Madison Rafah Journal

Philip Weiss, The New York Observer, December 26, 2006
FILE UNDER: U.S. Policy in the Mideast

A few weeks back at Columbia, I watched with amazement as the former Israeli soldier Yehuda Shaul, who started the group Breaking the Silence, gave his presentation on the horrors of the occupation to about 75 students in a darkened hall. My amazement had to do with the fact that Shaul’s visit was sponsored by a largely-Jewish group at Columbia — Pro-Israel Progressives — and was attended by members of the Hillel chapter at the school. Kudos to them.

After Shaul’s speech, representing “my comrades and not just myself,” he was bombarded by hostile questions from Israel supporters in the audience. Shaul handled them with strength and ease. (Q. “Do you know of a counterpart organization where Palestinians question their moral decisions?” A. “I really don’t care — I am an Israeli who has to raise his children in Israel…”)

Just as gripping to me was the discussion that took place after the event between Rachel Glaser, the campus coordinator of the rightwing Zionist Organization of America, and the students who had organized the event. (Read on …)

Dershowitz vs. Carter in Beantown

JOHN V. WALSH, CounterPunch.org, December 26, 2006

“Jimmy Carter is to be congratulated for not having demeaned himself by debating Alan Dershowitz.”
William M. Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts State Senate and the University of Massachusetts (Full text of Bulger’s one-sentence letter to the Boston Globe, Dec 18, 2006.)

At long last the Boston Globe published an op-ed by former President Jimmy Carter, defending his book “Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid,” from the predictable, scurrilous attacks (e.g.,”lie” and “blood libel”) by Alan Dershowitz, Abe Foxman and David Horowitz. Quite wisely, Carter used most of his space to reiterate the main contentions of his book, making his op-ed must reading for those who cannot get to the book.[1] In perhaps the most interesting paragraph, Carter links his book to war on Iraq, thus: (Read on …)

Haaretz, 28 Dec 2006

According to an annual B’Tselem report, from the beginning of 2006 to December 27, Israeli security forces have killed 660 Palestinians, a figure more than three times the number of Palestinians killed in 2005, which was 197.

The data compiled by the human rights organization also indicated a significant decrease in Israeli casualties. Palestinians killed 23 Israelis in 2006 – 17 civilians, among them one minor, and six Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The figure constitutes less than half of the 50 Israelis killed in 2005.

B’Tselem also listed the overall figures for casualties since the beginning of the intifada, with Palestinian casualties at 4005 and Israeli casualties at 1017, 701 of which were civilians.

The report states that 2006 saw an improvement in the realization on Israeli civilians’ right to life, while, on the other hand, also seeing “a deterioration in the human rights situation in the occupied territories, particularly in the increase in civilians killed and the destruction of houses and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.”

According to the report, about half of the Palestinians killed, 322, did not take part in the hostilities at the time they were killed. 22 of those killed were targets of assassinations, and 141 were minors. (Read on …)

Viewpoint: What’s good for Beirut is not good for Gaza, according to Washington’s playbook. And that discrepancy undermines the credibility of U.S. claims to be promoting democracy in the region

NICHOLAS BLANFORD/BEIRUT, Time, Dec. 22, 2006

In Lebanon as in Gaza, democratically elected governments are being challenged by political opponents demanding fresh elections — and in each place, the standoff threatens to spark a civil war. Yet, the response of the U.S. and Britain to each crisis has been so different as to provoke accusations of double-standards and questions about the West’s commitment to democracy in the Arab world.

In Lebanon, the beleaguered U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which took power in July 2005, is resisting an opposition drive led by the militant Hizballah, to hold new parliamentary elections. Hizballah supporters and their allies have held a mass sit-in in Beirut since Dec. 1, paralyzing the city center. The White House accuses Hizballah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, of attempting a “coup” against a democratically elected government. But in Gaza, the roles are reversed: Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for new elections after talks broke down with the rival Hamas movement over forming a national unity government. Hamas, which took the reins of government after winning elections in January, rejected Abbas’s call — and, in an ironic echo of the White House, accused the Palestinian president of plotting a “coup” against a government elected to office until 2010. Indeed, legal experts question whether Abbas has the constitutional authority to call new elections. (Read on …)

COMMENTARY
ALI ABUNIMAH, The Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2006

President Carter has done what few American politicians have dared to do: speak frankly about the Israel – Palestine conflict. He has done this nation, and the cause of peace, an enormous service by focusing attention on what he calls “the abominable oppression and persecution in the occupied Palestinian territories, with a rigid system of required passes and strict segregation between Palestine’s citizens and Jewish settlers in the West Bank.”

The 39th president of the United States, the most successful Arab – Israeli peace negotiator to date, has braved a storm of criticism, including the insinuation from the pro – Israel Anti – Defamation League that his arguments are anti – Semitic.

Mr. Carter has tried to mollify critics by suggesting that his is not a commentary on Israeli policy inside Israel’s own borders, as compared with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem — territories Israel occupied in 1967. He told NPR, “I know that Israel is a wonderful democracy with equal treatment of all citizens whether Arab or Jew. And so I very carefully avoided talking about anything inside Israel.”

Given the pressure he has faced, it may be understandable that Mr. Carter says this, but he is wrong. In addition to nearly four million Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the occupied territories, another one million live inside Israel’s pre – 1967 borders. These Palestinians are descendants of those who were not forced out or did not flee when Israel was created in 1948. (Read on …)

“Obviously, we told them we couldn’t wait until the morning. I was bleeding very heavily on the back seat. One of the soldiers looked down at the blood and laughed. I still wake up in the night hearing that laugh. It was such a shock to me. I couldn’t understand.”

The plight of pregnant women in the West
Bank, where babies are dying needlessly

Johann Hari, The Independent, 23 December 2006

In two days, a third of humanity will gather to celebrate the birth pains of a Palestinian refugee in Bethlehem – but two millennia later, another mother in another glorified stable in this rubble-strewn, locked-down town is trying not to howl. (Read on …)