US Congress to cut ties with Arafat.
IR
By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, December 6, 2001
WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives passed a resolution yesterday
"expressing solidarity with Israel in the fight against terrorism" and
demanding a suspension of relations with the Palestinian Authority if it
fails to take action against terrorism.
The concurrent resolution, submitted by congressman Tom Lantos and Henry
Hyde and cosigned by 56 other members of Congress, was approved by a vote of
384-11 and was expected to also sail through the Senate later last night.
The resolution notes that the 26 Israelis killed and 175 wounded during a
14-hour rampage of terror last weekend "is the equivalent, on a proportional
basis, of 1,200 American deaths and 8,000 wounded." It also notes that U.S.
envoy Anthony Zinni termed these terror attacks "the deepest evil one can
imagine."
The resolution's preamble also quotes President George W. Bush's declaration
at a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20 that "Every nation, in every
region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with
the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor
or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile
regime."
It continues with the president's remarks on Dec. 2: "Chairman Arafat must
do everything in his power to find those who murdered innocent Israelis and
bring them to justice."
The resolution "condemns the vicious terrorist attacks" of last weekend,
"extends its deepest sympathies to the Israeli nation and to the families of
the victims" and "expresses outrage at the ongoing Palestinian terrorist
campaign and insists that the Palestinian Authority take all steps necessary
to end it."
In particular, the resolution demands the PA "destroy the infrastructure of
Palestinian terrorist groups; pursue and arrest terrorists whose
incarceration has been called for by Israel; and either prosecute such
terrorists, provide convicted terrorists with the stiffest possible
punishment, and ensure that those convicted remain in custody for the full
duration of their sentences; or render all arrested terrorists to the
government of Israel for prosecution."
The resolution "urges the president to take any and all necessary steps" to
ensure that the PA takes these actions, "including, if necessary, suspending
all relations with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority." It also
calls on all countries "harboring, materially supporting, or acquiescing in
the private support of Palestinian terrorist groups" to end all such support
and "to bring all terrorists within their borders to justice."
The administration, wary of losing Arab support for its campaign in
Afghanistan, has previously tried to temper congressional action against the
PA.
No such effort is apparent this time. The resolution has mainly symbolic
value; a decision to suspend relations with the PA must come from the
president rather than the legislative branch.
In related congressional action yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle said that time has run out for Arafat to crack down on militants.
ir
Doc
"IR" <il...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:RAOP7.425326$bY5.1...@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Doc
Bob Sims
> By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, December 6, 2001
>
> WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives passed a resolution yesterday
> "expressing solidarity with Israel in the fight against terrorism" and
> demanding a suspension of relations with the Palestinian Authority if it
> fails to take action against terrorism.
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
The US House of Representatives is under almost total Jewish control
- and this is "last throw of the dice time" for them.
A blatant attempt to annex US politics is a stupendously stupid move,
which could cost them very dear as the US electorate finally loose
patience with the Jewish tail eternally wagging the American dog - and
siphoning off $3 billion of US tax dollars to fund Israeli terrorism every
damn year !
Leaving the US with nothing but problems in the Middle East and a
growing resentment amongst its Arab friends - on whose oil it depends
for its very existance.
Cliff Morrison
<il...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> Congress threatening to cut ties with PA
> By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, December 6, 2001
>
> WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives passed a resolution yesterday
> "expressing solidarity with Israel in the fight against terrorism" and
> demanding a suspension of relations with the Palestinian Authority if it
> fails to take action against terrorism.
So, the USA takes collective responsibility for all that is inflicted on
the Palestinians?
> The concurrent resolution, submitted by congressman Tom Lantos and Henry
> Hyde and cosigned by 56 other members of Congress, was approved by a vote of
> 384-11 and was expected to also sail through the Senate later last night.
On the same day as the President was granted power to make any
international "trade" (so often a euphemism for imperialism and pretext
for war) agreement with only the (temporary?) right of veto to balance it
- not the ability to change or block any particular aspect of such
treaties or decrees....
which of course means all sort of nasties could be tucked away in the
small print, yet all has to be taken or rejected in totality, as an
indivisible package - making it so much easier for arms to be twisted and
big-business funded media pressure to convert the whole process into a
rubber-stamp charade.
Here's a headline that would fit it:
"Judas turkeys vote flag-waving sheeple into corporate oven".
> The resolution .... also notes that U.S.
> envoy Anthony Zinni termed these terror attacks "the deepest evil one can
> imagine."
