By Stephen Lendman * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Cartoon by Fares Garabet, Syria

His administration is "discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for (Mubarak) to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military," including Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, armed forces chief, and Field Marshall Mohamed Tantawi, defense minister.

The alleged plan includes constitutional reform, a transitional government with opposition groups like the Muslim brotherhood, and "free and fair elections in September."

Testifying during a February 3 Senate hearing, senior CIA official Stephanie O'Sullivan said earlier tracking of Cairo instability showed conditions were "untenable," but "we didn't know what the triggering mechanism would be."

On February 4, Times writer David Kirkpatrick headlined, "Egyptian Government Figures Join Protesters," saying:

During Friday protests, "(c)racks in the Egyptian establishment's support for (Mubarak)" emerged with Amr Moussa, Arab League head, and other notable figures appearing on Cairo streets, including defense minister Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the first member of Egypt's ruling elite to do so.

Non-Negotiable People Demands

Obama's proposal is absurd, an insult to courageous people risking their lives for real change, not replacing one despot with another with the same regime in place. They demand ouster of all Mubarak officials, followed by free and fair elections for new ones they choose. Getting it is another matter, and Obama losing faith in Murabark masks his uncompromising support for continuity.

The New York Times as well in its disingenuous February 3 editorial headlined, "Egypt's Agonies," saying:

Attacking protesters and targeting journalists are "familiar tactics of dictators who want to brutalize their citizens without witnesses." Mubarak telling "ABC News that the government is not responsible - is patently absurd. (He's) chosen survival over his people. He told ABC that he had to stay in office to avoid chaos. In fact, his presence ensures only more chaos and instability."

Then, cutting to the chase, The Times said, "The cost of the turmoil is being felt. Tourists are fleeing. The economy is paralyzed. Egypt and its people need a quick transition...."

In other words, profits, not social democracy matter. It's been uncompromising Times policy for decades, including support for legions of US-allied despots, Mubarak a longtime favorite before falling from grace.

What's Next?

Workers suffer painfully from neoliberal harshness, often hardened by IMF diktats, including mass privatizations, layoffs, wage and benefit cuts, and public debt service over people needs, causing massive impoverishment and human suffering. Replacing one regime with another with this agenda leaves deep-rooted misery unaddressed. Examples are numerous, including Corazon Aquino replacing Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines in February 1986.

Despite two decades of loyalty, Marcos turned liability and had to go. Aquino was ideal to replace him. Wife of assassinated political opponent Benigno Aquino and endorsed by conservative Cardinal Jaime Sin, she represented elitist interests with generous National Endowment for Democracy funding.

Her legacy includes subservience to Washington, human rights violations, corruption, and the worst of neoliberal harshness - business-friendly policies at the expense of popular needs she ignored, as did her successors to this day, including a decade under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from January 2001 - June 2010.

She ran a death squad regime, targeting unionists, human rights activists, peasants, and anyone against state policies. Yet Washington strongly supported her like Mubarak, practicing the same agenda for three decades until falling out of favor.

South Africa Under Nelson Mandela

In 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) gained power under Mandela after generations of brutality and decades of apartheid harshness, the worst form of racism. From 1948 - 1993, pass laws segregated blacks from whites, restricted their movements, required pass books be carried at all times, and produced on demand or face arrest and prosecution. Evolving from the 18th and 19th century until their 1986 repeal, they restricted entry to cities, forcibly relocated blacks, denied them most public services, many forms of employment, and became apartheid's most hated symbol.

An anti-apartheid activist, Mandela was imprisoned in 1962 for life, served 27 years until released on February 11,1990, days after President FW de Klerk ended the official ban against anti-apartheid organizations, including the ANC.

Addressing the nation, Mandela said:

"I am a loyal and disciplined member of the African National Congress. I am therefore in full agreement with all of its (social justice) objectives, strategies and tactics."

"There must be an end to white monopoly political power and a fundamental restructuring of our political and economic systems to ensure that the inequalities of apartheid are addressed and our society thoroughly democratized."

He quoted his own 1964 words saying he was prepared to die for "a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities." As president, he reneged, surrendering totally to finance capital, though not at first rhetorically.

On May 10, 1994, two weeks after taking office, he addressed parliament, endorsing ANC Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) socioeconomic issues, including, democracy, growth, development, reconstruction, redistribution and reconciliation. Specific concerns were housing, healthcare, land reform, jobs, education, public works, clean water, and electrification.

He called the RDP the "centerpiece of what this Government will seek to achieve, the focal point on which our attention be be continuously focused."

Five years later in his last parliamentary speech, he ignored RDP mandates after abandoning them in principle.

During his tenure, he shifted from RDP to GEAR - Growth Employment and Redistribution Program based on neoliberal free market diktats. It reflected IMF harshness, serving capital not popular needs.

State assets were privatized. Mass layoffs followed. Services were commodified, harmfully raising prices for millions. Markets were opened for trade. Taxes for corporations and the rich were cut, and social spending reduced. Bottom-line priorities trumped other issues. Record profits followed. Accessing healthcare, education and other essential services required "user fees." Few could afford them.

Wealth distribution benefitted rich whites at the expense of poor Blacks, worse off than ever, their average income declining 19% from 1995 - 2000, while whites rose 15%.

ANC-run South Africa empowered elite Blacks, enriched white capital more than ever, and created far greater inequality, poverty and depravation than under apartheid, reflecting neoliberal betrayal, exploiting the poor for the rich.

Post-Soviet States

Free market shock therapy devastated them, lowering, not raising, living standards, Poland one of its victims. In the 1980s, Solidarnosc (Solidarity) unionized 10 million members, gaining the right to bargain and aspire to transform state-controlled companies into worker-run cooperatives. Instead, mines, shipyards and factories were privatized, subsidies slashed, and price controls lifted, skyrocketing unemployment, poverty, depression, and overall worse times than before.

On January 18, Michael Hudson and Jeffrey Sommers headlined their article, "The Spectre Haunting Europe: Debt Defaults, Austerity, and Death of the 'Social Europe' Model," saying:

"(D)ecades of neoliberalism....crashed the US and several European economies. Years of deregulation, speculation and lack of investment in the real economy left them with rising inequality and little consumer demand, except for what was financed by running up debt."

In an earlier April 2010 interview, Hudson explained that suffering economies "from Greece to the Baltics and Iceland (were) directed to pay the financial sector first - international bankers, creditor-nation governments (like America, Britain, France and others), the IMF, World Bank, and financial institutions - before (spending) on sustaining their own employment and economic growth."

In other words, depriving their people for finance capital as well as balancing their budgets on their backs. IMF diktats shrink economies. As a result, enormous hardships throughout Eastern Europe were created, targeted nations having no choice but go along.

It's a "financial war against industry, against labor, against the post-Soviet economies, against the Third World....(It's) a war against government, against public spending. Its solution to unpayable debts is to demand that governments sell off whatever assets remain in the public domain. (It's) the most naked property grab since the Viking invasions."

It's opposite of what responsible governments should do, putting popular interests ahead of predatory foreign lenders. It's redistributing wealth equitably and fulfilling a social contract. It's growing their economies, not shrinking them.

Forced to go along under threat of economic and political reprisals, no wonder people yearn for the "good old Soviet days" with jobs and basic needs met. Today they're cursed with neoliberal hardships, proving commissars were friendlier than bankers.

Economic Hit Men Enforcers

In his book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," John Perkins discussed his own work with the IMF, World Bank and other global financial institutions, saying his job was to convince countries to accept unaffordable loans for infrastructure development, contracted to US corporations.

He defined economic hit men as:

"highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, (USAID, the IMF), and other foreign 'aid organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization."

His mandate was to impoverish and bankrupt countries, trapping them in debt bondage, those refusing facing economic, political or other reprisals.

Starving Third World Economies

In her February 3 article titled, "The Egyptian Tinderbox: How Banks and Investors Are Starving the Third World," Ellen Brown explained:

"that roughly 40 percent of Egyptians struggle (with incomes) of under $2 per day," facing unsustainable annual 17% annual food price inflation. As a result, "as much as 60 to 80 percent of (their) incomes go for food, compared to just 10 to 20 percent in industrial countries."

