Madison-Rafah Journal

George Bush’s Foul Smelling Irony Machine
by Rami G. Khouri, 22 Jul 2006
©2006 Rami G. Khouri / Agence Global

Why do the United States, Europe and most of the Arab world allow Lebanon to be pulverized by Israeli bombs when most of those same people in the West last year held up Lebanon as a beacon of democratic change that was a model for other Arabs?

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U.S. and Israeli War Aims
Patrick Seale, 22 Jul 2006

Israel’s cruel 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories; its refusal to countenance the creation of an independent Palestinian state; its continuing land-grab on the West Bank; its occupation of the Syrian Golan and Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms; its refusal to face up to the unresolved problem of Palestinian refugees living in wretched camps on its borders; its incarceration in deplorable conditions of some 10,000 Palestinian prisoners; and, its insane tendency to lash out with indiscriminate violence whenever its victims dare to hit back.

Israel's long roll call of dishonour
Jonathan Cook, Electronic Lebanon, 20 July 2006

The general surprise that Lebanese civilians are taking the brunt of Israel's onslaught — and the unwillingness in some quarters of the media to report the fact — reflects a poor understanding of Israel's historical use of violence. Since its birth six decades ago, Israel has always been officially "going after the terrorists", but its actions have invariably harmed civilians in an indiscriminate manner.

www.truthdig.com
By Tom Hayden, Jul 18, 2006

Editor’s note: In this essay, veteran social activist Tom Hayden, drawing upon his own rude political awakening to the realities of Israeli and Middle East politics during the 1980s, warns that the Israel lobby in the U.S. aims to “roll back the clock” and “change the map” of the region and that its neoconservative supporters will probably try to use the current Middle East crisis to ignite a larger war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.

Twenty-five years ago I stared into the eyes of Michael Berman, chief operative for his congressman-brother, Howard Berman. I was a neophyte running for the California Assembly in a district that the Bermans claimed belonged to them.

“I represent the Israeli defense forces,” Michael said. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. Michael seemed to imagine himself the gatekeeper protecting Los Angeles’ Westside for Israel’s political interests, and those of the famous Berman-Waxman machine. Since Jews represented one-third of the Democratic district’s primary voters, Berman held a balance of power.

All that year I tried to navigate the district’s Jewish politics. The solid historical liberalism of the Westside was a favorable factor, as was the strong support of many Jewish community leaders. But the community was moving in a more conservative direction. Some were infuriated at my sponsorship of Santa Monica’s tough rent control ordinance. Many in the organized community were suspicious of the New Left for becoming Palestinian sympathizers after the Six Day War; they would become today’s neoconservatives.

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Europe's response to the siege of Gaza is shameful
Jonathan Steele, The Guardian, 6 July 2006

Couldn't European leaders show a tenth of the courage of Israel's brilliant columnist, Gideon Levy? "It is not legitimate to cut off 750,000 people from electricity. It is not legitimate to call on 20,000 people to run from their homes and turn their towns into ghost towns. It is not legitimate to kidnap half a government and a quarter of a parliament. A state that takes such steps is no longer distinguishable from a terror organisation," he wrote this week in Haaretz.

Israel's experiment in human despair
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 6 July 2006

The destruction of Gaza's power plant and loss of electricity to some 700,000 people; the consequent scarcity of water, build-up of sewage that cannot be disposed of, and inevitable spread of disease; the shortages of fuel and threats to the running of vital services such as hospitals; the sonic booms of Israeli aircraft that terrify Gaza's children and unpredictable air strikes that terrify everyone; the inability of Palestinian officials to run bombed ministries and provide services; the constant threat of invasion by massed Israeli troops on the "border"; and the breakdown of law and order as Fatah and Hamas gunmen are encouraged to turn on each other. All these factors are designed to one end: the slow demand by Palestinians, civilians and militants alike, to clear out of the hell-hole of Gaza.