Mr. Dennis Ross, it is apartheid, whether you like it or not!

In the US, people like Dennis Ross, Alan Dershowitz, Elie Weisel are all bent out of shape since Carter"s book " Palestine, Peace not Apartheid" came out and as expected all simply hate to recognize the fact that the Israeli Occupation is more than apartheid, it is inhuman, cruel and it is clear indication that Israeli society for the most part is really sick. How could any human being accept seeing others going through these 400 check points as if they are livestock. It is too bad the American Jewish community for the most part does not live up to the moral standing that is expected of it, and for the most part remains silent about Israel's crimes in the Occupied Territories. Mr. Ross, if it looks like apartheid, sound like apperthied and feel like apartheid, then it is apartheid. You and the others like you, might as well admit it. You could not deny that Israel's Occupation is not only illegal and criminal but is apartheid as well.
Sami Jamil Jadallah, editor

It's simple apartheid
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/825/op15.htm21-17.12 Al-AhramJust as the US and Europe once opposed apartheid in South Africa, Israel's discrimination against Palestinians must be similarly exposed and dismantled, writes Jamil Dakwar*
President Jimmy Carter is drawing criticism because his new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, uses the label apartheid to describe Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories. As second-class citizens in their own land, the term "apartheid" often rings truer for Palestinian citizens of Israel than democracy.
Israel's Jewish majority enjoys a thriving democracy. But Israel's non-Jewish citizens -- nearly 20 per cent of the population -- live a different reality. Palestinian citizens of Israel send their children to separate but unequal schools that receive less funding than Jewish schools, they cannot buy land or lease apartments in most Jewish towns, and they must often stand in a separate line at the airport from Jewish people.
While it is in the West Bank and Gaza that the apartheid analogy holds best, in many ways Palestinian citizens of Israel live under an apartheid-like legal regime. More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews, including the law of return that grants automatic citizenship rights to Jews from anywhere in the world upon request, inviting them to settle on land that is not theirs, while denying that same right to Palestinians. Israeli housing and land policies are racially driven. Hundreds of thousands of acres of privately owned land have been expropriated from Palestinians for the establishment of Jewish settlements.
The nationality and entry into Israel law prevents Palestinians from the occupied territories who are married to Palestinian citizens of Israel from gaining residency or citizenship status. The law forces thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel to either leave Israel or live apart from their families.
Israel's recently appointed deputy prime minister and minister for strategic threats, Avigdor Lieberman, considers Palestinian citizens of Israel to be a "demographic threat". Over the years, he has advocated ridding Israel of its indigenous Palestinian inhabitants to maintain a Jewish majority. His appointment did not elicit the same outrage as the 1999 victory of Jorg Haider's Freedom Party in Austria. Back then, Israel re-called its ambassador, Europe threatened Austria with economic sanctions and the US threatened to react swiftly to any expression of racism or anti-Semitism.
In the West Bank, though Palestinians have lived under Israeli rule for 40 years, they have no voice in Israeli politics and very limited recourse to Israel's legal system. Hundreds of checkpoints impede movement, disrupting, or blocking access to schools, jobs and medical care. As under South Africa's "pass system", Palestinians often require permission to travel from one village to the next inside the West Bank. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said during a visit to Palestine that the situation was "much like what happened to us black people in South Africa." At the same time, Israel has constructed a vast road system for the exclusive use of Jewish settlers living illegally in the West Bank. This network of settlements and segregated roads bisects the West Bank, furthering the Palestinians' isolation and loss of land and property.
Israel's separation wall/barrier inside the West Bank confiscates Palestinian land and separates Palestinian communities. Dwarfing the Berlin Wall, it serves not solely security, but reaches deep into the West Bank to encompass major illegal Jewish settlements. Palestinians in the West Bank are increasingly penned into ghettoes that resemble the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa.
Meanwhile, Israel "withdrew" from Gaza more than a year ago, but it continues to control Gaza's borders, airspace and coastline and continues military strikes and operations inside Gaza at will. Determining everything that gets in or out, it has turned Gaza into the world's largest open-air prison.
Though it took decades, the world (with the exception of Israel) united against the South African apartheid regime and demanded equal rights for all of that country's citizens. This same standard should be applied to Israel immediately. The discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel and the oppression of Palestinians in the occupied territories, as well as disinherited Palestinian refugees, demands a comprehensive solution based on international law and equal rights regardless of race, religion or ethnicity.
The United States and the EU have a pivotal role to play. The US State Department and the EU have repeatedly documented Israel's discriminatory practices. Yet while the Bush administration and the EU demanded that Palestinians under occupation develop democratic systems, no pressure has been applied to Israel to reform its exclusivist democracy for Jews to include all citizens of Israel, including 20 per cent of its citizens who are Palestinians. It is time the US and the EU hold Israel to account by making its massive economic and military aid contingent upon Israel abandoning its discriminatory policies. Americans and Europeans shunned apartheid once. It is time to do it again.
* The writer is a formerly senior lawyer with Adalah, the legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel

