Free Palestine.

Here's another article about the peaceful Arabs.

Arafat’s Road Map: More Killing
DEBKAfile Special Analysis
November 11, 2002, 1:34 PM (GMT+02:00)

The terrorists Yasser Arafat’s Fatah admitted sending to Kibbutz Metzer on the Israel-West Bank border carried out their killing rampage on Sunday, November 10, concurrently with the Fatah-Hamas conference taking place in Cairo under the European Union’s aegis.

Far from being mutually contradictory, the two events fit neatly together.
Sunday night, two or more Palestinians burst into an avowedly pacifist rural kibbutz, shot dead its secretary Yitzhak Dori, 44, and a visitor from Moshav Eliachin, Tirza Damari, 42. They then burst into a home and murdered Revital Ochayon and her two small sons, Matan 5 and Noam, 4, she sheltered with her body, before disappearing into the night. They struck hours after the Israeli military pullback from the Palestinian city of Jenin.

In Cairo, “External Hamas”, and Arafat’s Fatah representatives were charged by their European sponsors with discussing ways and means of ending terrorist and suicide attacks in Israel.

The Hamas is represented by its real bosses, the Damascus-based leaders, Khaled Mashal and Abu Marzuk, who tell Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and Abdul Aziz Rantissi in the Gaza Strip what to do. The conference is the fruit of tireless efforts by EU external affairs executive Javier Solana and his envoys, Miguel Moratinos and Alistair Crook.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell is the wirepuller behind the EU initiative.
DEBKAfile’s Washington sources note that Powell’s Palestinian and Iraqi policies often go off on a tangent from the White House line - and never more so than on Sunday, November 10, when he declared in a TV interview that, if Iraq does not comply this time (with the latest UN resolution), “we’ll ask the UN for authorization to take all necessary means…”

This would mean recalling the Security Council for more time-consuming haggling.
The White House chief of staff Andrew Card quickly scotched that notion when he said: “The UN can meet and discuss, but we don’t need their permission” before taking military action.

But not for the secretary of state or the European Union.
In London, Charles Tanner, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman in the European Parliament, was curtly brushed off for demanding an investigation into charges that European taxpayers’ donation of 10 million euros a month to the Palestinian Authority is being diverted to fund terrorist activity.

European Foreign Affairs Commissioner, Britain’s Chris Patten, retorted that he wants this investigation “like a hole in the head.”
The Palestinian leader maneuvers adroitly between these conceptual divergences.

For reasons of its own, the Powell-EU group chooses to regard Arafat’s Fatah as the more responsible of the Palestinian terrorist factions and therefore to be protected and sponsored along with its master. The EU therefore assigned the very movement that created the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Tanzim with persuading the Islamist Hamas to drop its suicide campaign on Israeli soil.

However, according to DEBKAfile’s Palestinian and counter-terror sources, that item never featured on the Cairo meeting’s agenda from the start.
Because Arafat’s power base is made up of the Fatah and the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - whose sole raison d’etre is murdering Israeli civilians - his officials and the Hamas devoted all their attention to the single and most urgent piece of business: to iron out their differences in order to collaborate more effectively in the common cause of killing the greatest number of Israeli men, women and children in every part of the country.

The fine European distinctions between pre-1967 and territory across the Green Line, right-wing communities and pacifist villages, are immaterial for any part of the Palestinian terrorist movement.

Therefore, EU-State Department efforts to persuade the terrorists to stop striking in Israel alone (killing Israelis across the Green Line is permissible in their judgment) is not only denounced in Israel as two-faced, but also misses the mark.

The attack on the left-wing, pro-negotiation Kibbutz Metzer inside the Green Line illustrates this point to the Palestinians and the Arab nation as they celebrate the holy month of Ramadan. It is Arafat’s renewed battle cry for unity. It also underlines two further political objectives:

1. After taking credit for bringing down the national unity government, Arafat’s next goal is to drag Israel’s right-of-center government into radical reprisals that will provoke international condemnation for “ war crimes”.

2. To prove the Bush “road map” a non-starter. The kibbutz massacre was therefore timed for the night before the arrival of US assistant secretary of state David Satterfield in the region. Since Clinton’s day, Arafat has practiced the same destructive tactic. Every American Middle East plan, whether initiated by the president, Madeleine Albright or Colin Powell, or formulated as a ceasefire plan by George Tenet or Anthony Zinni – were all shot down, one by one, by means of devastating terrorist atrocities masterminded by Arafat and his henchmen.

Such peacemaking endeavors therefore have the opposite effect to the one intended, costing the lives of Israelis from every political persuasion, ethnic group, and walk of life, a fact that will dominate the campaign leading up to the January 28 general election.

"Sadist Arabs"

Did these men have their families crushed by Isreali tanks?
What kind of attrocity did these men endure that would cause them to perpetrate the violence?

Ask yourself THAT before you accuse blindly...

This is what you get Isreal, how does it feel?

You butchers are being butchered by the butchers you created...