Wow gosh and gollygee, that sure puts piddling small-time amateurs like
Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Atilla, the Ottoman Empire, the Conquistadores,
Imperial Japan in China, Bin Laden and various others (often clients and
proteges of the CIA) into their place!
And that's without mentioning the likes of Sharon and his goonsquads at all...
> In related congressional action yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Tom
> Daschle said that time has run out for Arafat to crack down on militants.
And have they ever said the same of the Israeli government?
Steve
> In article <RAOP7.425326$bY5.1...@news-server.bigpond.net.au>, "IR"
> <il...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> ...........
> > In related congressional action yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Tom
> > Daschle said that time has run out for Arafat to crack down on militants.
>
> And have they ever said the same of the Israeli government?
The Isaeli government IS the militant.
al953
IR wrote:
Zionist lackeys!
IR
It's interesting that the Hamas and
Islamid Jihad chose to slaughter
the Israeli civilians in Jerusalem
and Haifa EXACTLY when US
representative Zinni was in the
area to assist in creating a ceasefire
(which would lead to peace talks.)
Most likely, right after recovering
from his shock, Zinni called
his family then the White House
and then some of his friends in the
Pentagon and the US Congress.
It's this particular situation that
may have determined what will
happen to the people calling
themselves Palestinian Arabs.
Remember -- its usually not WHAT
we know, but WHO we know that
shapes most events in our lives.
HISTORY will tell.
ir
Cyrakis
>
> The US House of Representatives is under almost total Jewish control
> - and this is "last throw of the dice time" for them.
Damn, how did our jew masters manage to let you slip by? Did you
remove your mind control helmet without authorization fuckface?
> Leaving the US with nothing but problems in the Middle East and a
> growing resentment amongst its Arab friends - on whose oil it depends
> for its very existance.
You've got it all wrong. It's arabs that are relying on US tolerance
and mercy for their existence. We'll take their oil and their lives if
they get out of line. Jihad on that motherfuckers.
Johnny Canuck
To be fair, they should cut off this generous $3 billion subsidies to ISrael
as well, after all, they shouldn't give money to a country with apartheid
like policies.
JC
"IR" <il...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:RAOP7.425326$bY5.1...@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Johnny Canuck
Racism Inside Israel
Phyllis Bennis is interviewed by Max Elbaum
Colorlines Magazine, 15 December 2000
Posted at globalresearch.ca 29 August 2001
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Phyllis Bennis, a longtime analyst and activist around Middle East issues,
is now head of the Middle East Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
in Washington, D.C. She is the author of From Stones to Statehood: The
Palestinian Uprising, a book about the Palestinian intifada of the late
1980s, and Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's U.N. In this
interview, Phyllis analyzes the racist character of Israel's occupation of
the West Bank and Gaza as well as its treatment of Palestinians who live
within Israel's pre-1967 borders.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
ColorLines: What do you see as the root cause of the current Palestinian
uprising?
Phyllis Bennis: What's going on right now can be summed up in one word:
occupation. Contrary to the U.S. media's portrayal, the Israeli occupation
of Palestine is at the root of what the media at best identify only as a
"disproportionate" use of violence by the Israelis on the West Bank and
Gaza.
Certainly the Israeli troops' use of helicopter gunships, of machine guns
mounted on tanks, and so on is profoundly disproportionate when used against
a Palestinian civilian population armed only with stones and some old
Kalashnikov rifles.
But the real issue is the Israeli military occupation of Palestine--not only
that it is inherently violent and a violation of international law and
contrary to United Nations resolutions. Even if Israel used only
proportionate violence, it would still be absolutely illegal, because the
occupation of Palestinian land is illegal.
CL: And why is there an occupation?
PB: From its origins in the 19th century, Zionism centered on the idea of
creating a specifically Jewish state in which Jews would be protected and
privileged over non-Jews.
Zionist occupation of Palestine was at first meager, amounting to about 10
percent of the population by 1900. By 1947, Jews were still only about 30
percent of the population of Mandate Palestine and owned only six percent of
the land, but the UN Partition Resolution that year still assigned 55
percent of the land to a new Jewish state. However, by means of the 1947-48
war, Israel took over even greater expanses of land and forcibly expelled
about 750,000 Palestinians. This travesty was the basis for the official
founding of the Israeli state in 1948.
CL: In this latest intifada, there have been numerous protests by Arabs
living within the pre-1967 borders of Israel. What are their numbers and
their conditions of life?
