2007

Contact: communications@wrmea.com

A Call From Gaza Asking for Your Help to End the Siege

By News Editor Delinda C. Hanley and Managing Editor Janet McMahon

Today—the 60th anniversary of the passage by the U.N. General Assembly of the nonbinding resolution partitioning Palestine—is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. We’ve been hearing speeches about peace all week from politicians—but talk, as we’ve learned, is cheap. We’ve seen photos of Gazans demonstrating in the streets against the Annapolis conference, to which the elected government of Palestine was not invited, but with few reporters in Gaza Americans aren’t getting the entire picture.

Yesterday our Gaza correspondent, Mohammed Omer, called us to discuss a story idea for the next issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Speaking on his cell phone from the office of a taxi cab company in Gaza City, Mohammed told us that he’d have to spend the night in Gaza City because there were no taxis available to take him home to Rafah.When we put him on speaker phone, we could hear the two other men in the office—Imad, the owner of Imad Taxis, and Mahmoud, who works for the municipalities department—ask who he was talking to. When Mohammed explained that he was speaking with his editors in Washington, DC, the floodgates opened. Our correspondent proceeded to translate what two everyday Gazans want the outside world to know. Their words were spontaneous, unpolished, and spoken from their hearts. It’s extremely urgent that Americans listen and respond.

Israel has kept Gaza’s borders sealed since June, when Palestine effectively was divided between Hamas-ruled Gaza and the Fatah-ruled West Bank. But since January 2006, when free and fair elections resulted in a Hamas parliamentary majority, Gaza’s borders have only rarely been opened. That means 1.5 million men, women and children are trapped there.

The owner of Imad Taxis told us that, because of the closure, if one of his cabs breaks down there are no spare parts to fix it. “Drivers can’t work,” he said. “Gas is getting very expensive. I can’t even pay my telephone bills, so soon customers can’t call to book a taxi.”

Mahmoud chimed in: “We’ve run out of everything. After every Israeli attack something more is ruined. Electrical poles, wires, water pipes, and we can’t replace them. Why are we being punished? What is our crime? Is it because we were born Palestinian?

“We can’t fix generators or even keep them running,” he continued. “When there is no electricity we can’t distribute water. We’ve run out of chlorine to clean the water. It’s full of bacteria. A water heater used to cost 10 shekels, but now it costs 40 or 50 shekels—if you can find one. So we don’t have hot water for bathing. Our sewage system has collapsed. There’s no power to pump sewage out and no chemicals to clean it. Look at the garbage in the streets. There is no fuel for the trucks to come to haul it away.”

“Israel is only allowing basic food supplies into Gaza: sugar, rice, flour, and oil,” Imad told us. “Every day my little girl asks me to bring home a chocolate bar. I can’t find any in Gaza. I disappoint her every night. We can’t even buy Arabic coffee. There are no razors, no shaving materials. We’ll all have to grow beards. [Laughter] There isn’t stone, not even cement, to make headstones for graves. We’re using pieces of metal to write names on graves. We can’t buy diapers. Gazans are starting to smoke molokhiya [a green leaf vegetable] because we can’t buy cigarettes. We can’t buy shoes and soon we’ll have to make them from tires. There is no printing paper.”

Their words overlap as they tumble out—we can no longer tell who is saying what.

“You can’t find jackets, wool clothes, underwear, or even socks for winter in the shops.

“Medical supplies in hospitals are exhausted. There’s no oxygen; drugs aren’t available. We cannot find the basic needs for life.

“For God’s sake open the border.”

Mahmoud tells us: “My son has had a visa to study in the United States since last year. He was admitted to San Francisco State. He speaks good English. He has high grades—'everything. Last year he missed going because the border was closed. He'’s ready to travel today. He'’s missing a second year. If my son doesn'’t have a future where will he go? Hamas is begging him to join its militia, but he doesn'’t want to. He’'s volunteering for [psychiatrist and peace activist] Dr. Eyad al-Sarraj’s International Campaign to Break the Siege on Gaza. Help prevent our children from becoming extremists. They'’re so hopeless they could find al-Qaeda. We want them educated. Don’t punish our children.”

“History will never forget. Israel and America are creating hatred in Gaza. The whole table will collapse if Gaza is excluded from the peace talks. Who is responsible for us? The U.N.? The European Union? We are not beggars. We are hard workers, educated, intelligent. We need our international human rights. We want to live like anyone in the world.

“We hope you can get our message out. Please open the borders and end this siege.”

Call or write your local editors and radio talk show hosts, and contact your elected representatives in Washington, DC.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
(202) 456-1414
White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111
Fax: (202) 456-2461
E-mail: <president@whitehouse.gov>

E-mail Vice President Dick Cheney: vice.president@whitehouse.gov>

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Department of State
Washington, DC 20520
State Department Public Information Line:
(202) 647-6575

Any Senator
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3121

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U.S. House of Representatives
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(202) 225-3121
E-mail Congress: visit the Web site <www.congress.org> for contact information.

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(202) 364-5500

The Israeli Embassy, Canada
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For more information about this issue or to subscribe to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs visit our Web site <http://www.wrmea.com/>. This 26-year-old publication has the largest circulation of any magazine of its kind, and is sent to both public and university libraries and bookstores in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. For a free sample copy call (202) 939-6050.

at 5:40 AM

Carol Towarnicky | A DOC'S Rx FOR MIDEAST PEACE

ALOT OF people don't want to hear what Dr. Alice Rothchild has to say about what she's seen and heard as she crosses lines between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza. So it wasn't unusual when, during a recent reading in the Boston area, an Israeli student walked out.

The young woman returned, still upset. "You know that story about that doctor being beaten, it's not true," she said.

Rothchild gently insisted that her friend, Allam Jarrar, a Palestinian doctor, had been beaten, cursed and humiliated by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint when he was traveling with Palestinian presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouthi.

The student paused, then said, "It can't have happened."

It can be hard for some Jews, Israeli and American, to take in the reality that Rothchild, an American Jewish ob-gyn who's worked in clinics in Gaza and the West Bank, is determined to describe: deplorable conditions in the clinics where she's worked with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Palestinian Medical Authority, Jewish settlers throwing rocks and spewing racism, hundreds of checkpoints that constitute "a total disruption of daily life" for Palestinians.

Rothchild thinks she knows why: "If you start admitting that certain things are true, then you have to take responsibility for the fact that they happened," she said. "And then you have to make recompense. To do that requires a certain amount of pain, introspection, remorse that people don't necessarily want to go to."

Rothchild was here recently to speak to medical students and read from her book, "Broken Promises, Broken Dreams." I caught up with her at the Big Blue Marble bookstore in Mount Airy.

Much of what Rothchild has to say runs counter to U.S. Jews' love of Israel that rose from the Holocaust and the creation of a Jewish homeland 60 years ago. It also runs counter to the love and pride recorded in a diary Rothchild has of a visit to Israel with her family when she was 14. (She's now 59.) But "unraveling family secrets," as she calls her work, is perfectly in sync with the Jewish value of pursuing justice.

Using her training in listening to patients, Rothchild has seen and felt the fear that's part of everyday life in Israel, fear to do simple things like getting on a bus, fear that comes from not knowing how to recognize a mortal enemy. She watched as a 20-something female Israeli soldier at a checkpoint repeatedly yelled at the 5- and 6-year-old Palestinian children passing through.

The Boston-based doctor believes the brutality in the soldier's face came from the anxiety of wondering if one of the kids was carrying a bomb. But how will the kids remember it?

Rothchild also has seen life from the other side of the maze of checkpoints, bypass roads and the "security barrier." There are 600 checkpoints in the West Bank, which is the size of Delaware. Each day, thousands face multiple stops where they must produce an ID, be searched and questioned and eventually let through or turned back without explanation.

Sometimes the delays prove fatal: Women at checkpoints have delivered babies who later died. In response, four maternity centers have been set up. They are so crowded that women are released hours after giving birth. With fresh sutures and a new baby, they often have to walk back hundreds of yards through the checkpoints.

In the press buildup to yesterday's "Mideast Peace Conference" in Annapolis, as the expectations were systematically downgraded so that just showing up could be declared a success, there were few hints of the passion and heartbreak, the trauma and resilience on all sides that Rothchild spoke of, and few indications that either side is up to difficult negotiations.

Yet cynicism is a luxury.

"Only privileged people get to say it's hopeless," said Rothchild. "When you're getting up every day, when you can't get to your fields, you can't feed your family or whatever, you have to be fighting this, or else you'll die."

So Rothchild continues to write and speak and fend off hecklers and hate e-mails. As she wrote in my copy of her book, "Listening is the beginning of peace."

Praying with the News: May the toys we buy for the holidays be safe for our children, and may the recent recalls impel us to pay more attention to the importance of government inspection and regulations. Amen. *

Credit:Mohammed Omar

Monsignor Manuel Musallam

To learn more about Dr. Alice Rothchild, link HERE where at the top you can link to several audio and video clips.

at 8:14 PM

Today I had to go to Border's book store to get my daughter a copy of Macbeth. As we reached the register I glanced down (not wearing my glasses) and caught the title on the issue of a magazine. It read "Mr. Palestine". I had sort of seen it out of the corner of my eye and said to my daughter, "OOH, what's that? Mr. Palestine" I reached down to get it and as I got closer I jumped back in horror. This picture is what I saw.

I said rather loudly, "Oh my God, I can't believe it, WHAT A JOKE"

The woman at the counter in front of me turned and said, "I take it you don't like him either?"

I guess I had a disgusted look on my face because she started laughing.

I said, "This whole meeting at Annapolis is such a farce"

She replied, "Good to hear someone knows what is going on and that it IS a farce"

She had a beautiful accent and I asked her where she was from. She replied Sicily.

We chatted for a minute or so and she ended by saying,

"If only he would just drop DEAD, and if he won't drop DEAD I wish I could just roll up a newspaper and HIT HIM with it to make him STOP".

I laughed and said "You can train dogs, that man can't be trained"

She said, "You're right, he's absolutely hopeless, unlike most dogs"

We chuckled some more and parted with smiles and a Happy Holidays.

I love it when there is a meeting of the minds with a perfect stranger.

To read the article, link HERE

at 12:22 PM

The article below by Amira Hass appeared in Haaretz but has not been translated in to English yet.
I just received the translation from a dear friend whose friend translated the article. At Annapolis SUPPOSEDLY-Israel has committed to a one year time-table. A great deal can happen in a year, and quite frankly, I'll believe it when I see it. Forty years have gone by, with illegal settlements and the roads leading to them making a viable contiguous Palestinian state impossible. Whatever the "outcome"........................

Translated from the Hebrew by Elana

On Haled's Roof

Amira Hass
Haaretz (Hebrew only)
Wednesday November 28, 2007

[In contrast to most of the 'opinion' articles, this one has not been
translated by Haaretz. Maybe it will be tomorrow or the next day or
never. It is the kind of article that is often purposely skipped over
and is never seen by non-Hebrew-speakers . - I made a quick translation,
because not only Hebrew speakers should be able to read it. - Elana]

Haled rarely takes his children to the village of his birth in the
western part of the West Bank, south of Qalqilya. It's hard for him to
sit on the roof of his parents' home and from there look out at the
family land (about 500 meters away) without being able to reach it.
This land had always been a kind of insurance; security for a continuing
income, where all the brothers and sisters worked and from which they
all benefited. It guaranteed respite from the urban crowd and was also
a kind of savings and security for a time of need - sickness, heaven
forbid; or higher education for the grandchildren. It was always
possible to sell a dunam or to build on it in order to realize a dream.

Between the roof and the promise, between him and the 20 dunams that
remained in the family's possession, was the separation fence, an ugly
scar of high fencing, barbed wire, and wide strips of exposed earth
where a row of trees had been uprooted and whose absence remains painful
like the stump of a missing limb.

The roof of his childhood home is Haled's Mount Nevo. He sees the
promised land so close and cannot reach it. Staff of the Civil
Authority take care to create lengthy, complicated bureaucratic
procedures for Palestinians to try to gain periodic entrance permits to
reach the private lands beyond the fence. By the time the processes are
understood, they change, and the criteria become yet more restricted.

The result: parents get entrance permits to their land, but they can't
work the land alone. Children and grandchildren can get permits but not
as members of the family, only as hired workers. Such permits are
limited to a small number of days, and they are not suited to those who
have regular jobs elsewhere. Moreover, the very necessity of requesting
a permit to reach the family property - all that only if you can prove
you have a justifiable reason for wanting to be on your own land - is so
infuriating that they give up without trying.

In the West Bank there are about two million Haleds. In every village
and city many families have land that Israel prevents them from
reaching, like land in area C (60% of the West Bank), by means of the
separation barrier, security roads of Jewish settlements, settlements
built on part of the land that blocks access to the land that hasn't
been confiscated, roads that are forbidden to Palestinian travel, closed
military areas, army camps, or army road blocks.

Every Palestinian has their own Mount Nevo, from which they see the
land, which has as much emotional as material value, being taken away
from them. When a fire breaks out, as has happened more than once on
the land of Kafin, it's impossible to reach it and put out the fire in
time. If one wants to grow vegetables, it's impossible to irrigate them
because the well is in the part of the private land that has been
confiscated for the use of the nearby settlement, as was the case with
Abu Fahmi from Dir Istiya. And when settlers occupy the land, it's
impossible to get rid of them, as was the case with the land belonging
to the Kadan family from El Bireh when youths from Bet El turned their
private property into a place of worship. The Civil Administration did
remove the settlers from this intrusion, but in any case the army does
not allow the Palestinians to come there. The result is the same: the
land cannot be used.

The Israeli government is praised for its vision of two states for two
peoples, apparently adopted by its leaders and brought by them to
Annapolis. But Israel refuses to commit to a time table for implementing
the vision. Meanwhile, its faithful messengers in the army and in the
Civil authority and the settlers as well hold ongoing one-sided
negotiations on the fate and shape of the future Palestinian state.
They are doing everything to ensure that millions of dunams of land, the
land reserve of the future Palestinian state, will not be returned to
its lawful owners. They cause more and more land to be seen as
abandoned land or what is known in Israeli Orwellian as absentee
property, that is, land that the state of the Jewish people has learned
to pronounce as being state owned in practice.

On Haled's Roof

at 10:50 AM

On this day, 250 years ago, the English poet, engraver, artist, philosopher William Blake was born.

To read his "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" link HERE.

In honor of the quarter millenium of William Blakes gift to humanity......................

ON ANOTHER'S SORROW

Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?

Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrow's share?
Can a father see his child
Weep, nor be with sorrow filled?

Can a mother sit and hear
An infant groan, an infant fear?
No, no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!

And can He who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small bird's grief and care,
Hear the woes that infants bear -

And not sit beside the nest,
Pouring pity in their breast,
And not sit the cradle near,
Weeping tear on infant's tear?

And not sit both night and day,
Wiping all our tears away?
O no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!

He doth give His joy to all:
He becomes an infant small,
He becomes a man of woe,
He doth feel the sorrow too.

Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy Maker is not by:
Think not thou canst weep a tear,
And thy Maker is not near.

O He gives to us His joy,
That our grief He may destroy:
Till our grief is fled and gone
He doth sit by us and moan.

at 7:26 PM

MIDEAST: Christians And Muslims Coexist In Gaza
By Mohammed Omer

GAZA CITY, Nov 27 (IPS) - As Sunday dawns in Gaza City the traditional Islamic call to prayer mingles melodically with church bells.

Side by side, mosque and church doors swing open, welcoming the faithful. Greetings are eagerly exchanged.

The October kidnapping and murder of Rami Ayyad, the manager of Gaza's only Christian bookstore, sent shudders through the Christian community.

Was this a hate crime or simply a tragic occurrence?

Monsignor Manuel Musallam, head of Gaza's Roman Catholic community, doubts the attack was religiously motivated.

"Rami was not only Christian," the Musallam told IPS. "He was Palestinian. Violent acts against Christians are not a phenomenon unique to Gaza."

Immediately upon hearing of the murder, the elected Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh of Hamas ordered the Palestinian ministry of interior to dispatch an investigative committee to "urgently look into the matter", labelling Ayyad's death a "murderous crime".

"We are all one people who suffer together for the sake of freedom, independence and restoration of our inalienable citizenship rights," Hanyieh stated publicly. "We are waging a single struggle and refuse to allow any party to tamper with or manipulate this historical relationship, [between Muslims and Christians]."

Currently, Palestine's Christian community hovers between two and 10 percent.

In Gaza, approximately 3,000 Christians still call this former Egyptian territory home -- with the majority of the community living within Gaza City near the three main churches: The Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, and the Gaza Baptist.

Christians in Gaza have the same rights as their Muslim neighbours, rights guaranteed under the Palestinian Declaration of Independence. Within the Legislative Council, several seats have been reserved for Christian leaders.

Seventeen-year-old Christian student Ali Al Jeldah told IPS about attending a dual faith school: "My life is normal and I've never felt oppressed. Being Muslim or Christian is never an issue."

"I have many Muslim friends. We hang out and study together with no differences at all," Al Jeldah said.

Lelias Ali, a 16-year-old Muslim student at Holy Family School, concurs. "We have a unity of struggle, a unity of aim -- to live under the same circumstances. This land is for both of us and being a Christian or Muslim should not separate us" she said.

"I have lots of friends. Being Muslim or Christian is not an issue," Diana Al Sadi, a 17-year-old student told IPS.

"I go to my friends' homes for happy and sad occasions," Al Sadi said, "including Christmas and Easter. They visit mine during Eid [the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting]."

When the students were asked if Christians are being harassed by Hamas or the Palestinian police, all agreed that this was not the case.

"Every society has extremists," Lelias Ali states. "Sometimes I'm criticised for not wearing my Hijab. But that has nothing to do with being Muslim or Christian. Those people don't represent our Palestinian society."

Pausing for a moment, she considered the assertions in the international media regarding Muslims and Christians: "We should not let such ideas sneak into our minds. If we don't unite, then we lose."

Asked if Christians in Gaza feel singled out or oppressed, Musallam says, "Palestinian Christians are not a religious community set apart in some corner. They are part of the Palestinian people."

But what of Hamas, a fundamentalist Islamic political organisation? Have Palestinian Christians experienced persecution or racism under their leadership, as Western papers insinuate?

"Our relationship with Hamas is as people of one nation," Musallam contends. "Hamas doesn't fight religious groups. Its fight is against the Israeli occupation.

And what of the Western media assertions that Gaza's Christians are considering emigrating because of Islamic oppression?

Sighing, Musallam corrects the misconception. "If Christians emigrate," he states resolutely, "It's not because of Muslims. It is because we suffer from Israeli siege. We seek a life of freedom. A life different from the life of the dogs we are currently forced to live."

Source

at 6:41 PM

The below article is so horrendous I just can't even find the right words for it, because there are NONE.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian schoolgirls with axes

Monday November 26, 2007 22:37 by Saed Bannoura -

In the West Bank city of Hebron Monday morning, Israeli settlers armed with axes came after the students of the Qurtuba School for girls. The settlers broke water pipes, menaced children, blocked the path to the school, and tried to set the school on fire.

Israeli settlers on Hebron street

The school's principal, Reem Ash-Shareef, reported that this is not the first time Israeli settlers have attacked the school. She stated that attacks are frequent, and students on their way to school are menaced by Israeli settlers on a daily basis. International human rights workers have had to accompany the schoolgirls, but they, too, have been attacked with regular frequency by Israeli settlers.

The settlers in the Hebron area, which number several thousand, are reputed to be the most violent and extreme of Israeli settlers. They colonized an area right in the middle of a Palestinian population center of 200,000 with several dozen settlers thirty years ago. Since that time, 5,000 Israeli soldiers have been stationed around them to ‘protect’ the settlers from the Palestinians whose land they occupy.

Despite the constant provocation of the settlers, very few incidents of Palestinians attacking the settlers have been documented. But Hebron is the site of one of the bloodiest massacres of Palestinians by Israeli settlers – the 1994 massacre of 27 Palestinians praying in a mosque by Baruch Goldstein. That massacre prompted the first Palestinian suicide bombing, and resulted in the punishment of the Palestinian people of Hebron by Israeli authorities, who succumbed to the demand of Goldstein and split the Ibrahimi Mosque in half, building a Jewish synagogue to replace half of the Mosque where the massacre took place.

As for the Qurtuba School for Girls in Hebron, it is located on a site that the settlers are hoping to seize. So the girls face daily attacks and harassment by settlers hoping to force them to abandon their school. The principal points out that she has issued multiple complaints to the Israeli occupying authorities about the ongoing attacks, but nothing has been done to stop the settlers from attacking the children. (IMEMC)
__________________________________________________________________

This is by far not the first time this school or the children have been attacked. Read the following from this August:

Hebron: Settlers Suspected as Qurdoba School is Set Ablaze

August 6th, 2007 | Posted in Reports, Hebron Region

August 6, 2007 12:20pm

At 12:20pm international human right workers received a call from a local Palestinian coordinator that a section of Quartaba Girls School had been set on fire by Israeli settlers. Quartaba girls school is located directly across from Beit Hadassah settlement.

When internationals arrived Palestinian residents were present as well as an Israeli policeman. They found that the back screen door, which is a metal frame, had been peeled up. This was how the Israeli settlers managed to enter the school without being seen.

