Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, The

Letters to the Editor

[...] as a prisoner, with no money, I am once again asking for the renewal of my subscription. [...] that space would be better dedicated to highlighting non-Muslim/ non-Arab positive efforts, a grossly underplayed story in the U.S. If the "friends" want to do a great service, let them carve their "equal space" from their own media.

Death of a Myth: Israel's Support of a Two-State Solution

In 1955 then-Prime Minister Moshe Sharett recorded in his diary a statement by Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Dayan that revealed Israel's true policy: preserving the unity of an immigrant population by discouraging peace efforts and maintaining a sense of permanent beleaguerment. Netanyahu also said he would accept only "limited Palestinian self-rule," a term Israeli leaders use to mean giving Palestinians in West Bank cities control over not much more than garbage collection and street ma...

Can Obama Meet Netanyahu's Challenge?

Will the Obama administration have the coinage to challenge Netanyahu, or will all the talk of change dissolve in the face of a concerted one-two punch from Netanyahu and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee? I am increasingly convinced that if Obama fails to speak out now, it will doom the two-state solution forever. Tragically, the consequences of further delay and oppression will be endured by Palestinians both in the occupied territories and in an increasingly exclusivist Jewish ...

On U.S. Tour, Dr. Mads Gilbert Gives Eyewitness Account of Gaza Massacre

Photos of medical staff tending too many wounded pa- tients in the emergency room of Gaza's Shifa Hospital augment the tension. The U.S. Air Force developed DIME, Gilbert explained, for targeted executions that limit collateral damage to within tens of meters - a precaution that is meaningless in such a densely populated area as Gaza.

Israel's New Right-Wing Government

According to my perception, a fascist revolution breaks out when a very special personality meets with a very special national situation. History is full of nations in crisis that recovered and returned to normalcy. Besides the real Hitler, who rose to historic heights, there were probably hundreds of other Hitlers, no less crazy and no less talented, who ended their life as bank tellers or frustrated writers, because they did not meet a historic opportunity.

Fbi Agent Provocateurs and Fusion Centers: Boys Gone Wild

According to a 2007 ACLU report, these new fusion centers "raise very serious privacy issues at a time when new technology, government powers and zeal in the 'war on terrorism' are combining to threaten Americans' privacy at an unprecedented level." According to a Texas fusion center's "Prevention Awareness Bulletin" produced on Feb. 19, 2009, it is "imperative" that law enforcement officers report the activities of lobbying groups, Muslim civil rights organizations and anti-war protest grou...

Pope Benedict Xvi's Address at the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem

Parents have a most important role here, and to all the families present in this camp I say: be sure to support your children in their studies and to nurture their gifts, so that there will be no shortage of well-qualified personnel to occupy leadership positions in the Palestinian community in the future. The support of the international community is vital, and hence I make a renewed appeal to all con- cerned to bring their influence to bear in favor of a just and lasting solution, respect-...

Palestinian Christians' Mixed Emotions Over Pope's Visit to the Holy Land

According to Israeli spokespersons, the stage, which required an Israeli military permit, was "illegal." According to the Popular Committee Against the Siege in Gaza, it is "essential that the pope, Christian and Muslim figures visit Gaza in order to observe the suffering of the residents from the Israeli siege."

Five Years After Icj Ruling, Israel Expands Its Illegal Wall Onto More Palestinian Land

[...] the protests are also designed to attract local and international media attention to the wall and its consequences. The reaUty created inside the occupied territories (a process begun during the Oslo accords) by Israel's colonies, Areas A/B/C zoning, the permit system, separate roads-and now the wall-has led to the creation of a Palestinian enclave-state in waiting, and thus the death of a genuine "two-state solution."

Suspension of Benefits to Disabled Workers in Gaza Is Latest Weapon in Israeli Arsenal

[...] there is a technical problem, he added, as two of Israel's main banks are no longer in contact with the Gaza banks. [...] they cannot send the money there/ Responding to Fitoussi's explanation, WAC director Avid noted that using noncommunication as an excuse in a nation noted for its technical communication abilities and skills serves to deflect rather than answer the question.