PB: Inside what is called the "Green Line"--the unofficial borders of Israel
before the 1967 war--there are still about one million Palestinians, just
under 20 percent of the total Israeli population. Most Palestinians are
Muslim, some are Christian.
From 1948 to 1966, the Palestinians within Israel lived under explicit
military rule.
They were considered a military threat to the Israeli state, and they were
ruled under a completely different set of laws than the Jewish population.
After 1966, military rule was lifted, but it was replaced by a set of Jim
Crow-like laws designed to discriminate against Arabs in Israel. According
to Adalah, an Arab rights organization, today there are at least 20 laws
that specifically provide unequal rights and obligations based on what the
Israelis call nationality, which in Israel is defined on the basis of
religion.
Israelis must carry a card which identifies them as either a Jew, a Muslim,
or a Christian. All non-Jews are second class citizens. The Israeli Supreme
Court has dismissed virtually all cases which dealt with equal rights for
Arab citizens.
CL: Can you be more specific about how this discrimination works and what it
means?
PB: All Israeli citizens, including Palestinians, have the right to vote in
elections for members of the Knesset (parliament) and for the prime
minister. But not all rights are citizenship rights. Other rights are
defined as nationality rights, and are reserved for Jews only. If you are a
Jew, you have exclusive use of land, privileged access to private and public
employment, special educational loans, home mortgages, preferences for
admission to universities, and many other things.
Many other special privileges are reserved for those who have served in the
Israeli military. And military service is compulsory for all Jews (male and
female), except for the ultra-Orthodox who get the same privileges as other
Jews, but excludes Palestinians, who do not.
Over 80 percent of the land within Israel that was once owned by
Palestinians has been confiscated. All told, 93 percent of Israel's land can
only be leased or owned by Jews or Jewish agencies. Moreover, despite
Israel's booming economy, Palestinian unemployment is skyrocketing--Adalah
says it is about 40 percent. In 1996 twice as many Arab citizens (28.3
percent) as Jewish citizens (14.4 percent) lived below the poverty line.
Less than five percent of government employees are Arab. And eighty percent
of all student drop- outs are Arab.
There are also vast disparities between Arab towns and Jewish towns in
government spending on schools, medical systems, roads and electricity,
clean water, and social services.
Unlike any other country in the world, Israel does not define itself as a
state of its residents, or even a state of its citizens, but as a state of
all the Jews in the world.
Jews from anywhere in the world, like me, can travel to Israel, declare
citizenship, and be granted all the privileges of being Jewish that are
denied to Palestinians who have lived in the area for hundreds of years.
CL: Are Palestinians within Israel participating in the current uprising?
PB: The recent resistance has seen a whole new level of involvement in
demonstrations by Palestinians inside the Green Line. They are protesting
the discrimination they face in Israel as well as the occupation itself and
Israeli brutality against Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza. Such
protests are not completely without historical precedent; in 1976 there were
a series of demonstrations on what became known as Land Day which protested
continuing Israeli seizures of Palestinian land. Six Palestinian
demonstrators, citizens of Israel, were killed by Israeli forces.
But this time there is a vast increase in the participation of Palestinians
inside the Green Line. Their demonstrations have been met with the same
brutal military tactics used against Palestinians in the West Bank. So, far
13 Israeli Palestinians have been killed.
These tactics are in sharp contrast to the methods used by Israeli
authorities in response to demonstrations by Israeli Jews.
In 1982, for example, when there was an upsurge of Jewish protests against
the Israeli war in Lebanon, one Israeli Jewish protester was killed and
there was such an enormous outcry that people remember his name to this
day--Emil Grunzweig.
But when a Palestinian is killed by Israeli military occupation forces, that
is not considered news. We might hear a body count, but we never hear their
names, who their parents or children are, what they did for a living.
On the West Bank and Gaza, as well as inside the Green Line, police randomly
fired live ammunition into crowds of unarmed Arab demonstrators that were
throwing stones. The racist double standard is everywhere. A mob of Israeli
Jews even attacked the house of an Arab member of the Knesset, Azmi Bishara.
But the police would not act against the rioters.
Unfortunately, the years of occupation have created, or have allowed to
flourish, an incredibly racist vantage point among the majority of Israeli
Jews. The majority of Israeli Jews are willing to accept the killing of
Palestinians and collective punishment of the Palestinian population as
justified state policy.
CL: Can you tell us more about Palestinian politics within Israel?