The settlers had placed the metal frame of a bed on top of a table and set fire to it, along with pictures of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The burning effigy was placed directly in front of a metal door that the children and teachers use to enter the school.

The fire had been burning for about 10 minutes before nearby Palestinian residents came with buckets of water and managed to put the fire out and keep it from spreading.

The internationals documented the scene and were told by the Palestinians that an electricity wire had been cut above the fire. It was apparent that this fire was started by adult settlers as the act was quite methodical and symbolic in the way it was laid out, with the pictures (of the Dome of the Rock), and the way they broke into the school. They also managed to commit the act undetected by Palestinians which no settler child could accomplish, and leads one to suspect that the act must have been planned and coordinated.

Israeli soldiers also later came to survey the scene, and at one point actually said that, for all they knew, it could have been Palestinians who had started the fire. They said that their was no solid evidence that it was Israeli settlers who had started the fire. This was obviously completely wrong, and offensive, since no Muslim would burn pictures of the Dome of the Rock or set fire to a Palestinian girls school. The only people who had motive to start the fire are Israeli settlers, who have in the past frequently attacked the schoolgirls and the school itself.

Cordoba School Fire 6th August 2007

After ten more minutes the door to the school was opened and the windows inside were opened in order to release the smoke trapped inside the school.

Except for smoke damage, which was quiet extensive, there appeared to be no more damage to the school except for the cut electricity cable which will have to be repaired.

_________________________________________________________________

Now tell me please, at Annapolis tomorrow are these settlements in Hebron going to be discussed? Is what is happening to these children there going to come up in conversation?

I would really like to know because MY country is hosting this conference at their own insistence

and my country also is the one who subsidizes Israel so that it can continue doing these things.

These children NEED to go to school and they NEED to be safe. Just what would happen to people who did this in America?

at 1:16 PM

Leaders Gather in Annapolis for U.S.-Sponsored Middle East Summit, Hamas Not Invited

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Delegates from over 40 countries, including Syria, are expected to gather in Annapolis, Maryland, Tuesday to participate in a US-sponsored Middle East summit. We speak with Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies. [includes rush transcript]

Leaders from across the world will gather in Annapolis, Maryland, Tuesday to participate in US-sponsored Middle East peace talks. President Bush called for the international meeting in July 2007 to advance stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Delegates from over 40 countries, including Syria, are expected to attend the one-day summit. Hamas was not invited.

A final agenda has not yet been drawn up, but a draft of a joint document was leaked to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. It makes no mention of the situation in Gaza, nor of core issues like settlements, borders, the separation wall, Palestinian refugees, and the status of Jerusalem. Israeli and Palestinian officials arrived in Washington, D.C. over the weekend and said Sunday that the meeting would be an important starting point in strengthening dialogue and isolating "extremists" like Hamas.

Saeb Erekat, the advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the summit could mark an important turning point in the region.

Saeb Erekat, advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the follow-up to the summit would be crucial.

Mark Regev, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman.

US officials also asserted that the meeting was a chance to launch dialogue and not a negotiating session on key issues. Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, where she focuses on US Middle East policy. Her most recent book is "Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer." She joins us from Washington, D.C.

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she focuses on US Middle East policy.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

AMY GOODMAN: Leaders from around the world will gather in Annapolis, Maryland, Tuesday to participate in US-sponsored Middle East peace talks. President Bush called for the international meeting in July of 2007 to advance stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Delegates from over forty countries, including Syria, are expected to attend the one-day summit. Hamas was not invited.

A final agenda has yet to been drawn up, but a draft of a joint document was leaked to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. It makes no mention of the situation in Gaza, nor of core issues like settlements, borders, the separation wall, Palestinian refugees, and the status of Jerusalem.

Israeli and Palestinian officials arrived in Washington, D.C. over the weekend and said Sunday that the meeting would be an important starting point in strengthening dialogue and isolating "extremists" like Hamas.

Saeb Erekat, the advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the summit could mark an important turning point in the region.

SAEB EREKAT: Today, it’s a critical juncture in the Middle East. Either we go the path of peace, stability, moderation, or we go on the path of extremism, deterioration, bloodshed, violence, and counter- violence. The key is in Annapolis.

AMY GOODMAN: Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the follow-up to the summit would be crucial.

MARK REGEV: I think the test of Annapolis is not only to have a good meeting, but it’s in what happens in the weeks and the months following Annapolis. And what we're hopeful for is coming out of this meeting with an energized dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians on the core issues.

AMY GOODMAN: US officials also asserted the meeting is a chance to launch dialogue and not a renegotiating session on key issues.

Phyllis Bennis is a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, where she focuses on US Middle East policy. Her most recent book is Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer. She joins us now from Washington, D.C.

Phyllis Bennis, what do you expect to happen at this summit?

PHYLLIS BENNIS: Very little, Amy. I think there has been a great successful effort at tamping down expectations. But what has not been clarified is that the real goal of these meetings also have very little to do with actually reaching a just and comprehensive and lasting peace, which of course requires ending Israeli occupation and ending Israel’s policies of apartheid and discrimination.

There are two real goals for this meeting; neither of them have really anything to do with Palestinian rights, a Palestinian state, Israeli security or anything else. They are, number one, to shore up Arab States’ support for the US crusades against Iran and Iraq in the region, and, two, to rebuild Condoleezza Rice's legacy, which right now is grounded in her being the person who stood before the world in the summer of 2006, as Israeli bombs were devastating Lebanon, and said, “We don’t need a ceasefire yet.” She wants to change that. That’s a huge part of why this meeting is going forward.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the countries who are coming and who are not coming? We surprised, for example, by Syria?

PHYLLIS BENNIS: Well, the question of whether Syria would participate has been an on-again/off-again question for some time, and it remains, frankly, uncertain what role they will actually play. Syria is not sending their foreign minister, as the other Arab regimes are. They're sending a deputy foreign minister, a deliberate statement that this is not quite full participation.

The Syrians had said that they would not participate unless the issue of Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967 at the same time that it occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; as long as that was on the agenda, they would agree to participate. They now say that is on the agenda. US officials don’t say that. US officials say that any country who comes is welcome to raise whatever they want and, quote, "We won’t turn off the microphone.” That’s very different than saying that it is on the agenda. So, we don’t actually know whether or not there is going to be any opportunity for discussion of the Golan Heights beyond whatever speech, whatever formal speech, the Syrian deputy foreign minister might give.

AMY GOODMAN: And what about the exclusion of Hamas?

PHYLLIS BENNIS: Well, this has been known from the very beginning. The basis of this conference is grounded in the division within the Palestinian polity, the divide between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank led by Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas-led government in Gaza.

The fiction that exists at this point is that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is not representing the Palestinian Authority, but rather representing the Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella organization, which does in fact represent all Palestinians. This is the same double role or double position that Mahmoud Abbas’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat, played. He was both the head of the PLO and the president of the Palestinian Authority. The difference, of course, is that Yasser Arafat, despite widespread dissatisfaction with many of his policies, was massively recognized as the representative, the legitimate symbol and political representative, of the entire Palestinian nation. That is not true of Mahmoud Abbas. There is enormous opposition to him. The PLO has not been functioning as an independent organization.

So, this sort of claim that Mahmoud Abbas is there not as the head of the PA, but rather as the head of the PLO, isn’t convincing Palestinians. And as a result, we see in the latest Palestinian poll concluded just yesterday 62% of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories expect failure from the talks in Annapolis. 47% believe that nothing will change as a result of these talks, despite the fact that 70% agree with holding peace talks. They just want peace talks that are really aimed at dealing with the serious core issues, not peace talks that are designed to be a photo op.

AMY GOODMAN: And how much territory does Mahmoud Abbas control?

PHYLLIS BENNIS: In fact, he doesn’t control any territory. He is the elected president in the West Bank, but the Israeli military is still very completely in control of that territory, as well as that of East Jerusalem and Gaza. So, in fact, he doesn’t control the territory at all. He is the Authority’s elected leader. But the Authority is governing crumbs, if you will, while the Israelis maintain control of the whole loaf.

The question that remains is how far is Mahmoud Abbas and his team prepared to go to make additional concessions in the name of the Palestinians, whether on issues of territory, particularly the question of settlements and most importantly, I think for many Palestinians, the question of the right of return. There have been claims from the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he would not negotiate with anyone, including Mahmoud Abbas, who did not agree as a precondition to accept, in Israel's words, "Israel's existence as a Jewish state and as a state of all the Jewish people," meaning, Amy, that Jews like you and I, who have no ties in Israel, would have more rights permanently as quasi-citizens of Israel than the Palestinians who were expelled from the territory that is now Israel back in 1947 and ’48, that there would be no right of return, except to a putative Palestinian state that might be assembled out of some disconnected Bantustans in parts of the West Bank. That’s the proposal of the Israelis.

The US has agreed to that territorial approach, that the right of return would not apply, that Palestinians would be allowed to return, quote, "only to the new Palestinian state,” even if that was not their former homeland. Whether Mahmoud Abbas will, in fact, say those words, endorse that position, remains uncertain. Most Palestinians have said, he could not do that and survive as a political leader. Saeb Erekat, who we just heard from a moment ago, has said that the Palestinians will not accept the Israeli definition of Israel as a Jewish state and the state of the entire Jewish people, as opposed to being the state of all its citizens, including of course the 20% of Israeli citizens who are Palestinian. Whether that will, in fact, prevail as the official Palestinian position, we simply don’t know yet.

AMY GOODMAN: And two other questions about Lebanon and Iran. Lebanon, the fact that it doesn’t have a president right now, how will this play? And, of course, Iran -- here you have this gathering, mainly of Middle East leaders; what is the US pushing around Iran?

PHYLLIS BENNIS: Well, on the question of Lebanon, the political crisis is very strong. There is no agreement yet on -- between the two almost-equal factions in the government about how to choose the successor to President Lahoud, who just resigned at the end of his term. There are new negotiations scheduled for this coming weekend. But it does mean that Lebanon, even if other parties are discussing it -- for example, the Syrians or the Israelis -- the Lebanese are not in a position to play much of a role at this conference. I assume they will send an official delegation, but it will be understood that it will not be a delegation that is authorized to speak in any definitive way.

The question of Iran, of course, is very central. Even European diplomats, even the Israeli Meretz Party and many others around the world, are acknowledging that this summit has more to do with Iran than it does with the Palestinians. This is a summit designed to shore up Arab States’ support for the US escalations against Iran. This is a situation in which most Arab regimes would be only too happy to jump into the US -- to jump into bed with the US in attacking Iran. The problem is that the Arab people in all those Arab countries are not so keen on that, do not see Iran as a major enemy. So, in order to gain political credibility at home and avoid being overthrown, in some cases, those governments need to be able to give their people something. The US is essentially throwing them a bone, saying, “Here, give your people this, so that you can come onboard our anti-Iran crusade and stay onboard our war in Iraq.” The bone they are throwing to the Arab regimes is this photo op in Annapolis.

AMY GOODMAN: Phyllis Bennis, I want to thank you for being with us, fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies. Her latest book is called Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. We will certainly follow what takes place tomorrow in Annapolis.

Listen Now add to playlist

Read: Francis Boyle's letter concerning Mahmoud Abbas's authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people.

at 12:59 PM

By E&P Staff Published:
November 25, 2007 12:15 AM ET

NEW YORK Accompanying a Washington Post report in print on Sunday, the newspaper at its Web site launched a multimedia offering on the deadly legacy of cluster bombs used by Israel in its bombing of Lebanon last year.

The site offers audio reports, graphics, a slide show and test.

Here is part of the text. The rest is at www.washingtonpost.com.

* Rasha Zayoun grimaced as she lifted herself onto her one leg and spun from her bed into a wheelchair. Her torment wasn'tfrom her amputated left foot, mangled beyond repair when an Israeli cluster bomblet exploded in her home in southern Lebanon in January; it was from her remaining foot, speckled with shrapnel and so stiff from lack of use that putting her weight on it shot jolts of pain all the way to her face. She was 17 when she found the explosive in a bag of wild thyme that her father had brought home. "I thought it was a toy," she said.

At least 60 countries have cluster bombs, according to Human Rights Watch. Defense ministries, including the Pentagon, say the bombs work well against enemy troop formations and armored vehicles, but the civilian toll can be dire. Once dropped, the munitions scatter hundreds of bomblets randomly over a wide area, many of which fail to explode and linger on as de facto landmines. "Dozens of people still die or lose limbs in Southeast Asia each year from the millions of cluster bombs that America fired back in the 1960s and '70s," said Marc Garlasco, Human Rights Watch's senior military analyst. The group estimates that tens of thousands of civilians have been hurt or killed by such munitions in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Chechnya and some 20 other countries.

Rasha lost her foot after the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the radical Shiite militia. U.N. officials estimate that the Israeli military dropped between 1.2 and 4 million cluster bomblets on southern Lebanon -- 90 percent of them during the last 72 hours of the 33-day conflict, which began after Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers in a July cross-border raid and ended with a cease-fire in August. The munitions have killed or injured some 255 people since then, according to Human Rights Watch. "The vast majority of the cluster bombs Israel used in Lebanon were U.S.-manufactured, including many clunkers from the Vietnam War," Garlasco said. The Israeli military says it aimed only at military targets. (source)

Link HERE to view the multimedia report with slide shows and audio at the Washington Post.

at 3:55 PM

It matters little what they are called – whether walls, barriers or fences - the intention is the same: to redefine human relations into 'us' and 'them'. This series is about division, and about the barriers that men erect, in calculation or desperation, to separate themselves from others, or others from them. When diplomacy and conciliation fail, this is the alternative, and not since medieval times have walls been so in demand around the world. Tens of new walls, barriers and fences are currently being built, while old ones are being renovated. And there are many types: barriers between countries, walls around cities and fences that zig-zag through neighbourhoods.

This series will look at four examples of new and extended walls around the world. It will examine the lives of those who are living next to them and how their lives are impacted. It will also reveal the intention of the walls' designers and builders, and explore the novel and artistic ways walls are used to chronicle the past and imagine the future.

The Walls of Shame series takes its name from John F. Kennedy's reference to the Berlin Wall in his state of the union address in 1963. It will examine four new walls: The one on the American-Mexican border, the West Bank wall, the Spanish fence around Ceuta, and the walls inside the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland.

__________________________________________________________________

Episode 1: US/Mexico

A border of more than 3,000 kilometres separates the US from Mexico - but it is defined not only by physical barriers made of concrete and steel but by an immigration policy which is failing to address the issues behind illegal migration.

Despite the US spending billions of dollars on border enforcement, the lure of work sees illegal migrants enter the country at a rate of 850,000 a year.

A series of walls along the Mexican border were designed to stem this flow but based on current estimates it has failed.

Instead, the walls have re-routed human traffic into remote desert areas where people risk their lives in deadly conditions attempting to enter the US.

Episode 2: Morroco/Spain

The city of Ceuta is the southernmost outpost of fortress Europe. Yet it is on mainland Africa – opposite the Straights of Gibraltar. It is one of the last vestiges of Spanish rule in northern Morocco.

Madrid insists it will never relinquish control and has cordoned it off – prompting comparison with other walls of shame.

Now, though, there are growing demands for a more constructive approach to the problem of illegal immigration. One man has already started a grass-roots initiative that proved much more successful than walls and fences.

But within the town of Ceuta is another divide – a social division that is religious and economic - between the wealthy Christian Spaniards and their poorer Muslim compatriots of Moroccan descent.

Part 3: West Bank

The image “http://www.vtjp.org/images/qalandiawallcorner.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

A look at the most controversial wall in the world today. We look at the plight of Palestinian farmers whose land became inaccessible because of the wall, and the real intention of those who first drew its outlines

Part 4: Belfast

The modern history of Northern Ireland has been dominated by one thing, 'The Troubles' - a violent, bitter conflict, both political and religious, between those claiming to represent the predominantly Catholic nationalists and those claiming to represent the mainly Protestant unionists.

But what Northern Ireland has now is not so much 'peace' as 'an absence of conflict' after the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. Far from disappearing, the walls have grown. Instead of reconciliation, there is partition – an ill-tempered stalemate of separate identities and separated lives.

Broadly speaking, the nationalists – also called 'Republicans' - want Northern Ireland to be unified with the Republic of Ireland while the unionists want it to remain part of the United Kingdom, along with England, Wales and Scotland.

at 3:45 PM

READ HERE

November 22, 2007 ·

Olive Oil Season: A West Bank Kitchen Story

by Sandy Tolan

Umm Adnan Yasin holds a metal pan that she uses to separate leaves from olives.

Read recipes and stories about some of the traditional dishes enjoyed during the olive oil season.

Sandy Tolan for NPR

Umm Adnan Yasin holds a metal pan that she uses to separate the leaves from the olives, in the West Bank village of Bili'in.

Recipes of the Olive Harvest

Maqloobeh is shown here with an Arabic salad of finely diced tomatoes and diced green peppers, cucumber, olive oil, salt and lemon. Courtesy Ibtisam Barakat

Raslan Yasin harvests olives with his son.

Sandy Tolan for NPR

Raslan Yasin harvests olives with his son in a grove in the village of Bili'in, near the Israeli separation barrier. Like many Palestinian professionals, Yasin, a hydrologist by training, takes a break from his job every year to work the family harvest.

'My Hands': A Harvest Song

Listen: 'Ya Daeiti (My Hands)' - Performed for NPR by the group Houmayoune
add

Sandy Tolan for NPR

Sandy Tolan's report ends with a traditional Palestinian harvest song called "Ya Daeiti (My Hands)." He describes how this music came to us:

"On a late October evening, I was waiting for my taxi in the hotel restaurant in East Jerusalem. I was having tea and smoking a water pipe, with my friend, the artist Rana Bishara. Rana introduced me to a singer, Sanaa Moussa, who was sitting at a nearby table. I told Sana what I was doing, and we started talking about harvest songs. She asked if I had recorded any in the field. I said, well, really, only one — just a fragment.

"But she was eager to listen to it, and so I played it for her in the restaurant, she put on the headphones and scribbled down the words in Arabic, and said she would like to record it. It arrived just as we were putting the finishing touches on the story. Her voice can be heard at the very end of the piece. It's an adaptation of the harvest song. The words, roughly translated, are as follows:

Oh hands,
The season of hard work is upon us again
Help me make it through the day

O hands, skilled and just,
Carrying the rich bread and butter sandwiches, help me make it through the day.

Singer: Sanaa Moussa; Oud: Mohammad Moussa; Recording: Darwish; Arrangement: Nizar Rohana. Houmayoune Web site (French). Translation courtesy Lena Khalaf Tuffaha.

Nidal Rafa for NPR

Fareed Taamallah (back left, next to Sandy Tolan), his sister-in-law, Umm Imad (foreground, with baseball cap), family and friends, pausing for lunch under the olive trees in the West Bank village of Qira.

Sandy Tolan for NPR

Dr. Maen Odeh (left), agricultural scientist and native of the Palestinian village of Bidya with Musa Salameh, president of the village olive oil cooperative. They are standing at a separator at the olive press, which marks the final stage of extraction.

Early-season olive oil is squeezed from a press and bottled in a West Bank village.

Sandy Tolan for NPR

Early-season olive oil is squeezed from a press and bottled in a West Bank village.

Sandy Tolan for NPR

Olive trees are seen through barbed wire, part of the Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bili'in. Thousands of trees were uprooted for construction of the barrier, and many Palestinian farmers are now separated from their crops. Rabbis for Human Rights and other groups have also documented attacks on the harvest by Israeli settlers.

The hands of an Arab villager and an Israeli volunteer, in the West Bank olive harvest.

Sandy Tolan for NPR

The hands of an Arab villager and an Israeli volunteer, in the West Bank olive harvest.

Yousef Sharkawi stands near one of the oldest olive trees in the Mediterranean region.

Rana Bishara for NPR

Like many Palestinians, Yousef Sharkawi is an olive aficionado. The goldsmith stands near one of the oldest olive trees in the Mediterranean region, in Al Walaja village.

Coming Together over Olives and Food

The Olive Co-operative co-developed the program "Trees for Life: Planting Peace in Palestine." The program aims to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by Palestinians by offering the public the opportunity to sponsor the planting of olive trees. It helps connect Palestinian farmers and producers to the grass roots fair-trade movement in Europe and North America.

Peace Oil - A project started by two olive farmers, Dani Livney of Kibbutz Gezer and Mohammad Ata Daragh from a nearby West Bank village. The oil is made from Palestinian olives grown using natural methods of the region. Similarly, Olives of Peace makes olive oil produced from crops raised by Palestinian and Israeli growers.

The Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Started in 1992, by a small group of American Jews, Palestinians and others who met in a living room in San Mateo, Calif. The brainchild of Libby and Len Traubman, the idea was to build trust by overcoming stereotypes and assumptions, and sharing personal stories and experiences. "A natural avenue to do relationship-building has been to share food" at the gatherings, says Libby Traubman.

Morning Edition, November 22, 2007 · Sandy Tolan, award-winning journalist, producer and author of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, has been reporting from the region for years. For the Kitchen Sisters, Tolan reports on this hidden kitchen story — the olive harvest season.