Destroying Pakistan to Make It Safe

The Obama administration had threatened to stop $1.2 billion annual cash payments to bankrupt Pakistan's political and military leadership, and block $5.5 billion future aid, unless Islamabad sent its soldiers into Pakistan's turbulent NWFP along the Afghan frontier and crushed attempts to re-establish Islamic Law and autonomy. Pashtun Swat, where Islamic shariah law was in force, only joined Pakistan in 1969 after assurances of autonomy and religious freedom.

Obama's New Af-Pak Strategy

A clear signal of the new strategy was the sacking in mid-May of Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan considered too conventional, and his replacement by a counter-insurgency expert, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded America's Joint Special Operations Command for five years, from 2003 to 2008. The U.N. and several human rights organizations criticized Israel for the largescale killing of civilians and the massive destruction of homes, mosques, schools, factori...

Cambodia: A Sinister Precedent?

Will a special forces officer think that guerrillas with refuge in an inaccessible and unconquered region, amidst a tri-national ethnic population of some 40 million fellow-Pathans, can be beaten by guided bombs or Special Forces raids? Or that an unenthusiastdc Pakistani army will do the job? Or 70,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, when the Taliban can always refuse battle and pull back into the mountains? [...] what is supposed to be accomplished by this war against the Taliban, which thre...

What Goes Around, Comes Around

[...] Al-Arian was charged with criminal contempt of court when he refused to testify before a Northern Virginia grand jury investigating another Palestinian organization. [...] federal Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered him released to the custody of his children while he was awaiting trial on the criminal contempt charges - which carry no limit on a possible prison term.

Publishers' Page

[...] posters in a London advertising campaign promoting Israel as a tourist destination actuaUy did erase the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights off the poster's map, making the occupied territories aU part of Israel. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller told representatives of the 189 signatories of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on May 5 that India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel - which has never officiaUy acknowledged having a nuclear weapons stockpUe - ...

Iraqis Fear an Uncertain Future

According to the agreement, all U.S. troops (except for an estimated 70,000 who will remain in Iraq as trainers and advisers) are to be withdrawn from the country by December 2011. [...] it soon became apparent that the U.S. didn't know much about occupying a country, he continues, and the mistakes made in disbanding the Iraqi security forces opened the door to lawlessness, benefitting al-Qaeda and other militia groups.

Congress Increases Its Focus On Iran After Presidential Decision to Expand Contacts

[...] Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) on April 21 introduced H.R. 1985, which has 26 co-sponsors, including Kirk. Of that, $790 million would be for programs and projects in the West Bank and Gaza (about $100 milhon less than pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the March 2 donors conference to raise funds for Gaza recovery, as detailed in the Washington Report's May/June issue); $50 milUon for Egypt for training and equipment to prevent smuggling into Gaza; $25 million for aid to Palestin...

New Orleans Intifada: A Grassroots Movement Rises in the City's Arab Community

According to Angelina Abbir Mansour, a student activist at the University of New Orleans (UNO), Israel's devastation of Gaza was a catalyst. Beginnings Organizing in New Orleans' Arab community is not new - it goes back to at least the late 1980s, during the first intifada. [...] activism has surged and receded in waves.

Granted Impunity From International Law, Israel Continues to Build, Bomb and Kill

[...] the "outposts" - with their electricity, water, roads and security provided by government departments - are no more or less illegal than the settlements themselves. President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran did wonders for the neocon and Israeli cause by making a grandstanding speech aimed more at his impending election contest than improving the lot of the Palestinians.\nS. and the West in particular, has certainly failed that responsibility. pIt is surely significant that the Israeli gov...

Yudhoyono Well Placed for Indonesia's Presidential Elections

Among a wide range of activities undertaken in recent years was a sex education course for school students, in the course of which pre-marital sex was mentioned in a nonjudgmental fashion, how to say "no" to sex was discussed alongside contraception, and one and a half minutes (out of a halfhour talk) was given over to discussion of same-sex relations in a factual, neutral way. The new leadership (six of whom attended the same church, but refused to say whether they had known each other befo...

