come back..

Noam Chomsky: You Ask The Questions

The Independent
28 August 2006

How did you feel about the lack of a swift UN intervention in the recent Lebanon crisis?
The first requirement was an immediate cease-fire. That was blocked by Washington, presumably to allow maximal destruction by the invasion - the US-Israeli invasion, according to the (accurate) perception of 90 per cent of Lebanese. That call should have been accompanied by a demand for withdrawal of the invading army and reparations, unthinkable given the distribution of power. The resolution that was passed is deeply flawed, a separate matter.

Can Israelis and Palestinians ever live peacefully together in one state?

Perhaps, but it would have to be approached in stages. Since the 1970s, an international consensus has crystallised on the first stage: a two-state settlement on the internationally recognised borders, with minor and mutual adjustments. That has been barred by the US and Israel, with inconsequential departures. The US-Israeli alliance is now working to undermine the option by their programs of "convergence": annexation, dismemberment, and imprisonment (by takeover of the Jordan Valley), cynically described as "courageous withdrawal". If these policies can be reversed, and the first stage achieved, then further steps are possible.

Surely the US, UK and Israel are guilty of war crimes?

In the case of Lebanon, there is little doubt. Ample reasons have been given by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and that's a bare beginning. But guilt extends far beyond. The Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq, for example, is a clear example of what the Nuremberg Tribunal determined to be "the supreme international crime", which encompasses all the evil that follows. We would do well to recall the eloquent words of Nuremberg chief counsel Justice Robert Jackson: "We are handing the defendants a 'poisoned chalice', and if we sip from it, we must accept the same judgement." The conclusions seem clear enough.

After all the lies about the "war on terror", why has nobody in America started procedures to impeach George Bush?

There are several efforts, but there is unlikely to be any outcome in the absence of a genuine opposition party.

Do you believe Israel should exist, why and in what form?

As a Zionist youth leader in the 1940s, I was among those who called for a binational state in Mandatory Palestine. When a Jewish state was declared, I felt that it should have the rights of other states - no more, no less.
Why should the US exist, sitting on half of Mexico, including Florida, conquered in a violent racist war carried out in violation of the Constitution?
And we can ask much the same about other states. State formation has been a brutal project, with many hideous consequences. But the results exist, and their pernicious aspects should be overcome.

Where do you find the courage?

For people as lucky as we are, it takes no courage.

read the rest here

beyond the mesh

.. i found a home.

of love and other demons

so many tales

of memories and wishes
of yearnings and fears

of greiving and hopes
of longing and dreams

but tell me..
is this all you've got?

or will you
tend to my wounds
and embrace my scars
i burn for you
and because of you

so tell me..
once and for all
will you come home?

definitely not a war post

sort of like
a silly post

i'm feeling
kind of
Blu

i should have
left with you

The Lebanon War, a Post-Mortem

just read this article in Counterpunch published yesterday, here's a little summary for you

Israeli Militarism and the Necessity of a One-State Solution

Alan Hart

"I can see two--One State of Palestine for All and real, lasting peace, or Catastrophe for All... and by "All" I don't just mean Israeli Jews and the Arabs of the region; I mean all of us, everywhere.


...I want to quote to you now from one of my Panorama interviews with Golda Meir. At a point I interrupted her to say: "Prime Minister I want to be sure I understand what you're saying... You are saying that if ever Israel was in danger of being defeated on the battlefield, it would be prepared to take the region and the whole world down with it?" Without the shortest of pauses for reflection, Golda replied: "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

...The idea of Israel as a fully functioning democracy is a seriously flawed one. It's true that Israeli Jews are free to speak their minds (in a way that most Jews of the world are frightened to do), and to that extent it can be said that Israel has the appearance of a vibrant democracy... But in reality, and especially since the countdown to the 1967 war, it's Israel's generals who call most of the policy shots, even when one of them is not prime minister.
In June 1967 Israel's prime minister of the time, the much maligned Levi Eshkol, did not want to take his country to war. The war was imposed upon him by the generals, led by Dayan. What really happened in Israel in the final countdown to that war was something very close to a military coup in all but name.

...And that's where we are today--the generals effectively calling the shots in Israel, to the applause of the neo-cons. Why, really, did Israel's generals want to make war on Lebanon? I think there were two main reasons. The first was that Israel's generals believed they should and could restore the "deterrent power" of the IDF. The second main reason for the insistence of Israel's generals on 12 July this year that war was the only option...? I think it's also more than reasonable to presume that they saw the opportunity to ethnically cleanse Lebanon up to the Litani River, with a view, eventually, to occupying and then annexing the ethnically cleansed territory. For Zionism this would be the fulfillment of the vision of modern Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion - a Zionist state within "natural" borders, those borders being the Jordan River in the East and the Litani River of Lebanon in the north.