I'd glanced at them through the rental car windshield hundreds of times before, while crisscrossing the West Bank on assignment. They were everywhere — along the ancient hillsides, from Nablus to Tulkarm, Ramallah to Jerusalem, Beit Jala to Bethlehem to Hebron: The ancient olive trees of Palestine.

I'd looked, but hadn't really seen, hadn't touched, hadn't even thought much about these gnarly creatures and their rootedness in the landscape. Hadn't considered what they say about the Palestinian culture and its hidden kitchen: the annual olive harvest.

"If anyone wants to get his son married, he says, 'Well, after the olive oil season,'" Dr. Osama Odeh, a PhD in electrochemistry and olive expert, told me one day as we toured his family-supported olive cooperative in his home village of Bidya. "If he wants to buy clothes for his kids he makes it after the olive oil season. If he wants to build an additional room on his house, he makes it after the season. It's a matter of life for them." And for Odeh himself.

When you think about it, it shouldn't be surprising that Odeh is an olive-obsessed man. In Arabic, the root word for his town means "the stone for crushing olives." At the town center stands an old press, with twin one-ton stones of granite that crush olives into oil. And Odeh is just one in an endless and ancient line of farmers — many of whom now have professional day jobs — whose life is transformed every fall, when ripe olives return to the trees.

'Like Jewels in the Mountains'

That's when Palestinians leave their school and work, drag their tarps and ladders, donkeys and pickup trucks to the groves and begin to pick.

"They are like jewels in the mountains," said the Palestinian artist Rana Bishara. "They glow in the landscape of Palestine," inviting villagers to renew the ritual.

"The life comes again!" shouted the young farmer, Abdul Razzak Abu Rahma, on the second day of the harvest at Bili'in. As if that weren't enough, he looked at me with a beatific smile and began gesturing with his hands.

"The life comes again for us!" he said. "You can't imagine this feeling! You can't have words for this feeling! We are going to harvest our olive trees!"

That same afternoon, a grove or two away, Raslan Yasin, a hydrologist most days, was on the upper rungs of a metal ladder, holding his toddler son with one arm as both of them reached into the branches with their hands. Some families prefer to use plastic combs; others beat the branches with sticks. (Others, certain this is bad for the tree and its output, don't approve: "Those people who use sticks should go to prison!" declared Hanna Elias, director of the film The Olive Harvest. He was joking. Barely. I think.)

As Yasin and his son pulled their hands down the branches, the olives fell in a soft rain to the canvas. This is a "low" year for the Palestinian harvest — the big seasons come every other year — but to me, it sure seemed like a lot of olives pattering onto the tarp.

There below, Yasin's mother, Umm Adnan, sat cross-legged in her traditional Palestinian dress, pulling the olives together in a pile and shaking them in a round metal pan to separate the fruit from the leaves. (Others prefer to blow on them or pick the leaves out by hand. Still others, I was told, use electric blowers, provoking more outrage at the assault on tradition.) Now and then Umm Adnan would stop so her grandson could sit on her lap and play with his toy motorcycle.

"People here record their history in relation to the olive trees," Yasin told me. "My mother is telling me that when my grandmother died, my father came to plant that tree" — Yasin then gestured toward it — "to be a mark for the day that his mother died. I feel that every tree has a memory for us. These are benchmarks for our stories."

Separating Farmers from Their Crops

This was one of those rare Middle East assignments fundamentally about connection, not conflict. But like almost any story in the West Bank, conflict lies just below the surface, or in the case of Bili'in, just at the edge of town. There, Israel's separation barrier slices through, cutting off villagers from many of their olive groves. The village has been the site of weekly protests.

The barrier — in some places, a 25-foot wall, and in others, like Bili'in, a series of electrified and barbed-wire fences with trenches — would be 480 miles long upon completion and is considered an essential security measure by Israel.

Opponents note that the barrier route does not follow the line between Israel and the West Bank, but rather cuts deep inside Palestinian territory, separating Palestinian farmers from their crops.

"Farming is a primary source of income in the Palestinian communities situated along the barrier's route, an area that constitutes one of the most fertile areas in the West Bank," declared a report from the respected Israeli human rights group, B'tselem. "The harm to the farming sector is liable to have drastic economic effects on the residents — whose economic situation is already very difficult — and drive many families into poverty."

In August, Israel's supreme court essentially agreed, at least in the case of Bili'in, ordering the government to reroute part of the separation barrier. But problems with the harvest remain, especially in the many places where Israeli settlements in the West Bank are expanded, virtually on top of ancient Palestinian villages.

"You can see where settlers planted on Palestinian lands," Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, told me as we hiked up a hill toward a harvest in the northern West Bank.

We stopped as he pointed to the countless olive trees blanketing the hillsides.

"In our Torah readings," Ascherman said, "we read of the story of Noah and the dove coming with the olive branch in its mouth, making the olive branch the symbol of peace. Yet unfortunately, in this region in recent history, the olive tree has been a symbol of strife. Because of its rootedness there've been efforts to uproot olive trees, by settlers, over a struggle over land."

Thousands of Palestinian olive trees have been uprooted in recent years, according to human rights groups.

A Shared Beauty

Up the hill, Arab and Jewish workers were working shoulder to shoulder, part of a larger group of thousands of volunteers who come from Israel, the United States and Europe to help with the harvest. A mixture of Arabic, Hebrew and broken English drifted through the air, mixing with the sounds of olives pouring into buckets, cell phones chirping and a yelping, outraged donkey tied to a tree.

"Do you have, in your village, olive tree?" asked a young Palestinian woman, Nama, to her fellow picker, a 16-year-old Israeli named Natenel.

"No," Natenel replied, softly and politely. "Not in my village."

"But, olive tree, very beautiful," said Nama, smiling beneath her baseball cap atop a white headscarf. "And the olive oil, very, very beautiful."

"It's good in the salad!" Natenel replied eagerly.

Pause for a Meal

Noontime on a warm, clear, dry West Bank day. A pause in the harvest. In the village of Qira — declared a "paradise" for olive oil growing by a French tasting jury — the Taamallah family has spread out its harvest kitchen on a blanket in the shade of an old olive tree.

Here's what will keep the pickers going into the afternoon: hummus, baba ganoush, cucumber salad, labneh (a delicious cross between yogurt and cheese), olives, and the Palestinian staple, zayt u za'tar — that is, olive oil and za'tar, a mixture of wild Palestinian thyme, sumac and sesame.

"The main thing now, I am hungry!" Fareed Taamallah said with a laugh, leaning forward to dip a piece of Arabic bread into the oil. "After that, I will be very lazy! And then we'll continue."

Soon the family's sacks of olives will be on their way to one of hundreds of West Bank presses, where people like Osama Odeh will be waiting to turn the fruit into oil.

"It's like a rush-hour downtown," Odeh told me. "You never stop working. Everybody is running, taking olives, filling the oil (containers). People come with the tractor, the donkey …. No one cares about sleeping."

And that is the secret of the Palestinian kitchen: No matter how far the kitchen from the landscape, olives are the constant.

"I've lived in the United States for 20 years," the writer Ibtisam Barakat told me. She now lives in Columbia, Mo. "I've gone home only twice, but I think of olives every day. Every year, I mark the olive harvest on my calendar. I eat olives and olive oil every day. The name of my cat is Zaytun, which means olives. I have an olive tree in my living room. In Missouri."

"Where I live," she said. "I want to have an olive tree living with me."

(Because of intense interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, NPR makes available free transcripts of its coverage. View the free transcript of this story.)

Source

at 9:41 AM

Demands of a Thief

By Gideon Levy

The public discourse in Israel has momentarily awoken from its slumber. "To give or not to give," that is the Shakespearean question - "to make concessions" or "not to make concessions." It is good that initial signs of life in the Israeli public have emerged. It was worth going to Annapolis if only for this reason - but this discourse is baseless and distorted. Israel is not being asked "to give" anything to the Palestinians; it is only being asked to return - to return their stolen land and restore their trampled self-respect, along with their fundamental human rights and humanity. This is the primary core issue, the only one worthy of the title, and no one talks about it anymore.

No one is talking about morality anymore. Justice is also an archaic concept, a taboo that has deliberately been erased from all negotiations. Two and a half million people - farmers, merchants, lawyers, drivers, daydreaming teenage girls, love-smitten men, old people, women, children and combatants using violent means for a just cause - have all been living under a brutal boot for 40 years. Meanwhile, in our cafes and living rooms the conversation is over giving or not giving.

Lawyers, philosophers, writers, lecturers, intellectuals and rabbis, who are looked upon for basic knowledge about moral precepts, participate in this distorted discourse. What will they tell their children - after the occupation finally becomes a nightmare of the past - about the period in which they wielded influence? What will they say about their role in this? Israeli students stand at checkpoints as part of their army reserve duty, brutally deciding the fate of people, and then some rush off to lectures on ethics at university, forgetting what they did the previous day and what is being done in their names every single day. Intellectuals publish petitions, "to make concessions" or "not to make concessions," diverting attention from the core issue. There are stormy debates about corruption - whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is corrupt and how the Supreme Court is being undermined. But there is no discussion of the ultimate question: Isn't the occupation the greatest and most terrible corruption to have taken root here, overshadowing everything else?

Security officials are terrified about what would happen if we removed a checkpoint or released prisoners, like the whites in South Africa who whipped up a frenzy of fear about the "great slaughter" that would ensue if blacks were granted their rights. But these are not legitimate questions: The incarceration must be ended and the myriad of political prisoners should be released unconditionally. Just as a thief cannot present demands - neither preconditions nor any other terms - to the owner of the property he has robbed, Israel cannot present demands to the other side as long as the situation remains as it is.

Security? We must defend ourselves by defensive means. Those who do not believe that the only security we will enjoy will come from ending the occupation and from peace can entrench themselves in the army, and behind walls and fences. But we have no right to do what we are doing: Just as no one would conceive of killing the residents of an entire neighborhood, to harass and incarcerate it because of a few criminals living there, there is no justification for abusing an entire people in the name of our security. The question of whether ending the occupation would threaten or strengthen Israel's security is irrelevant. There are not, and cannot be, any preconditions for restoring justice.

No one will discuss this at Annapolis. Even if the real core issues were raised, they would focus on secondary questions - borders, Jerusalem and even refugees. But that would be escaping the main issue. After 40 years, one might have expected that the real core issue would finally be raised for honest and bold discussion: Does Israel have the moral right to continue the occupation? The world should have asked this long ago. The Palestinians should have focused only on this. And above all, we, who bear the guilt, should have been terribly troubled by the answer to this question.

Source

Music for the subject

at 12:26 AM

"Well Well Well"
By Ben Harper

The man who stole the water will swim forevermore
But he'll never reach the land on that golden shore
That faint white light will haunt his heart
Till he's only a memory lost in the dark

Dig a hole in the ground straight down to hell
Till there ain't no more water in the well, well, well
When you're down on your knees with nothing left to sell
Try diggin a little deeper in the well, well, well
Well, well, well
Well, well, well

Take care of your body like you care for your soul
Don't you dig yourself into a hole
Until you've paid the price you can't know what it's worth
The air and water, the fire and earth

Dig a hole in the ground straight down to hell
Till there ain't no more water in the well, well, well
When you're down on your knees with nothing left to sell
Try diggin a little deeper in the well well well
Well, well, well
Well, well, well

at 11:44 PM

Robert Fisk: Darkness falls on the Middle East

In Beirut, people are moving out of their homes, just as they have in Baghdad

Published: 24 November 2007

So where do we go from here? I am talking into blackness because there is no electricity in Beirut. And everyone, of course, is frightened. A president was supposed to be elected today. He was not elected. The corniche outside my home is empty. No one wants to walk beside the sea.

When I went to get my usual breakfast cheese manouche there were no other guests in the café. We are all afraid. My driver, Abed, who has loyally travelled with me across all the war zones of Lebanon, is frightened to drive by night. I was supposed to go to Rome yesterday. I spared him the journey to the airport.

It's difficult to describe what it's like to be in a country that sits on plate glass. It is impossible to be certain if the glass will break. When a constitution breaks – as it is beginning to break in Lebanon – you never know when the glass will give way.

People are moving out of their homes, just as they have moved out of their homes in Baghdad. I may not be frightened, because I'm a foreigner. But the Lebanese are frightened. I was not in Lebanon in 1975 when the civil war began, but I was in Lebanon in 1976 when it was under way. I see many young Lebanese who want to invest their lives in this country, who are frightened, and they are right to frightened. What can we do?

Last week, I had lunch at Giovanni's, one of the best restaurants in Beirut, and took out as my companion Sherif Samaha, who is the owner of the Mayflower Hotel. Many of the guests I've had over the past 31 years I have sent to the Mayflower. But Sherif was worried because I suggested that his guests had included militia working for Saad Hariri, who is the son of the former prime minister, murdered – if you believe most Lebanese – by the Syrians on 14 February 2005.

Poor Sherif. He never had the militia men in his hotel. They were in a neighbouring building. But so Lebanese is Sherif that he even offered to pick me up in his car to have lunch. He is right to be worried.

A woman friend of mine, married to a doctor at the American University Hospital, called me two days before. "Robert, come and see the building they are making next to us," she said. And I took Abed and we went to see this awful building. It has almost no windows. All its installations are plumbing. It is virtually a militia prison. And I'm sure that's what it is meant to be. This evening I sit on my balcony, in a power cut, as I dictate this column. And there is no one in the street. Because they are all frightened.

So what can a Middle East correspondent write on a Saturday morning except that the world in the Middle East is growing darker and darker by the hour. Pakistan. Afghanistan. Iraq. "Palestine". Lebanon. From the borders of Hindu Kush to the Mediterranean, we – we Westerners that is – are creating (as I have said before) a hell disaster. Next week, we are supposed to believe in peace in Annapolis, between the colourless American apparatchik and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister who has no more interest in a Palestinian state than his predecessor Ariel Sharon.

And what hell disasters are we creating? Let me quote a letter from a reader in Bristol. She asks me to quote a professor at Baghdad University, a respected man in his community who tells a story of real hell; you should read it. Here are his own words:

"'A'adhamiya Knights' is a new force that has started its task with the Americans to lead them to al-Qa'ida and Tawheed and Jihad militants. This 300-fighter force started their raids very early at dawn wearing their black uniform and black masks to hide their faces. Their tours started three days ago, arresting about 150 citizens from A'adhamiya. The 'Knight' leads the Americans to a citizen who might be one of his colleagues who used to fight the Americans with him. These acts resulted in violent reactions of al-Qa'ida. Its militants and the militants of Tawheed and Jihad distributed banners on mosques' walls, especially on Imam Abu Hanifa mosque, threatening the Islamic Party, al-Ishreen revolution groups and Sunni endowment Diwan with death because these three groups took part in establishing 'A'adhamiya Knights'. Some crimes happened accordingly, targeting two from Sunni Diwan staff and one from the Islamic Party.

"Al-Qa'ida militants are distributed through the streets, stopping the people and asking about their IDs ... they carry lists of names. Anyone whose name is on these lists is kidnapped and taken to an unknown place. Eleven persons have been kidnapped up to now from Omar Bin Abdul Aziz Street."

The writer describes how her professor friend was kidnapped and taken to a prison. "They helped me sit on a chair (I was blindfolded) and someone came and held my hand saying, 'We are Muhajeen, we know you but we don't know where you are from.' They did not take my wallet nor did they search me. They only asked me if I have a gun. An hour or so later, one of them came and asked me to come with them. They drove me towards where my car was in the street and they said no more." So who are the A'adhamiya Knights? Who is paying them? What are we doing in the Middle East?

And how can we even conceive of a moral stand in the Middle East when we still we refuse to accept the fact – reiterated by Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, and all the details of US diplomats in the First World War – that the Armenian genocide occurred in 1915? Here is the official British government position on the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915. "Officially, the Government acknowledges the strength of feeling [note, reader, the 'strength of feeling'] about what it describes as a terrible episode of history and recognises the massacres of 1915-16 as a tragedy. However, neither the current Government nor previous British governments have judged that the evidence is sufficiently unequivocal to be persuaded that these events should be categorised as genocide as it is defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide." When we can't get the First World War right, how in God's name can we get World War III right?

Dear Mr. Fisk,
I was in Lebanon in 1975 when the civil war broke out there. I had arrived there only two weeks before that fateful day. The "Paris of the Middle East" is a city of beauty and complexity which at the age of only 20, I also learned was a city on plate glass. On that broken glass I too walked in fear.
It has still not recovered from the Israeli assault last summer and now once again is in tip-toeing in even greater anxiety.
May God keep you safe Mr. Fisk, and may God reach down to take Lebanon in his arms to keep her from bleeding again.

at 1:11 PM

Quite frankly, I couldn't care less what Hillary Clinton or any other US politician has to say about this. I want to know what SAUDIS are saying about this. All those EDUCATED abroad Saudis, those people who back THEN (when I was there, 1975-1980) said THEY would be the ones to bring women's rights in line with HUMANITY.

If you are not out in the streets PROTESTING over this, then I say HARAM to you, you so called "educated" people. Your constant lament is the usual, "it takes time". Well THIS woman is going to be lashed SOON and YOU need to be shouting to the rooftops that you will NOT allow this to happen in YOUR country.

Exclusive: Saudi Rape Victim Tells Her Story

Victim to Receive Whipping and Jail for Being in Nonrelative's Car When Attacked

Sentence of 200 lashes plus jail for victim of gang rape upheld.

By LARA SETRAKIAN
Nov. 21, 2007

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Justice is defending a sentence of 200 lashes for the victim of a gang rape, punished because she was in the car of a male who wasn't a relative when the two were attacked.

In exclusive testimony obtained by ABC News, the young woman told her story of what happened and how she was treated in the months that followed.

"Everyone looks at me as if I'm wrong. I couldn't even continue my studies. I wanted to die. I tried to commit suicide twice," she said of her experience just after the attack.

The woman, known anonymously in the Saudi press as "Qatif Girl" for the eastern province town where the crime took place, was originally sentenced to 90 lashes for being in a state of "khalwa" -- retreat with a male who's not a relative.

But the General Court of Qatif increased the punishment to 200 lashes and six months in jail after she took her case to the press. Authorities deemed it an "attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media," according to Saudi Arabia's English-language newspaper Arab News.

The seven attackers were convicted of rape with sentences that ranged from two to nine years in prison, according to Arab News.

In a December 2006 interview in Khobar, Saudi Arabia the woman gave a full account of her testimony to Human Rights Watch, describing the incident as she did before the court. She was meeting a male acquaintance, a former boyfriend, when the attack took place.

Ordeal Began With a Photo

"I [was] 19 years old. I had a relationship with someone on the phone. We were both 16. I had never seen him before. I just knew his voice. He started to threaten me, and I got afraid. He threatened to tell my family about the relationship. Because of the threats and fear, I agreed to give him a photo of myself," she recounted.

"A few months [later], I asked him for the photo back but he refused. I had gotten married to another man. He said, 'I'll give you the photo on the condition that you come out with me in my car.' I told him we could meet at a souk [market[ near my neighborhood city plaza in Qatif.

"He started to drive me home. …We were 15 minutes from my house. I told him that I was afraid and that he should speed up. We were about to turn the corner to my house when they [another car] stopped right in front of our car. Two people got out of their car and stood on either side of our car. They man on my side had a knife. They tried to open our door. I told the individual with me not to open the door, but he did. He let them come in. I screamed.

"One of the men brought a knife to my throat. They told me not to speak. They pushed us to the back of the car and started driving. We drove a lot, but I didn't see anything since my head was forced down."

"They took us to an area … with lots of palm trees. No one was there. If you kill someone there, no one would know about it. They took out the man with me, and I stayed in the car. I was so afraid. They forced me out of the car. They pushed me really hard ... took me to a dark place. Then two men came in. They said, 'What are you going to do? Take off your abaya.' They forced my clothes off. The first man with the knife raped me. I was destroyed. If I tried to escape, I don't even know where I would go. I tried to force them off but I couldn't. [Another] man … came in and did the same thing to me. I didn't even feel anything after that.

"I spent two hours begging them to take me home. I told them that it was late and that my family would be asking about me. Then I saw a third man come into the room. There was a lot of violence. After the third man came in, a fourth came. He slapped me and tried to choke me.

"The fifth and sixth ones were the most abusive. After the seventh one, I couldn't feel my body anymore. I didn't know what to do. Then a very fat man came on top of me and I could no longer breathe.

"Then all seven came back and raped me again. Then they took me home. … When I got out of the car, I couldn't even walk. I rang the doorbell and my mother opened the door. She said you look tired.' I didn't eat for one week after that, just water. I didn't tell anyone. I went to the hospital the next day.

"The criminals started talking about it [the rape] in my neighborhood. They thought my husband would divorce me. They wanted to ruin my reputation. Slowly my husband started to know what had happened. Four months later, we started a case. My family heard about the case. My brother hit me and tried to kill me."

Lawyer Punished Too

Along with the young woman's sentence, the General Court of Qatif confiscated the license of her attorney, Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, a lawyer known for taking on controversial cases that push back against Saudi Arabia's strictly interpreted system of sharia, or Islamic law.

