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July
11, 2003
David
Lindorff
An Iraq War & Occupation Glossary
July
10, 2003
Ron
Jacobs
Dealing with the Devil: the Bloody
Profits of General Dynamics
Sean
Donahue
Bush and the Paramillitaries: Coddling Terrorists in Colombia
Yemi
Toure
Who Outted Bush in Afrika?
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Sustainability: an Interview
with Wes Jackson
Ali
Abunimah
US Leaves Injured Iraqis Untreated
Joanne
Mariner
Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions
Website
of the Day
Electronic Iraq
July
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Is the Media Finally Turning on
Bush?
David
Krieger and Angela McCracken
10 Myths About Nuclear Weapons
Mickey
Z.
Why Speak Out?
Lee Sustar
The Great Medicare Fraud
John
Chuckman
The Worst Kind of Lie
Gary Leupp
"Pacifist" Japan and the Occupation of Iraq
Website
of the Day
Hail to the Thief:
Songs for the Bush Years
July
8, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Bully on the Bench: the Pathological
Dissents of Scalia
Alan
Maass
Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor
Chris
Floyd
Troubled Sleep: Getting Used to the American Gulag
Linda
S. Heard
America's Kangaroo Justice
Brian
Cloughley
They Tell Lies to Nodders
Charles
Sullivan
Bush the Christian?
Saul
Landau
The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age
Website
of the Day
Occupation Watch
July
7, 2003
William
Blum
The Anti-Empire Report
Harvey
Wasserman
The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head
Ramzy
Baroud
Peace for All the Wrong Reasons
Simon
Jones
What Progressives Should Think About
Iran
Lesley
McCulloch
Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh
Uri
Avnery
The Draw
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July
4 / 6, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
July
3, 2003
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Meaning of Gettysburg
Thomas
W. Croft
There Was a Reason They Called It the Casino Economy
David
Lindorff
Outlawing Subversives: Hong Kong
and the US
John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Stan
Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former
Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis
to Attack US Troops
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July 2, 2003
Diane
Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress
Justin
Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
Reuven
Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July
1, 2003
Sasan
Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia
and the Sodomy Cops
Susan
Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong
to Ourselves
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name
Gary
Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
of Progressive Politics in America
Col. Dan
Smith
The Occupation of Iraq: Descending into the Quagmire
Tim
Wise
Race and Destruction in Black and White
Neve Gordon
The Roadmap and the Wall
Chris
Floyd
The Revelation of St. George: "God Told Me to Strike Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Kentucky Woman
Uri
Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
Website
of the Day
Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?
Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
June
27, 2003
Jason
Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
Posed No Threat to US
David
Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
Ali"
Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26
Website
of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy
June
26, 2003
Sen.
Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
CounterPunch
Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops
Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo
June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
Dan
Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops
Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
Guidelines
Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods
June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth
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John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
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Conn
Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon
Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
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Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
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WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
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Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
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Tomchick
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Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
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Meeropol
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Madarasz
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Impeach
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July
11, 2003
The Occupation, the
Israeli Economy & the Illusion of Security
The
Coin of Empire
By CONN HALLINAN
"The coin of empire is always bought
dear" was an expression that emerged from the great Irish
Tithe War of the 1830s, when the British taxed the Catholic Irish
to support the Church of England. After three years of opposition,
bloodshed, and financial chaos, one colonial officer glumly pointed
out that it was costing the Crown, "a shilling to collect
tuppence."
That is a lesson the government of Israel's
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon might heed as it continues to occupy
the West Bank and Gaza at a cost that threatens to destroy the
Israeli economy, impoverishing both occupiers and occupied. The
moral of the story also might encourage U.S. President George
W. Bush's administration to influence Israel's economic policies.
For the second year in a row, Israel's
GDP has contracted. Unemployment overall is 10.8%; it is more
than double that rate in Israeli Arab towns. Over 300,000 Israelis
are jobless. According to government reports, 1.2 million Israelis--one-fifth
of the population--now live in poverty. The official poverty
line income is $934 a month for families with two children. The
number of poor families has risen 30% in the past 14 years and
the number of children in poverty 50%. Some 27% of Israel's children
are officially designated poor.
