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Today's
Stories
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
September 30,
2004
Ralph Nader
10
Ways to Beat Bush: a Gift to the Kerry/Edwards Campaign
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnap Capital of the World: Iraq's One Growth Industry
Gideon Levy
When You Have Breast Cancer in Gaza
Joshua Frank
Presidential Debates? Pass the Remote
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
I Dreamed They Had a Debate
Ali Khan
Dershowitz's
Jihad: Inventing Exceptions to International Law
Steve Perry
An Interview with Sibel Edmonds
September 29,
2004
Behrooz Ghamari
Playing
Politics with Nukes: A Collision Course with Iran?
Ray McGovern
More
Troops to Iraq...After the Election
Walter Brasch
Tinseltown
Traitors?: Applauding Only the Right Entertainers
Chris Floyd
The
Deceivers: Chronicle of a Quagmire Foretold
Stacey Reynolds
The Story of a Mercury-Poisoned American
M. Junaid Alam
Disrupting America's Fateful Non-Debate on the Roots of Terrorism
John L. Hess
They've Already Called It
Paul Craig
Roberts
Delusion
Rules: War, Outsourcing an Debt
September 28, 2004
Mike Whitney
Kerry's
Moral Compass
Fred Gardner
Pot
Shots: the Civics Teacher
Dan Meek
How Democrats Kicked Nader Off the Oregon Ballot
Greg Bates
Choking on Progressives for Kerry
Alan Farago
Jeanne in Haiti: Where is the World?
Lori Berenson
The Cajamarca Protest
Wayne Madsen
Where
is the Florida National Guard?
Robert Fisk
Why Have We Suddenly Forgotten Abu Ghraib?
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Expulsion of Cat Stevens
Patrick Cockburn
As British Muslims Plead for Bigley's Life, US Airstrikes Pound
Fallujah
Sam Husseini
The Problem with Public Opinion Polls
Lee Sustar
Putting Bosses First: Latter Day Democrats and Labor
Dave Lindorff
A Progressive Case for (Gag) Kerry?
Norman Madarasz
Talking International: Contra Kerry
Kevin Pina
The Tragedy of Gonaives, Haiti
September 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
C'mon
Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose
Dave Zirin
The Courage of the NBA's Etan Thomas:
"I Am Totally Against This War"
Saul Landau
The Reality of Empire and Campaign Rhetoric
Dave Lindorff
Our Heroic Baby-Killers
Brian J. Foley
Bush at the UN: the Sound of No Hands Clapping
William Blum
Progressives and the Election
Alan Maass
Why is Kerry Running Such a Lame Campaign? You Can't Blame It
All on Bob Shrum
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Another Lost Story
Solange Echeverria
An Interview with Kevin Pina on the Floods in Haiti
Nicole Colson
What About the Supreme Court?
Justin Smith
The New Sparta
Joshua Frank
Iraq: From Clinton to Bush
Karyn Strickler
Momma, Don't Let Your Babides Grow Up to be Cannon Fodder
Michael Donnelly
Rather Disingenuous: "Remember in November"
Greg Bates
The Politics of Nader's Republican Support
Todd Chretien
Lesser Evilism: We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion
William Loren
Katz
Dire Warnings from the Past: From Wilson to Bush
Omar Barghouti
Americans, You've Lost Your Alibi!
Poets' Basement
Holt, Clarke, Albert, Laymon and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Carnival of Chaos
September 24,
2004
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages
to the Wolves
William S.
Lind
Destroying
the National Guard
Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show
Nancy Welch
What's
at Stake for Women in 2004?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo
Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101
Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh
Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine
September 23,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"
Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the
Phony War on Terrorism
Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross
Michael Neumann
Three
Years and Counting? How Time Flies
September 22,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's
War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan
Neve Gordon
The
Wall, the Court and Sharon
Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now
Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship
Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not
Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter
Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz
John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: The House Rules
September 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
"We
Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment"
to Securing a Middle East Realm
Robert Jensen
Large
Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?
Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die
Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon
Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again
David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?
M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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.
|
October 2 / 3, 2004
On Israel /
Palestine
An
Exchange with Bennie Morris
By
KATHLEEN and Bill CHRISTISON
The following is an e-mail
exchange between the well known Israeli historian, Benny Morris,
and Kathleen and Bill Christison, initiated when Morris wrote
to criticize an article written for CounterPunch.org by the Christisons.
The article, entitled "Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine,
ran on September 24, 2004. The exchange is reprinted below exactly
as each correspondent wrote, including any mistakes and infelicities
that might have resulted from the haste inherent in e-mail communication.
September 25, 2004
Dear Christisons,
I happened to come upon your
recent description of a trip through Israel\Palestine. At one
point I encountered the word 'honesty'.