"Asking me to appear in front of a disciplinary committee at the Ministry of Justice … is a punishment for taking human rights cases against some institutions," Al-Lahem told Arab News.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Justice said in this week's statement that Al-Lahem's "faulty behaviors … contradict the ethics of his profession and violate the provisions of practicing law and its executive code."

New York-based Human Rights Watch researcher Christoph Wilcke, who studies the Saudi legal system, said the woman would need a pardon from King Abdullah himself or from the provincial governor to be spared the lashings and jail time. The punishment will also be reviewed by the Supreme Judiciary Council, which will scrutinize the ruling, according to the Ministry of Justice.

"Palestinian Child's Bill of Rights"

at 9:55 PM

Francis Boyle has sent this letter out to Palestine.

My Dear Palestinian Friends:

As you can see from the US Government's list of Invitees to the Annapolis Conference, it has only invited the Palestinian Authority, not the PLO. But only the PLO has the authority under international law to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian People and the State of Palestine. That is why the Chairman of the PLO Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Agreement in the name of the PLO. The Palestinian Authority has no authorization under international law to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian People, let alone the State of Palestine, whose Provisional Government is the PLO Executive Committee. Indeed, an entire series of UN General Assembly Resolutions have made it clear that only the PLO is the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian People. Hence this delegation of the Palestinian Authority to the Annapolis Conference has no legal authority under international law to conclude anything on behalf of the Palestinian People, let alone the State of Palestine

I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to bring this matter to the attention of the Palestinian People around the world.

Thank you.

Francis A. Boyle

Professor of International Law

Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations

and His Excellency Dr. Haidar Abdul Shaffi (1991-1993)

Press Statement
Sean McCormack
Washington, DC
November 20, 2007

Announcement of Annapolis Conference

On November 27, the United States will host Israeli Prime Minister Olmert,
Palestinian Authority President Abbas, along with the Members of the Quartet,
the Members of the Arab League Follow-on Committee, the G-8, the permanent
members of the UN Security Council, and other key international actors for a
conference at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Secretary Rice
will host a dinner the preceding evening here in Washington, where President
Bush will deliver remarks. President Bush and the Israeli and Palestinian
leaders will deliver speeches to open the formal conference in Annapolis.

The Annapolis Conference will signal broad international support for the
Israeli and Palestinian leaders' courageous efforts, and will be a launching
point for negotiations leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state and
the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Those invited to attend the conference are:

United States
Israel
Palestinian Authority
Algeria
Arab League Secretary General
Bahrain
Brazil
Canada
China
Egypt
EU Commission
EU High Rep
EU Pres Portugal
France
Germany
Greece
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mauritania
Morocco
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Poland
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sudan
Sweden
Syria
Quartet Special Envoy Tony Blair
Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
UNSYG
Yemen

Observers:
IMF
World Bank

at 8:57 AM

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John F. Kennedy: May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963

"The men who make power make an indisputable contribution to the Nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power, or power uses us"

John F. Kennedy, Amherst College, October 26, 1963, less than one month before his assassination

"John F. Kennedy - My business was mankind"

at 1:33 PM

Let us begin reading here with thanksgiving for this dialog which is SO much needed in the world of strife.
I have absolute hope, that when misconceptions about Islam are cleared, there will be a
much greater chance for peace.

Blessings to all who are involved in this dialog, and blessings to all reading here, that
we all come to understand and respect one another.

Peace, Salam, Shalom...........

More Goodwill Between Muslims and Christians?

Contributed by Cary McMullen - Posted: November 21, 2007 1:37:29 PM

As I noted in a previous post ("Common Ground Between Islam and Christianity," Oct. 13), a host of Muslim scholars took a significant step in publicly reaching out to Christians by publishing a paper, "A Common Word Between Us and You." In it, they suggested that what Christianity, Judaism and Islam have in common is love of God and love of neighbor, and they invited responses from the world's Christian leaders.

The Vatican has been silent about the paper, but now some American Christian leaders have made a conciliatory gesture. According to Religion News Service, almost 300 Christians signed a document published in a full-page advertisement in The New York Times on Sunday. From the RNS report: "Given the deep fissures in the relations between Christians and Muslims today, the task before us is daunting. And the stakes are great," the statement reads. "The future of the world depends on our ability as Christians and Muslims to live together in peace."

Among the signatories: Rick Warren, author and pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.; William A. Graham, dean of Harvard Divinity School; Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary; Robert H. Schuller, founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.; Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals; David Neff, editor in chief of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today; and John M. Buchanan, editor of the mainline Protestant magazine The Christian Century. For the record, that includes several prominent evangelical leaders.

For good measure, the New York Times document also said Christians "have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbors" and asked for forgiveness.

You can be sure not all Christians will agree with this, but it's hard to see how anyone could object to the Muslim and Christian documents. To borrow a phrase, give peace a chance. (source)

PLEASE READ FIRST: "A Common Word Between Us and You" (Written by Muslims reaching out to Christians-a beautiful document-you can endorse the statement on the website also)

Here is the Christian response: (you can go to the link below and endorse the statement)

In the name of the Infinitely Good God
whom we should love with all our Being

Preamble
As members of the worldwide Christian community, we were deeply encouraged and challenged by the recent historic open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals from around the world. A Common Word Between Us and You identifies some core common ground between Christianity and Islam which lies at the heart of our respective faiths as well as at the heart of the most ancient Abrahamic faith, Judaism. Jesus Christ’s call to love God and neighbor was rooted in the divine revelation to the people of Israel embodied in the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). We receive the open letter as a Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperation extended to Christians world-wide. In this response we extend our own Christian hand in return, so that together with all other human beings we may live in peace and justice as we seek to love God and our neighbors.

Muslims and Christians have not always shaken hands in friendship; their relations have sometimes been tense, even characterized by outright hostility. Since Jesus Christ says, “First take the log out your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye” (Matthew 7:5), we want to begin by acknowledging that in the past (e.g. in the Crusades) and in the present (e.g. in excesses of the “war on terror”) many Christians have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbors. Before we “shake your hand” in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world.

Religious Peace—World Peace
“Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world.” We share the sentiment of the Muslim signatories expressed in these opening lines of their open letter. Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as one of the central challenges of this century, and perhaps of the whole present epoch. Though tensions, conflicts, and even wars in which Christians and Muslims stand against each other are not primarily religious in character, they possess an undeniable religious dimension. If we can achieve religious peace between these two religious communities, peace in the world will clearly be easier to attain. It is therefore no exaggeration to say, as you have in A Common Word Between Us and You, that “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.”

Common Ground
What is so extraordinary about A Common Word Between Us and You is not that its signatories recognize the critical character of the present moment in relations between Muslims and Christians. It is rather a deep insight and courage with which they have identified the common ground between the Muslim and Christian religious communities. What is common between us lies not in something marginal nor in something merely important to each. It lies, rather, in something absolutely central to both: love of God and loveof neighbor. Surprisingly for many Christians, your letter considers the dual command of love to be the foundational principle not just of the Christian faith, but of Islam as well. That so much common ground exists – common ground in some of the fundamentals of faith – gives hope that undeniable differences and even the very real external pressures that bear down upon us can not overshadow the common ground upon which we stand together. That this common ground consists in love of God and ofneighbor gives hope that deep cooperation between us can be a hallmark of the relations between our two communities.

Love of God
We applaud that A Common Word Between Us and You stresses so insistently the unique devotion to one God, indeed the love of God, as the primary duty of every believer. God alone rightly commands our ultimate allegiance. When anyone or anything besides God commands our ultimate allegiance – a ruler, a nation, economic progress, or anything else – we end up serving idols and inevitably get mired in deep and deadly conflicts.

We find it equally heartening that the God whom we should love above all things is described as being Love. In the Muslim tradition, God, “the Lord of the worlds,” is “The Infinitely Good and All-Merciful.” And the New Testament states clearly that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Since God’s goodness is infinite and not bound by anything, God “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” according to the words of Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel (Matthew 5:45).

For Christians, humanity’s love of God and God’s love of humanity are intimately linked. As we read in the New Testament: “We love because he [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Our love of God springs from and is nourished by God’s love for us. It cannot be otherwise, since the Creator who has power over all things is infinitely good.

Love of Neighbor
We find deep affinities with our own Christian faith when A Common Word Between Us and You insists that love is the pinnacle of our duties toward our neighbors. “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbor what you love for yourself,” the Prophet Muhammad said. In the New Testament we similarly read, “whoever does not love [the neighbor] does not know God” (1 John 4:8) and “whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). God is love, and our highest calling as human beings is to imitate the One whom we worship.

We applaud when you state that “justice and freedom of religion are a crucial part” of the love of neighbor. When justice is lacking, neither love of God nor love of the neighbor can be present. When freedom to worship God according to one’s conscience is curtailed, God is dishonored, the neighbor oppressed, and neither God nor neighbor is loved.

Since Muslims seek to love their Christian neighbors, they are not against them, the document encouragingly states. Instead, Muslims are with them. As Christians we resonate deeply with this sentiment. Our faith teaches that we must be with our neighbors – indeed, that we must act in their favor – even when our neighbors turn out to be our enemies. “But I say unto you,” says Jesus Christ, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Matthew 5:44-45). Our love, Jesus Christ says, must imitate the love of the infinitely good Creator; our love must be as unconditional as is God’s—extending to brothers, sisters, neighbors, and even enemies. At the end of his life, Jesus Christ himself prayed for his enemies: “Forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

The Prophet Muhammad did similarly when he was violently rejected and stoned by the people of Ta’if. He is known to have said, “The most virtuous behavior is to engage those who sever relations, to give to those who withhold from you, and to forgive those who wrong you.” (It is perhaps significant that after the Prophet Muhammad was driven out of Ta’if, it was the Christian slave ‘Addas who went out to Muhammad, brought him food, kissed him, and embraced him.)

The Task Before Us
“Let this common ground” – the dual common ground of love of God and of neighbor – “be the basis of all future interfaith dialogue between us,” your courageous letter urges. Indeed, in the generosity with which the letter is written you embody what you call for. We most heartily agree. Abandoning all “hatred and strife,” we must engage in interfaith dialogue as those who seek each other’s good, for the one God unceasingly seeks our good. Indeed, together with you we believe that we need to move beyond “a polite ecumenical dialogue between selected religious leaders” and work diligently together to reshape relations between our communities and our nations so that they genuinely reflect our common love for God and for one another.

Given the deep fissures in the relations between Christians and Muslims today, the task before us is daunting. And the stakes are great. The future of the world depends on our ability as Christians and Muslims to live together in peace. If we fail to make every effort to make peace and come together in harmony you correctly remind us that “our eternal souls” are at stake as well.

We are persuaded that our next step should be for our leaders at every level to meet together and begin the earnest work of determining how God would have us fulfill the requirement that we love God and one another. It is with humility and hope that we receive your generous letter, and we commit ourselves to labor together in heart, soul, mind and strength for the objectives you so appropriately propose.

READ further to see the Christian signatories>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

at 9:51 AM

at 6:18 AM

Palestinian children protest against Israeli influence in the Gaza Strip in Gaza City

Palestinian children protest against Israeli influence in the Gaza Strip, carrying placards demanding the right "to play and learn like other children". (source)

From the Di

at 12:26 PM

EEEEEEEEEEEEK!

Stowaway Mouse Costs Saudi Airlines $500,000

A mouse spread panic among passengers on a Saudi Airlines flight from Cairo to Jeddah, costing the company some $500,000, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported on Friday.

The Boeing 747 was already on the runway preparing for takeoff when passengers noticed the furry stowaway. The resulting panic led to the plane being recalled and all 368 passengers evacuated.

The plane, which had been due to make a total of three flights that day, was then stuck in Cairo for 24 hours as a result of the rodent's appearance.

A replacement plane was flown in from Saudi Arabia, and the passengers finally arrived in Jeddah some eight hours late. 28 passengers refused to fly at all after the discovery of the mouse.

The mouse was eventually captured by workers from Egyptian Airlines.

This is not the first incident involving mice and Saudi Airlines - last year around 80 mice escaped from a passenger's bag during one of the company's internal flights. The plane was at 8,500 meters (28,000 feet), when the mice began running around the cabin, some of them falling on passengers' heads. The plane subsequently landed safely. - RIA Novosti

Click here to see photos.

at 10:49 AM

I must say, when I read about the situation below, it astounded me. Perhaps it should not.

As the United States bickers over driver's licenses for ILLEGAL immigrants, Israel denies driver's licenses for LEGAL Palestinian residents married to Israeli Palestinians (who make up 20% of Israel's population)

Let them drive

Why can’t Palestinian residents of Israel drive despite strict security checks?

Tali Nir

Published:

11.19.07, 00:04 / Israel Opinion

Imagine a father, and imagine a physically disabled son. Imagine the need for physiotherapy, hospitalization, and even just going to the local shopping mall. Imagine that you have to do all that without a driver’s license. This isn’t the case because the father doesn’t know how to drive, or because he is suffering from some kind of disability. It’s not even because his license expired, but rather, it’s because he’s a Palestinian Arab.

In Israel, where any tourist can get a driver’s license, Palestinians are not allowed to drive. This ban is relevant to thousands of Palestinians who are allowed to live in Israel because they are married of Israeli citizens. The reason for this ban is, as usual, security considerations.

Even if we’re able to barely understand the link between driving and security, as well as the more meaningful question of why being Palestinian is enough to designate one as a security threat, we must recall that a comprehensive solution to the security threat is already in place, even without revoking one’s license: All Palestinians married to Israelis undergo comprehensive security checks every six months as a condition for extending their resident permits. If intelligence information points to suspicions of a security threat by any of them (or their extended family,) the partner is removed from his or her family immediately and sent back to the territories. The security apparatus works all the time.

However, the security establishment is not satisfied with that. It views every driving Palestinian as dangerous. Nationality is the only criteria. The thorough security screening of those who were allowed to live here is insufficient. It appears they forget we’re dealing with people who must live, raise children, and who ultimately have plenty to lose even if they as much as think about making trouble.

Waiting for an ambulance

For example, take the Abu Kaled family from the town of Lod. The father, Nahil, who originated from the West Bank, has been married for 10 years now to Najia, an Israeli citizen. Ever since they got married they live in Lod, where they raise four children. The eldest, who is nine-years-old, suffers from a severe disability and is mentally handicapped. On occasion he needs urgent medical attention.

This is the case, for example, when he suffers an epileptic seizure in the middle of the night. But Nahil is not allowed to drive. This means waiting for an ambulance and paying for it every time his kid has an attack.

Najia talks about the terrible fear and sense of helplessness when her son suffers a seizure, the ambulance fails to show up, and there’s nothing they can do. Besides that, she and her children are deprived from having a normal life. As he’s unable to drive, Nahil cannot find a job. Without the ability to drive, he cannot take the kids anywhere, even though they really want to go on trips or to the swimming pool.

“Children are important for the State of Israel, isn’t it so?” she asks. “So why don’t they take care of my kids too?”

And this is indeed the question. Why? After all, as noted, Nahil undergoes a security check every six months. Besides that, the Licensing Authority can grant Palestinians driving permits on “special grounds.” One would think that this possibility would be utilized in humanitarian cases. However, in this story is doesn’t work like that.

In a hearing last week before the High Court of Justice it turned out that to this day, not even one special permit has been granted. Criteria for special grounds have never been defined.

Tali Nir is an attorney in the Association for Civil Rights in Israel

at 9:44 AM

My conscience simply tells me this is wrong. Denying necessary health care is wrong. One must remember also, that even if these patients had been allowed access to Israeli hospitals, their families would not have been allowed to visit them. If they had died in Israel, they would have died alone. This is a catch 22 situation which is simply beyond words horrendous. If Israel has ANY hope of redemption in the eyes of humanity in this case, then this policy MUST be changed. Nothing more needs be said.

Woman Dies as Denied Access into Israel for Medical Treatment
GAZA, November 20, 2007 (WAFA) – A Palestinian woman died on Tuesday morning in Gaza while awaiting approval to enter Israel for medical treatment.

Yousra al-Ammarin 53, who suffered chronic disease died today in Gaza as she was prevented leaving Gaza Strip for treatment.

Fifteen citizens died in Gaza while waiting for permission to enter into Israel or traveling abroad for medical treatment only in one month.

Source

Dying of occupation - a case of cancer and the Israeli right

By Bradley Burston: Haartz correspondent

Opinion polls consistently demonstrate that most Israelis would like the occupation to end. These words are directed to the substantial minority which disagrees.

This past weekend, a Gaza cancer patient named Nail al-Kurdi, 20, waiting since July for permission to cross into Israel for treatment, died of his illness. For five months, officials of the Shin Bet security service received request after request from Physicians for Human Rights, asking that they grant al-Kurdi a permit to be treated in Israel.

Request after request was denied. The stated reason? Security. In July, he was referred to Ichilov hospital for urgent diagnostic procedures. As the refusals mounted, his cancer spread. In a case involving al-Kurdi and a number of other seriously ailing Palestinians denied travel requests for treatment, the physicians group appealed the Shin Bet refusals to the High Court. The court allowed prosecutors an extension in the case to allow them to study it further. Al-Kurdi did not survive the extension.

The case bears special significance for Israelis who want the occupation to continue. Right-wing Israelis should be spearheading the fight for the rights of people like Nail al-Kurdi There is no evil quite like the evil of denying crucial medical treatment. Except one, perhaps.

Consider the case of Y.H., a 37-year-old Gazan in need of open-heart surgery. By contrast to al-Kurdi, the Shin Bet granted Y.H. an exit permit, so that he could travel to the West Bank city of Nablus for the operation. According to the physicians group, when he came to Erez Crossing to leave Gaza, Shin Bet agents called him aside for interrogation.

"If you help us we will help you," Y.H. quoted the agent as telling him, adding that the Shin Bet man asked him to provide information about his acquaintances.

The physicians group said that when Y.H. replied that he had no such information, "the interrogator said 'If you don't help up we won't help you. Go and die in Gaza.' He sent him back home, promising that he would never leave Gaza."

You may be among those who want to see the occupation continue because they believe that Arabs, and the greater Muslim world, will never truly abide the existence of a Jewish state, and that Palestinian independence in the West Bank and Gaza will serve as a base for unending attacks against Israel.

You need to fight for the humanitarian rights of Palestinians.

You may believe, with the Bible and/or Revisionist Zionism as your guide, that the borders of Israel should encompass all of the Holy Land from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan.

You, of all people, should work to see that Palestinians in need receive the aid they require.

You may ardently, wholeheartedly, unabashedly side with the settlers, and want to see their enterprise grow, prosper, and become permanent. You may be among those who dismiss entirely the rights of the Palestinians to a homeland and even to peoplehood.

You, more than anyone, should be zealous in seeing that the Palestinians in your midst are treated with the respect and concern that you accord any fellow human being. The same respect you would accord a fellow Jew.

For the rest of us in Israel, the struggle to support the rights of needy Palestinians encompasses all of this, plus the broader effort to undo and dismantle the occupation, before it undoes and dismantles the state of Israel.

Many on the right have suggested that it is now too late by far to end the occupation. Many on the left have become fearful that they are right.

In the meanwhile, however, the occupation continues to kill innocent people, and not only because they were unlucky enough to be in harm's way, caught in a crossfire. All too often, the occupation kills because we - right and left both - do much too little to keep it from killing. We have become too used to allowing cancer to go untreated, especially when it is eating away at our own conscience.

Source

Monday, November 19, 2007

This is just so disturbing, INTERFAITH means just that, BETWEEN the faiths-finding common ground to come together. This Baptist "church" really needs to learn some hospitality and take a vocabulary course.

I wonder how many of these "Christians" run around with bracelets or bumper stickers which read "What would Jesus do?

By the way, what WOULD Jesus do in this situation?

Interfaith Group Moves Thanksgiving Service After Church Forbids Non-Christian Prayer on Property

Monday, November 19, 2007

By Catherine Donaldson-Evans

Bill Whitehurst

Participants in an interreligious Thanksgiving service held over the weekend in Austin

A Muslim-led interfaith Thanksgiving service in Austin, Texas, was forced to move to another location at the last minute after a Baptist church objected to non-Christians worshipping on its property.

The Austin Area Interreligious Ministries, the largest interfaith organization in the city, was told last Wednesday that it wouldn't be allowed to hold Sunday's annual Thanksgiving celebration at a recreation center belonging to the Hyde Park Baptist Church because the parish has a policy of prohibiting non-Christians from praying on its grounds.

For 23 years, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Baha'is and others have been invited to worship together at the Thanksgiving service.

Sunday's event was the first to be co-hosted by members of the local Muslim community, though they have participated in the service for several years, according to Adeela Gill, president of the Central Texas Muslimaat, a Muslim women's organization that takes part in the celebration.

Gill said she didn't know whether the Baptist church's abrupt about-face was because of the prominent Muslim presence this year.

"I hope that they would have made the same decision for any other organization that is different in belief, but I don’t know," she said. "I’m hoping that this decision does not have to do with the fact that it was Muslims."

Planning had been in the works since July, according to AAIM Interim Executive Director Simone Talma Flowers, but it crumbled in the 11th hour when the Baptist church told the group to find another venue.

"They notified us four days before to say that we could not have the Thanksgiving service on their property," said Flowers. "They said they did not realize that we'd have non-Christians at the service." Church officials told her they thought "interfaith" meant different sects of Christianity.