While poverty is growing among Israelis,
it is definitive among the Palestinians. Over 50% of the West
Bank and Gaza populations are jobless, and 75% of Gaza's residents
live on less than $2 a day. The U.S. Agency for International
Development found that 13.2% of Gaza's children and 4.3% in the
West Bank suffer from what it called "body wasting"
or inadequate nutrition. Almost one in five children has moderate
anemia.
The settlements are a massive drain on
the Israeli budget. Aside from the cost of deploying the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) to guard the settlements, a vast network
of special roads labeled for "settlers only" has been
constructed, along with an enormous water and electrical power
infrastructure. Tel Aviv also subsidizes the 220,000 settlers
(plus the 200,000 in East Jerusalem). Mortgage rates in the occupied
territories are one quarter of those in Israel, education is
subsidized, and settlers receive a 10% break on their income
taxes plus a 7% discount on their social security.
According to Peace Now, the occupation
costs the Israeli government about $1.4 billion a year, a figure
that will surely rise with the continued expansion of the settlements.
According to the Associated Press, Sharon told his Cabinet ministers
June 22 that despite the directives of the multilateral Road
Map for Middle East Peace, construction would continue "quietly."
The cost of occupation is partly borne
by U.S. loan guarantees and outright grants. U.S. aid to Israel--the
bulk of it military--amounts to some $3 billion a year. Several
months ago the Sharon government asked for more, figuring the
White House owed it for Israel's staunch support of the Bush
administration's war on Iraq. Washington agreed to pony up $9
billion in loan guarantees and $1 billion in military aid, but
with a catch: Israel must cut taxes, welfare, and public service
jobs. In short, it must adopt a U.S.-style economic system.
It was that demand that put 700,000 public
sector workers into the streets in April and sparked a scathing
editorial in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz accusing the Bush administration
of trying to force "a neo-liberal order in Israel."
The Sharon government's response has been to try to limit the
trade unions' right to strike. Shortly after a bitter exchange
between Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel's labor
organization, the Histadrut, Likud Party leader Ruhama Avraham
introduced legislation restricting the right of public employees
to strike.
The quid pro quo for U.S. aid has stirred
up considerable debate in Israel, although the controversy has
yet to show up in the mainstream of U.S. media.
The settlers, who make up only 5% of
the Israeli population, have enormous clout with the Sharon government,
but a recent Maariv poll found that 62% of Israelis support "ending
the occupation of the territories," with 32% "opposed"
and 6% "undecided."
While settlers claiming religious reasons
for the occupation get the most press, a recent survey of the
settler population by the Hopp Research Co. found that nearly
80% of the settlers were motivated solely by the subsidies, not
by ideological or religious reasons. The same study also indicated
that 68% of the settlers would return to Israel if ordered to.
According to Peace Now, transplanting
the settlers back to Israel would cost $700 million, half the
yearly cost of supporting them now.
Besides the drain on lives and treasure--the
coin of empire--the occupation stokes rage, just as it did in
Ireland. When the Tithe War broke out in 1831, the British responded
by pouring thousands of troops and police into the countryside
to crush resistance, which only deepened the anger of the Irish.
The war came to a head in 1834 with the infamous "Rathcormack
Massacre" near Cork. While attempting to collect a tithe
of 40 shillings from a widow, British troops fired on a crowd
of protesters, killing 17 and wounding 35. In the face of outrage
over the incident, the British shelved the tithe.
The settlements in the occupied territories
impoverish both Israelis and Palestinians, and the so-called
security they create is an illusion. Instead, they foreshadow
a time of reckoning: "All the injustices and evil perpetuated
against the Palestinians will eventually blow up in our faces,"
warns Gideon Levy, an aide to former Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres. "A people that is abused in this way for years
will explode one day in a terrible fury, even worse than what
we see now."
Conn Hallinan
is a provost at the University of California at Santa Cruz and
a political analyst for Foreign
Policy in Focus. He can be reached at: connm@cats.ucsc.edu
Weekend
Edition Features
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
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