What a lovely world you've made for us all. Chosen people.
Chosen for what? To bring about our end? You people are armagedon...

To focus on atrocities committed by either side in the israel / palestine conflict ignores the fact that this situation is perpetuated by individuals, groups and philosohpies on both sides. Israel probably started it, helped by Britain and America, and are doing at least their share of what is worsening the situation. Some Palestinians are comitting small and brutal acts of resistance that, sometimes might seem justified, but often they cross over into pure crimes against all humanity. Israel is defending a status quo built on injustice and being more agressive and uncompromising than any other 'democratic' regime could justify in supporting it. They need to take a long hard look at what really constitutes their self interest, and instead of defending the indefensible, build a peaceful, tolerant state. At the moment Palestine can only define itself in opposition to the this status quo and the uncompromising israeli defence of it, and so brutal defiance is inevitable though regretable.
One sided views are what is perpetuating this conflict, it is sad to see so many appearing on IMC

James, I have to disagree with you. Read this article. Its right on the money.
Crossroads, Shlomo Avineri, London Times, November 3, 2002

Shlomo Avineri is a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry in the first administration of Yitzhak Rabin.

Last week's government crisis in Israel, which could lead to early elections, may exacerbate some aspects of Israeli-Palestinian relations. But it does not change the basic facts of the conflict.

In order to understand the current crisis, one has to look back to the Oslo agreements in 1993, signed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. Hope was in the air. Israel and the PLO publicly recognized each other; Israel committed itself to withdrawing from most of the West Bank and Gaza; the Palestinians forswore violence. Most important, Arafat's return from Tunisia and the establishment of an autonomous Palestinian Authority meant that by the late 1990s more than 80% of the Palestinians would be living under Palestinian rule. It appeared that a compromise was achievable.

But then came the failure of the negotiations at Camp David in June 2000 and later at Taba in the fall and early winter of 2000-01. With the support of President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made the Palestinians a series of offers that most observers thought Arafat could not refuse. But he did. Camp David and Taba became the defining moments in recent Middle Eastern history -- just as 9/11 later became a defining moment for U.S. history.

Israel's offers would have changed history. To recapitulate:

* Barak accepted the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. No previous Israeli leader -- including Nobel Peace Prize laureates Rabin and Shimon Peres -- had agreed to such a proposal.

* Barak committed himself to an Israeli withdrawal from 97% of the West Bank and all of Gaza. This would have entailed the uprooting of up to 30 Jewish settlements.

In exchange for those Jewish settlements that would remain in the territories, Barak offered equivalent land within Israel proper -- an idea never before considered.

*Contrary to the avowed Israeli position that Jerusalem would remain forever the undivided capital of Israel, Barak agreed to redivide Jerusalem, so that the Arab part could become the capital of a Palestinian state.

Again without precedent, Barak offered power-sharing with the Palestinians on the Temple Mount.

*Finally, Barak was ready to consider, on humanitarian grounds, the return of a limited number of Palestinian refugees displaced by Israel's 1948 War of Independence.

These were offers made at considerable political cost to Barak. Two of his coalition partners left his government in protest; in the end, Barak lost his parliamentary majority and had to call early elections. In February 2001, soon after the collapse of Taba, he was defeated by Ariel Sharon.

The Palestinian response to Barak's offers was not simply to refuse them but rather to make further demands that Israel simply could not meet. Arafat insisted that Israel agree to the right of return for Palestinian refugees of the 1948 war -- and for all their descendants. Accepting this concept would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish state. Arafat's insistence on it signified to most Israelis that the Palestinian leadership has not yet reconciled itself to the existence of Israel.

In the Israeli mind, it appeared that the Palestinians were not focused on addressing the consequences of the 1967 war: Their aim was rather to undo the events of 1948 -- to undo the establishment of Israel.

Arafat's rejection of the Taba offers was accompanied by a reversion to terrorism and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. There is no doubt that Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount during the fall of 2000 was an unnecessary provocation, and even Israelis would have understood a few days of rage and protest among Palestinians. But the wholesale reversion to terrorism that followed was not triggered by Sharon's visit. It now appears to most Israelis that the violence is part of a strategy by Arafat to wrest from Israel through terrorism what he could not achieve with negotiations.

It is not that Arafat initiates or directly orders all suicide attacks. The situation is more complex -- and in a way, more ominous. But any doubts about the Palestinian Authority's tacit approval of the violence are dispelled by its actions: When the physical remains of a suicide bomber are turned over to the Palestinians, the bomber is given a state funeral by the Palestinian Authority, with an official armed guard of honor. He or she is declared a martyr whose family receives a special pension. The day after the funeral, Palestinian schools receive a fax from the Palestinian Ministry of Education, with a CV and photo of the suicide bomber. Schools are urged to teach the "martyr's" life history as a role model for Palestinian children. Their names and faces appear on posters and in graffiti in the streets of major Palestinian cities. Calendars are illustrated with the "martyr of the month," and paintings glorify the dead bombers.