Credit, not Fed policy is at fault, hiking prices "by too much money chasing too few goods, but the money is chasing only certain selected goods" like food and fuel.

Speculation and market manipulation also hammer economies unwilling to deregulate and allow free capital flows. Methods include hot money created real estate, stock and other asset bubbles as well currency attacks, causing destructive devaluations, debt bondage and impoverishment.

A Final Comment

Independent new leaders face enormous challenges, including destructive reprisals for defying Western diktats. As a result, most accede, accepting neoliberal harshness over public needs, no matter their popular mandate or desire. That's Egypt's dilemma whatever new regime emerges. If Mandela failed South Africans, how will new Egyptian leadership fulfill campaign pledges if doing so means economic disaster, political isolation or worse.

As a result, expect new faces continuing old policies, letting everything look changed but be the same, including deep-rooted needs. That spark ignited Tunisia and spread regionally, assuring Mubarak's regime ends, leaving his policies in place unless heroic new figures defy risks, no matter potential consequences.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

By Franklin Lamb * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Cartoon by Petar Pismestrovic, Kleine Zeitung, Austria

One can quickly recall a long list of geographic place names that are indelibly etched in the annals of humanity's quest for freedom and whose very geographical place name connotes resistance to aggression, oppression, occupation and tyranny. Names like Le Place de la Resistance, Tiananmen Square, the Gdansk Shipyards, Bunker Hill, Iran's Azadi Square, Bogside, Martyr's Square, Karbala, Aita Shaab, among scores of others. Tahrir Square has become a name symbolizing every people's willingness, indeed insistence, to make personal, potentially life taking, sacrifices to achieve freedom from an illegitimate, corrupt, brutal, treasonous dictatorship or from occupiers or aggressors.

Less than one week after few outside Egypt had heard of or much less could locate on a blank map of Cairo, "Tahrir Square" the World now realizes it as the epicenter of the Middle East's unfolding and unpredictable earthquake event. The Tahrir Square uprising has led to one Arab diplomat, currently posted to Beirut, observing yesterday: "If there were to be an Arab League meeting this week attended by all the Arab Heads to State, an honest participant might suggest to the assembled potentates to look to their right and then look to their left and realize that in perhaps 24 months close one third may not be attending subsequent Arab League summits.

The Tahrir uprising may, following a cursory examination, appear unconnected with much outside the Egyptian publics urgent longings to escape poverty, unemployment, lack of educational opportunities, caused by decades of regime economic mismanagement, police brutality and government torture chambers, and pervasive corruption that has seeped into nearly every aspect of Egyptian life. But increasingly it appears that other forces are influencing recent events as noted below.

The eyes, hope and solidarity of much of the Middle East are on Tahrir Square and the bloodied but unbowed Egyptian people, who, old and young, religious and secular, illiterates and lettered, paupers and moneyed, all of whom today, following upon the glow of a spontaneous intifada in the cradle of civilization stand to win or lose so much for the region.

As the Mubarak regime plots a path for the beleaguered President to stay in power it is employing the well tested bromide of most despots including citing the need for stability, orderly transition, prevention of religious fanatics and extremists from taking over and the need for fighting "terrorism." The pro-Mubarak Egyptian daily Al-Yawm Al-Sabah is claiming that Hamas is behind much of the instigation to violence in Tahriri Square and other areas of the country.

Not buying all of these scare tactics, the Obama Administration's is revving up its "now means three days ago and counting" demands. Mr .Mubarak told CNN on 2/3/11 that he's fed up and would like nothing better than to step down but chaos and the Muslim Brotherhood would surely follow. His closest political confident and just appointed Vice-President Omar Suleiman also predicted chaos if Mr Mubarak resigned, saying it would leave a body without a head. The White House is still leaning toward Omar Suleiman but believes that Suleiman was aware of the campaign in recent days to intimidate the opposition, and are staffers are wondering whether he is still an acceptable choice. Late word from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is that the Obama Administration may support Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, who has joined anti-Mubarak protests in Tahrir Square, and is hinting he may run for president in the upcoming election. Israel would support him over Mohammad al Baradei who many view as pro-Iranian.

Still, the Mubarak regime is not without supporters. Former Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer has defended Egyptian President Hosni Mubrak, saying his collapse will be a "tremendous loss" for Israel. The former army general praised Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for supporting Israel for thirty years, Israel's Arutz Sheva newspaper reported. "When I watched his speech in which he said he would step down, it pained me to see his collapse," Ben-Eliezer said on 2/2/11 about Mubarak.

Both Washington and Tel Aviv are were reported shocked by the speed of the Egyptian revolt and their intelligences agencies admit not seeing it coming. Much of the American reaction is being scripted by AIPAC and other Israel lobby agents who regularly contribute campaign cash to 90 percent of the US Congress , including 390 of the 435 Members of the House of Representative ( 89.7%) who voted to support Israel after it committed repeatedly condemned serial murders of innocent civilians and myriad crimes against humanity in Gaza. These Israeli-pushed "American" initiatives will likely range from possibly terminating aid to Lebanon ( some Obama Administration friends of Israel claim there is a a link between the South Beirut Hezbollah neighborhood of Dahiyeh and Cairo's Tahir Square events ) and cutting off Egypt's nearly 30 years of annual multi-billion dollar cash grants as well as massive military hardware.

The US-Israel imperative appears designed to immediately regain control and co-opt the Tahrir uprising and quickly channel the uprising into a political cul de sac until Egypt can be returned to "normal", meaning US-Israel shared hegemony.

What will ultimately determine in which ways the Middle East moves following Tahrir Square events is not the armed might of the regional super power or the weapons of the global superpower. Both Israel and the US can have a short term impact but the former is shaking while the latter, equally impotent to subdue 83 million Egyptians and perhaps soon millions of Palestinians, Jordanians, Yemenis and others, is trying to stall any major regime change in favor of cosmetic adjustments to the current government. Even the Obama Administrations current public choice, Omar Sulieman is meeting with increasing resistance in Washington as details of his CV emerged including being a torture specialist and possibly a Mossad agent.

What both Israel and the US fear most is a determined and successful grass roots movement than will liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation. The Obama administration can be expected to continue to temporize events as best it can while calculating how to insert its choice of a compliant President in Mubarak's palace. As one Congressional commented by email: " The last thing the White House or Israel want is an Egyptian Chavez, or even someone like Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Completely unacceptable would be anyone with even the hint of pro-Iranian or Hezbollah leanings. The State Department favors another strong man, with an essentially rubber stamp Parliament after "free elections" as long as there are no troublesome Algerian, Gaza, or Lebanon style election results. The US-Israel bottom line is that Egypt's next government must be one that will guarantee that the 1979 Camp David Accords and Egypt's willingness to continue accepting a total of more than three billions in US taxpayer dollars annually as bribe money to collaborate with Israel against Palestine.

History is filled with ironies. One of them is the coincidence that two of the fundamental causes of the unfolding Egyptian revolution happened within months of each other both 30 years ago- soon to be followed by the beginning of the current Mubarak dictatorship---the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the US sponsored Camp David Accord. The Camp David giveaway and cave-in to colonialist Israel was never accepted by the Egyptian people, by the Islamic Republic, or by any but a small percentage of the people of the Middle East.

The hegemonic objectives of the 1979 Camp David have rolled across the region for three decades, being rejected and increasingly confronted by a growing culture of Resistance set in motion with the 1979 Imam Khomeini-led revolution. Both 1979 events fueled myriad other more immediate causes including those noted above and significantly inspired the current Egyptian eruptions, some of the paths of which are predictable while the results are unknown.

There are many other Tahrir Squares in the Middle East. One of which is Al Aksa square in Jerusalem, the eternal and indivisible capital of Palestine. It remains to be seen when or if Palestinians will revive Jerusalem as a modern day resistance place name and whether like Tahrir Square, Egypt, Jerusalem will rise up in support of increasing cries for Palestinian liberation as the inspiration and revolution of their neighbors in Tahrir Square spreads.

* Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

By Dr. Elias Akleh * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Palestinians had long lost confidence in their Palestinian Authority as their representative, who was supposed to defend their rights and work to achieve their statehood. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, was imposed on the Palestinians in the 2005 election when the Israeli forces had arrested and restricted the movements of other Palestinian candidates and his campaign was given 94% of TV coverage. Although his presidency had expired in January of 2009 he is still, illegally and unconstitutionally, occupying his position. Polls had shown that his popularity is very low.

Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, and his government were also imposed on Palestinians when Abbas appointed him to the position after the democratically elected Hamas government foiled an American coup d'état that eventually caused a division between the Palestinians.

The Palestinians were deceived by the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords. They were misled that the Accords would be merely the first step in a plan that would eventually lead to Israeli withdrawal back to the 1967 Armistice Lines and to the establishment of a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 1995. Thus Yasser Arafat had dramatically altered the charter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to reflect a new strategy of denouncing the legitimate armed resistance (labeled violence at the time), abandoning the liberation of all Palestine, accepting and recognizing the existence of the Israeli state on 78% of Palestine, and announcing peaceful negotiations as the only strategic choice for solving the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

Arafat and his PLO were allowed to enter the West Bank, and to establish a Palestinian Authority (PA), whose job was to administer the Palestinian affairs during the interim period until statehood. Without an independent economy, and being under the mercy of the American-controlled Quartet funding the PA had no power and no autonomy and eventually, under western pressure to fulfill the conditions of the Oslo Accord and the Road Map, functioned as an Israeli tool and a front line to guarantee Israeli security by quelling any Palestinian resistance to expanding Israeli colonization (settlements) in the West Bank. It further served to legitimize political concessions given to Israel in the hope for achieving the illusive statehood.

Although the PA had fulfilled the conditions of the Oslo Accord and all the other agreements that followed, the successive Israeli governments did not withdraw an inch from the Occupied Territories; rather, they adopted more aggressive expansionist policies.

Finally, recognizing that negotiations are not getting him even the smallest gain that he could show to his people, Arafat stopped cooperating and refused to give any more concessions. Western pressure was applied forcing him to accept the assignment of Mahmoud Abbas as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2003. Abbas was set to continue the negotiations. When Arafat did not grant Abbas any real power causing him to resign he was assassinated by poisoning. Abbas, then, took his place and continued the charade of futile negotiations.

The PA was established basically to enter into peace negotiations with Israel. Unfortunately its negotiating team is very weak since the PA had burnt all its bargaining chips by denouncing armed struggle, pursuing Palestinian freedom fighters and imprisoning them, being divided into Gaza Strip and Western Bank, and not having serious support from the rest of the Arab countries. On the other hand Israel holds all the cards; the Israeli army has total military control of all Palestine, controls the movement of Palestinians through hundreds of check points, controls all borders and determines who could leave or come into territories including all the Palestinian officials, controls all the Palestinian resources especially water, imprisons 1.5 million Gazans into an open prison besides the 11 thousand prisoners in Israeli jails, and encourages and finances extremist armed settlers, who routinely terrorize Palestinian civilians and build their own colonies on stolen Palestinian land. On top of all that Israel has the financial, military and political support of the US.

Lately the international civil communities in Europe and in the US started to sympathize with the Palestinian cause and to join a campaign of boycotting and divesting out of Israeli companies and Israeli educational systems especially after witnessing the latest crimes against humanity of Israeli governments committed against Palestinians in general, their war crimes in Gaza Strip, their crimes of international political assassinations, and their open sea piracy and flagrant violations of international laws and many UN resolutions.

Re-engaging into the futile theatrical charade of peace negotiations with the Palestinians has become a necessity for the Israeli government to give the impression that Israel is seeking peace. Of course Israel will impose its impossible to accept conditions in order to accuse Palestinians of being an obstacle to peace.

Lacking any bargaining power and without any serious support from their brethren Arab leaders or from the US controlled international political community the Palestinian negotiating team could do nothing except appeal to the Israeli sense of fairness to achieve any political gain. But Israeli governments have no sense of fairness or justice and aspire only for more expansion and for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

The demands of the Palestinian negotiating team had shrunk dramatically. From the original struggle for liberating whole Palestine the PLO had downgraded its aspiration and strategy to acceptance of the Israeli occupation in the hope of establishing a Palestinian State on the meager 22% of original Palestine and then lately to a mere freeze of colonization (settlements) for just few months. It seems that the whole Palestinian cause has been summarized in settlements only. They have forgotten all other forms of Israeli occupation, oppression and terror such as the siege of Gaza, the arrest of civilians including women and children in mass, the theft of land, the terror of extremist religious settlers against Palestinian communities, the demolition of Palestinian homes especially in Jerusalem, the eviction of Palestinian Jerusalemites from their homes and the burning of Islamic mosques among the numerous other crimes.

The Israelis had stalled all peace negotiations. They never stopped their aggression against Palestinians; rather they intensified their oppression and their colonization specifically during peace talks. According to Ansar Al-Asra, a Palestinian human rights organization, Israel had focused its aggression towards Palestinian children targeting them for arrest, imprisonment, and torture in an attempt to break the spirit of resistance since childhood. Israelis never stopped expansion but increased it particularly during negotiations. They never dismantled any check point despite their claim of doing so. They continued imposing unacceptable pr-conditions to sabotage negotiations. Their so-called late freeze of settlement, which excluded settlements in East Jerusalem and the already ongoing settlements, came only to pull the legs of Palestinians into negotiations in an attempt to improve their internationally tarnished reputations after their piracy against the international humanitarian flotilla. Once negotiations started the settlements frenzy continued.

Statistics released by Land Research Centre show that during the 10 months of alleged freeze 120 illegal Israeli colonies were expanded , 1520 housing units were built, more Palestinian land was usurped, agricultural land was destroyed, 280 homes and other structures were demolished, and 13 Palestinian homes were seized by extremist settlers. On September 28^th the Israeli high court gave a judgment for settlers to evacuate tens more of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem neighborhood, to be occupied by Israeli settlers. On October 10^th the Israeli Knesset succumbed to the demands of the extremist Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu Party and approved the racist "loyalty oath" bill demanding every new immigrant to swear loyalty to "the Jewish democratic Israel". Such bill comes as a first step of transferring more Palestinians out of Israel.

For almost the last 20 years of peace talks between Palestinian negotiating team and the successive Israeli governments the Palestinians kept yielding one concession after the other while Israel kept expanding one settlement after the other. Israelis had never missed any opportunity to reject every Arab peace offer including the best offer Arabs could give, the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative that would guarantee Israeli security and normalize relationship with all its Arab nations providing Israel withdraws to pre-1967 borders. Peace contradicts with the Zionist expansionist dream in the Arab World.

There is a consensus that the path of peace negotiations has miserably failed and would never yield peace, yet members of the Palestinian negotiating team insist on negotiating because it secures their positions. Arab leaders support negotiations in the hope of containing the Arab/Israeli conflict in Palestine only. Israel wants negotiations to extract more political concessions. The US calls for negotiations in order to appear as an honest peace broker while at the same time guarantees Israeli military superiority in the region. The losers are Palestinians themselves; negotiations had harmed their cause; they have lost more land and more rights.

There is a dire need for an immediate new more assertive Palestinian political strategy. There is an urgent need for a new more effective Palestinian election, involving not only Palestinians under Israeli occupation, but also Palestinians in all Palestinian refugee camps and in exile, to choose a more representing political body, who would sincerely and assertively fight for the Palestinian rights on the international arena. The 17 years old Palestinian negotiating team with its futile negotiate-only mindset needs to be dismantled and be replaced with another team who is ready to negotiate only after Israel withdraws back to 1967 borders. The effectiveness of this new Palestinian body depends on the Arab League re-instating the Palestinian issue as the major Arab cause in totality and to support Palestinians in every form of resistance.

Further, and most important, the legitimate armed resistance to Israeli occupation must be re-introduced alongside the political struggle as an indispensable method for liberation. Aggressive armed resistance to the Israeli occupation is the only deterrent Palestinians have to stop Israeli expansion. The Egyptian October 1973 War liberating Suez Canal and Hezbollah's liberation of south Lebanon in 2000 serve as good examples for the saying "what was stolen by force could not be regained except by force".