PB: Not surprisingly, Palestinians inside Israel have historically felt
themselves excluded and disempowered by the Israeli government. The
Communist Party of Israel was long a predominantly Arab party and received
the vast majority of Palestinian votes. The CP remains strong, but a few
Palestinian Knesset members have recently allied themselves to the Labor
Party and more and more Palestinians have joined newer nationalist blocs.
Azmi Bishara, who leads the Tajamoah (National Democratic) Party, became the
first Arab citizen to run for prime minister last year. He and others
actually call for the "de- Zionization" of Israel--for the transformation of
Israel from a theocratic state privileging the Jewish majority to a
democratic, secular state of all its citizens.
CL: You are painting a picture of an Israeli government, with the support of
a substantial part of its Jewish population, which aims toward permanent
subordination of Palestinian Arabs within its borders, along with domination
over something that might be called a Palestinian state but what would
really amount to a dependent Bantustan.
Essentially the same vision that motivated apartheid South Africa.
PB: Yes. And there are even more complexities. Within Israel there are
really four levels of citizenship, the first three being various levels of
Jewish participation in Israeli society, which are thoroughly racialized. At
the top of the pyramid are the Ashkenazi, the white European Jews. At the
level of power the huge contingent of recent Russian immigrants--now about
20 percent of Israeli Jews--are being assimilated into the
European-Ashkenazi sector, though they are retaining a very distinct
cultural identity.
The next level down, which is now probably the largest component of the
Jewish population, is the Mizrachi or Sephardic Jews, who are from the Arab
countries. At the bottom of the Jewish pyramid are the Ethiopian Jews, who
are black. You can go into the poorest parts of Jewish West Jerusalem and
find that it's predominantly Ethiopian.
This social and economic stratification took shape throughout the last 50
years as different groups of Jews from different part of the world came, for
very different reasons, to Israel. So while the divisions reflected national
origins, they play out in a profoundly racialized way.
The Yemeni Jews in particular faced extraordinary discrimination. They were
transported more or less involuntarily from Yemen to Israel. On arrival they
were held in primitive camps, and many Yemeni babies were stolen from their
mothers and given for adoption to Ashkenazi families. In the early 1990s a
high-profile campaign began to try to reunite some of those shattered
families.
Beneath all these layers of Jews come the Palestinian citizens.
A rigid hierarchy, highly racialized both within and between religious or
national groups, orchestrates Israeli social life.
Much of it is legally enforced. The most significant difference between this
scenario and other similar ones is in the world's perception of the Israeli
reality. For the overwhelming majority of the world's population, South
Africa was always considered a pariah state. But Israel is not in that
position. Israel is given a pass, if you will, on the question of racism.
Because Jews were victims of the Nazi Holocaust, there's a way in which
Israeli Jews are assumed to be either incapable of such terrible racialized
policies, or that it's somehow understandable because of what Jews went
through.
But the new intifada has refocused attention on the nature and extent of
Israeli racism, among other things. You have new reports from Amnesty
International looking at the Israeli treatment of its own Palestinian
citizens--minors, children, being arrested, beaten and held for days. Israel
treats Palestinians, inside or outside the Green Line, as being less human
than Jews. This is rooted in the very definition and Basic Law of the
Israeli state. And the new intifada may give us a chance to challenge that
apartheid character.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
The URL of this article is:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BEN108A.html
JC
"Cyrakis" <cyr...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e7e9a223.01120...@posting.google.com...
Johnny Canuck
Not true, just part of the gov't, and those responsible for 50 years of
institutionalized racism and oppression.
Johnny Canuck
>
> It's interesting that the Hamas and
> Islamid Jihad chose to slaughter
> the Israeli civilians in Jerusalem
> and Haifa EXACTLY when US
> representative Zinni was in the
> area to assist in creating a ceasefire
> (which would lead to peace talks.)
>
> Most likely, right after recovering
> from his shock, Zinni called
> his family then the White House
> and then some of his friends in the
> Pentagon and the US Congress.
>
> It's this particular situation that
> may have determined what will
> happen to the people calling
> themselves Palestinian Arabs.
> Remember -- its usually not WHAT
> we know, but WHO we know that
> shapes most events in our lives.
>
> HISTORY will tell.