So I was struck by your brief
description of the history 'Saffuriya' -- today and originally
called 'Tzipori', a word meaning 'my bird' in Hebrew. You mention
the Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, etc. but not the Jews, though it
was a Jewish town for hundreds of years, more than a thousand
years before the Arabs swept out of Arabia and conquered Palestine
and forcibly converted its inhabitants to Islam.
Is this 'honest'?
Unfortunately, it characterizes
the piece.
Yours,
Benny Morris
-----
September 26, 2004
Dear Dr. Morris,
It's a treat to get a message
from someone like you. You're quite right that we didn't mention
that Saffuriya was Jewish at one time in its long history, and
this was a mistake. But you seem to be justifying Israel's expulsion
of the town's Palestinian inhabitants in 1948, the demolition
of their homes, and the confiscation of their lands on the basis
that Jews had suffered at the hands of Muslim conquerors 1300
years earlier. Although we're not historians, the notion that
in 1948 Jews "coveted" Palestinian land (your word
in The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem) and "feared"
(your word again) that the Palestinian inhabitants might return
unless their land was confiscated, their homes demolished, and
the few stragglers trucked away, seems to us a travesty of human
decency. Whether or not Jews suffered a millennium and a half
earlier at the hands of these Palestinians' distant ancestors
(and the factual picture here is unclear), the deliberate ruination
of these people's lives because Jews wanted a measure of exclusivity
is racism pure and simple.
Incidentally, we assume you
could not have failed to notice that the word "honesty"
appeared in our article as a characterization of your historical
work. Actually, we've cited your works several times previously
and usually, although not always, in a very favorable way. Kathleen's
two books, Perceptions of Palestine and The Wound of
Dispossession, relied very heavily in spots on your history
of 1948. You undoubtedly won't appreciate the third reference,
which was in another CounterPunch article earlier this year,
but you should perhaps take a look at it, at Offending
Valerie. Being an honest
historian clearly doesn't necessarily mean that one is unbigoted
in one's attitudes toward other human beings.
Kathy & Bill Christison
-----
September 26, 2004
My letter to you 'justified'
nothing. But your erasure of the Jewish portion of Tzipori's
history seemed calculated to underline the Palestinians' sole
right to the site -- to Palestine in toto.
My own view, for what it is
worth, is that both peoples have a just and legitimate claim
to the Land of Israel\Palestine, and even though the Arab nation,
of whom the Palestinians are a part, have 22 other states, Palestine
should be divided into two states, more or less along 1967 lines.
Unfortunately, the Palestinians have traditionally rejected such
a solution (1937, 1947, 1978) and in 2000 once again rejected
the Barak-Clinton proposals of July-December which posited precisely
such a solution.
I think honesty requires a
bit of objectivity, a bit of balance, a bit of trying to see
things from more than one perspective, whatever one's own political
beliefs -- and this was sorely lacking in your article.
Yours,
Benny Morris
-----
September 27, 2004
You raise a huge variety of
points in a brief message. We did not say or imply that the Palestinians
have a "sole right" to all of Palestine, but we do
believe that they had a right not to have been evicted
from any site in order to make room for Jews (or anyone else).
This includes not only Saffuriya-Tzippori but all the other almost
400 villages in which they once lived. Like you, we too believe
that both peoples have a just and legitimate claim to the land
of Palestine-Israel and that it should be shared between them.
We wonder, however, how you square this belief with your statement
in the lengthy Ha'aretz interview of January 9, 2004,
that Ben-Gurion should probably have "carried out a large
expulsion and cleansed the whole country -- the whole Land of
Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that
this was his fatal mistake. . . . [A]s an historian, I assert
that a mistake was made here." Or will you now argue that
this wish for, to paraphrase your message, the erasure of the
Palestinian portion of Palestine's history was the kind of unintentional
oversight that we made in not mentioning Saffuriya's Jewish history?
(Your use in the Ha'aretz interview of the term "the
whole Land of Israel" automatically indicates, perhaps unintentionally,
an erasure of Palestinian history and rights.)
Far more importantly, we also
note that you selectively omitted a critical piece of contrary
evidence -- perhaps the most important political development
in Palestinian history -- in your enumeration of the instances
in which Palestinians rejected a two-state solution. It is not
hard to understand, except perhaps if one is arguing only from
a Jewish perspective, why Palestinians took such a long time
before they were ready to accept the dismantling and division
of their national homeland; thus you are correct in saying that
they rejected the two-state formula in 1937, 1947, and 1978.