* Dr. Elias Akleh is an Arab writer from a Palestinian descent born in the town of Beit Jala. His family was first evicted from Haifa after the "Nakba" of 1948, then from Beit Jala after the "Nakseh" of 1967. He lives now in the US, and publishes his articles on the web in both English and Arabic.

By Jonathan Cook * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

A ghost haunted the meeting of the Arab League in Libya at the weekend, as its foreign ministers decided to give a little more time to the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Ghost of Camp David

That ghost was the Camp David talks of summer 2000, when US President Bill Clinton publicly held Yasser Arafat, the then-Palestinian leader, responsible for the breakdown of the negotiations, despite an earlier promise to blame neither side if they failed.

Mr Clinton's finger-pointing breathed life into the accusation from Ehud Barak, Israel's prime minister, that there was "no Palestinian partner for peace"; brought about the collapse of the Israeli peace movement, and ultimately sanctioned the decision of Mr Barak's successor, Ariel Sharon, to invade the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank.

A decade later, the Arab League ministers did not want to expose Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to a similar charge from Barack Obama.

They therefore played the safest hand possible: they offered Washington another month's breathing space to persuade Israel to renew a freeze on settlement building, while also supporting Mr Abbas's decision to break off direct talks until the freeze was back in place.

The decision's dual purpose was to throw the spotlight squarely back on Israel as the recalcitrant party, and allow the White House to continue to pretend the talks are still on track.

The league's new deadline was chosen precisely to appease Washington. Mr Obama's most pressing concern is shoring up his Democratic Party's vote at the congressional mid-term elections in early November. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians want to be seen walking away from the president's peace initiative before then.

Instead, the Palestinians and Israelis concentrated on the blame game, thereby highlighting the fact that both think the talks are doomed. The Camp David talks lasted two weeks before collapsing; these negotiations have been on life support since they began more than a month ago.

"The Israeli government was given the choice between peace and settlements, and it has chosen settlements," the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said on 8 October.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, spun events the other way, arguing implausibly that the Palestinians should have engaged more decisively in talks during the 10-month partial freeze on settlement growth, which expired two weeks ago. "The questions need to be directed to the Palestinians: why are you abandoning the talks?" Mr Netanyhau said on 7 October.

Rather than investing wasted energy in doomed talks, the two sides appear to be adopting the same alternative strategy: cutting a deal directly with Washington that circumvents the other party.

Palestinians' US gamble

At the weekend it was reported that Mr Abbas had told Arab leaders he was considering asking the US president to recognize a unilaterally declared Palestinian state in the whole of the West Bank.

Mr Erekat told Reuters another option might be a request for a United Nations Security Council resolution calling on member states to "recognize the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders".

In the past, Washington has greeted such Palestinian proposals unenthusiastically. But threats by Mr Abbas to resign if the Israeli settlement freeze is not renewed – leaving no obvious successor – are intended to add to the pressure on the White House.

Israel-US axis

Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, is reported to be working on a counter-offensive he hopes will win Washington's approval. Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, officially confirmed to the Washington Post last week that the Obama administration had offered Israel a range of generous diplomatic, security and financial "incentives" to secure a few months' extension of the partial moratorium on settlement building.

Mr Netanyahu is reported to have turned down the offer but only, it appears, because he believes he can win a more valuable concession. His real aim, the Israeli media reported last week, is to persuade the White House to reaffirm a promise made in a 2004 letter from Mr Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, that Israel will not be required to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders in a peace deal.

Israeli officials understood that to mean the Americans would approve the annexation of the main settlements to Israel, allowing most of the half-million settlers to remain in place. The Obama administration has until now denied the pledge was ever made.

In exchange for Mr Obama's endorsement of the promise, Mr Netanyahu might be willing to reimpose a short-term settlement freeze, arguing to his ministers that soon it would no longer apply to most of the settlements.

Ari Shavit, a columnist with Israel's Ha’aretz newspaper, argued last week that arm-twisting the White House to honour Mr Bush's commitment was "a win-win formula" for Mr Netanyahu.

Either Washington would be committed to Israel's key demands in the talks or "US credibility" would be damaged. "Instead of Netanyahu being the dissenter, Obama will be the dissenter," he wrote.

Mr Netanyahu, however, is stuck unless he can overcome opposition to a deal on a settlement freeze within his own cabinet, led by Avigdor Lieberman, the far-right foreign minister.

According to senior officials in the Labour Party, ostensibly the most dovish of Mr Netanyahu's coalition partners, that explains the timing of his move to placate Mr Lieberman by backing a loyalty oath for non-Jews applying for citizenship.

* Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" and "Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair".

(The National)

By Alan Hart * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

On 25 September I wrote a piece headlined Obama speaks at the UN… Goodbye to peace. Since then I’ve seen no need for me to contribute to the debate about the farce that President Obama’s push for peace is and was always going to be. But the Arab League’s decision to give Obama a one-month deadline to rescue the direct talks between Abbas and his quisling administration and Netanyahu and his deluded coalition government demands a comment or two.

Arab leaders know that with America’s mid-term elections fast approaching, there is no way a humiliated, increasingly desperate and isolated Obama can even think about applying real pressure on Israel. (I am still of the opinion that he did not enter the Oval Office programmed to do Zionism’s bidding. His real problem was that he was too inexperienced and naïve. As a consequence of that he was bound to become the prisoner of the Zionist lobby and its stooges in Congress. At the time of writing, and given his counter-productive escalation of targeted assassinations by armed drones, I am beginning to wonder if Obama will go down in history as one of the worst presidents America has ever had).

So why are they, Arab leaders, going through the motions?

The short answer is that once again they are seeking to cover the ugly nakedness of their impotence.

The most relevant question, it seems to me, is what, in theory, could Arab leaders still do to give themselves a reasonable chance of countering Zionism’s influence on American policy for the Middle East?

Prefaced by a summary statement of all the initiatives the Arabs including the Palestinians have taken for peace on terms which any rational government and people in Israel would have accepted with relief, they could threaten to

• Sever their diplomatic relations with the U.S.
• Withdraw their financial support for America’s broken economy
• Turn off the oil taps

As I have written and said on more than a few occasions in the past, Zionism’s key players know how to play the cards they were dealt and Arab leaders don’t.

Zionism’s four main cards were and are the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust for blackmail purposes; money (virtually unlimited funds) and the influence it buys; the organized Jewish vote; and, more generally speaking, breathtakingly, brilliant organization and co-ordination.

The Arabs have always had an ace that would trump all of Zionism’s cards. OIL.

Imagine what would have happened in the immediate aftermarth of the 1967 war if Arab leaders had put their act together and sent one of their number secretly to Washington DC to say something very like the following to President Johnson behind closed doors: “If you don’t get Israel back behind its pre-war borders, we’ll turn off the oil taps.”

If Johnson had believed that Arab leaders were united and serious, he would have replied with something very like the following: “I can’t guarantee swift action on Jerusalem but give me two or three weeks for the rest.”

If the Zionists had been in the Arab position, that IS how they would have played their hand. And that is not pure speculation on my part. Over the years I have been told so by a number of Israeli leaders including former Directors of Military Intelligence.

The main point I’m making is that if Johnson had believed that Arab leaders were united and serious, they would not have had to turn off the oil taps. A secret, credible threat to do so would have been enough to cause Johnson (or any president) to put America’s own best interests first.

Will Arab leaders ever learn how to play their cards (if only to best protect their own longer term, real interests)?

I fear not.

* Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East. Author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews. He blogs on www.alanhart.net and tweets on www.twitter.com/alanauthor

By Gideon Levy | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

President Muhammad Anwar El Sadat - October War of 1973

The act of atonement in which we are engaged over the recently declassified documents from the Yom Kippur War is nothing but a hollow pagan ritual. Suddenly we learn that Golda Meir considered ordering an "insane" operation against Syria and said the world was "contemptible;" defense minister Moshe Dayan called for abandoning wounded soldiers in the field and was thoroughly depressed; and Israel Defense Forces chief of staff David Elazar tended to lie to the public.

We love to indulge in discussing the blunders of 1973, imagining that they belong to the ancient past. All the responsible parties are dead, but the topic is still alive and kicking. The winds of 1973 blow hard today, and nothing has changed. The fact is that today, when each of Golda's pronouncements and Dayan's proposals are headlines once again, nobody remembers another error from this period, a much more critical mistake, by the same gang, made when it squandered the opportunity, in the early 1970s, of reaching an agreement with Egypt. Had a real lesson been learned from the Yom Kippur War, the scandal would have been attributed to this missed chance for negotiations - the same error that is being made today.