...And in summary of all that I've said this evening, what I really think comes down to this: The equation is a very simple one: No justice for the Palestinians = no peace for any of us"

read the rest here

unbearable bouts of nostalgia

the smell of polluted traffic
the sun on your arms
the sweat in your hair

the scent of the gardenias around my wrist
the taxi's zammour
his curses and yells

suddenly remembering forgetting to stop
for the 'rabtet khebez inti w jeyeh'

the sea on my lips the salt on my skin-
another sunburn today

the unmistakable smell of beirut
the instant smile right as you exit the plane

on the balcony with chai and mne2eesh
w labneh w zaitoun
w ba3ed shwayyet zeit

i am aching for you
and everything i knew
all that i love and all that i hate

you're burning inside of me
damn you
it hurts so much to love you

silence.

(pic)

Robert Fisk: As the 6am ceasefire takes effect... the real war begins

Robert Fisk discusses a not so optimistic outcome of the cease fire, which theoretically begins in a few hours

"The real war in Lebanon begins today. The world may believe - and Israel may believe - that the UN ceasefire due to come into effect at 6am today will mark the beginning of the end of the latest dirty war in Lebanon after up to 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 30 Israeli civilians have been killed. But the reality is quite different and will suffer no such self-delusion: the Israeli army, reeling under the Hizbollah's onslaught of the past 24 hours, is now facing the harshest guerrilla war in its history. And it is a war they may well lose

...The Israeli military appears to be efficient at destroying bridges, power stations, gas stations and apartment blocks - but signally inefficient in crushing the "terrorist" army they swore to liquidate..."

read the rest here

i hope he's wrong.

are you politically correct?

'The rules of Political correctness'

"Rule # 1 : In the Middle East, it is always the Arabs that attack first, and it's always Israel who defends itself. This is called "retaliation".

Rule # 2: The Arabs, whether Palestinians or Lebanese, are not allowed to kill Israelis. This is called "terrorism".

Rule # 3: Israel has the right to kill Arab civilians, this is called "self-defense", or these days "collateral damage".

Rule # 4: When Israel kills too many civilians. The Western world calls for restraint. This is called the "reaction of the international community".

Rule # 5: Palestinians and Lebanese do not have the right to capture Israeli military, not even a limited number, not even 1 or 2.

Rule # 6: Israel has the right to capture as many Palestinians as they want (Palestinians: around 10,000 to date, 300 of which are children, Lebanese: 1000s to date, being held without trial). There is no limit; there is no need for proof of guilt or trial. All that is needed is the magic word: "terrorism"

Rule # 7: When you say "Hezbollah", always be sure to add "supported by Syria and Iran"

Rule # 8: When you say "Israel", never say "supported by the USA, the UK and other European countries", for people (God forbid) might believe this is not an equal conflict.

Rule # 9: When it comes to Israel, don't mention the words "occupied territories", "UN resolutions", "Geneva conventions". This could distress the audience of Fox.

Rule # 10: Israelis speak better English than Arabs. This is why we let them speak out as much as possible, so that they can explain rules 1 through 9. This is called "neutral journalism".

Rule # 11: If you don't agree with these rules or if you favor the Arab side over the Israeli side, you must be a very dangerous anti-Semite. You may even have to make a public apology if you express your honest opinion"

(isn't democracy wonderful?)

Also, check out Ari Shavit's new article in Haaretz: Olmert cannot remain in the prime minister's office

note: to those of you who haven't noticed the quotation marks at the beginning and end of this post, please do. I recieved this as an email and thought it was worth posting it here. apparently it was translated from french by Maya (happy now Maya?)

happy now?

'Mass murder on an unimaginable scale' intended

your raci-oops i mean "policy"- in the Middle East never ceases to amaze me. you guys are just brilliant.

every morning

every morning
in the subway
i watch you sit by
and watch my people die and my country crumble
into pieces before your eyes
and my heart starts to race
and i look away
i switch to Bach and i close my eyes
and i think of them
buried under the ground, homeless, in despair
and i look back at you
how could you let this happen?
is it because we're dark-skinned? is it because we're cheap to you?
this isn't right
and my heart races even more
and i want to throw your books your ipods your newspapers away and scream in the middle of the subway
but i dont
and i close my eyes
and i pray
to no one
because no one is listening
but i am losing my mind
so i pray

quick note

i apologize for my ignorance.

so many things that i thought were true are actually not.

and so many things that i did not believe, have been happening all along.

i apologize for not recognizing injustice when it stared me right in the face, and for blindly accepting what i've been told while what i should have been doing was getting off my ass and finding out for myself.

the description of my blog used to read that i'm "constantly seeking truth", well, that was a lie. unintentional, but still, a lie.

i'm probably not making sense at all to most of you, sorry about that too.