But can it simply be an oversight that you failed to mention
the major change in Palestinian policy that resulted in their
acceptance of two states in 1988? Could you truly have forgotten
that this PLO decision -- constituting as it did the formal relinquishment
of all claim to 78% of a land Palestinians considered to be theirs
and the acceptance of independence in only 22% of that land --
was a massive concession to Israel's existence? This decision
was formally reaffirmed at the 1993 signing of the Oslo Declaration
and has never been repudiated. Despite your disillusionment with
the Palestinians after Camp David 2000, all subsequent negotiations
and all subsequent Palestinian policy have been based on the
assumption that Israel' s existence is sacrosanct and the two-state
solution is the goal.
At Camp David, the Palestinians
rejected a bad deal; they did not reject Israel. We don't have
time to go into all the details here, but you should read accounts
of the peace process by Charles Enderlin, Yossi Beilin, Rob Malley,
Dennis Ross, Bill Clinton, and Madeleine Albright. You will not
find in them any evidence -- despite the very anti-Arafat views
of the last three authors -- that Arafat ever rejected the two-state
solution as you contend, only that he would not accept Israeli
offers of a Palestinian state that would have been disconnected,
indefensible, and non-viable. The Palestinians were still trying
to negotiate for a decent two-state formula when Barak lost his
election and Clinton left office. You are no doubt aware of the
account by Israel's former MI chief Amos Malka of a deliberate
campaign to portray Arafat, falsely, as opposed to the
two-state solution.
As to the critical issue of
balance and objectivity, we totally agree that one must be able
to view a situation from more than one perspective. But balance
and objectivity and an open perspective do not require a conclusion
that both sides are half right or in any way equally right. Balanced
treatment does not require splitting the difference between the
two sides, when one side has already made the major concession
that is evident in the Palestinians' agreement to the 78-22 split.
We have concluded after long years of study of both perspectives
that, although both peoples have a just and legitimate claim
to Palestine-Israel, they do not both have a just and
legitimate claim to the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
So long as Israel is accorded exclusive claim to 78% of the land
of Palestine-Israel, it does not have an automatic "right"
to any of the occupied territories, unless the Palestinians willingly
concede parts of these territories in negotiations (which they
have already indicated a willingness to do). In any consideration
of the disposition of the occupied territories, one certainly
must take Israeli security interests into account, but true balance
and fairness in any post-Oslo negotiations require that all earlier
negotiations and arrangements be taken into account as well.
One must condemn Palestinian terrorism, but one must also condemn
the very existence of Israel's occupation, deemed almost universally
to be illegal -- meaning each and every Israeli measure
taken to perpetuate the occupation, including Israeli-only settlements,
Israeli-only roads, construction of the separation wall on Palestinian
territory, land confiscations, house demolitions, destruction
of agricultural land, destruction of wells, assassinations, sniper
killings, aerial bombardments, tank incursions into cities, and
so on.
One final, minor point, which
we raise only because you did: the idea that, as you put it,
the "Arab nation" has 22 "other states" is
a non-issue. First -- a nitpick -- as you must know, there are
not 22 Arab states; there are 22 members of the Arab League,
including the PLO, a non-state, and such non-Arab states as Somalia,
Djibouti, Comoros, and Mauritania. Secondly, and far more to
the point, Palestinians are from Palestine and should never be
expected to have to move elsewhere for any reason. Jews refused
to be settled in Uganda or anywhere else outside the land of
their biblical heritage, and expecting the Palestinians to relinquish
their heritage because Israel wants the land would be a grave
injustice.
Kathy & Bill Christison
-----
September 28, 2004
Much of what you write is correct.
But many Israelis, myself included, are not convinced that the
Palestinians are really agreeable to a two state solution, 78:22
per cent or of any other kind, and ultimately seek Israel's destruction
and replacement by one Arab-Muslim state. We fear that the PLO's
'change of course' in 1988 was tactical, not real and heartfelt.
Arafat has said as much to audiences when he did not believe
he was being taped and the Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- who represent
many if not most Palestinians -- say as much publicly and consistently.
I know of practically no Palestinian leader who will say, openly
and forthrightly, that 'the Jews have a legitimate claim to Palestine,
as do the Palestinians, that Zionism and Israel are legitimate
entities' -- and this is the basis of the problem. And that is
why all Palestinian spokesmen, except Sari Nusseibeh, who unfortunately
represents nobody except a handful of reasonable, civilized Palestinians,
insist on the 'Right of Return', its acceptance by Israel and
the world community, and its implementation. This is the litmus
test of the Palestinians' real, ultimate intentions vis-a-vis
Israel. And so long as they hold to it and advocate it, it means
they are not sincere in their professions of a two state solution,
and seek such a 'solution' as a tactical step before going on
to demand Israel's ultimate dissolution and replacement (implementation
of the Right of Return will necessarily transform Israel into
an Arab state).