In the early 1970s, there was a genuine prospect for peace with Egypt. President Gamal Abdel Nasser agreed to the Rogers Plan, to which all subsequent peace proposals bear a striking resemblance, and even invited World Jewish Congress head Nahum Goldmann to confer with him. Golda blocked the meeting and ridiculed the idea, and Dayan declared, "Better to have Sharm el-Sheikh without peace." The rest is history: Israel always prefers war to peace, and if there is no choice then we'll make peace after a war, never before. Peace with Egypt, the withdrawal from south Lebanon and recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization, all took place only after blood was shed, never before.

Nothing has changed in 37 years. It's the same arrogant hubris, the same obstinate resistance to any prospect of an agreement, the same failure to recognize that only peace will save us from another defense minister who sinks into an existential depression while warning of an impending holocaust. What's the point of this festival of 1973 war documents and this retroactive dance of death? Why look back, if on the day the settlement building freeze ended the settlers did a remarkably accurate imitation of the dance of arrogance that preceded the 1973 war?

There is no difference between the Plymouth Valiants driven by the lords of Israel in those days, the generals who went to Tel Aviv restaurants where their photographs decorated the walls, and today's torpor. The same drunken blindness is at play, even if the cult of the generals has since been curbed. Nasser sought peace in the early 1970s, and Bashar Assad, Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab League are knocking in vain at Israel's closed door in 2010. We mocked and turned a deaf ear then; we mock and turn a deaf ear now. We have examined photographs from parties in those power-drunk days and failed to find a hint of sobriety, or even a hangover, today. Look at us then and see us today. The fun and games continue, and the state shouts for joy, now as then.

Clip and save the bread and circuses: National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau promising power stations on the occupied Golan Heights and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz promising a railroad on the occupied West Bank, just as Dayan and Shimon Peres promised a "deep-water harbor" at Yamit. It's the same story - the jubilation over natural gas discoveries, the roars of joy over the bulldozers in the settlements, the blunt indifference to world opinion, the apathy to the ills of the occupation, the obsession with trivialities, the gossip columns that bow to the rich and powerful, the small screen that keeps us from knowing what is really happening and the smokescreen of complacency that shrouds it all. Clip and save, and when the next scandal over a failure of leadership arises, in much less than 37 years, once again we won't be able to pretend to be shocked and surprised.

Take the Home Front Command public service message in which a cute soldier tells actress Tiki Dayan not to hurry, she can continue to fry her schnitzels. Listen to the soldier, in her voice: Keep pounding those chicken cutlets, thin, just the way we like, there's nothing urgent.

By Khalid Amayreh* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

With the Arab world and Palestinian Authority seemingly caught in a spiral of weakness and vacillation, and the Obama administration unwilling or unable to pressure Israel, the Israeli government has allowed anti-peace Jewish settlers to embark on all-out drive to build as many settler units as possible.

The audacious move came hours after a 10-month moratorium on settlement expansion expired Sunday night, 26 September.

Gleeful celebrations continued for hours as settler leaders and government officials delivered speeches with bulldozers, concrete mixers and other construction equipment in the background. During the celebrations, thousands of balloons were released into the air, signifying the number of units settlers intend to build.

With nearly all restrictions on settlement expansion now removed, the settlers, with the explicit backing of the government, are vowing to "compensate" for the 10-month hiatus by intensifying settlement construction to an unprecedented degree.

Settler leaders say they intended to build "tens of thousands of units" in addition to opening new roads and other forms of infrastructure which will require the seizure of large swathes of Palestinian land.

Initially, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed a modicum of consternation at what was happening. His ostensible dismay would have been more convincing had the Israeli premier not resisted American and international pressure to extend the settlement freeze even for a few months so staunchly.

Netanyahu has been trying to give a false impression that what the settlers are doing is beyond his power and contrary to his will. Yet it has become crystal clear that the settlers are carrying out Netanyahu's desires if not his declared instructions. How else to explain remarks by Netanyahu made earlier this week in which he asked his cabinet ministers to refrain from commenting on the settlement expansion? Netanyahu had also urged settler leaders to "build quietly without making a big noise".

According to Israeli sources, Netanyahu is taking advantage of "the political predicament" facing President Barack Obama, whose ability to pressure Israel is heavily restricted by the proximity of congressional elections in November.

The Obama administration reacted to the provocations of West Bank settlers by expressing "disappointment" and promising to keep up efforts to push the peace process forward.

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters earlier this week that US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell was in touch with both sides. Mitchell has paid numerous visits to the region, achieving very little progress.

"We recognise that given the decision yesterday we've still got a dilemma that we have to resolve and there are no direct negotiations scheduled at this point but we will be in touch with the parties to see how we move ahead," Crowley said.

Crowley hinted that the United States might press the Arab League to pressure the Palestinian leadership to remain engaged in peace talks with Israel despite the resumption of settlement activities.

In recent years, especially since Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat as leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the US has repeatedly used its Arab allies to coerce the Palestinian leadership into making concessions to Israel. It is a policy on which Washington is relying on yet again, with Washington relying on friendly Arab capitals close to convince Abbas to swallow his "reservations" and return to the hopelessly futile talks with Israel while watching as his contemplated state is devoured piece by piece.

Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa said Arab states would not press the Palestinian leadership to indulge in futile talks which can lead nowhere.

Moussa accused the Obama administration of failing to take a firm stance with Israel and instead adopting a soft-glove approach towards the Jewish state irrespective of its policies.

"We respect President Obama and the way he is dealing with the peace process, however it should be sufficiently clear that a policy based on treating Israel with absolute flaccidity while pressuring the Arab side to foot the bills will not work," said Moussa.

In an interview with the Arabic daily Al-Ahram earlier this week, Moussa added that it was illogical to ask the Arabs for yet more concessions while the Jewish state was stealing additional chunks of Arab land and indulging in illegal settlement activities.

Other Arab leaders have castigated the US for pressuring the Arabs in order to compensate for its inability and failure to pressure Israel. According to the Israeli press, the US had offered Israel "unprecedented inducements" in return for extending the settlement freeze for a few months.

* Khalid Amayreh a journalist based in the Occupied Palestinian town of Dura. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983.

By Stephen Lendman* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Report of the Independent Fact Finding Committee On Gaza - "No Safe Place"

On September 21, the UN Human Rights Council's independent fact finding Committee issued its report titled, "No Safe Place," (Read report here) assessing "investigat(ions) and report(s) on violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law during" Operation Cast Lead. Its members included:

• Professor John Dugard, Chairman, former UN Special Human Rights Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine;
• Norwegian Judge Finn Lynghjem;
• Chilean attorney Gonzalo Boye;
• Professor Corte-Real, a forensic body damage evaluator; and
• solicitor Ms. Raelene Sharp.

On February 21, it held an initial meeting with the Arab League's Secretary-General in Cairo, then entered Gaza the next day through the Rafah crossing. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights organized its six day visit with a wide range of persons, including Cast Lead victims, witnesses, doctors, lawyers, journalists, business people, and members of NGOs, UN agencies and Hamas.

Sites visited included hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, businesses, police stations, government buildings, UN facilities, private homes, and agricultural lands - all devastated by destruction or damage.

Three times the Committee requested Israeli cooperation, getting no response. "The Committee regrets the decision of the Government of Israel to withhold cooperation." It also stonewalled the Goldstone Commission, as it always does to prevent independent investigations from exposing its crimes.

"Operating under internationally recognized standards, the report documents the injuries suffered and their alleged causes." The Committee obtained firsthand evidence of great loss of life and injuries in Gaza, as well as the vast amount of destruction, mostly affecting civilians, their homes, neighborhoods, and other non-military facilities - a clear violation of international law, documented clearly in earlier articles.

Palestinian losses were immense, also documented earlier. Israel's were minor - four civilians and ten soldiers killed (three by friendly fire), and 148 wounded. Palestinians had only "unsophisticated weapons" against the world's fourth most powerful military, using everything (except its nuclear capability), including illegal weapons like white phosphorous.

