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Today's
Stories
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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Weekend Edition
December 4 / 6, 2004
Barghouti, Abu Mazen and Sharon
Widow
of Opportunity?
By
URI AVNERY
My immediate reaction to Marwan Barghouti's
registration as a candidate for the presidency of the Palestinian
Authority was positive.
First of all, I am always in
favor of the underdog. And who could be more of an underdog than
a prisoner?
Second, I respect the man.
I have met him at planning meetings for joint peace actions.
I have demonstrated for him in Tel-Aviv and been forcibly evicted
from the court building, with a rightist lynch mob howling in
the background.
Third, the Marwan Barghouti
candidacy puts the fate of the Palestinian prisoners on the agenda--those
prisoners of war who are treated like common criminals by Israel.
Fourth, his candidacy (if he
exercises it) will set the stage for a scene unprecedented in
the Arab world: an election where the victory of one candidate
is no assured in advance. An Abu Mazen-Marwan Barghouti confrontation
would be a real fight.
On second thoughts I took the
opposite view.
The whole world is following
these elections in order to see if the Palestinian people is
capable of uniting in time of crisis, after the death of the
Father of the Nation. In his 45 years as leader of the struggle
for liberation, Yasser Arafat succeeded in maintaining the unity
of his people, a well-nigh impossible task. Many have predicted
that after his death the nation will break into a hundred splinters.
The unity around Abu-Mazen has--at least until now--confounded
these hopes (or fears.)
I am not a religious believer
in "Unity". Debate and dispute are the lifeblood of
democracy, and when the time comes, the Palestinians will have
to debate thoroughly the future course of their struggle for
liberation. But: is this the right time?
I think not. Disunity among
the Palestinians at this moment will provide a pretext for the
enemies of peace within the Israeli and American leaderships.
They will exclaim with great joy: "See? There is no one
to talk with!" It is important for the Palestinian people
to show the world that there is indeed someone to talk with.
And since both President Bush and his guide and mentor, Ariel
Sharon, have already declared that Abu Mazen is "moderate"
and "pragmatic", they will be hard put to go back to
the mendacious slogan "We Have No Partner!" (Copyright:
Ehud Barak.)
Therefore it is important that
Abu Mazen be elected, and elected by a large majority.
He has to be given a chance.
Not only he personally, but the whole approach he represents:
the belief that without suicide attacks and the armed Intifada,
the Palestinians can now achieve their minimal national goals:
a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the
Green Line border (with possible small exchanges of territory),
Jerusalem as capital of the two states, evacuation of the settlements
and an agreement on a practical solution to the refugee problem.
Perhaps that is a naive belief.
Perhaps it has no chance at all, perhaps it is actually the Palestinians
who "have no partner". But it is important for the
Palestinians--and the entire world--to put this belief to the
test. After a year, by the end of 2005, it will be possible to
draw conclusions--and then the time will be ripe for the great
debate among the Palestinians. If Abu Mazen is able to show impressive
achievements - he will win. If not, the Third Intifada will probably
break out.
This Palestinian debate will
be the great opportunity for Marwan Barghouti to take part and
to present his own approach. Until then, I believe, he will be
well advised to support Abu Mazen. After all, he himself thought
so until this week.
Do the hopes of Abu Mazen have
a real basis?
This week, the President of
Egypt, Husni Mubarak, advised the Palestinians to put their trust
in Sharon. He can make peace, he said, discreetly adding "If
he wants to."
Mubarak's interests are clear.
Every year he gets a huge subsidy from the United States, a donation
that is vital for the stability of his regime. Funding this depends
on the United States Congress, which is called by malicious tongues
"Israeli Occupied Territory". It is in his interest
to be friendly with Sharon and help him out in his present predicament.
Sharon is in the middle of
a delicate political maneuver. He has kicked out the Shinui party,
his only remaining coalition partner, from the government. The
huge and powerful Central Committee of his party will not allow
him to set up a purely "secular" coalition with Shinui
and the Labor Party, so he has to bring in the Ultra-Orthodox
instead of Shinui.
Now he resembles a circus trapeze
artist who has let go of one bar and, flying through the air,
has to grab hold of another. There are many in his own party
who are trying to push the other bar away, so that he will crash
to the ground and break his neck.
If Sharon does not succeed,
there will be elections. This means that for many months the
whole political system will be paralyzed, the "disengagement"
from Gaza will not take place, peace will be off the agenda.
That could mean the end of Abu Mazen's political career.
If, on the other hand, Sharon
gets his new coalition with the Labor Party and the Ultra-Orthodox,
and buys the consent of the Ultra-Orthodox to his "disengagement"
plan, it will be the start of an obstacle race. Will the government
succeed in mobilizing the public for a withdrawal from the whole
of the Gaza Strip? Will it be able to remove the settlers without
bloodshed? Will it give up the "Philadelphi axis" that
cuts the Strip off from the world? Will it agree to the reopening
of Gaza Port and the airport? Will it provide "safe passage"
between the Strip and the West Bank? (That was a main plank of
the Oslo agreement, consistently violated by all Israeli governments
since.)
All these are a short sprint
compared to the Marathon of the West Bank. It is an open secret
that Sharon concocted the "disengagement plan" not
only in order to rid himself of the responsibility for the million
and a quarter Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but mainly so he
could quietly annex 58% of the West Bank. Will he give up this
dream?
Optimists believe that the
withdrawal from Gaza--if it does indeed take place, God willing--will
engender a dynamic of its own. There is a "Window of Opportunity".
After Sharon and Bush demonized Yasser Arafat for years and exploited
the orchestrated hatred in order to sabotage any step towards
peace, this alibi has now disappeared, along with the Palestinian
leader himself. Also, Bush will want to use his last term of
office to achieve something significant. Same for Shimon Peres.
World public opinion will demand it. Europe will get involved.
Sharon may be swept along by the current he himself has created.
As the old Jewish saying goes: "If God wills it, even a
broomstick can shoot!"
Others are much more pessimistic.
They point to Sharon's legendary stubbornness. He will postpone
talking about the West Bank until after the implementation of
his Gaza plan. That will bring us to the end of 2005. The year
after, 2006, will be devoted to the Israeli elections. And so
forth. In the meantime, he creates "facts on the ground".
Who are right, the optimists
or the pessimists? In truth, nobody can foresee today what will
happen. It depends on many factors, including the Israeli peace
camp. It goes without saying that we shall cooperate with any
Palestinian leadership elected by its people, and it is not for
us to interfere in this process.
A year will pass before we
will know whether there is indeed a "window of opportunity"--or
just a widow of opportunity.
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
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