In support of a new Palestinian elections, both presidential and legistlative

The other day after dinner, a number of us, Palestinian-Americans sat at the table to get feed back from one of our good friends who arrived the same day from Ramallah. Of course the subject of the discussions ranged from the armed skirmishes taking place between Fatah and Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas calls for new elections and of course the ever lingering issue of corruptions and cleaning up the Palestinian Authority and the freezing of the Fatah militias and its warlords.
The discussions were quite frank and open with no reservations and our good friend whom we have known for sometimes was also quite open and very frank and quite objectives in addition to being well informed.
Of course and as always, I spoke my mind and was quite frank in my criticism of both Fatah and Hamas, both of which have narrow interest and do not represent or put forwards what is best for the Palestinians. Hamas, sad to say did not live up to the expectation, even though it was handicapped right out of the gate and did not take advantage of its sweep in the election to offer a good solid alternative to the corrupt and incompetent Fatah. Hamas made the fatal mistake of not coming out with its “peace plan” and in support of the Arab Peace Plan, and instead put itself in the corner by getting directions and instructions from Khalid Mishal who is not elected by any one and who gets his instructions from Damascus, which over the last 40 years did not do the Palestinian people much favors. Hamas behaved as if it continues to run small NGO and is not a government that has to take care of every thing from education to garbage collections to providing public security.
Fatah on the other hand did not and will not change at long as the decisions are in the hands of the old guards who proved they are, not only corrupt but a total failure and as long as the decision is also in the hands of warlords and those who became very rich from racketeering, protection money and selling cement to build the Israeli War.
Between a wall and a hard stone sits President Mahmoud Abbas who was elected on a “Peace Plan” by the overwhelming majority of the people. Even Hamas was elected not because of its ‘war plans” but as an alternative to Fatah and in the absence of any “liberation” plans. I did agree with my friend that the Hamas was elected as a majority in the parliament, but once selected to form the government must be committed to carry out the president program and not its own agenda, letting the parliament decide on major legalisations. I also agreed with my friend, the only way out of this deadlock and impasse is a new presidential and parliamentary elections. The situation on the ground does not stand a Hamas government, that is unable or unwilling to address the daily issues of the people and one that does not advance a peace plan, having tried a ‘war” plans for the last 40 years and it failed. Abbas is right in calling a new election and must not only call for new elections, but must set a date not later than 120 days from the date he submit his resignation and 120 days from dissolving the parliament. The Palestinians people could not stand to have a Hamas government that gets its instructions from Damascus and could not afford a government that does not go along and show strong an unequivocal support for the King Abdallah’ Peace Plan. Equally important in all of this is giving the opportunity to the Palestinians in the Diaspora, who form a “ majority” to have a say so in what is going on and who must have a voice and participate in the decision to move forward with peace. The PLO as an organization no longer serves the purpose and is no longer the right mechanism for the Palestinians. More important, the PLO was never elected by the people and its executives are nothing but old bags whose time has come to retire to the farm and whose executives are at best parasites that serve no good purpose. President Abbas has a once in life opportunity to rise above the partisan level and has a chance to prove that he is the president of all the people and not as head of Fatah. He must prove to the people that he has what it takes in courage, vision, and commitment to peace to take the people out of the mess they are in. He also must take the decision to clean the place up, clean it from all the thugs, warlords, and corruption mafia of his Fatah and must clean and get rid of all of the militias out there and give them alternative and productive job. He also has to get rid of a number of key people around him who are nothing more than incompetent parasites and warlords. His strength is not Fatah men, but the average citizen who is looking for a leader to stand up to the occasion and deliver independence and liberation. Removing some 30 checks points out of 400 is not enough. The people want liberation and an end to the occupation. Let us see if President Abbas live up to the expectation and prove he is the president of all the people. Hamas must accept its failure and agree to go back to the people and not cling to power for the next 3 years. Until the people elect Khalid Mishal he should not make the decisions.