"It was clear to the Committee that the IDF had not distinguished between civilians and civilian objects and military targets. Both the loss of life and the damage to property were disproportionate to the harm suffered by Israel or any threatened harm." Israel was the clear aggressor in violation of international law, waging premeditated war largely against civilians. The Goldstone Commission highlighted the crime, saying:

"The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population. The destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential housing was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy which has made the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population."

Israel willfully killed hundreds of civilians as a result of "disproportionate attacks," including on hospitals, homes, and other civilian structures. "Repeatedly, the Israeli Defense Forces failed to adequately distinguish between combatants and civilians, as the laws of war strictly require....Pursuing justice in this case is essential because no state or armed group should be above the law." Failure to do so "will have a deeply corrosive effect on international justice, and reveal an unacceptable hypocrisy. As a service to the hundreds of civilians who needlessly died and for the equal application of international justice, the perpetrators of serious violations must be held to account."

So far, they have not. Gaza remains under siege, and world leaders are doing nothing to end it and demand justice for Israeli war crimes. Instead they support a bogus "peace process," that's neither a process or a way to peace. It's the same shameless on and off 35 year charade going nowhere, unless the PA agrees to unconditional surrender, the only outcome Israel will accept.

On September 22, Haaretz report its latest wrinkle, headlined "US won't comment on reports of (Jonathan) Pollard release deal," saying:

Citing unnamed sources, Israeli Radio said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet might propose extending the (September 26 expiring) construction "freeze" in exchange for releasing the convicted spy. Why not when no freeze exists. Construction continues unabated. PA President Mahmoud Abbas accepts the charade as well as the Obama administration and Western media. The reported pressure on Netanyahu is bogus. He loses nothing by agreeing or perhaps negotiating an illusion of compromise.

"Pollard is regarded as a hero in Israel, but a traitor by the US government. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for passing classified documents to the Israeli government in the 1980s while working in the US Navy's intelligence unit."

For years, Israel asked US presidents for clemency, so far without results. If Netanyahu succeeds, he'll gain political prestige and more popularity at home. However, On June 20, 2009, Haaretz writer Amir Oren explained that US intelligence officials "unequivocally oppose" the release, saying doing so "will undermine US security practices and complicate counterintelligence." Then, and likely now, "The US intelligence community hasn't altered its position. It's unknown whether Obama will go along, given how much he yields to Israel on most everything requested.

Conclusions from the Committee's Report

It explained that:

• as an occupying power, "Israel is obligated to comply with the Fourth Geneva Convention" and other related international laws;
• "aggression" isn't clearly defined, so it couldn't conclude whether "Israel's offensive constituted" it;
• "Israel's actions could not be justified as self-defense;"
• it urged the principles of proportionality be applied to assess criminal responsibility; and
• it "could not examine" whether Israel or Hamas committed international terrorism "as (its) meaning (is) too uncertain; consequently, criminal responsibility was best measured in accordance with the rules of international humanitarian law."

Nonetheless, the Committee found "serious violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child." Also, Fourth Geneva and its Additional Protocols were violated, especially on the issue of collective punishment, specifically prohibited at all times under all circumstances.

On issues of crimes of war and against humanity, "The Committee found that the IDF was responsible for the crime of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians....It rejected Israel's determination of who is a civilian." Members of Hamas' civil government are not combatants "as claimed by Israel." Nor are police.

"The Committee found that the IDF was responsible for the crime of killing, wounding and terrorizing civilians," based on the numbers of dead and wounded as well as Israel's use of banned weapons and intense bombardment for over three weeks.

"The Committee rejected Israel's claim that it warned civilians in advance to leave." Use of leaflets and phone calls "only served to cause confusion and panic. Incessant bombing and misleading warnings of this kind served to terrorize the population." Where could they go with Gaza under siege, its borders closed?

The Committee called the IDF "responsible for the wanton destruction of property and that such destruction could not be justified on grounds of military necessity." The harm done was disproportionate and illegal.

Israel committed grievous crimes of war and against humanity, whitewashing them through internal investigations and obstruction of independent ones by refusing to cooperate.

The Committee called Cast Lead so grave, "it was compelled to consider whether (genocide) had been committed. Without question in the context of 62 years of displacement and persecution and 43 years of brutal military occupation, punctuated by regular attacks, killings, targeted assassinations, arrests, torture, and other types of abuses daily.

The Committee thus concluded that Israel "committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and, possibly genocide in the course of Operation Cast Lead" alone. Responsible military and civilian officials are culpable, yet so far unpunished.

The Committee also said "there is no indication that Israel has opened an investigation into the actions of those who designed, planned, ordered, and oversaw 'Operation Cast Lead.' "

It also found Hamas guilty of firing rockets into Israel, a defensive action in response to Israel's attack, and minor by comparison.

Some Final Comments

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said Israel proved itself "genuinely unwilling to comply with its international legal obligation to conduct effective investigations, and appropriate prosecutions into the systematic violations of international law committed" during its offensive.

So far, only one prosecution occurred - for credit card theft, while serious war crimes have been whitewashed and ignored. As a result, responsible officials keep persecuting millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They're no match against the world fourth most powerful military allied with collaborationist PA officials, principally Mahmoud Abbas and his appointed prime minister, Salam Fayyad, self-serving imperial tools.

On September 27, the Committee will present its report to the UN Human Rights Council. It will highlight Cast Lead's seriousness. Hopefully, it will also demand those responsible be held accountable, perhaps at the International Criminal Court (ICC). That's why it was established, though it fails to fulfill its mandate.

What better time than now to do it, then take on America for destroying Iraq and Afghanistan, and bankrolling Israeli belligerency, supplying money, weapons and munitions, both countries committing mass murder with impunity. It's high time their day of reckoning arrived. It can't come a moment too soon.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

Report of the Independent Fact Finding Committee On Gaza - "No Safe Place"

"What thou hast done to thyself none else did,

Thou has caused pain to the spirit of the Prophet

Ignorant of the witchery of the Frank (the west),

Behold the mischief hidden in his sleeve!

By his diplomacy all nations prostrate,

Unity of the Arabs crushed to pieces,

As long as they are caught in his vicious trap,

The Arabs shall not enjoy a moment's peace."

--Muhammad Iqbal, famed Pakistani Poet, "The Glory of Iqbal", by Shakyh Abdul-Hanan Ali Nadwi

"The Arabs are right when they paint America as a great Zionist conspiracy."

--Douglas Rushkoff, New York University and other Schools, "Wrestling with Zion", Grove Press, 2003

(Author of: Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism", among many other books)

"No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices."

-- Edward R. Murrow, the famed CBS Journalist and Anchor

While the Christians celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, Bush the Christian offers one last massacre gift to Israel during Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, where the only Jewish light seen over Gaza is Bush's green light to dispose of Palestinian civilians and the lights of missiles and rockets fired from the latest American war planes courtesy of the ignorant but complicit American taxpayer.

As of this writing 284 Palestinians have been murdered, over 700 injured (many in critical condition); most are innocent civilians living in the most densely populated area in the world-Gaza. This is the highest one day total of dead and injured by Israel's terrorism since its founding in 1948. Given Israel's total siege of Gaza for over 18 months preventing any food, water, medicines, and fuel to enter, the injured are taken to the only hospital in Gaza where the siege ensured that not enough medical supplies are available to save the dying infant, the pregnant mother or the elderly grandparent.

Bush and Rice after receiving the highest awards and most expensive gifts, including over $350,000 of Jewelry for Condi Rice from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf nations, and Jordan, justify Israel's slaughter with the usual mantra that Israel has the right to "retaliate and defend itself". For eight years Bush and Rice have not only defended Israel's massacres but actually provided military and financial support as it launched military strikes across its borders attacking the Occupied Territories, the 2006 indiscriminate bombing for 34 days of Lebanon including the dropping of 1.5 million cluster bombs three days before the ceasefire, to the bombing of the alleged Syrian nuclear facility.

And what did the new and improved "hope and change" President elect Obama say regarding the genocide in Gaza: "NO COMMENT".