Hyde Park Baptist Church defended its decision and asked for understanding in a statement it released about the dispute.

"The event was cancelled when Hyde Park Baptist Church became aware via a postcard on Monday afternoon, November 12th, that the event was not a Christian oriented event," the statement said. "The postcard promised space for Muslim Maghrib prayer and revealed that the event was co-hosted by the Central Texas Muslimaat, the Forum of Muslims for Unity, and the Institute of Interfaith Dialog ... The church cannot provide space for the practice of these non-Christian religions on church property."

Associate Pastor of Administration R. Kent Jennings declined to elaborate further on the matter when reached by telephone.

Gill said she found the church's statement "shocking" and "blatant" in its repeated references to the Muslim groups in attendance, and believes the explanation implied that Hyde Park's sudden cancellation was linked to the Muslim community's involvement.

Hyde Park Baptist Church is not a member of AAIM and has never sent an official church representative to the annual Thanksgiving service in the past, according to Gill.

It was unclear why the church didn't realize that it would be an interfaith event before last week, or whether its decision was, in fact, related specifically to the Muslim community's leading role in the service.

Gill said much of Hyde Park's concern was over some of the actual prayers that would take place on the premises.

"The fact that there was going to be a prayer service caused them concern," she said. "The space for our prayer afterward, that's what caused the most amount of alarm. That was influential in making their decision."

Flowers also couldn't say whether the church canceled the event on its property because of the prominent Muslim presence.

"It might have just been a really honest error — they just didn't realize it was non-Christians also," she said. "I believe that. We respect their decision. If we had known that, we would not have rented the facility."

Flowers, who is Christian, said she originally tried to convince the church to let the celebration go on as scheduled, since there was little time to find an alternate venue.

But Hyde Park didn't budge, so the AAIM instead found a Jewish synagogue willing to open its doors for the event, which drew between 1,000 and 1,200 participants.

"I was a little disheartened," Flowers said. "But the synagogue was very gracious. They accommodated us on every level. This has been a blessing in disguise."

Members of Hyde Park were invited to the Sunday service at Congregation Beth Israel, she added, but no official representatives attended. Gill said there has been talk that some Hyde Park congregants were disappointed that their church decided not to provide its facilities for the event.

"What I’ve heard is that the congregation was disappointed, especially because many of them do not feel this way," she said. "There’s a whole community that goes to this church — it’s not their fault."

The Interreligious Ministries service blended traditions from the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Baha'i, Sikh and Buddhist faiths, among others. It began with a procession of leaders of a variety of religions, followed by customary Muslim and Jewish calls to prayer, and a Christian bell choir signaling the start of worship. There were offers of gratitude to God in the Christian, Muslim and Hindu traditions. A Buddhist ritual closed the hour-and-15-minute celebration.

"It was filled with love, it was filled with gratitude and it was filled with hope — hope that we can live and work together," said Flowers. "It was just beautiful."

Though the group has had some complaints about its mixing of religious traditions in the past, this year's last-minute location shuffle was unprecedented.

"I don't think we've ever had a situation where the service has been canceled," Flowers said. "We are all about bringing people together to have dialogue."

That dialogue is far from over, as the fallout from the flap continues.

Letters to the church have already been drafted by people who want to express their concerns and opinions, Gill said. Central Texas Muslimaat plans to invite Hyde Park leaders to its center in the hopes of sharing ideas.

"Hopefully they’ll come, learn," she said. "We're not trying to change their minds. We're trying to create understanding."

This article "Giving thanks: Many faiths do this every year in many different ways" is a good one to read.

Go to Austin Area Intereligious Ministries where you can view THIS video or THIS one.

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The meaning of Manzanar

Contemplating the evil that governments can do when a compliant populace is fearful

STEVEN GREENHUT

Sr. editorial writer and columnist
The Orange County Register

One of the most disturbing lessons I've learned following the 9/11 attacks is that many people will go along with just about any government-imposed outrage if it's couched in the right terms and plays on their fears.

In the past few years, we've seen the federal government become increasingly aggressive in its efforts to spy on, detain, wiretap, monitor, imprison, search and harass not only suspected "enemy combatants" but pretty much anyone, at its discretion.

I never thought I'd see civil liberties treated so shabbily or witness so many Americans who so willingly submit to the authorities, but odd circumstances lead to troubling results.

It's too difficult to draw broad lessons from contemporary, ongoing political disputes. So this week I zero in on events from 1942, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which called for the creation of military areas "from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion."

Then Gen. John DeWitt – the Western Defense commander, who referred to Japanese as members of an "enemy race" – ordered the removal of 120,000 ethnic Japanese from their homes along the West Coast and their placement in internment camps in the desert.

The justification was to protect against espionage and sabotage, although there was scant evidence that Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals living on the West Coast had engaged in any such activities. An official propaganda video of the time declared that the immediate internment – Japanese-Americans had only days to sell their possessions and board buses bound for the camps – was actually for their own good, to protect them from anti-Japanese sentiment. Such are the excuses that governments make.

It's disturbing that more Americans did not defend the Japanese and the Constitution at the time, even though it's not hard to understand the conditions that allowed for such massive obliteration of civil liberties. World war was raging. Only 14 months earlier, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. The media were pounding the war drums. One columnist, quoted in the book, "Reflections," about the Manzanar relocation center in California, made this argument: "I'm for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior … let 'em be pinched, hurt, hungry … let us have no patience with the enemy or with anyone who carry his blood. Personally, I hate the Japanese."

Last year when I first researched this topic, I found such bile to be common in newspapers. At the time, The Orange County Register's longtime co-publisher R.C. Hoiles was one of the only West Coast newspaper publishers to come out against the internment.

Recently, I drove to Manzanar, a National Park Service site just off U.S. Highway 395, east of the Sierras near Lone Pine. I walked the 200-acre high-desert site. The main auditorium is the only original building remaining, and it's now home to an extensive museum. Two barracks from the era have been moved to the site and are being restored. Mostly, a visitor will see vast open spaces and foundations of buildings that housed 10,000 people at one point.

A stone monument in the cemetery bears the Japanese characters that translate, "Soul Consoling Tower." But it's hard to imagine anything consoling about having been moved there against one's will. Wedged between the high Sierras to the west and the Inyo Mountains to the east, the location is breathtaking, but it could be unbearably hot in the summer, bitter cold in the winter. Those imprisoned there lived in long dormitories, with little privacy and few protections from the dust, winds, snow and rain that seeped in through the cracks in the shoddy buildings.

Consider, as "Reflections" pointed out, that most of these people were second-generation Americans or Nisei, "American born, American-educated and American in heart and mind. No charges were filed, no hearing held, only the vague term 'military necessity' was used." Most had been living normal lives in major Western cities. You cannot look at the photographs of dads holding their children, or of schoolchildren at the camp pledging allegiance to the flag, or of men formerly interned at the camp, dressed in military uniforms and heading off to fight the war in Europe, and ignore the great injustice done here.

I was moved by a piece of beautifully crafted furniture, built by a prisoner who used crates as the material. I saw the remains of landscaping – old rock gardens and fountains – and even of a basement where sake was made and stored. These are testaments to the human spirit – the desire to create beautiful things even amid ugliness.

The artwork accompanying this column was painted by Yorba Linda resident Henry Fukuhara, decades after his internment at Manzanar. I was drawn to it by the deep emotions expressed in vivid colors. Surely, such an unsettling event would leave its scars. Yet I've talked to camp internees and am astounded by their enduring patriotism and lack of bitterness.

I'm not sure I would ever get over such an abuse. Many of those agitating for the removal of the Japanese from the West Coast were local business owners, farmers and residents who coveted the Japanese-Americans' property. Reason magazine reports that the interned Japanese were deprived of $150 million in property losses alone, in 1940s dollars, and that eventual compensation amounted to a pittance.

Some conservatives at the time ranted about the yellow menace, but progressives, such as FDR and California Attorney General (and later U.S. Chief Justice) Earl Warren were among the chief architects of the internment. As I've learned over the years, our liberties are in the deepest peril when Left and Right are in agreement on anything.

Strangely enough, the internment camps are still defended by some people, such as writer Michelle Malkin in her 2004 book, "In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror." It's hard to imagine anyone defending such nonsense. Here we have a "conservative" of Asian descent defending an FDR policy to deprive Japanese-Americans of their freedom and their property based on their race. These are, indeed, strange times.

Too often, Americans look back at events in other countries or from the past in a detached way. We don't think of the people involved as real people. It's easier to talk about the "military necessity" of relocating populations from their homes or of bombing "enemy nations" than it is to think about what those actions mean for those who are experiencing the policies.

The Manzanar exhibit leaves visitors pondering this question: What would we think if the government took us from our homes and, without any evidence of wrongdoing or due process, bused us to prison camps in the desert? It serves not only as a memorial to a sad chapter in American history, but as a reminder to everyone about the evil deeds that governments are capable of doing, especially with a compliant populace.

STEVEN GREENHUT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

MORE PHOTOS

The artwork

click on the image for a larger view

Henry Fukuhara, 94, of Yorba Linda, spent part of his late 20s at the Mazanar relocation camp and painted the Commentary cover illustration above decades later in retirement.

Fukuhara and a number of family members lived at Manzanar during World War II. He eventually settled in Long Island, N.Y., where he established a business, and returned to California after he retired.

He painted the original of the Manzanar print above in his retirement (although he had dabbled in art over the years).

Fukuhara's good friend, Albert Setton, assistant vice chancellor for graduate programs at UCLA, helped us secure permission to reprint the painting, and asked Fukuhara what he was thinking when he painted it.

Fukuhara responded: "When I paint at Manzanar I can't help remembering some aspect of life when I was here in the interment camp with my family [there are 16 Fukuharas listed at the Interpretive Center]. But I really don't dwell on that. I focus on making a painting, identifying the simple shapes that can serve as symbols of the place [the gate houses at the entrance, the monument in the cemetery, the guard towers and the Sierras in the background]so as to create a painting."

He says he is not "reporting" what is in front of him, but interpreting it and expressing his own views and emotions. It is up to the viewer to complete the process by responding to the painting individually.

Setton says of the artist: "Henry is a remarkable man. Those of us who know him hold him in great esteem not only because of his artistic vision but also because of his spirit and generosity."

Despite failing eyesight in recent years to a point where he is now blind, Fukuhara paints on, literally feeling the edges of the paper to orient himself. His new work is abstract, more gestural, but still recognizable as a Fukuhara, Setton says.

This print is available for sale at the museum gift shop at what is today the Manzanar National Historic Site, (www.nps.gov/manz/).

Video: "And Now, A Documentation of Internment"

Comment from the poster of the video: "If you have a feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up." - Fred Korematsu

My daughter created this video for a 2007 high school project on the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. Over pictures from the camps, she overlaid an audio interview of Dr. Mary Oda, now in her 80's, who was forced to leave UC medical school for internment at Manzanar

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Divisions In Our World Are Not the Result of Religion
By Karen Armstrong & Andrea Bistrich

Karen Armstrong was a Catholic nun for seven years before leaving her order and going to Oxford. Today, she is amongst the most renowned theologians and has written numerous bestsellers on the great religions and their founders. She is one of the 18 leading group members of the Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative of the former UN General Secretary, Kofi Anan, whose purpose is to fight extremism and further dialogue between the western and Islamic worlds. She talks here to the German journalist, Andrea Bistrich, about politics, religion, extremism and commonalities.

ANDREA BISTRICH: 9/11 has become the symbol of major, insurmountable hostilities between Islam and the West. After the attacks many Americans asked: "Why do they hate us?" And experts in numerous round-table talks debated if Islam is an inherently violent religion. Is this so?

KAREN ARMSTRONG: Certainly not. There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur'an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam. The Qur'an forbids aggressive warfare and permits war only in self-defence; the moment the enemy sues for peace, the Qur'an insists that Muslims must lay down their arms and accept whatever terms are offered, even if they are disadvantageous. Later, Muslim law forbade Muslims to attack a country where Muslims were permitted to practice their faith freely; the killing of civilians was prohibited, as were the destruction of property and the use of fire in warfare.

The sense of polarization has been sharpened by recent controversies — the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, over the Pope's remarks about Islam, over whether face-veils hinder integration. All these things have set relations between Islam and the West on edge. Harvard-Professor Samuel Huntington introduced the theory of a "clash of civilizations" we are witnessing today. Does such a fundamental incompatibility between the "Christian West" and the "Muslim World" indeed exist?

The divisions in our world are not the result of religion or of culture, but are politically based. There is an imbalance of power in the world, and the powerless are beginning to challenge the hegemony of the Great Powers, declaring their independence of them-often using religious language to do so. A lot of what we call "fundamentalism" can often be seen as a religious form of nationalism, an assertion of identity. The old 19th-century European nationalist ideal has become tarnished and has always been foreign to the Middle East. In the Muslim world people are redefining themselves according to their religion in an attempt to return to their roots after the great colonialist disruption.

What has made Fundamentalism, seemingly, so predominant today?

The militant piety that we call "fundamentalism" erupted in every single major world faith in the course of the twentieth century. There is fundamentalist Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Confucianism, as well as fundamentalist Islam. Of the three monotheistic religions-Judaism, Christianity and Islam-Islam was the last to develop a fundamentalist strain during the 1960s.

Fundamentalism represents a revolt against secular modern society, which separates religion and politics. Wherever a Western secularist government is established, a religious counterculturalist protest movement rises up alongside it in conscious rejection. Fundamentalists want to bring God/religion from the sidelines to which they have been relegated in modern culture and back to centre stage. All fundamentalism is rooted in a profound fear of annihilation: whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, fundamentalists are convinced that secular or liberal society wants to wipe them out. This is not paranoia: Jewish fundamentalism took two major strides forward, one after the Nazi Holocaust, the second after the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In some parts of the Middle East, secularism was established so rapidly and aggressively that it was experienced as a lethal assault.

Read further>>>>>>>>>>

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Strawberries, that sweet luscious red fruit. In sharp contrast to the article below, is THIS article about Israeli strawberries being harvested and readied for export.

A 2002 BBC article written concerning the same Israeli produce company reads:

Israeli farmers grapple with labour crisis

Palestinian workers must run a security gauntlet



By Nick Mackie In Israel

Yitzhak Carmy runs the family farm in central Israel, growing sweet potatoes and strawberries for big-name supermarkets in Europe.

It's easier to to hire foreigners... because the foreign workers are paid nothing

Batia Tamir-Kyuris, Israeli Employment Service

In his huge covered packing yard, his hired band of nine Palestinian women sort the cleaned produce into cardboard trays.

Mr Carmy, a pistol holstered at his side, has much admiration for these women, who set off at 3am, crossing country tracks on foot to avoid military check points.

But such hardships have choked off all but a handful of the Palestinian workers necessary to keep much Israeli industry going.

Two years ago, 140,000 Palestinians could cross the border daily to earn their living - mainly in construction and farming; now, just 5,000 are allowed in.

Pastures new

To keep going, producers have gone to the other side of the world to get workers for the jobs Israelis aren't prepared to do.

Every year, more than 26,000 Asian workers - almost all Thais - come to Israel to work as farm labourers.

Read further>>>>>>>>>>

So think about this, it is not only the United States who employs foreign farmworkers, Israel does this also.

Now in 2007, with the wall erected, and even stricter policies denying Palestinian workers in to Israel, there is also the siege of Gaza which is keeping farmers from exporting their produce.
As the fruit rots on the vine and hunger increases to the Palestinians in Gaza, keep in mind what Pasternak wrote of strawberries, "Pasternak says "Folklore states that if you split a double strawberry in half and share it with the opposite sex, you’ll soon fall in love - so I wish you all to share a strawberry and fall in love"

Instead of the sharing of strawberries, there is now the starving of the Palestinians in Gaza and the denial of any way for them to earn a living from their produce.

Israel's economic blockade stops Gaza's strawberry-farmers selling their crop

By Donald Macintyre in Beit Lahiya

Published: 16 November 2007

Almost all of Gaza's turbulent story is bound up with Jamil Abu Hmaideh's strawberry fields here in the far north of the strip. Between two wispy clouds high in the blue sky above us, two Israeli Apache helicopters hover on the look-out for the Qassam rocket-launching crews as we bite into the luscious, perfectly ripened fruit Mr Hmaideh has picked for us. At the end of the neat plantation rows are the high sandbanks just inside the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya's border with Israel, the ones from which the military bulldozers descended when they last ploughed up one of his fields before he started planting at the end of August. Hanging on the wall in his two-room farm station is a "martyr portrait" of his 21-year-old son, Nael, who was killed in May, a non-combatant casualty of the savage infighting between Fatah and Hamas.

But what is preoccupying Mr Hmaideh as he surveys his three acres of strawberry plants in this isolated and often dangerous place is another peculiarly Gazan tragedy, a function of the absolute economic and commercial blockade to which it has been subjected by the total closure by Israel of the main cargo crossing at Karni since June, after Hamas seized control of the Strip. His entire crop of low-insecticide, high-quality fruit, scheduled for export from this very weekend across the border into Israel and beyond, much of it en route to upscale retailers in Europe, would normally fetch him the £3-£4 per kilogram he needs to break even let alone make a modest profit. This year it is destined at best to be sold at a loss he cannot possibly sustain – for 25p or less in what promises to be a saturated as well as impoverished local market.

Much of it will rot; for the Karni closure also means he cannot import the extra plastic sheeting he needs to protect the strawberries from the rains due any day now, or the winter frosts a matter of weeks away. Mr Hmaideh, who borrowed more than £13,000 in plantation costs before the season, will simply go bust. The 8,000 families employed in Gaza's production of strawberries, cherry tomatoes and carnations, the bumper crop of which has already started to be destroyed instead of being sent to the Dutch auction houses for which it was planted, will lose their modest income. Instead, this proud farmer says with a tinge of contempt in his voice, he and they will be just left "to go to the UN and collect food coupons".

Mr Hmaideh is a leading member of the Beit Lahiya farmers' cooperative which has written to the United States, whose agency USAID ironically supplied much of its new refrigeration and washing equipment, to the UN, and to Tony Blair, who is due back in Jerusalem next week and was appointed by the international Quartet to propose ways of reviving the Palestinian economy, begging for help. Their letter warns that if the Palestinian farmers lose their place in the European market this year they will probably lose it for good to stiff competition from Spain and Egypt. And the co-operative points out that their partners are Israeli companies which are also losing out – including the big and partly state owned Agresco, which markets the strawberries and which the farmers say have also vainly pressed for a solution.

Maxime Verhagen, the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, which lent the Gaza co-operatives – and was paid back – ¿4.3m last year to help incentivise the carnation and strawberry farmers, and enjoys warm relations with Israel, has written to its government to press for ways to be found to open the crossing. But so far Israel, with for what largely remains the public acquiescence of much of the international community – and, some diplomats and Gaza businessmen hint, that of Mahmoud Abbas's emergency West Bank government in Ramallah – has stood firm. All the more so since the Israeli cabinet declared Gaza a "hostile entity" last month.

"I am not Fatah, I am not Hamas," says Mr Hmaideh. "I am a farmer. They should pay condolences in the farmers' houses because we built this market with our blood and if I lose this market I lose my life. How are we going to get these markets back if the Dutch and other Europeans are left waiting for our products?"

He blames Fatah and Hamas for the bloody infighting which ended in Hamas's military seizure of Gaza in June. But because like every Gazan he knows his politics he also blames the international Quartet that ratified the agreement brokered in November 2005 by Condoleezza Rice, which was supposed to keep Karni open for trade, and which even before June was honoured as much in the breach as in the observance. "They were the ones who said they would guarantee to keep the crossing open."

He has thought, too, about the long-term effects of the collapse of the family business in which his wife and children work. "I have 12 children," he says, "and now I can keep control of them. But how can I do that if I am not offering them what I am offering now? They won't listen to me. Perhaps they will become terrorists in the future."

Ahmad Shafi, the director of the co-operative and a retired headmaster who grows strawberries on a small plot here, agrees. "If there are no exports there will be many problems here, social problems, poverty."

Mr Shafi explains the history of strawberries – "the best in all Palestine" in Beit Lahiya, where the mix of sandy and clay soil, the climate, the professionalism of the growers and above all the "sweet water" from the local wells, which is in stark contrast to the brackish, salty and polluted supply in much of the rest of Gaza, make conditions ideal for fruit growing. Before the Six Day War he says all northern Gaza was especially famous for its citrus plantations. "They used to call it the yellow gold." But then in 1968, the newly occupying Israel, itself a major citrus producer, encouraged the Gaza farmers to grow strawberries and flowers. The orange groves have remained here and in neighbouring Beit Hanoun, of course, but with the two intifadas – and particular the second which started in September 2000 – the Israeli forces began to bulldoze the groves on the grounds they afforded cover to militants. "Today we're not allowed to plant citrus because of security reasons so what is a farmer going to do? He will plant vegetables or fruit. Now there are more and more farmers planting strawberries."