The documents Israel found in Arafat's headquarters in April, makes it apparent, that in the case of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the PA itself pays for this publicity. This publicity not only rewards suicide bombers but it also encourages other men and women to carry out more attacks.

This is the reality Israelis have been facing in the last two years. A Palestinian authority that teaches hate and indoctrinates its people to kill Jews.

Barak made the Palestinians a generous offer -- independence, sovereignty, even a part of Jerusalem. Most Israelis -- about 70% according to polls -- have concluded from the Palestinians' rejection of this offer, that their aim is not a workable compromise, but to see Israel eliminated.

The Palestinians at Camp David and Taba made a terrible mistake -- similar to the one made by the Chechens in 1999 when they decided not to abide by the de facto independence granted to them by the Russian-Chechen treaty of 1996. Camp David and Taba were diplomatic moments of grace -- and the Palestinians rejected them. Peace will happen, when the Arabs stop denying Israels right to exist.

This is not a fight between equals where blame can be seen to lie equally on both sides. In fact, Israel was founded on land taken from Palestinian people who were herded into refugee camps. Palestinian people now live on a tiny percentage of the land, their olive groves are destroyed, their water supplies are blocked, their roads are impassable, the infrastructure of the Palestinian state is systematically destroyed by Israeli firepower, sick people die at checkpoints, ambulances are riven by bullets.. all this is documented evidence against the brutality of Israel who are illegally on Palestinian land.
It is hideous that we push for war with Iraq on spurious grounds of 'breaking UN resolutions' (I get dizzy, the goalposts keep changing) and yet, Israel, the US overfed, spoilt and dangerous child, can break international law at will. Not that I have now any respect for international law.
Stop looking at the suicide bombers and look at the 'ordinary' people of Palestine who live (and often die) among poverty, horror and destruction NOT OF THEIR MAKING. Israelis should get out of the settlements (which the Israeli government pays and encourages them to settle in as part of a continuous expansion programme which will oppress and kill even more Palestinians).
I repeat, this is not a war between equals. Israel is the wellfed, spoilt baby of the US. Israel could not exist without US money. The arms trade is worth so much more to the US and UK primarily, than the lives of Palestinians (and, also the lives of Israeli children who are innocent of the disgusting financial and humanitarian terms on which their existance on stolen soil is based). This is not a fight between equals where blame can be seen to lie equally on both sides. In fact, Israel was founded on land taken from Palestinian people who were herded into refugee camps. Palestinian people now live on a tiny percentage of the land, their olive groves are destroyed, their water supplies are blocked, their roads are impassable, the infrastructure of the Palestinian state is systematically destroyed by Israeli firepower, sick people die at checkpoints, ambulances are riven by bullets.. all this is documented evidence against the brutality of Israel who are illegally on Palestinian land.
It is hideous that we push for war with Iraq on spurious grounds of 'breaking UN resolutions' (I get dizzy, the goalposts keep changing) and yet, Israel, the US overfed, spoilt and dangerous child, can break international law at will. Not that I have now any respect for international law.
Stop looking at the suicide bombers and look at the 'ordinary' people of Palestine who live (and often die) among poverty, horror and destruction NOT OF THEIR MAKING. Israelis should get out of the settlements (which the Israeli government pays and encourages them to settle in as part of a continuous expansion programme which will oppress and kill even more Palestinians).
I repeat, this is not a war between equals. Israel is the wellfed, spoilt baby of the US. Israel could not exist without US money. The arms trade is worth so much more to the US and UK primarily, than the lives of Palestinians (and, also the lives of Israeli children who are innocent of the disgusting financial and humanitarian terms on which their existance on stolen soil is based).
Finally, why is it unrealistic for Palestinians driven from their land to have the right of return to Palestine when Jews from all over the world, irrespective of their geographical origin, have the right to live on stolen land?
Israel does not actually have any right to exist. On what basis? Some ancient and dubious biblical text? Years of cultural and religious history? This is not enough to justify the oppression and occupation of other human beings. This does not mean that Israelis cannot live in Palestine, on an equal basis, but, unlike the Palestinian people I have spoken too, Israel, the US and UK have no intention of allowing peace to happen.

Apologies for the accidental repetition, but I DID say I would repeat....

Why are mainstream media reports being posted up on Indymedia?

We all know that the pro-Israel lobby is desperately trying to pretend that the Palestinians are the bad guys, and that this war has nothing to do with occupation.

We know the lie about how they turned down the opportunity of the most perfect state in the world, when in fact they were being offered South African style Bantustans, with their borders all controlled by Israel, and travel between towns within the territtory depending on Israeli goodwill (yes I know its an oxymoron).

There is no moral equivalence btween the brutal occupation and the desperate acts of resistance.

The death rate is 3:1 and growing in the Israelis favour.

Israelis continue to steal Palestinian land and to uproot their trees, even today!

Take your mainstream Israeli sponsored propaganda and shove it up your nostrils.