Israel's slaughter has taught Obama a lesson even before he takes office-don't mess with Israel or you'll be burned. He's shackled by his strong support of Israel during his candidacy and by his Jewish occupied White House. Obama will begin his term fearful of the Israeli lobby and devoid of any chutzpah to alter events in the MidEast, especially in reigning Israel's wanton power to strike at will, even against Iran, having been castrated by a foreign lobby, much like the dog he seeks for his daughters.

The American-Israeli-Arab alliance became the "axis of evil" to eliminate all Islamic resistance and political parties in the Middle East, all under the pretext of a "war on terror" and the establishment of democracy and liberty in the Middle East, something this evil alliance truly fears lest it leads to the overthrow of Arab tyrannical dictatorships, ends America's cheap access to oil, and the unification of the entire Arab Muslim world against Israel's military hegemony in the region.

"Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name."

--Madam Rolande -from the guillotine platform during the French Revolution

Gaza-Oh, Gaza---you bleed, you die, you're buried in total obscurity from a world that has surrendered you to Israel to do as it wills. Given that America, Israel, and the Arab governments have all declared you an "enemy entity" and all Gaza Palestinians as "enemy combatants" you're total annihilation is justified in the eyes of this evil axis.

While Israel is the actual murderer, Pro-American tyrannical Arab regimes are the enablers, the second green lighters if you will. In public they issue the usual "condemnations", "laying the blame and responsibility on Israel", calling for an urgent Arab summit and demanding a halt to all military actions, calling upon the Security Council to meet knowing very well that both the United Nations and Arab League are American proxies, all the while in private they support Israel's genocide against Hamas and Hezbollah despite the massacre of thousands of civilians.

During the inhumane strangling siege of Gaza, Egypt closed its borders to either provide supplies to the starving Palestinian children or allow the sick and injured Palestinians to enter Egypt for treatment, meanwhile providing gas to Israel. Not one single Arab government came to the humanitarian rescue of the beleaguered Palestinians, in effect supporting the Israeli-American determination to eliminate Hamas at any cost.

Two days prior to this slaughter Tzipi Livni, Israel's Foreign Minister and Kadima Party candidate for Prime Minister, visited Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israel's closest Arab ally, to announce that Israel will launch an offensive to eliminate Hamas. Did Mubarak give his Arab green light to this slaughter? Secondly, Mahmoud Abbas, "President" of the West Bank, visited Bush in the Oval office. Did Abbas, the Israeli American darling, give his approval for this slaughter?

As customary in Israeli elections candidates compete as to who is the greater genocider of Palestinians, who will continue the mass construction of illegal settlements, sabotage any international peace efforts, and lay the groundwork for the eventual expulsion of Palestinians from their occupied land. Given that Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud's rightwing extremist candidate, promises the greater genocide of Palestinians, Livni, his opponent, must project a stronger determination to be the Palestinian Terminator.

Among Livni's candidate proposals is to expel Israeli Arab citizens from their homes (again) and settle them in the future Palestinian "state"; in effect proposing another ethnic cleansing. (Haaretz 12/11/08)

In the middle is Ehud Barak, the Labor Party Defense Minister, who endured intense political criticism for his "soft" approach to Gaza's rockets, thus this Hanukkah massacre to bolster his political position. He states that this will be a long and painful military onslaught until Hamas is in effect eliminated from Palestine. To further increase his popularity he promises a massive ground invasion.

This is the same Barak who stated the following when he was Prime Minister during the Second Intafada:

"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...."

-- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000

Although Barak, a military hero, did recognize the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance by saying:

"I would have joined a terrorist organization."

-- Ehud Barak's response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Haaretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.

But what about the Arab League of Despots, Tyrants, and Corrupt Traitors of Islam and Arabs?

As usual, the Arab League has called for an immediate summit of Arab leaders to discuss the genocide in Gaza. So far less than half of the leaders have agreed to attend although they may send low level representatives. Arab leaders are more competent in fighting each other than fighting foreign domination or deadly occupations. Where have the trillions of oil dollars gone? Where have the hundreds of billions of dollars of purchased American weapons gone---gathering dust in the Arabian Desert? Such weapons are meant as symbolic deterrents against each other and Iran but are meaningless in any war given that the Arab military forces are just as illiterate, incompetent, lazy and corrupt as their leaders.

But let's assume that there is an Arab Summit to pacify the Arab street. Here's what will happen.

Several leaders won't attend because of their hurt feelings from words spoken by other leaders, because America says so, and because they want to save face due to the consistent abject failure of Arabs to do anything meaningful internally or externally. There are 57 Muslim nations and 50 Muslim Ambassadors in Washington D.C. with only one Israeli Ambassador. Can you guess who has the real power in D.C? Who's on television defending the genocide, who's writing op-eds in the major papers, who's on radio, who's launching the most aggressive public relations campaign to justify the genocide? Obviously it's not the 50 Muslim Ambassadors who are totally absent from the American political, social, and media scene. They are true reflections of their leaders in their total incompetence. But wait, you can find them in D.C. at strip clubs, exclusive night clubs, parading with beautiful women, and....well, you get the picture. They are on an "Alcoholic Jihad" while the majority of American Muslims and American Muslim organizations are laying low with their cowardly heads buried in their comfort niches content with launching a "Jihad by Email" in the usual hallmark of reactive actions. Like their brethren natives back home, American Muslims despite their wealth and high education are AWOL, disconnected from the suffering of Muslims around the world fearful of losing their jobs, of being harassed, or worse, ending up on a "list".

Back to the Arab League:

If they meet, here's their patented Arab bellicose communiqué:

"We condemn Israel's aggression, demand the world interferes and stop all military actions, call for the full support of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians based on U.N. Resolutions 242, 338 and a lifting of the siege of Gaza, encourage Obama to adopt the Arab Peace Plan and his direct involvement to resolve the conflict (obviously not their responsibility), demand Israel allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, and indirectly criticize Hamas for this Israeli massacre."

The final part of the Communiqué will read (my interpretation):

"If Israel persists again on killing another thousand Palestinians, the Arab League will call for another Summit to discuss that genocide too."

Israel was founded by terrorism with support of the British and American "democracies". It lives by terrorism, and God willing will end by terrorism. A nation that massacres its neighbors and mankind by the sword shall perish by the sword, that according to the Old Testament (Exodus 21:14) and the New Testament (Matthew 26:52).

"Israeli-Zionist society is predicated on a concept of religious/national exclusivity, resting on the distinction between "Jew" and "Non-Jew" that is institutionalized into all the formal state structures and on a concept of democracy as no more than rule by the majority without any protection of the right of minorities. Israel's approach to conflict resolution is based on the premise that "might makes right", coupled with a complete disregard for internationally recognized standards of state behavior and, as noted, a particularly cavalier disregard for the principles and resolutions of the United Nations....Indeed---the Machiavellian power machinations of persons, such as Henry Kissinger---who gave Israel carte blanche in the Middle East to assure its effectiveness as a "surrogate power" for American interests---or the craven subservience and political expediency of those members of Congress who have wanted the money and votes domestic pro-Israeli forces could deliver...the common denominator amongst all the American peace efforts is their abysmal failure."

---Cheryl A. Rubenburg, Associate Professor of International Relations, Florida International University in "Anti-Zionism: Analytical Reflections", p. 195

My dear Palestinians, you are alone in this world forsaken even by your own incompetent disunited power hungry leaders whose allegiance is not to you but to foreign interests. They are ignorant and disillusioned in their belief that there is an actual governmental institution that each seeks to dominate. Abu Mazen has thrown his lot with the Israeli-American-Arab alliance that seeks to eliminate the freely elected Hamas in Gaza. While Hamas has shown its total political failure, unable to comprehend that "irrational exuberance", and enthusiasm served with foolish bellicosity is no match for Israel's 3M domination of the western world's foreign policy: Money-Media-Military Power. Although Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement its policies and methods of resistance are utterly stupid and counterproductive. The time, place, and circumstances that allowed other national resistance movements to succeed is totally lacking in Palestine: unity of purpose and collaboration---easy access to financial aid and military weapons from foreign powers---well trained militias and competent charismatic political and military leaders---successful short and long term strategic plans---and most importantly, a savvy knowledge on media manipulation and public relations. These elements are what made the Zionist terrorist groups successful in their theft of Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of its people. Neither Fatah, Hamas or any other Palestinian party or group is blessed with these elements. It's incredulous that there are multiple Palestinian parties disunited in purpose and often are fighting each other than their occupier.