Mr Shafi, who has a prized businessman's permit that makes him one of the few Gazans still allowed to travel to the West Bank or Israel, has used it tirelessly to argue the farmers' case in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ramallah. He has pointed out that this is a low-margin industry – the strawberry planting costs are $7.8m (£3.8m) compared with potential revenue of $9.8m (two-thirds from exports) – and that the loss of any, let alone all, of the market is catastrophic. He argues too that because of its partnership with the Israeli wholesalers, Gazan agriculture is actually – until now – a rare beacon of co-existence. "The Israelis and Palestinians are neighbours. We are farmers on the land and we have to co-exist and co-operate." The tragedy is compounded in that the orthodox religious market in Israel is crying out for Arab-produced fruit this year because it is the Shmita – the once every seven year biblical requirement that Jews should not eat food produced by fellow-Jews.

What is unclear is how far the Ramallah government set up in June by Mr Abbas, who again called for Hamas's overthrow in Gaza yesterday, has itself pressed Israel to open Karni. "They keep telling us it is a very high priority for them and they are continually raising it," said one European diplomat intimately involved in discussions on the issue. "But there seems to be some discrepancy with what happens." Asked about his own discussions with officials in Ramallah, Mr Shafi smiles wanly and says: "They tell us there will be more meetings."

But there is no doubt that Israel remains opposed to reopening the crossing as long as militants continue to fire Qassams into Israel and Hamas remains in control of Gaza. Mark Regev, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, says there continue to be "nihilistic" attacks on the crossing itself. Yet last year, when there was bloody conflict in Gaza – including the frequent firing of Qassams –and despite the difficulties of Karni repeatedly closing down on security grounds, the Beit Lahiya farmers managed to get most of their crop out and most of the supplies they needed, in.

The Dutch government has assured Israel that Palestinian security guards trained by them are ready and waiting to secure the crossing itself. And the Rice-brokered agreement in 2005 was anyway specifically supposed to survive such security crises. Mr Regev said that the difference now is that Hamas is in control of Gaza. "The Palestinians cannot expect business as usual as long as their main export continues to be rockets and mortars into Israel," he said. The farmers, of course, are powerless to affect the Qassams. "We have tried to stop them," Mr Shafi says. "We don't even know who they are."

But beyond that a World Bank report prepared for international donors in September starkly warned that current closures contribute to a "confluence of policies that combine to stunt the prospects of self-sufficiency". And in a passage explicitly expressing concern about the Qassams, it nevertheless went on to quote with approval a June speech by Ed Balls, then Economic Secretary to the British Treasury, saying that "a viable economic roadmap will not be possible unless a better balance can be struck between short-term security on one hand and on allowing movement and access on the other, necessary to promote both security and prosperity for the medium term."

The bank's report, warning of just the collapse Gaza is now seeing, with many tens of thousands workers laid off by the total shutdown of Gaza industry, warned rather like Mr Hmaideh himself, that 50 per cent of Gaza's population is under 15 and would soon "be thrust into a barely existent labour market".

The UN Relief Works Agency, Unrwa, which is responsible for more than half the Palestinian population who are refugees, has recently expressed strong concerns that the closures and international boycott are actively increasing extremism in Gaza.

"This is another tragedy in a long catalogue," said Unrwa's spokesman, Chris Gunness, yesterday. "That the economic collapse is increasing the sense of desperation and isolation of the people and the radicalisation of the most densely populated part of the planet serves no one's interests."

Next week Mr Gunness's senior Unrwa colleague, John Ging, the agency's director of operations in Gaza, will address MPs in London on the crisis. His title, plucking directly the phrase used by Israel's cabinet last month, is pregnant. "Hostile Entity – self fulfilling prophecy?"

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Homes in illegal Israeli settlements for sale at London expo

Haroon Siddique
Friday November 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Israeli companies are using UK property shows to sell housing in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Guardian Unlimited can reveal.

At the Israel Property Exhibition at Brent town hall, North London last Sunday, one company, Anglo-Saxon Real Estate, was offering for sale properties in Maale Adumim and Maccabim. Both West Bank settlements lie on the Palestinian side of the so-called green line, the pre-1967 boundary and often cited as the border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, are expected to meet before the end of the year in Annapolis, in the US, for peace talks that have the backing of the UK government.

Abbas has demanded the Israelis halt all settlement activity and that the whole West Bank be included in a future Palestinian state. Kim Howells, the British minister for foreign and commonwealth affairs, has described settlement activity as an "obstacle to peace".

The Anglo-Saxon real estate website was today listing 67 new build residential properties in Maale Adumim and six in Maccabim. That they are new properties is particularly significant because it indicates buyers would be contributing to expansion of the settlements.

Maale Adumim forms part of the Israelis' controversial E1 plan, which would see the building of thousands of housing units as well as industrial and tourism zones to connect the settlement with Jerusalem.

The result would be to divide the West Bank, making travel between north and south more onerous and isolating east Jerusalem, according to critics. Maale Adumim has around 30,000 residents and is already one of the largest settlements in the West Bank. Israel wants to retain it in any future peace agreement.

In answer to a parliamentary question in June, Howells said: "The UK consistently makes clear its view that settlements are illegal under international law and that settlement activity is an obstacle to peace."

He added: "We are concerned by reports of Israeli construction work at El. The continuing process of establishing settlements is encircling east Jerusalem and breaking up Palestinian territorial contiguity throughout the West Bank.

"These practices fuel Palestinian anger, threaten to cut east Jerusalem off from the West Bank and undermine the prospect for a viable Palestinian state."

Gavin Gross, director of public affairs at the Zionist Federation, which organised the Brent fair, said: "While the promotion or sale of houses beyond Israel's green line is a contentious subject for some, it is not prohibited in Britain."

He said Anglo-Saxon was just one of a number of companies at the fair and other exhibitors were not selling properties in the West Bank.

Properties in illegal settlements were also on offer at a fair at Finchley synagogue, in North London, last month. The poster advertising the exhibition called on investors to "strengthen your portfolio and Israel's future".

Visitors to the fair received a free property guide, The Key to Israel, containing a map that omitted the green line and substituted Hebrew names for Palestinian cities. The Palestinian city of Nablus, labelled as Shechem, was just one example.

Among the companies featured in the guide were B Yair Building Corporation and Digital Investments and Holdings. The former's catalogue, also distributed at the fair, featured properties in Maale Adumim, Har Homa in Palestinian east Jerusalem and Beitar Illit. The latter is an orthodox settlement on the Palestinian side of the 1967 green line, to the west of Bethlehem. Digital Investments and Holdings markets properties in Nof Zion, another settlement in east Jerusalem.

The exhibition was organised by BayIt Beyisrael (your home in Israel), a realtor that also ran a fair at Alexandra Palace, in north London, in March. Its website advertises past exhibitions in Belgium and the USA.

UN security council resolutions and the fourth Geneva convention have rendered all Israeli settlements illegal, although Israel disputes the interpretation of these laws.

Dan Judelson, from the group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said the property fare had "huge ramifications" for the peace process.

"Perhaps it should be illegal or formally discouraged for British citizens to take actions [simply living in another country] that might appear fine but that have immense implications for one of the biggest conflicts worldwide and that contribute to global instability."

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London said: "The issue of settlements will be one of the issues discussed between Israel and the Palestinians in the context of final status negotiations."

A UK foreign office spokesman said: "The road map is clear that Israel should freeze all settlement activity. We will continue to raise this issue with the Israeli government."

From correspondents in New York · at 11:12 AM

Think about it.................and ask "why"? Is it because of what they have seen in Iraq? Is it because they needed mental health intervention from the VA and did not receive it (again why do they need it so much, WHAT is going on here?) Is it because of what they have been trained to do, have done or seen and cannot live with it? Is it because of the EXTREME burden the military puts on military families? Just ask "why", and REMEMBER that over one million Iraqis have been killed since the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Please go to this website "Killology Research Group: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill"

120 US war veteran suicides a week

Article from: Agence France-Presse

From correspondents in New York

November 15, 2007 09:47am

THE US military is experiencing a "suicide epidemic" with veterans killing themselves at the rate of 120 a week, according to an investigation by US television network CBS.

At least 6256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 - an average of 17 a day - the network reported, with veterans overall more than twice as likely to take their own lives as the rest of the general population.

While the suicide rate among the general population was 8.9 per 100,000, the level among veterans was between 18.7 and 20.8 per 100,000.

That figure rose to 22.9 to 31.9 suicides per 100,000 among veterans aged 20 to 24 - almost four times the non-veteran average for the age group.

"Those numbers clearly show an epidemic of mental health problems,'' CBS quoted veterans' rights advocate Paul Sullivan as saying.

CBS quoted the father of a 23-year-old soldier who shot himself in 2005 as saying the military did not want the true scale of the problem to be known.

"Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total,'' Mike Bowman said.

"They don't want the true numbers of casualties to really be known.''

There are 25 million veterans in the United States, 1.6 million of whom served in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to CBS.

"Not everyone comes home from the war wounded, but the bottom line is nobody comes home unchanged,'' Paul Rieckhoff, a former Marine and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America said on CBS.

The network said it was the first time that a nationwide count of veteran suicides had been conducted.

The tally was reached by collating suicide data from individual states for both veterans and the general population from 1995.

at 1:54 AM

Since last week when the LAPD announced it's plan to map Muslims in Los Angeles, an outcry has arisen which has brought many together who opposed this latest fascist tactic. It was announced yesterday that the LAPD is abandoning the plan, at least for now

LAPD's Muslim mapping plan killed

Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times

The reversal comes after a week of protests from Muslim groups and civil libertarians, who equated the mapping with religious profiling.

By Richard Winton and Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
November 15, 2007

The LAPD on Wednesday abruptly scrapped a program to map the city's Muslim population, a major retreat for a department that said the system was needed to identify potential hotbeds of extremism.

The reversal comes after a week of protests from Muslim groups and civil libertarians, who equated the mapping with religious profiling. Others questioned whether it was possible for the LAPD to accurately map the city's far-flung Muslim community.

Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing said Wednesday that in the wake of the protests, officials would drop the mapping aspect of the plan but continue their efforts to reach out to the Muslim community. Downing and other police officials plan to outline the new strategy to Muslim American activists at a meeting today.

The decision met with praise from some activists, who said they would welcome greater involvement by the LAPD in their communities as long as mapping was off the table.

"Muslim Americans were very disturbed and concerned about the ramifications of the plan and having their privacy invaded," said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. "Downing's statement that he's pulling the plan says the LAPD is very open to positive community engagement, input and participation. It's the first step to very healthy dialogue between Muslim Americans and the city of Los Angeles."

Read further>>>>>>>>>>

Tomorrow a meeting will be held with the LAPD and the leaders of various Muslim organizations and other civil liberties organizations in the Los Angeles area. Immediately following this meeting, a press conference will be held at which both Muslims and others will speak. Amongst those speaking will be Rabbi Haim Beliak (who will be appearing at an event in Whittier just three hours later-7:00 pm at THIS event- "An Interfaith Search for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land") and Kathy Masaoka of NCRR.

This past Saturday evening, CAIR held it's annual banquet at the Anaheim Hilton. The topic of the mapping was brought up that evening as all in the audience listened carefully what would be done to combat the proposed plan.I had the absolute honor of attending the evening's event with Kathy and other members of NCRR. At the gala, Nobuko Miyomoto of NCRR was invited to read a passage from the memoirs written by Yuri Kochiyama, an internment camp survivor as well as life long civil rights activist. Yuri is now 86 years old, an absolutely amazing woman, in fact she was a close associate of Malcom X and was at his side when he was assassinated in 1965, covering him with her own body after he was shot. Nobuko received a loud round of applause and a standing ovation from the audience, because they know themselves, what happened to the Japanese was an American crime and CANNOT be allowed to happen again to them.

For many years, NCRR and other Japanese organizations have reached out to the Muslim community in Los Angeles, particularly following 9/11 when they formed the 9/11 Committee:

NCRR 9/11 COMMITTEE

The NCRR September 11 Committee was formed by individuals who were concerned that Muslims, Arabs and South Asians would be targeted by the government and others seeking scapegoats for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

After a candlelight vigil in Little Tokyo on September 28, 2001, which was initiated by NCRR and co-sponsored by the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, the Japanese American Citizens League, the Japanese American National Museum and the Little Tokyo Service Center, the committee began outreaching to Muslim American and Arab American groups.

In order to learn more about the religion, culture and history of these communities and to build a relationship of support, the 9/11 Committee held a series of programs including one on Afghanistan with a speaker from Revolutionary Alliance of Women from Afghanistan (RAWA); a Break the Fast at Senshin Temple with the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); a program on Civil Liberties and National Security with speakers from MPAC, the Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR), the legal community (the late Fred Okrand and Carol Sobel), the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee (ADC) and NCRR; and an educational on the Middle East situation that included both a Palestinian and an Israeli speaker.

Future events include women exchanges, film showings, educationals and break the fast programs. The more understanding we have of each other, the more protection we will have from further injustices, such as the internment camps. (source)

The Japanese internment experience surely should have taught America a lesson, but unfortunately, many people are not ideal students, foolishly wishing to repeat the horrific mistakes of our past. The Japanese Americans of WWII became the targets of hate and fear and thus relate readily to the Arab/Muslim experience in America today. But let us be clear, the discrimination against Arabs and Muslims did NOT begin with 9/11, 9/11 only accelerated an already existing prejudice. As Americans who claim to honor freedom above all else, we MUST not let this hatred take over our hearts OR our policies. No matter what culture or racial background we hail from, it is our duty as Americans to fight this irrational behavior.

Following is an editorial that speaks to the Japanese/Arab/Muslim experience in profiling.

Eric L. Muller: Anti-terror efforts repeat WWII errors

By Eric L. Muller - Special To The Bee

Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Law enforcement is looking ahead to the next domestic terrorist attack with a menu and a map.

This month, reports have surfaced about two controversial counterterrorism initiatives in California. In one, Congressional Quarterly's national security editor reported that the FBI had mined data from San Francisco grocery stores to look for spikes in sales of Middle Eastern food that, together with other data, might imply the presence of extremists. In the other, the Los Angeles Police Department is using census and other demographic data to map Muslim communities in order to pinpoint the neighborhoods of potential extremists.

These might look like two new methods for identifying the enemy within, but they are nothing new, and they are not likely to do much but inflame the communities they affect

The first of them – I suppose we could call it "tahini tracking" – is just a disturbing replay of a 60-year-old mistake.

As I explain in my new book "American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II," the federal government created a secret system of tribunals in 1943 to decide which of the tens of thousands of Japanese Americans behind barbed wire were "loyal" and which were "disloyal."

Things never got much more sophisticated for these tribunals than the food Japanese Americans ate. Religious and cultural affiliations with Japan scored negative loyalty points; "American" affiliations produced positive ones. Little League baseball coaches got positive points; judo teachers got negative points. Members of Japanese-named organizations got negative points; members of the Rotary Club got positive points. If you were a Buddhist, you got negative points; if you were a Christian, positive.

The system did not deduct points for sushi consumption, but it came awfully close. It equated the most basic components of Japanese religious and cultural identity with danger to national security. Applying this system, bureaucrats condemned more than one out of every four American citizens of Japanese ancestry as disloyal and potentially dangerous. The consequences were prolonged detention behind barbed wire, ineligibility for jobs in war production and, even as the war reached its end, continued exclusion from the West Coast.

The second method, neighborhood mapping, also bears a resemblance to some of the flawed methods of 60 years ago. In the months before Pearl Harbor, the FBI compiled its so-called "ABC lists" of thousands of Japanese aliens identified for arrest in the event of outbreak of war. Many of the men populating those lists were the business, religious and cultural leaders of the Japanese neighborhoods and communities of the West Coast's cities.

To be sure, the Los Angeles Police Department maintains that it is mapping Muslim neighborhoods to help their residents, not arrest them. The idea is to identify hot spots of discontent where extremism might grow, and then to increase social services to those neighborhoods in order to combat radicalization.

In principle, this strategy is sensible. But the residents of these neighborhoods have already seen six years of suspicion and scrutiny, and they are not likely to appreciate the principle. They're likely to see the mapping project as a prelude not to assistance but to repression.

And if some Americans are having a hard time telling bombs from baba ghanouj, who can blame them?

(Source)

at 7:08 PM

Federal judge ruled correctly on Watada court-martial injunction
10:24 AM ET

Kenneth S. Kagan [attorney for US Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada]: "In February, 2007, 1LT Ehren Watada was tried by a court-martial for his refusal to deploy to Iraq, and for statements he made on four separate occasions in various media explaining his rationale for his intention to refuse to deploy (and on one occasion, explaining, after the fact, why he did not deploy with his unit). Prior to the commencement of his trial, 1LT Watada and the Government entered into a Pretrial Agreement and a Stipulation of Fact. Pursuant to that agreement, in exchange for his stipulating to the accuracy and authenticity of certain of the statements he made (thus relieving the Government of the burden of calling certain reluctant witnesses to establish a foundation for the admission of those statements), the Government agreed to move to dismiss two of the incidents (referred to as "specifications") of "Conduct Unbecoming an Officer."

At the close of the Government's case, but before the defense presented its case, the presiding military judge, Lt. Col. John M. Head, announced that he was troubled by what appeared to him to be an inconsistent position taken by the defense (or at least, his sense of the position he believed the defense would be taking, as reflected by a proposed jury instruction relating to mistake of fact submitted by defense counsel). He thus thought that 1LT Watada acted in breach of the Pretrial Agreement, and indicated his intention to set it aside and reject the Stipulation of Fact. He undertook a lengthy colloquy with 1LT Watada, and engaged in a lively debate with counsel. What was most astonishing was the uniform approach taken by the defense and the prosecution, wherein both sides were in accord that there was no problem with the agreement, and no issue requiring a mistrial. The lead prosecutor went about as far as a lawyer can go in trying to dissuade the judge from declaring a mistrial, but, ultimately, after several hours, the prosecution caved in and reluctantly asked for a mistrial, which was granted over the defendant's vociferous objection. Defense counsel at that time, Eric Seitz of Hawaii, even warned the judge that the judge was creating a situation in which a second trial might well be barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause, but the judge was undeterred.

My partner, Jim Lobsenz, and I took over as counsel for 1LT Watada in March, and sought relief in the military appeals courts (beginning with the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, and progressing to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces). Our arguments were that (1) a second trial was barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause; and (2) a stay of further court-martial proceedings was required while the courts reviewed the double jeopardy issue. Notwithstanding our argument that double jeopardy relates directly to the "right not be tried," and that therefore the only way the Double Jeopardy Clause would have any meaning would be if arguable claims were reviewed before a subsequent trial, the military courts were unsympathetic, and insistent that 1LT Watada's rights could be vindicated on direct appeal (assuming a conviction, of course).

At that stage, there was no alternative but to seek relief by way of a Sec. 2241 habeas petition and a request for an emergency hearing on a request for a stay. The matter was assigned to Judge Settle, who scheduled an emergency hearing the same day he received the case and our briefing. After hearing our presentation and the argument of the Assistant US Attorney, Judge Settle, the next day, issued an order staying the court-martial (which was scheduled to convene in 4 days) until further order.

Next, Judge Settle asked for further briefing from the parties directed more specifically to the Double Jeopardy issue, and after receiving a full complement of briefing, took the matter under advisement. On November 8th, Judge Settle issued a 33 page decision, granting a Preliminary Injunction. In his order, Judge Settle found that Judge Head had abused his discretion in setting aside the Stipulation of Fact; that even if he had not abused his discretion, there was no "manifest necessity" for a mistrial; that 1LT Watada had demonstrated in several respects that there was a significant likelihood he would prevail on the merits of his Double Jeopardy claim; that he would be irreparably injured if he was forced to go to trial; and that the balance of harms (to him versus the public) weighed in his favor.

In so ruling, Judge Settle did not stake out any new or novel grounds. His decision was not activist or legislative in scope. Instead, he relied upon well-settled precedent, long-established principles articulated in cases from the United States Supreme Court and numerous federal circuits. What distinguished our experience with Judge Settle from our experiences in the military courts was that Judge Settle took the issues seriously, and made an intellectually honest decision divorced from politics. Regrettably, we are unable say the same for the military courts.

As of this writing, it is unclear what the next step(s) will be, with regard to our seeking an order converting the Preliminary Injunction into a Permanent Injunction, and the Army's efforts to seek a vacation of the Injunction and the right to try 1LT Watada a second time. It seems reasonably certain the Ninth Circuit will get involved at some point, and we remain confident that the law (without regard to the politics) is on our side."

Opinions expressed in JURIST's Hotline are the sole responsibility of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of JURIST's editors, staff, or the University of Pittsburgh.

SOURCE

at 1:40 PM

Just "surfing" today I stumbled upon something I had never heard of before, that's Godtube,
the "Christian" alternative to youtube which evidently was launched in May. This site is HUGE with new videos being posted there sometimes only one minute apart.