Pope Is 'Tap Dancing in a Minefield,' Says France's Le Figaro

According to columnist Dominic Lawson in Britain's April 26 Sunday Times, there was an inevitability about the whole affair. According to the BBC, officials have said the move is aimed at restructuring Egypt's pig-rearing industry so that they are raised on proper farms instead of trash sites.

Istanbul: A Great European City

Apart from the great monuments, the Roman walls, the mosques and churches, it is sad that so Utile of the ancient city survives, but that is because the all-too-flammable wood that has been the favored building material for millennia has led to urban renewal by conflagration. [...] the rapid silence which overcame the initial vociferous proIsrael indignation.

Scholar David Wesley Reveals Israel's State Practices and Zionist Images in Ph.D. Text

In an April 20 talk sponsored by UCLAs Center for Near Eastern Studies, Wesley called upon Israel to shift from its conventional mind set and look for models more advantageous to Arab citizens in allowing them to become equal partners with Jews in development projects. According to Myers, who is director of UCLAs Center for Jewish Studies, Makdisi's book fails to mention Israeli dissidents against Palestinian expulsion in 1948 such as Moshe Sharett.

Activists Demand Uc Berkeley Fire 'Torture Memos' Author John Yoo

Human rights activists handed some 400 attendees literature urging Edley to take a stand against torture, indefinite detention and other crimes against humanity by dismissing the professor, who was granted tenure in 1999. Ignoring laws and legal precedents, Yoo's "torture memos" justified torture and Ulegal detention and claimed the Geneva Conventions on humane treatment of prisoners did not apply to suspects classified as so-caUed "enemy combatants."

Author Paul Mcgeough On Israel's Botched Attempt to Assassinate Khalid Mishal

Like Obama, Iran wants energy independence and its own source of nuclear fuel. [...] Iran has the right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - to which it, but not India, Pakistan or Israel is a signatory - to enrich its own uranium.

Stephen Fulder: An Israeli Buddhist's Resistance to Occupation

Toufik, a Palestinian from the West Bank town of Bartaa, belongs to Middleway, an Israeli/Palestinian anti-occupation and dialogue group founded by the Israeli Buddhist teacher Stephen Fulder. The group was dissolved in 1999, shortly after coming under criticism from the Palestinian Authority, which questioned its efficacy, claiming that dialogue divorced from action was a waste of time. Many years ago, when summoned to serve in the Israeli army - at a time when only the tiniest handful of ...

Will American Jewish Leaders Embrace the Netanyahu-Lieberman Regime?

How wiU the U.S. government - and the leaders of estabUshed American Jewish organizations - respond to Mr. Netanyahu's failure to accept Palestinian statehood, which in the past decade has been the anchor of U.S. policy in the region, and which most American Jewish groups have supported? First Egypt, then Jordan rescinded that doctrine.

Arab-American Activism

AAl's Kahiil Gibran Awards Gaia The Arab American Institute Foundation held its annual Kahiil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards gala on April 23 at the J. W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC. [...] volunteer models donned stunning traditional dresses from many Arab countries for a fashion show.

Muslim-American Activism

According to HaUm Rane of Australia's Griffith University, religion has never played a positive role in the Holy Land. Delinda C. Hanley Future Prospects for Islam and Democracy A CSID luncheon speech by Ahmed Shaheed, rninister of foreign affairs for the Republic of Maldives, focused on his conservative, mostly Muslim country's recent peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Pat McDonnell Twair Muslims Unite to Oppose FBI Abuse Following an April 19 meeting in Washington, DC, th...

Music & Arts

Under the title of "Ancient Gods and Modern Politics," the exhibition demonstrates how the Mithila women painters concentrated on traditional topics of life cycles and domestic rituals until mid-2000, when they began to express personal concerns and critique society, whether regarding the plight of immigrant workers or women aborting baby girls. Black ink and acrylic on handmade paper is the medium for these stylized works, including a 2005 painting entitled "Tsunami in Sri Lanka" and anothe...