Hamas, created with Israel's aid and blessings, has failed its people in providing them with their most basic needs or providing the political and public relation leaders able to articulate and communicate the legitimacy of their cause to the outside world. Hamas, when will you learn that the world lives and dies by the "image" of events? Israel can kill and within seconds have articulate spokespersons on television justifying their actions, yet you're unable to develop any relations with any worldwide media to present your case. In this, you're joined by the entire Arab Muslim world.

Stop the madness of the useless rockets that recently killed two Palestinian girls. They do nothing but provide Israel the excuse and the support of the international community to massacre the innocent. The entire world including Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab Muslim world join America, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations (the four stooges of the Road Map) in blaming you for Israel's slaughter even if Israel attacks Gaza preemptively. Fight with intellectual vigor, with intelligence, with a media savvy campaign, develop articulate English speaking spokespersons, utilize the internet, but stop the counterproductive bellicosity and stupid rockets. In today's world "image" wins western hearts and minds, especially of Americans. You're facing the most powerful "evil empires" in the world, America and Israel, and you can't win.

I beg you, for the sake of the four-year-old Palestinian girl shot through the head by an Israeli sniper, bury her in peace and bury your rockets and pompous words and begin a resistance of non-violence. You'll pay a heavy price but all independence struggles demand huge sacrifices.

In few Arab and Muslim cities protestors are expressing their anger against America and Israel. I say to them and to all Muslims, first clean your house of the tyrants, hold on to God's covenant, and patiently develop your economic and military strength and you will ultimately succeed in liberating your lives, lands, and resources from America's imperialism that uses its military as an instrument to satisfy the selfish unlimited consumption of its people.

"Indeed, Allah will never change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves."

(Quran 13:11)

The massacre of the Palestinians continues unabated with blood, tears, and screams going unseen and unheard by a callous world. The Arab leaders have done their part-most have issued "press releases" to urge a return to the cease fire that Israel broke and indirectly blame Hamas for forcing Israel's hand, the hand that has never stopped killing and expelling Palestinians since 1948. No Arab leader has publicly appeared to condemn this atrocity.

Israel's brilliant media strategy is to prevent western journalists from entering Gaza to document the dead and charred bodies lining the streets while allowing free access to the Arab media to further inflame the Arab Muslim world against American policies and interests, perhaps leading to terrorism against Americans and their institution, thereby justifying Israel's "war of terror upon the innocent". You see America, these Arabs and Muslims are hate-filled terrorists indoctrinated by Islam's teaching of killing Jews and Christians.

The dead Palestinians are martyrs who will enter Paradise, but it is us, the living, who will continue to endure hell on earth at the hands of the Israeli-American-Arab axis of evil with their smart bombs and stupid policies.

"As for those who take the deniers of the truth for their allies in preference to the believers - do they hope to be honored by them when, behold, all honor belongs to God alone?" (Quran 4:139)

Our constant hope is that in the end Divine Justice will prevail against the murderous oppressors.

Long live Palestine and its yearning for freedom and independence from the "axis of evil".

References:

http://guardian.150m.com/palestine/resources.htm (A list of Online Books on Israel and Palestine: some links are lost, excellent bibliography for in depth reading)

http://www.christusrex.org/www2/koestler/index.html (Arthur Koestler's book online: The 13th Tribe; how European Jews arose from the Kingdom of Khazaria and not from the original Israelites)

http://palestinethinktank.com/ (Excellent Analytical Site on the Israeli Palestine conflict)

http://palestineremembered.com/ (Comprehensive/Excellent Informative Site on all issues of Israel's Terrorism/Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine)

http://ifamericansknew.org/ (Great site by an American Journalist on the Israeli Palestinian conflict)

http://thirdworldtraveler.com/ (Superb Site of Archived Articles/Books on the most critical issues of today)

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/ (Site of wide ranging articles on the MidEast, U.S. foreign policy, Muslim world)

http://www.aljazeerah.info/ (Critical Political Articles and Islamic teachings)

http://axisoflogic.com/ (Good Analytical Articles on worldwide issues)

http://antiwar.com/ (Best site on Antiwar Articles)

http://counterpunch.org/ (Excellent Site/Newsletter with well known authors)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/27/7322

http://www.palestine-encyclopedia.com/EPP/SubjectIndexM.htm (Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem by Issa Nakhleh) http://etalmud.com/index.php?paged=2 (Good Review of the Talmud)

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199112--02.htm (Noam Chomsky: International Terrorism: Image and Reality

In Alexander George (ed.), Western State Terrorism, Routledge, December, 1991)

http://www.noahide.com/yeshu.htm (The Blasphemous belief of Hasidic Jews regarding Jesus/Mary)

*According to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Likud, terrorism can be justified in the service of (Zionist but not Palestinian) national struggle: "Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can be used to deny the morality of terror used as a means of war.... We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with national struggle. First and foremost, terror is part of the political war appropriate for the circumstances of today."

-- Hazit (Aug.1943, Journal of Lehi, the terrorist organization Shamir led before Israel's independence

"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country."

--David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's "Fateful Triangle", which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.

"Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial."

-- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 25 March, 2001 quoted in BBC News Online

IHT - Arab leaders will threaten to rescind their offer of full relations with Israel in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands unless Israel gives a positive response to their initiative, indicating the Arab states' growing disillusionment with the prospects of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... Read on!

My A**! As if Israel cares about what the Arab leaders says. Arab League meeting next month in Syria is not going to change anything, as usual.

Earlier today, Arab League said that U.S. veto dooms Mideast peace process. Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa slammed the "incomprehensible" U.S. veto of a United Nations resolution condemning Israel's devastating raid in the Gaza Strip.

"This sends a message that causes us great sorrow and anger. The message was well received, and it tells us that the peace process is completely dead... This veto is incomprehensible and will only fan the flames of anger gripping the Middle East." Mussa said.

The draft resolution would have condemned Wednesday’s artillery strike on the northern Gaza Strip town that killed 19 Palestinians, mostly women and children. It would also have condemned Palestinian rocket firing into the Jewish state.

So far... nothing new... Arab League weeping with no actions.

The surprise came tonight when the Arab League announced that they are NOT going to adhere to any resolutions or foreign on-ground actions that ban support of Palestinians, financially.

Details of Arab League decision is not yet available in mainstream media, but is on air at Alajzeera for the last couple of hours.

Update: Arab League Breaks Financial Embargo against PA (Reuters).

Two notes:

1. Better late than never, but, oh dear Arab League, is this a sudden awake or moral correction? I guess neither. They were not ready to support Palestinians when Hamas was in lead, but in the last two days, Hamas confirmed that they are stepping down from the lead and forming with other Palestinian parties, a new union government.

In other words, Palestinians have seen no hope in support from Arab official, so they decided to switch to plan B, which is what Israel and U.S. were pushing for, and here we go, Arab looks as if they are going against U.S. well, but that is not true. They are just doing what they were told to do.

2. As always, Arab League has no action plan as of how to put their decision in action. This is nothing new. History tells us that Arab League condemns and does nothing. few months ago, during the Israeli war on Lebanon, Arab League decided that peace process is dead (as if they brought something we didn't know), and that they will go in September 2006 to UN and put the Middle East conflict on table (Arabic), starting from square one. September passed, October passed, years will pass, and nothing will change.

Update: Today they repeated the same old story that they will proposes new Mideast peace conference. Resetting counter for new ages of conflict? Lets hope for the best!

But wait a minute. Arab League proposed conference on Middle East Peace BEFORE - Israel rejected!!! So, who wants peace here? Anyone?

Will you keep your words?

Here is a campaign that just started after Arab foreign ministers for the first time admitted to the failure of the Middle East Peace Process. They say thank you to the man who said it to the world and help push the issue forward. Join www.thankyouamrmoussa.com

What would be better is getting the email addresses of the Arab League members and Mr. Amr Mousa in particular. If someone has them, would appreciate if you can share them as we have a lot to tell our leaders!

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