Curious me wanted to check it out, so off I went. Well, the MOST recent video (an hour ago) which was posted was your typical uninformed slam against Islam. But I needed to find out more so I went to that time-worn source, Wikipedia first:

GodTube

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia •

Jump to: navigation, search

GodTube is a free video sharing website much like YouTube, but which specializes in Christian-themed videos. In particular, GodTube has been compared to Conservapedia, a Christian conservative encyclopedia opposed to Wikipedia, and MyChurch, a Christian version of MySpace.^[1]^[2]

GodTube was founded in January, 2007, by Chris Wyatt from Plano, Texas, currently a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. Chris Wyatt was formerly a TV producer for CBS. GodTube is privately funded by investors, including Norm Miller of Interstate Batteries.^[3]

Wyatt, a Baptist has likened the site to neutral "Switzerland", in that he claims it is open to all theological viewpoints. He has stated that even atheists are welcome as long as they state their case "respectfully". However, the site does include videos attacking non-Baptist religions, including videos entitled "Why Pentecostalism is not of God," "Mormonism exposed," and "The papacy is NOT biblical."^[4]

According to comScore GodTube was the fastest growing website for the month of August, 2007.^[4]^[5]

[edit] Controversy and Criticism

Christian Russ Seehafer posted a video criticizing the site as founded on hubris and theological arrogance saying that "It is beyond me how anyone can claim to be so down with our maker that they are able to slap his approval on anything they deem 'christian'." The video appeared on the front page of the site and was subsequently removed and replayed with a video defending the GodTube and attacking other filesharing sites such as YouTube.^[1] It was then reinstated with a comment from GodTube's CEO. ^{[verification needed]}

In September of 2007, programmer Paul Yanez argued that Godtube had stolen code from Veoh and Youtube. ^[6] Evidence for this included Godtube using the same fonts and in parts identical code to that in Veoh.^[6] Additionally, some files contained the word "YouTube" in the title. In response, Godtube CEO Chris Wyatt blamed the matter on the design firm contracted to design the software.^[6] Godtube subsequently took down the old code and replaced it with new code.^[6] In the meantime, Yanez took down his original blog post outlining the accusations saying that it had led to harassment from religious supporters of Godtube
__________________________________________________________________

So we see, Godtube doesn't take much to criticism. So in the manner of "sharing" let me share with you a video posted there just a little over an hour ago. The video details read: Christ-Centered Auction Company

OK, here we go with the offering: (Let's see how long it takes for them to pull it down)

at 10:55 AM

Email:

PLEASE DO THIS NOW. IT'S WORTH A SHOT!

House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney
is off the House floor, and has instead been sent to the Judiciary
Committee for "further study." This maneuver, organized by Pelosi and
the Democratic leadership, is consistent with their mantra that
impeachment is "off the table." But, we are told Nancy Pelosi is
reported to have replied to the question of impeachment that if she
received 10,000 hand written letters she would proceed with it.

What are we waiting for?

Take out a sheet of paper RIGHT NOW and write:

PLEASE HOLD IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS IMMEDIATELY

Sign it with your address and mail it TODAY to:

Rep Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House

235 Cannon HOB

Washington, DC 20515

AND CIRCULATE THIS MESSAGE FAR AND WIDE

at 8:33 AM

A picture.............................

U.S. President George W. Bush (R) meets with Lance Cpl. Isaac Gallegos during a visit to the Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 8, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
US President George W. Bush (R) meets with Lance Cpl. Isaac Gallegos during a visit to the Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 8, 2007. [Xinhua]

Source:

More US men back from Iraq war have mental disorder

I venture to say, it is the "man" in the picture on the right who has the mental disorder.

at 6:52 AM

The Oldest Martyr
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, Nov 14, 2007

This article was originally published by Haaretz and is republished with permission. Translated from the original Hebrew by Mark Marshall (Occupation Magazine).

Israeli army jeeps crowd a street in the West Bank city of Nablus during a military incursion earlier this month. (Rami Swidan, Maan Images)

Think about your aged parents. Think of them sitting terrified on the sofa for an entire night, in a tiny room in their unfortified dwelling. On the other side of the window the battle rages – shots and explosions – dozens of soldiers are passing through the alleyway, until the order to leave the house is heard. Think about your father going outside, afraid and helpless in his pyjamas, calling to his wife to go back into the house to get their ID cards. No sooner does he stick his head into the courtyard than he is hit. Five bullets in the abdomen and the legs, from the guns of the three soldiers who are sitting on the stairs of the facing house, he falls, wallowing in his blood in front of his terrified wife.

Think about your elderly mother, trying with all her strength to save her husband while the soldiers prevent him from being evacuated for several long and fateful minutes, until the ambulance arrives. Think about the feelings of the mother, the helplessness, the anger and the frustration of an old woman. "Now I am sorry that I did not take a big stone in my hand and throw it at the soldiers," says the widow, Subhiyye al-Wazir, whose husband, Abed al-Wazir, was killed thus at the entrance to their house in the Ras al-Ein neighbourhood in western Nablus.

Al-Wazir was a retired bookkeeper for the Nablus municipality. He was a cousin of Khalil al-Wazir, who was none other than Abu Jihad, the legendary deputy of Yasser Arafat, who was liquidated by Israel on 16 April 1988 in his house on the seashore at Tunis. His widow, Umm Jihad, who was the Palestinian Minister of Welfare, came a few days ago for a consolation visit at the small house of mourning in Nablus. With his death Abed al-Wazir became one of the oldest of the martyrs, but the widow’s nights of terror are not over. The IDF is continuing to enter the neighbourhood nearly every night, sowing terror in the hearts of the widow Subhiyye and her neighbours, turning their nights into a protracted nightmare.

The small house can be approached from above or from below. The Wazir’s house was built on the steep slope of Mount Gerizim, in a row with the neighbouring houses. A narrow staircase connects the dense rows of houses to two streets – the street above and the street below. Our hosts did not want us to climb, so we descend

Two small rooms are in the couple’s apartment – a bedroom for the wife and a sitting-room, which converted at night into a bedroom for her husband. Here, on the sofa on which we are now sitting, Abed al-Wazir slept on the last night of his life. On the facing sofa the couple sat alone throughout that night of terror, until they were summoned on a loudspeaker to go outside. About 37 years ago they moved to this house from their previous house, which was located in the heart of the Casbah. Abu Jihad, Abed and Subhiyye al-Wazir are all members of the same family, cousins whose origins are in Ramle (Abu Jihad), Jaffa (Subhiyye) and Haifa (Abed).

The couple have six children. One of them, who is working as an engineer in one of the states of the former Yugoslavia, has not yet received the news about the killing of his father. He has not seen his parents for 25 years. The couple have 20 grandchildren. On the night of the 16th of October they went to bed at an early hour, as usual. At around one in the morning the husband woke up to the sound of voices in the alley. In a quiet voice, relates Subhiyye, he woke her up: "There are lots of soldiers outside and we have to be careful," he whispered to her. They hurriedly got dressed and drowsily went to sit on the sofa. On the other side of the window they saw the silhouettes of the soldiers as they rapidly ascended and descended. The noise from outside intensified. Bursts of gunfire became more frequent, accompanied by the explosions of concussion grenades. A war just out the window. Periodically they heard the sound of windows shattering in the houses of their neighbours. It is not hard to imagine the fear that gripped them, sitting next to each other on the sofa, silent, petrified with fear. At about a quarter past two their oldest son telephoned: Shaker, who lives in a neighbourhood that has been built on the side of Mount Ebal, just over there, where black clothes can be seen hanging on the line. Shaker wanted to know how his parents were doing and if they knew what was going on in their neighbourhood.

A photo of the husband has been placed on a cabinet and a Koran lies below it. Beside it is a box of tissues for anybody who bursts into tears. On the wall hang pictures of the family hero, Abu Jihad, with the late Arafat and Abu Iyad. The couple sat like that for about four hours. From time to time the voices of soldiers were heard issuing unclear instructions on a loudspeaker from the street above. They did not hear or understand very well. At a quarter to five the son called again. He said that he saw the soldiers entering the house of the lawyer Hakim Sbeih who lives up the alley, and searching it. A short time later the couple heard the voice of the neighbour Sbeih on the loudspeaker, passing on instructions that the soldiers gave him. The soldiers appointed him to evacuate the neighbourhood, because he knows all its residents well. The first light rose over the Ras al-Ein neighbourhood. The dawn of a new day.

They were not sure if they had heard their names over the loudspeaker, but their son said that he had heard. This was after four hours of nightmarish waiting on the sofa. "During those four hours we saw death a thousand times," says the wife. The muezzin had already made the call for the dawn prayer and they did not move from where they were sitting. But when their son telephoned and said that he had heard their name over the loudspeaker and they had been summoned to go outside, they set out do comply. It was a shortly after five. Immediately afterwards they heard Sbeih calling: "My uncle, Abu Shaker, you have been called to go outside with your wife, because they are planning to blow up the house in five minutes. That’s what the soldiers say." It was clear to them that they had better hurry up and go out.

First they opened the door to the house. The husband went out first into the small courtyard, followed by Subhiyye. The husband slowly advanced towards the iron door that closes on the courtyard and opened that as well. He was still turning around towards his wife and asking if she had taken their ID cards, without which residents of the Territories cannot live, with her. Subhiyye hurried back, to get the ID cards. As she stood with her back to her husband she suddenly heard him say: "Hajjeh*, they’ve shot me."

She dashed towards her husband. "Who shot you? Where?" she asked, while clinging to her husband. But al-Wazir fell on the pavement at the entrance to the house. Only then did the wife notice a pool of blood that was gathering beside him. She pressed on his two legs to stop the blood that was flowing from them, but the pool kept growing. The soldiers who had been sitting on the staircase opposite, a few metres from the entrance to the house, who had fired five bullets into him the moment he appeared on the street, stood before her.

Subhiyye began shouting loudly and some of the neighbours came out. They wanted to take her dying husband out into the street, but according to her account, the soldiers threatened to shoot them. Foam started to appear at the mouth of the husband. The soldiers stood in front of her and according to her, she yelled at them: "Shoot me like you shot my husband." She says that at least five minutes passed, maybe a quarter of an hour, during which her husband lay bleeding on the ground until the soldiers permitted him to be taken out onto the street below. The son Shaker, who lives in the neighbourhood opposite, had recently begun to work for a construction company in Kiryat Ono. At that time he was preparing to go to work in Israel . He did not know that his father was hovering between life and death.

Three neighbours carried the dying al-Wazir down to the street, Subhiyye right behind them. On the street stood an IDF Jeep, and the soldiers in it quickly handcuffed the neighbours who had evacuated al-Wazir and ordered them to lie on the pavement. "Why don’t you call an ambulance?" shouted Subhiyye to the soldiers. About another quarter hour passed until a Palestinian ambulance was permitted to approach. The neighbour Sbeih called to the soldiers: "Why did you shoot him? He’s an old man." Subhiyye says that the soldiers replied: "We are sorry, but we had to."

In the ambulance he asked "Where am I?" After that he lost consciousness. In the hospital Subhiyye saw that her husband had been shot not only in the legs, but also in the abdomen. He died a short time afterwards. In the evening, when she returned to their house, Subhiyye discovered that the soldiers had entered it, conducted a search and destroyed the bathroom. She added that her savings, 2,000 Dinars (about 12 thousand Shekels) had disappeared after the search.

Following a report that was prepared by the field activities coordinator of Physicians for Human Rights, Salah Hajj Yahiya, an employee of the organization, Miri Weingarten, sent a letter to the Judge Advocate-General, Colonel Avihai Mandelblit. Weingarten requested that the Judge Advocate-General instruct the Investigatory Military Police to open an investigation into "the killing of an unarmed man in his house, lack of medical care, delaying life-saving evacuation of the injured man and looting of the house of the killed man."

An IDF spokesman stated in reply: "The IDF spokesman is sorry about the shooting of an uninvolved Palestinian civilian, who was killed in the course of IDF action to arrest wanted terrorists in the city of Nablus on 16 October. The 70-year-old civilian, who lived in a nearby house, was killed in the course of exchanges of fire between the IDF and the terrorists. IDF forces that were operating on the scene summoned a medical team from the Red Crescent, which evacuated him to receive medical treatment. Later a report was received from Coordination and Liaison personnel that the man had died.

"The head of the Central Command, General Gadi Shamni, investigated the incident and in his investigation no errors were found in the actions of the force. The IDF reiterates that the terror organizations are converting the population into human shields and thereby endangering their lives.

"Regarding the matter of the money, no complaint has yet been received from the family of the Palestinian involved. To the extent that such a complaint is received, the matter will be investigated and verified according to army regulations."

Members of the bereft family are convinced that the soldiers got the wrong address. The soldiers were looking for two wanted brothers, Abdallah and Baher Hawash, who were hiding in a house next to the Wazirs' house. The brothers were caught in a hiding place inside it, after a search that lasted for all of the following day. The son Shaker is convinced that the helicopter directed the soldiers to the wrong house, and that’s why they shot his father the moment he opened the gate of his house. Mistake, mistook, mistaken – another young soldier walks our streets after having killed a Palestinian for nothing. This time it was an old man.

Children of the neighbourhood, they tell us, wet their beds, and Subhiyye too has been having trouble sleeping since then. The permit to work in Israel that had been given to the son, Shaker, only a month ago, has been withdrawn, as is always done with relatives of people who have been killed by the IDF, lest they go to Israel to seek revenge. Despite the killing, the suspected looting and the loss of a source of livelihood, the women of the family took pains to prepare a lunch for the Israeli guests: our plates overflowed again and again with mutton with akkub, chicken with lemon, mulukhiyya, beans and pickles.

Source

at 3:12 PM

It is growing, it is truth, it is RESISTANCE!!

Say NO to illegal war. Say NO to the occupation of Iraq. Say NO to those who continue to fight this ILLEGAL war in our names.

THANK YOU MATT for telling us to stop mindlessly "supporting the troops"

Support RESISTERS

Iraq war is a betrayal of American democracy

November 11, 2007

By MATT HOWARD

Editor's note: Matt Howard gave this statement at a recent protest at the Statehouse.

In 2003 I illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq with 1st Tank battalion 1st Marine Division. My commander in chief unleashed the world's fiercest fighting force upon the country and people of Iraq, and now those of us used and betrayed by him are demanding justice.

Four and a half years after our opening "shock and awe" Bush's lies are known throughout the world, and yet he continues to act with impunity. Four and a half years later the Bush regime has unleashed a hell upon the country of Iraq that only those who have been there can truly understand.

As a two-tour combat veteran of this brutal war, I have a responsibility to speak honestly and openly about what has been done and what continues to be done in our name. We veterans know that this war is not the one being sanitized on the nightly news. It has nothing to do with the liberation of the people of Iraq; instead it has everything to do with the subjugation and domination of these people in the name of U.S. imperial economic and strategic interests.

We did not go to war with the country of Iraq, we went to war with the people of Iraq. During the initial invasion we killed women. We killed children. We senselessly killed farm animals. We were the United States Marine Corps, not the Peace Corps, and we left a swath of death and destruction in our wake all the way to Baghdad.

Let me say again so that there is no misunderstanding. I stand here today as a former U.S. Marine saying we are killing women and children in Iraq. This is the true nature of war. War lends itself to atrocities. Don't think you can use an organization designed to kill other human beings for anything humanitarian. That has never been our mission. That was crystal clear from the moment I was forced to bury the crate of humanitarian food given to me in Kuwait.

Four and a half years later we as soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are done. We are done being told under threat of court martial to run over children that get in the way of our speeding convoys.

We are done raiding and destroying the homes of innocent Iraqis on a nightly basis.

We are done abusing and torturing prisoners.

We are done being hired thugs for the 160,000 contractors and U.S. corporate interests in Iraq.

We are done being poisoned by depleted uranium, the unspoken Agent Orange of this war.

We are done coming home broken, from two, three, four tours of duty – only to find our commander in chief has actually tried to CUT funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs. To find our doctors being told to diagnose us with pre-existing personality disorders instead of post traumatic stress syndrome.

We are done killing for lies.

So Iraq Veterans Against the War is taking back our history – the history that has been robbed from us. We are dispelling the myth that the Vietnam war ended when the Democrats started voting against it. Instead we are spreading the truth about how the American War in Vietnam ended.

The Vietnam War ended when soldiers put down their weapons and refused to fight; when pilots dropped their bombs in the ocean.

We are re-educating the public to let them know that the power ultimately lies with the people. Just take a look at the thousands of pages of internal documents from the Department of Defense explicitly detailing how at the end of the Vietnam war the military had collapsed. It was literally in a state of mutiny. And that movement is slowly starting again. Because ultimately in every war waged throughout human history, those forced to fight quickly realize they have much more in common with those they are being told to kill than with those telling them to do the killing.

And we are re-educating the public about the true nature of sectarian violence. No, the middle east is NOT inherently violent. In fact, in the 1,400-year schism between Sunnis and Shias – there has NEVER been a civil war fought. They have always lived in the same neighborhoods and even intermarried. The United States has caused this civil war using the classic colonial techniques of divide and conquer.

George Bush is a war criminal who has violated international law, the Geneva convention and the Nuremburg standards and needs to tried accordingly for crimes against humanity.

I ask every red-blooded American today: What would you do if your homeland was savagely invaded and occupied by another country? The Iraqis will continue to resist and fight until the last American has left their homeland. Period. End the violence in Iraq? End the occupation.

We veterans are speaking out to stop the violence being perpetrated in our name. When we voted in the Democrats on an anti-war mandate, the Bush regime expanded the war. As we are marching against further occupation, the Bush regime is making threats against Iran.

And we will not continue to be silenced by the mainstream media. Top generals and bottom privates are all speaking in unison now. We know the truth about the slaughter of upwards of one million Iraqis. Why is no one listening? We will not stand by as this regime tricks the country into thinking that if you oppose the war you do not support the troops. We ARE the troops and we have never felt support from this administration. Stop mindlessly supporting the troops. Start demanding that we come home – and maybe think about apologizing to us when we get back.

Matt Howard attained the rank of corporal in the United States Marine Corps. He is head of the Vermont chapter for Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Source

at 11:14 AM

The City of Saba

There is a glut of wealth in the City of Saba.Everyone has more than enough. Even

the bath stokers wear gold belts.Huge grape clusters hang down on every street and

brush the faces of the citizens. No one has to do anything. You can balance

a basket on your head and walk through an orchard, and it will fill by itself with

overripe fruit dropping into it. Stray dogs stray in lanes full of thrown-out

scraps with barely a notice. The lean desert wolf gets indigestion from the rich

food. Everyone is fat and satiated with all the extra. There are no

robbers. There is no energy for crime, or for gratitude, and no one wonders about

the unseen world. The people of Saba feel bored with just the mention of prophecy.

They have no desire of any kind.Maybe some idle curiosity about miracles, but that’s

it. This overrichness is a subtle disease. Those who have it are blind

to what’s wrong and deaf to anyone who points it out. The City of Saba cannot be

understood from within itself: But there is a cure, an individual medicine, not

a social remedy: sit quietly, and listen for a voice within that will say, *Be

more silent*. As that happens, your soul starts to revive Give up talking and

your positions of power. Give up the excessive money. Turn toward teachers and

prophets who dont live in Saba. They can help you grow sweet again and fragrant

and wild and fresh and thankful for any small event.

Source

at 1:52 PM

This article is EXTREMELY alarming and sure hope to God that something gives and this doesn't go forward. What is also so fascist is that it is openly being written about in the LA Times, as if this police department has NO qualms, well, actually, evidenced here, they DON'T, about surveying Muslim areas in this manner. This is RACIAL PROFILING on it's most ugly UGLY face

Folks, this is something REALLY to get worried about.

L.A. officials defend mapping of Muslim areas

template_bas

Mayor Villaraigosa says the LAPD has 'good intentions' in gathering intelligence. Chief Bratton says the effort should be seen as 'community engagement.'

Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

11:13 AM PST, November 9, 2007

City officials this morning defended the LAPD's decision to identify Muslim enclaves across the city, saying that instead of "mapping," Angelenos should see the program as "community engagement."

Civil rights groups have harshly criticized the new initiative as racial profiling that unfairly targets Muslims. The American Civil Liberties Union along with other community groups sent a letter to the LAPD this week saying the prospect of such a measure raised "grave concerns."

Related Stories
-	LAPD to build data on Muslim areas

At a press conference about police recruitment in Elysian Park, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Police Chief William Bratton and Councilman Jack Weiss said they stood behind Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing's decision to gather extensive intelligence about local Muslim communities.

"Chief Downing has good intentions here," said Villaraigosa, who added that he had only learned of the new program through newspaper articles and at a short briefing.

The Police Department respects "the civil and human rights of Muslims in Los Angeles," Villaraigosa said.

The mapping program would be headed by Downing, who is in charge of the LAPD's anti-terrorism bureau.

"We want to map the locations of these closed, vulnerable communities, and in partnership with these communities . . . help [weave] these enclaves into the fabric of the larger society," Downing said in testimony about the program before Congress on Oct. 30.

At the hearing, Downing said his intentions were to "mitigate radicalization," and that law enforcement agencies everywhere faced "a vicious, amorphous and unfamiliar adversary on our land."

The LAPD hopes to identify communities that "may be susceptible to violent, ideologically based extremism and then use a full-spectrum approach guided by an intelligence-led strategy," Downing said during the hearing.

Bratton tried to recast the program this morning, saying that incorrect words had been used to describe the LAPD's actions.

"We are seeking contact with many communities," he said. "We are doing it in a very transparent way here. We got hung up on the word 'mapping', this is 'community engagement.' "

Bratton then used an anecdote from his first days as police commissioner in New York City in the early 1990s, saying that officers there raided what appeared to be a store but turned out instead to be a mosque.