Welcome to America, the greatest country on earth. It is not perfect, but close to it.

Few minutes ago, our neighbor, Michael, a successful engineering manager with a top Fortune 5, walked over to his house after dropping some very tasty “Italian” Christmas cookies that his wife, also an Italian-American made. Michael’s family emigrated from Italy some hundred and fifty years ago. There are hundreds of millions like Michael whose families immigrated to this country and who individually and collectively makes this country the great country it is.
My mother in-law who is over 70 and has both a bachelor and a master degree from the American University in Cairo made a statement that promoted me to write this post about America. She said “ I feel so privilege, I grew up in Cairo and now I am enjoying the rest of my life in this great country” and yes, this country is great because new immigrants like my mother in law, love this country as much as those whose family came here some centuries ago.
I too feel very privileged to be in this country and call this country “home” without ever losing the feeling and attachment I have for Palestine. I feel honored and privileged to join the many millions of immigrants who made this country the great country it is and will always be, not withstanding what some bigoted congressman from Virginia think.
This country is great because it has great and giant “founding fathers” that argued so hard and debated for endless days, months and even years. Who disagreed with each other in public and in private and who in the end came up with perhaps the most powerful written instrument ever written by man, the US Constitution. In my view, after the Torah, the Bible and the Quran the US Constitution ranks holy. No one would imagine that some centuries ago, these men could come up with governing instruments that defines us as a nation of values, of freedoms, liberty and institutions. It defines a system of government incorporating checks and balance, with separate but equal branches of government. Sad to say that the legislative branch did not live up to the letter and spirit of the US Constitution, with its corruption, professional and life long politicians driven by greed and bought and sold and traded on K Street
Yes, this country is great because the great grand sons of immigrants the like of Bill Gates, George Marshal, Jonas Salk, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Wilbur and Orville Wrights, Gus Grissom, Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther Kings and Rosa Park, Farouk El-Baz, Edward R. Murrow and the many Nobel laureates in the arts and science and the many institutions of higher learning and the many research institutions the likes of N.I.H and CDC make up this country. It is also a country where citizens took on some very powerful senators and made them look the fools they were and contributed to the great freedoms we enjoy now. It is a great country because of some great presidents the likes of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and of course Bill Clinton. It is also a country of very generous populations that gives hundreds of billions to charity. It is a country where immigrants can graduate at the top of their class at the US Air Force Academy. Where else but in American where Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Hindu neighbors can share the holidays and visit each other in celebration of the different religious holidays. Where else but in American where millions of immigrants (documented and un-documents) work so hard for this nation and for their families and survive the daily abuses by those who claims they are “patriots”. This country is great because it has hundreds of millions of honest, decent and hardworking parents, and who are also good and active citizens in neighborhood associations. It is great countries because aggrieved mothers can get together and raise a powerful voice and win against the liquor industry that took away their loved ones. It is a great country because student activists got together and pushed for the establishment of the EPA. It is a great country not withstanding some minor errors in its history with the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Alan Dershowitz, Elie Weisel, Bill O’Reilly, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and the KKK among others. It is a great country, because someone like me, an immigrant, the son of an immigrant can write and post these comments. I had the honor and privilege to be not only a citizen of this great country of ours, but also, with my four other brothers’ veterans of its armed services. Yes, Congressman Goode, we love and honor this country as much as you do and we honor this country for its diversity and its encompassing and embracing system, not for its exclusivity and xenophobia based on ignorance and fear. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy Eid to one and to all. This is the great land from California to New York, the land for you and me.