No, what's interesting is that Sharon took a CALCULATED risk and assisinated
a KEY hamas official before Zinni arrived:
So, in the wake of the last suicide bomb attacks launched by Hamas, the sky
is now the limit for Israeli reprisals: the killing of Arafat, and, not so
far down the road, perhaps forced expulsion of tens of thousands of
Palestinians from the West Bank. In other words, the substitution of
untrammeled military repression by Israel's forces, and a deaf ear by the US
to all Palestinian calls for fair dealing. Write FINIS to all efforts across
the past 35 years to secure a just settlement in Israel and some measure of
satisfaction for Palestinian aspirations.
But to be honest about it, is not that exactly what militant Israelis like
Ariel Sharon have wanted all along? Can anyone claim with a straight face
that Sharon and those like him actually want a just peace that would see an
end to Israeli settlements on the West Bank, the rise of a Palestinian state
in any guise other than pathetic little Bantustans ringed by Israel's
security forces?
There are those in Israel who outlined clearly a couple of weeks ago
Sharon's plan to force matters exactly along the lines they have now taken.
Alex Fishman is the main commentator on security matters for Israel's
largest mass circulation paper, Yediot Achronot, a publication with
right-of-center politics. Fishman is known for his excellent contacts in the
military. On Sunday, November 25, Fishman issued a prediction based on the
recent assasination on November 23 by Israel's security services of the
Hamas leader, Mahmud Abu Hunud. It was featured in a box on the newspaper's
front page.
It began, "We again find ourselves preparing with dread for a new mass
terrorist attack within the Green Line [Israel's pre-'67 border]." Since
Fishman was entirely accurate in this regard, we should mark closely what he
wrote next. "Whoever gave a green light to this act of liquidation knew full
well that he is thereby shattering in one blow the gentleman's agreement
between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority; under that agreement, Hamas was
to avoid in the near future suicide bombings inside the Green Line, of the
kind perpetrated at the Dolphinarium [discotheque in Tel-Aviv]."
Fishman stated flatly that such an agreement did exist, even if neither the
Palestinian Authority nor Hamas would admit to it in public. "It is a fact,"
he continued, " that, while the security services did accumulate repeated
warnings of planned Hamas terrorist attacks within the Green Line, these did
not materialize. That cannot be attributed solely to the Shabak's impressive
success in intercepting the suicide bombers and their controllers. Rather,
the respective leaderships of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas came to
the understanding that it would be better not to play into Israel's hands by
mass attacks on its population centres."
In other words Arafat had managed to convince Hamas to curb its suicide
bombers. This understanding was shattered by the assassination of Abu Hunud.
"Whoever decided upon the liquidation of Abu Hunud," Fishman continued, "
knew in advance that that would be the price. The subject was extensively
discussed both by Israel's military echelon and its political one, before it
was decided to carry out the liquidation. Now, the security bodies assume
that Hamas will embark on a concerted effort to carry out suicide bombings,
and preparations are made accordingly."
Ever since September 11 Israel's leaders followed with deep trepidation the
building of the coalition against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The months of
studious indifference displayed by the Bush administration towards the
Middle East's crises suddenly gave way to President Bush's abrupt, post
September 11 statement that he had always nourished the dream of a
Palestinian state.
Consequently the prime task of the Israeli government and of its suppporters
here has been to turn back any serious pressure for accomodation with even
the most modest of Palestinian demands. In parallel the faction mustered
around deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Defense Policy Board
chairman Richard Perle has been to push for the US to reopen direct
hostilities with Iraq and settle accounts with Saddam Hussein, once and for
all.
The Wolfowitz-Perle group knows perfectly well that any serious new
confrontation with Saddam Hussein would probably be a prolonged and bloody
affair. There is no Northern Alliance ready and eager for US intervention in
Iraq. The Shia in the south remember well what happened in 1991 when they
rose against Saddam and the US stood by while Saddam methodically
slaughtered them. The Kurds know that a post Saddam regime might move
against them, with similar US indifference. If the US acted as supervisor
and guarantor for an invasion by Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National
Congress, the military and diplomatic consequences would be both bloody and
far-reaching.
It's clear that the Wolfowitz-Perle group is equable in the face of such
uncertainties, since whatever the ghastly consequences for ordinary people
in Iraq the one outcome that would be certain is that Israel would be
resoundingly confirmed in its status as the United States' prime ally and
client in the region, even as the post-September 11 coalition with Islamic
countries falls apart. Small wonder they rapturously echo Sharon's
denunciations of Arafat as a man of terror even though they, being smart
people, probably don't need Alex Fishman to explain how the real game is
actually being played.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburnisrael.html
That's what's interesting.