And I do believe, as I said
(but wasn't fully quoted) in the Haaretz interview, it
is unfortunate that the 1948 war did not end more decisively
demographically, either with all the Jews pushed into the sea
(as the Palestinians and Arab states intended and attempted,
which is what led to the refugee problem) or all the Palestinians
pushed into Jordan, where they would have established their state.
The ME would have been a better place and the two peoples would
have enjoyed a happier history.
Benny Morris
-----
September 28, 2004
You've hit on the real tragedy
of this conflict: the fact that Israelis like you and many others
don't believe or trust the Palestinians, and also that many Palestinians
don't believe or trust the Israelis. You're no doubt correct
that the Palestinians' decision in 1988 was not heartfelt but
was taken out of tactical necessity, but of course one could
say the same thing about the Israelis' decision in 1993 to recognize
and negotiate with the PLO. Both of you -- Israelis and Palestinians
-- would undoubtedly much prefer that the other wasn't there,
but that does not necessarily mean that either side is untrustworthy
when it says it's willing to live in peace with the other.
Contrary to your statement
that "practically no Palestinian leader" to your knowledge
has openly and forthrightly said that Jews have a legitimate
claim to Palestine or that Israel is a legitimate entity, Yasir
Arafat said in December 1988, "The PLO will seek a comprehensive
settlement among the parties concerned in the Arab-Israeli conflict,
including the state of Palestine, Israel and other neighbors
. . . on the basis of Resolutions 242 and 338 and so as to .
. . respect the right to exist in peace and security for all.
. . . I ask the leaders of Israel to come here, under the sponsorship
of the United Nations, so that together we can forge that peace.
I say to them that our people, who want dignity, freedom, and
peace for themselves and security for their state, want the same
things for all the states and parties involved in the Arab-Israeli
conflict. And here, I would address myself specifically to the
Israeli people in all their parties and forces. . . . I say to
them: Come, let us make peace." You can perhaps argue that
this was not sincere, but it most certainly does constitute an
open and forthright affirmation of Israel's legitimacy.
In our view, Israel is much
less to be trusted than the Palestinians, because it is the one
in possession of all the territory and therefore the one of which
concrete territorial concessions would be demanded for any peace
agreement. Israel has never given evidence of an intention to
permit a viable Palestinian state, much less spoken or acted
in a meaningful, heartfelt way about sharing the land with the
Palestinians, with the result that Palestinians don't even have
any formal statements on which to base an expectation of Israeli
concessions. The Israelis, but not the Palestinians, have it
in their power to test the sincerity of the other side, for if
Israel were to agree to a Palestinian state in most of the West
Bank and Gaza, it would be fully able to defend itself if the
Palestinians threatened it or violated a peace agreement in any
way. This is not true of the Palestinians, who would have no
possible way of defending themselves against any Israeli violations.
The Israelis could rely on the old Reagan shibboleth of "trust
and verify"; the Palestinians, lacking any tangible guarantees
against Israeli violations, could not.
The notion that Israel is threatened
by the Palestinian demand for recognition of the "right
of return" is absurd. First of all, you are simply wrong
that "all Palestinian spokesmen, except Sari Nusseibeh .
. . insist on the 'Right of Return', its acceptance by Israel
and the world community, and its implementation [our emphasis]."
From at least the time of the Camp David negotiations in 2000,
the Palestinian leadership has consistently made it clear that
it does not demand actual implementation of the right of return,
but rather that the refugees be accommodated through a variety
of arrangements, ranging from the return to Israel of an agreed
and relatively small number, through resettlement with compensation
in their countries of residence or in third countries, to repatriation
to the Palestinian state. They want some Israeli acknowledgement
of responsibility for creating the refugee problem, but they
acknowledge Israel's right to regulate who and how many refugees
enter Israel, and they have explicitly accepted Israel's insistence
on maintaining its Jewish character. Arafat has written a commentary
to this effect in the New York Times. The idea that Israel
could not stop three or four million Palestinian refugees from
flooding Israel, or that the Palestinian leadership is demanding
this, is purest paranoia.
We do understand the gist of
what you were saying in Ha'aretz, despite not quoting
the entire passage, but we disagree that clearing the land of
either people in 1948 would have solved the problem and left
a peaceful Middle East today. (In the interview, by the way,
you did not in any way suggest that cleansing the Jews would
or should have been a possible outcome, only that cleansing Palestinians
would have relieved Jews of a big problem.) On the contrary,
we believe that, even if pushed wholesale into Jordan, the Palestinians
would still be clamoring for a return; Jordan is not their homeland,
and they would not be satisfied to have been totally dispossessed,
any more than they've been satisfied to be partially dispossessed.
Similarly, if the Jews had been totally pushed out of Palestine,
particularly in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the worldwide
outcry would have been deafening, and we doubt Jews would yet
be satisfied or at all happy with that outcome.
Kathy & Bill Christison
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