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land

Originally posted by jij and mirvat

This is an excellent documentary which examines how the American foreign policy, in combination with Israeli public relations strategies, distorts US news reporting and the American public opinion concerning the Middle East conflict.

please take the time to watch it here

...

allow me to pause this weekend. from the war, from the hate, from the news, from the analyses and predictions.

allow me to selfishly look away from the suffering and the chaos.

allow me to sleep again- without interrruptions. to read my book, to watch my movies.

too much negative energy. i need a break.

do me a favor and make love this weekend, we already have enough hate and anger to last us years.

smoke up if you absolutely need to.

see you guys monday. stay safe.

update: it's not working. i cant tune out. suggestions?

White flags, not a legitimate target

Israel must take responsibility for the dreadful human toll in Lebanon

published in Guardian Unlimited

Monday July 31, 2006 Day after day, Israeli government spokesmen insist that everything they are doing accords with international humanitarian law. Endless communiqués insist that Israel's behaviour is "proportionate". Let us be blunt: those claims are fantasy, as the carnage in Qana has shown once again.

I have seen my share of modern wars, as a researcher at Human Rights Watch. In Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, we found many civilian casualties due to bombing campaigns. Civilians fleeing attacks were hit by mistake. In Iraq, US bombs often hit civilian homes, hours after Saddam Hussein or members of his inner circle had left, missing their legitimate targets but killing civilians. In Lebanon it is a very different picture. Time after time, Israel strikes at civilian homes and civilian vehicles attempting to flee the besieged southern border zone, killing families without any military objective in sight.

In an extraordinary, and extraordinarily revealing comment, the Israeli Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, reportedly said, "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah." So if you take to the roads to flee, you are a terrorist - who else would travel the southern roads now? And, if you stay at home because the danger is so great, you are also a terrorist. For the innocent civilian, there is literally no way out.

Take the example of Manal, a 22-year-old housewife, who had just arrived in Beirut when I met her a few days ago. For nearly two weeks, Israeli warplanes struck Manal's border village of Aitaroun, obliterating homes and families. A Canadian-Lebanese family vacationing in the village was killed; the next day, another rocket destroyed a home 100 meters away from Manal's house, killing at least nine members of a family. So many were killed in her village that she finds it difficult to remember all the names.

When the Israelis dropped leaflets instructing all villages south of the Litani River to evacuate immediately "for your own safety," Manal and dozens of her neighbors set off in three cars, waving white flags. As they left, an Israeli warplane dropped bombs 10 meters in front of and behind the convoy, which raced on. As far too many Lebanese civilians have found, Manal's experience is not exceptional, on the contrary.

In another case, Israeli forces struck the home of a Shi'a cleric Sheikh Adil Mohammad Akash, who was reportedly affiliated with Hezbollah but without a direct military role. Even if the sheikh had been a fighter, the bomb killed him, his wife, their ten children, and the family's Sri Lankan maid. The ratio of twelve for one reveals Israel's disregard for civilian lives.

Although mistakes are made in the fog of fighting, the pattern of Israeli behavior in southern Lebanon suggests a deliberate policy. My notebook overflows with reports of civilian deaths, day after day.

Israel blames Hezbollah for the massive civilian toll in Lebanon, claiming that they are hiding the rockets they are firing at Israel, in civilian homes, and that they are fighting from within the civilian population. This is a convenient excuse. Human Rights Watch has consistently documented Hezbollah's war crimes, including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians, as well as the taking of hostages. But our investigations have not found evidence to support Israeli allegations that Hezbollah are intentionally endangering Lebanese civilians by systematically fighting from civilian positions. We can't exclude the possibility that it happens - but time and again villagers tell us that Hezbollah is fighting from the hills. Meanwhile, the homes hit by Israel have only civilians in them.

The current Israeli actions are not only wrong, but - short of compelling evidence to the contrary, which so far is nowhere to be found - also war crimes. Israel's leaders, and their friends elsewhere in the world, must face up to that truth.

Peter Bouckaert is Emergencies Director at Human Rights Watch