Police can sometimes be ignorant of what is actually in their neighborhood, Bratton said, referencing the officers' mistake. The new initiative is designed to get officers out into communities, meeting with people and learning the local landscape, he said.

City officials repeatedly praised the LAPD for its transparency in describing the program, but police have yet to give any details of how the mapping would be carried out or which communities would be affected.

"Right concern, wrong program," Weiss said.

Concerns over clandestine racial profiling and spying by law enforcement are important concerns but do not apply to Downing's initiative, Weiss said. "This is not a program of subterfuge, it is a program of transparency."

Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, has embraced the vaguely defined program "in concept" and was on hand this morning to support the city officials. In an earlier interview, Al-Marayati said he wanted to know more about the plan and that he would meet with the LAPD next week.

Other Muslim groups have harshly condemned the project.

"We certainly reject this idea completely," Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, said in an earlier interview. "This stems basically from this presumption that there is homogenized Muslim terrorism that exists among us."

SOURCE

CAIR Los Angeles statement: Muslim, Civil Rights Groups Oppose LAPD ‘Mapping’ Project

Letter from Muslim Leaders to the LAPD

MPAC statement: MPAC Opposes Racial Profiling, Awaits Meeting to Discuss Specifics of LAPD

Youtube: CAIR Reaction to LAPD "Mapping" LA Muslims. Listen to the moderator, "They want to find out who's there, where they live, that's all. They're not going after individually any one person" Do you see the contradiction? BTW, Hussam Ayloush spoke brilliantly at the CAIR banquet last evening.

at 12:41 PM

Back in April I posted THIS post about camel beauty contests in Saudi Arabia, with a video of just such a thing. Well, I don't know how much longer camel beauty contests are going to last in KSA, because a Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa declaring that these beauty contests are "EVIL".

WOW!!! Read below to find out WHY these beauty contests have been declared "evil".

I CANNOT believe this story.

Maybe add a sales tax and everyone will come out smelling like roses. Those camels sure fetch a "pretty penny".

Saudi cleric condemns camel beauty contests as evil

Thu 8 Nov 2007, 16:46 GMT

RIYADH (Reuters) - A leading authority of Saudi Arabia's hardline school of Islam has condemned camel beauty contests as evil, saying those involved should seek repentance in God.

Camel pageants have become major events in the desert kingdom in recent years as tribes hold ever larger competitions, with bigger prizes and wider publicity.

Delicate females or strapping males which attract the right attention during a show can sell for more than a million riyals (127,000 pounds). Sponsors spent 10 million riyals on prizes for one competition this year.

"Everyone must repent of these acts from which no good can come because of its evils, and they should beg forgiveness from God," said a fatwa, or religious ruling, issued this week by Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak and a lesser-known sheikh.

"Millions of riyals are spent on buying camels just to feel proud and not for the reasons God created camels, like for food, drink, riding and work," he said, attacking the contests as a backward tribal custom from pre-Islamic Arabia.

Commentators have pointed to camel contests as a sign of increasing tribal pride, seen as a threat to stability in the kingdom established by the Saudi royal family in 1932.

(Source)

at 8:29 PM

REJOICE!!!! Today in a court room in Tacoma, Washington, First Lieutenant Ehren Watada received from Judge Settle of the federal court a ruling in his favor!! I just got off the phone with another support team member from NCRR who I attended the court martial with in February. We are absolutely beside ourselves with joy, because in his ruling, Judge Settle ruled EXACTLY as he should have, for if you were in the court room that day like we were, you would KNOW, Judge Head mishandled the case and the mistrial should NOT have been called only to try to go back to square one and try it all over again differently because it was NOT going well for the prosecution.
The case is not quite over yet, but from all appearances, Ehren will NOT be tried again.

Judge temporarily blocks war objector's court-martial

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TACOMA, Wash. -- A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Army from conducting a second court-martial of an Iraq war objector based at Fort Lewis, saying it's likely the second trial would violate the soldier's constitutional rights.

Granting an emergency motion for a stay, U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle ruled Thursday that no court martial will be held for 1st Lt. Ehren Watada pending the outcome of his claim that it would violate his Fifth Amendment rights by trying him twice for the same charges.

Watada's first court-martial ended in a mistrial in February; Settle wrote that the military judge likely abused his discretion in declaring the mistrial.

Watada is charged with missing his unit's deployment to Iraq in June 2006 and with conduct unbecoming an officer for denouncing President Bush and the war. If convicted, he could be sentenced to six years in prison and be dishonorably discharged.

Watada contends the war is illegal and that he would be party to war crimes if he served in Iraq. The Army refused his request to be posted in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

"This is an enormous victory, but it is not yet over," Kenneth Kagan, one of Watada's attorneys, said in a statement.

Settle did not indicate what the next steps would be.

Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek said the judge acted "so that he may hear further evidence on the double jeopardy issue.

"We look forward to the opportunity to file additional briefs to further explain to the District Court judge the full extent of the protections and safeguards" afforded under the military justice system at the trial court and appellate levels, Piek added in a statement.

On Oct. 5, Settle ruled that his court had jurisdiction on the request for an emergency stay and that Watada's claim was "not frivolous." That ruling effectively blocked the scheduled Oct. 9 start of the second court-martial. The judge then asked for additional briefs, leading to Thursday's ruling.

Watada's term of service in the military ended in December, but the legal proceedings have prevented his discharge. He lives in Olympia and continues to perform administrative duties at Fort Lewis, south of Seattle.

Source

Watada court-martial now less likely

P-I STAFF

The chances of a second court-martial for 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the Fort Lewis officer who refused to go Iraq because he believes the war there illegal, became far less likely Thursday. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against a second-court martial.

Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle of Tacoma temporarily stopped the court-martial, which was to begin Oct. 9.

In his ruling Thursday, Settle said that Watada would "suffer irreparable harm" should he be tried a second time and that the Army lieutenant would likely prevail at a full trial if he argued that a new court-martial would violate his constitutional protection against double jeopardy.

Watada's court-martial in February ended in a mistrial, over his objections, after evidence had been heard but before a panel of officers began deliberating.

His attorneys argue that a new court-martial would constitute trying Watada twice for the same offenses.

(Source)

From Ehren's website, Thankyoult.org: (please go there to read in full)

In his decision, Judge Settle made the following significant points:

1. The remedy sought by Lt Watada (i.e., a writ of habeas corpus in a pretrial setting), while rare, is appropriate;

2. Lt Watada will suffer irreparable injury if relief is denied;

3. Lt Watada is likely to succeed on the merits;

4. Judge Head abused his discretion in rejecting the Stipulation of Fact;

5. Even if Judge Head did not abuse his discretion in rejecting the Stipulation of Fact, there was still a lack of "manifest necessity;"

6. Judge Head failed to adequately consider possible alternatives;

7. The balance of potential harms weighs in Lt Watada's favor; and

8. The public interest favors granting relief.

Read Judge Settles full ruling (33 pages long)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

THANK YOU GOD AND BLESS YOU EHREN!!! YOU ARE OUR HERO, YOU ARE AMERICA"S HERO!!!

MAY YOUR MESSAGE BE HEARD AROUND THE WORLD, REFUSE ILLEGAL WAR!!!!

at 5:59 PM

Well here's the answer folks, this is what is shaping our soldiers actions and attitudes.

The Cancer from Within

by David Antoon

“I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. …”
-Oath of Office

“Our mission is to educate, train, and inspire men and women to become officers of character motivated to lead the United States Air Force in service to our nation.”
-Air Force Academy mission statement

“We will not lie, steal, or cheat. …”
-Air Force Academy honor code

“Military professionals must remember that religious choice is a matter of individual conscience. Professionals, and especially commanders, must not take it upon themselves to change or coercively influence the religious views of subordinates.”
-Religious Toleration (Air Force Code of Ethics, 1997)

Forty-two years ago, at the age of 18, I took the oath of office on my first day as an Air Force Academy cadet. The mission of the academy was not only to train future leaders for the Air Force but for America as well, because, in the end, most academy graduates do not serve full military careers. The honor code became an integral part of everyday life. These are the values that I, and most graduates of the 1960s and early ’70s, took with us from our four years at the academy.

I, as did many graduates, underwent pilot training followed by tours of duty in Vietnam. Like military men and women of today, we did our best to become technically competent and professional leaders. Never, during my four years at the academy and subsequent pilot and combat training, was the word warrior used; nor, whether as a cadet or officer, did I ever encounter “Christian supremacist” rhetoric.

In April of 2004, my son, after receiving a coveted appointment to the United States Air Force Academy, asked me to accompany him to the orientation for new appointees. This 24-hour visceral event changed my life forever, and crushed my son’s lifelong dream of following in my footsteps.

The orientation began with a one-hour “warrior” rant to appointees and parents by the commandant of cadets, Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida. The fact that the word warrior had replaced leadership was a signal of what was to follow. I later learned that cadets, to determine when a new record was established, had created a game in which warrior was counted in each speech Weida gave.

My son and I then made our way to the modernist aluminum chapel, where I expected to hear a welcome from one or two Air Force chaplains offering counsel, support and an open-door policy for any spiritual or pastoral needs of these future cadets. In 1966, the academy had six gray-haired chaplains: three mainline Protestants, two priests and one rabbi. Any cadet, regardless of religious affiliation, was welcome to see any one of these chaplains, who were reminiscent of Father Francis Mulcahy of “MASH” fame.

Instead, my son’s orientation became an opportunity for the academy to aggressively proselytize this next crop of cadets. Maj. Warren Watties led a group of 10 young, exclusively evangelical chaplains who stood shoulder to shoulder. He proudly stated that half of the cadets attended Bible studies on Monday nights in the dormitories and he hoped to increase this number from those in his audience who were about to join their ranks. This “invitation” was followed with hallelujahs and amens by the evangelical clergy. I later learned from Air Force Academy chaplain MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran who was forced to observe from the choir loft, that no priest, rabbi or mainline Protestant had been permitted to participate.

I no longer recognize the Air Force Academy as the institution I attended almost four decades earlier. At that point, I had no idea how invasive this extreme evangelical “cancer” had become throughout the entire military, that what I had witnessed was far from an isolated case of a few religious zealots.

Read further>>>>>>>>>>>>

at 1:36 PM

USC Middle East Awareness Week

-presented by Students for Justice in Palestine and Political Student Assembly-

Monday, November 12: Palestine 101 with Laurie Brand

12:00 noon: Taper Hall of Humanities 116

Laurie Brand is the Director of the School of International Relations at USC. Professor Brand specializes in the international relations of the Middle East, including the political economy of the region and inter-Arab relations.

Monday, November 12: Media and the Middle East with As'ad Abu Khalil

7:00 pm: Taper Hall of Humanities 201

As’ad Abu Khalil is a professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Historical Dictionary of Lebanon (1998) and Bin Laden, Islam, & America’s New “War on Terrorism” (2002). He maintains the “Angry Arab News Service” blog.

Tuesday, November 13: Effects of U.S. Intervention on Women’s and

Human Rights in Afghanistan with Sonali Kohlatkar (co-sponsored with Women’s Student Assembly)

6:00 pm: Taper Hall of Humanities 301

Sonali Kolhatkar is vice president of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a group that works in solidarity with Afghans to help improve health and educational facilities for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. She is also the host of “Uprising”, an hour of news and analysis on KPFK radio.

Thursday, November 15: It’s Not Either/Or: The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy in the Middle East with Norman Finkelstein

6:00 pm: Taper Hall of Humanities 101

Norman Finkelstein is an American political scientist and author, specializing in the Israel-Palestine conflict. His books include Beyond Chutzpah and Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.

Saturday, November 17: Jerusalem to Los Angeles: The Poetry of Peace (Hip-Hop Concert)

7:00 pm: Bovard Auditorium

This event will feature DAM, the Palestinian hip hop stars from Jersulaem, and Omar Chakari & Ragtop. A night of hip hop and performance poetry. See www.levantinecenter.org for more information and tickets.

All Events Taking Place on USC Campus

Free Admission and Free Food for all events except Nov. 17 concert

KPFK 90.7 is the Media Sponsor For This Event

For more info: Contact Students for Justice in Palestine

uscsjp@yahoo.com ; 323-733-2274

at 11:48 AM

David Swanson, founder of ImpeachCheney.org talks about U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich's impeachment bill and tells us all what we need to do:

Current co-sponsors:

Tammy Baldwin Wisconsin/2 08/01/2007 member of House Judiciary Committee
Robert Brady Pennsylvania/1 07/24/2007
Yvette Clarke New York/11 06/06/2007
William Lacy Clay, Jr. Missouri/1 05/01/2007
Steve Cohen Tennessee/9 08/04/2007 member of House Judiciary Committee

member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
Danny K. Davis Illinois/7 11/05/2007
Keith Ellison Minnesota/5 06/28/2007 member of House Judiciary Committee

member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
Sam Farr California/17 07/12/2007
Bob Filner California/51 07/12/2007
Sheila Jackson-Lee Texas/18 08/04/2007 member of House Judiciary Committee
Hank Johnson Georgia/4 06/28/2007 member of House Judiciary Committee
Carolyn Kilpatrick Michigan/13 09/07/2007
Barbara Lee California/9 06/07/2007
Jim McDermott Washington/7 07/10/2007
James Moran Virginia/8 07/10/2007
Donald M. Payne New Jersey/10 08/01/2007
Jan Schakowsky Illinois/9 05/01/2007
Edolphus Towns New York/10 09/27/2007
Maxine Waters California/35 06/12/2007 member of House Judiciary Committee
Diane Watson California/33 10/16/2007
Lynn Woolsey California/6 06/07/2007
Albert Wynn Maryland/4 05/10/2007

House Judiciary Committee Members:

Majority (Democrat)

* John Conyers, Chairman, Michigan
* Howard L. Berman, California
* Rick Boucher, Virginia
* Jerrold Nadler, New York
* Robert C. Scott, Virginia
* Mel Watt, North Carolina
* Zoe Lofgren, California
* Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas
* Maxine Waters, California
* Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts
* Robert Wexler, Florida
* Linda T. Sánchez, California
* Steve Cohen, Tennessee
* Hank Johnson, Georgia
* Luis Gutierrez, Illinois
* Brad Sherman, California
* Anthony D. Weiner, New York
* Adam B. Schiff, California
* Artur Davis, Alabama
* Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida
* Keith Ellison, Minnesota
* Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin[1]
* 1 vacancy

Minority (Republican)

* Lamar S. Smith, Ranking Member, Texas
* Jim Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin
* Howard Coble, North Carolina
* Elton Gallegly, California
* Bob Goodlatte, Virginia
* Steve Chabot, Ohio
* Dan Lungren, California
* Chris Cannon, Utah
* Ric Keller, Florida
* Darrell Issa, California
* Mike Pence, Indiana
* Randy Forbes, Virginia
* Steve King, Iowa
* Tom Feeney, Florida
* Trent Franks, Arizona
* Louie Gohmert, Texas
* Jim Jordan, Ohio

CALL CONGRESS NOW!

at 10:17 AM

Palestinian, Israeli religious leaders launch new effort to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict

By Mohamed Elshinnawi

An independent group of Palestinian and Israeli religious leaders, meeting in Washington, has launched an initiative to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group says it hopes to counter extremism by facilitating dialogue among the region's moderate voices. Speaking Wednesday at a Washington news conference, members of the group, called the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, said they are working closely with the political leaders of Israel and the Palestinian authority to support current peace initiatives. VOA's Mohamed Elshinnawi prepared this report.

Read further>>>>>>

Council of Religious Institutions of the holy Land Communiqué

07-Nov-07
HCEF

Living Stones HCEF E-News
The Voice of the Holy Land

All of us believe in one Creator and Guide of the Universe. We believe that the essence of religion is to worship Him and respect the life and dignity of all human beings, regardless of religion, nationality and gender.
We accordingly commit ourselves to using our positions of leadership, and the influence of our good offices, to advance these sacred values, to prevent religion from being used as a source of conflict, and instead serve the goals of just and comprehensive peace and reconciliation.

Our respective Holy Places have become a major element in our conflict. We lament that this is the case, as our respective attachments to our holy places should not be a cause of bloodshed, let alone be sites of violence or other expressions of hatred. Holy places must remain dedicated to prayer and worship only, places where believers have free access and put themselves in the presence of the Creator. Holy places are there for believers to draw inspiration to strengthen their acceptance and love of Almighty and all His creatures, from all religions and all nationalities.

Accordingly each religious community should treat the Holy Sites of the other faiths in a manner that respects their integrity and independence and avoids any act of desecration, aggression or harm.

We, believers from three religions, have been placed in this land, Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is our responsibility to find the right way to live together in peace rather than to fight and kill one other. Palestinians yearn for the end to occupation and for what they see as their inalienable rights. Israelis long for the day when they can live in personal and national security. Together we must find ways of reaching these goals.

Towards these ends we are actively working to:

1. Establish “hot line” procedures of rapid communication among ourselves in order to address and advise government officials regarding issues of protection of and access to Holy Sites before such issues become cause for conflict.

2. Establish mechanisms to monitor media for derogatory representations of any religion, and issue statements in response to such representations.

3. Together reflect on the future of Jerusalem, support the designation of the Old City of Jerusalem as a World Heritage Site, work to secure open access to the Old City for all communities, and seek a common vision for this city which all of us regard as holy.

4. Promote education for mutual respect and acceptance in schools and in the media. We will sponsor a conference for Israeli and Palestinian educators, academics and Ministers of Education on “The Role of Religion in Educating for Peace: Principles and Practices.”

5. Demonstrate through our relations that differences can and should be addressed through dialogue rather than through violence, and strive to bring this message to our respective communities and political leaders that they may embrace this approach accordingly.

6. Provide ongoing consultation to our government leaders, and through the example of our work together remind them that the interests of one community can only be served by also respecting and valuing the humanity and interests of all other communities.

Source

12:25 AM · at 12:25 AM

Ridiculous article of the day:

Issa’s letter cites racism

By Jackie Kucinich (Dennis Kucinich's daughter)

November 08, 2007

In an unusual plea for campaign funds, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) recently evoked images of racism against Arab- Americans, criticized a congressional colleague by name, and reminded potential donors of a 2001 bomb threat to his office.

“I am one of only five Arab-Americans in Congress,” begina a letter written by Issa to potential donors. “I have been personally the target of anti-Arab racism and hate speech on the Internet and in other media.”

The letter, which was sent to roughly 80,000 members of the Muslim and Arab community on Oct. 24, cited an incident in December 2001 when Issa’s California office was the target of a bomb plot.

“Inspired by the malicious writings of one person, members of the radical Jewish Defense League targeted my California office — a U.S. Congressman’s office – in a terrorist bomb plot that was thwarted by the FBI just days before it was to be carried out.”

The two members of the Jewish Defense League were later charged with plotting to blow up a California mosque as well. Issa believed he was targeted as a result of a local columnist who targeted him based on his ethnicity.

“Those are the things that occurred and the only reason was because I [am] an Arab,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

Issa’s letter did not sit well with Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who is singled out in the congressman’s plea for contributions.

Issa explained in his missive that Congress wanted to draft a resolution in 2006 after the short-lived war between Hezbollah and Israel broke out. He wrote that Arab-American members of Congress wanted to call on both sides to limit the number of civilian casualties.

“Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said language urging restraint to protect civilian life would have been interpreted as a slap to Israel,” the Issa letter states.

“As time would reveal,” the letter adds, “Israel showered Lebanon in the last few days of its military campaign with hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs that to this very day are killing innocent Lebanese civilians.”

Engel expressed shock that a fundraising letter would use another member’s name.

“This is unusual and I think it is unfortunate, frankly,” he said. “I understand as colleagues we are going to have differences but it is inappropriate to use anyone else in a fundraising letter.”

He added, “We are colleagues, we are friends. I thought we were friends… I don’t personalize [an issue] to try to raise funds.

“I think his point could have been emphasized another way.”

Told of Engel’s reaction to his letter, Issa said it is common practice to quote other members in fundraising letters.

“I would be shocked if he is shocked,” Issa said.

While direct-mail letters to donors and constituents are common, the language that Issa used in his letter has also attracted criticism from outside groups.

In his letter, Issa criticized members of the “pro-Israel lobby” for blocking the civilian casualty language in the 2006 measure. (article continued below)

____________________________________________________________________

Congressman Eliot Engel

This week's guest is Congressman Eliot Engel, Democrat from the 17th district of New York. A staunch supporter of Israel and an active member of the International Relations Committee (SOURCE)

Trips taken by Eliot Engel: (SOURCE)

-NY)
10/13/01-10/15/01

Boston, MA

Participate in AIPAC's national summit

$938.46

-NY)
05/13/02-05/14/02

Boston, MA

Participate in AIPAC dinner

$561.26

-NY)
10/06/02-10/07/02

Atlanta, GA
To participate in AIPAC's summit meeting

$1,303.13

Jewish Community Relations Council

-NY)
08/17/03-08/22/03

London, England

- Israel
Participate in meetings with elected and community leaders

$7,441.20

Michael Cherney Foundation

-NY)
10/11/03-10/15/03

Tel Aviv, Israel
Participate in summit

$4,481.00

-NY)
10/01/04-10/04/04

Las Vegas, NV

Participation in annual gala

$2,458.09