Senator Kerry, your arrogance lost us the election and the Democratic Party needs surgery on it's spinal cord

Senator Kerry. I read with much interest and amazement your article in today’s “Outlook” section of the Washington Post. Yes, I do agree there is nothing wrong with changing one’s mind if one discovers that assumptions made in support of the war, in the first place where wrong. However you and your Democratic colleagues who voted and supported the war, knew the assumptions were not only wrong, but also an absolute lies. You and your colleagues in the Senate were in the best position to seek the truth and have an independent source of finding out the lies of the Chaney-Bush team. We the citizens in the US do not have access to classified information and intelligence reports and we as citizens are not in a position to second-guess the administration, but you and your Democratic colleagues were in such a position. Yet you voted for and supported the war, knowing it was not only wrong but also was based again in lies.
Though I voted for your ticket, you were not my favorite candidate. You simply were too arrogant and too condescending to be the Democratic leader on the presidential ticket. Your arrogance and your flip-fop did lose the Democratic the presidency and with that you are to share with Chaney-Bush the responsibility for the War on Iraq. Not only that but I never imagined that someone who served in combat will allow someone who hid in Texas to claim valor and patriotism and win the election on national security issues. Yes, Mr. Kerry, I believe the Democratic Party did not do us, Democrats and did not do America a favor with it nominated you as the candidate to stand against the Chaney-Bush ticket. There is nothing wrong with changing one’s mind, but there is something wrong when someone does not stand up to what they believe in and go along with the wind.
As an Arab-American I was never convinced that Saddam Hussein when he started his war on Iran was defending the “Arab” nation. Saddam was a coward in the face of the late Shah and did engage in his war on Iran in support of US policy in isolating the new Khomeni regime in Iran. Saddam did engage in his long and bloody and costly war consistent with his part as “stooge” for the Republican administration. He killed millions of people and destroyed his country and its wealth as a “favor” to this country and its long time support for his “Ba’athist” criminal regime. No one wanted to see Saddam go more than I. I spoken out against Saddam when the “Arab streets” where cheering for him in his war on Iran and was against Saddam when he invaded Kuwait, and sad to say again, to the cheers of millions of people on the “Arab streets”. However the Arab street forgot that Saddam was America’s boy carrying out it wrong policies in the Middle East.
The US should have gone to Baghdad at the end of routing Saddam’s Republican Guard, yanking him out of his palace and hanging him from the nearest tree for his crimes against the Iraqis, the Iranians and the Kuwaitis. I am afraid the Democratic Party will lose the next presidential election if it continues to be on the fence, not standing up to issues of great concerns to our people such as the War on Iraq. The Democrats need to make sure that our national security issues are not decided by the Republican chicken hawks and their “Think Tanks”. We in the Democratic Party must shape the debate on national security issues and not allow the alliance between weapon makers and evangelical Christians to succeed in forming the nature of the debate. There are many within the Democratic Party with military service and who are well qualified to speak and lead the discussions. The Democratic Party need a major surgery on its spinal cord and needs a ‘titanium” rod in its place. It is too bad that you failed us all and failed the nation as well. At least you are now on the right track.

No Secretary Rice, there are indicators that our people and tax payers are worth the investment. The War on Iraq was and will remain a stupid war.

On page 11 of Friday’s (December 22, 2006) Washington Post, Secretary Rice is quoted as saying the Iraq War “ Worth the Investment” and this is the entire quote from the Washington Post “ Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said yesterday that Iraq is “worth the investment “ in American lives and dollars” and I continue to quote the Washington Post “When asked whether throwing $100 billion the Pentagon wants for the Iraq and Afghanistan might amount to throwing good money after bad in Iraq, she replied ‘ I don’t think it’s a matter of money. Along the way, there have been plenty of markers that show that this is a country that is worth the investment”.
Now who could ever accept such an absurd statement to come of the Secretary of State, when she and her Boss and all their friends are not the one that has to pay for the this war, not in their lives and certainly not by their money.
One has to wonder what criteria does Secretary Rice used when she describe wasting the lives of more than 3,000 of our men and women, wasting the lives of some 700,000 Iraqi, and of course not counting the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted down the drain on this war. Of course, if Secretary Rice thinks that giving the opportunity to many contractors to steal, rob and waste taxpayers money is worth it, then she is right. I am not so sure this can be the case of the lives of those lost. I am sure their families may think other wise.
The late president Johnson got us in the Vietnam War on false pretenses and lies and now president Bush is doing the same thing, and the those in the military have to pay with their lives for such lies and false pretenses. Yes, those of us who served in the military do expect to fight for and defend the USA. No one can disagree on that, but no one should go to war and fight personal wars and fight and die for wars that are totally based on false pretenses and lies.
Perhaps Secretary Rice needs to travel around this country, to states in the South like Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and travel to states in the North West and Mountain States like Idaho and Wyoming to check and see what are the “markers” and indicators she sees that these states and their citizens are worth the investment. I am sure few hundred billion dollars invested in housing, education, medical care, environmental protection and preservation, child care, job training and job creations will also be worth while in these states and in the rest of the country. One has to wonder how many hospitals and clinics and how many elementary, grade and high schools can be build with these wasted billions. One has to wonder how many universities and job training program that can give the people the opportunity for a decent living and decent lives can these wasted billions for our citizens and taxpayers. The only beneficiaries out of this war are the many contractors and subcontractors who are robbing the Pentagon and the taxpayer’s blind. Of course giving the money to the military industrial alliance may be worth the investment, but I think that our people and our tax payers are more worthy than corporations with big fat checks to their managers and shareholders. Perhaps we the citizens should incorporate and seek contracts from the federal government to send our kids to decent schools and give them the kind of education that at least give them the chance to have a decent job in a changing work environment. No, Dr. Rice, the decision to go to war is not worth the investment. Perhaps you can come back again in few days and says that the US and Israel decision to drop more than 5 million cluster bombs on Lebanon was also worth the investment.

The Holocaust as an execuse for the occupation.

I always said, in Israel there are more freedom of the press than here in the good old USA, more freedom to talk about Israel and the Occupation, and certainly a whole lot of courage, guts, and moral standing than one can find here in our so called "main stream" media. When it comes to Israel no editor dares to publish what is published in the Israeli press. Such an article will never be printed in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the LA Times or the Chicago Tribune. Sami Jadallah

By Dror Etkes (Peace Now) HaaretzDec. 22, 2006http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804275.html
The curtain has dropped on the Theater of the Absurd directed by the Iranian regime last week - an event that convened figures from the margins of the Holocaust-denial scene and its `alternative` researchers. In Israel the conference was covered with an emphasis on the statements by the participants and the reactions of Israeli politicians. True, this was an international conference behind which was a country that declares its desire to bring about the fall of the `Zionist regime` - but beyond that hides a deeper factor, which is indicative of the connection between contemporary Israeli identity and the Holocaust. `If the occurrence of the event (the Holocaust) is cast into doubt, the identity of the Zionist regime will also be cast into doubt.` From these words, spoken at the opening session by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, it emerges that the Iranian regime has correctly identified the connections that exist in Israel between the Holocaust and local politics. One of the formative historical events of the West today, whose significance is relevant to all of humanity, the Holocaust is continuing more than 60 years later to provide Israel with an alibi for the deviancy of its political choices. Israel, with no real distinction between the establishment political left and the right with all its offshoots, continues to make use of the Holocaust in a way that combines cynicism and boorishness. Even though there is indeed a considerable and complex connection between the Holocaust and Israeli political culture, there isn`t - nor has there ever been - any justification for harnessing its memory for the sake of preserving the continuing occupation project that Israel has been conducting for 40 years now in the territories. Israel`s attitude toward the Holocaust is not really derived from the way in which the leadership is responding to the incendiary declarations of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his propagandists, which above all testify to the speakers themselves. It is possible to learn about this attitude from, among other things, the way in which it relates to the tens of thousands of survivors in whose flesh and minds the Nazis` crimes are etched, who live here in disgraceful conditions and below the poverty line. However, the real treatment of the survivors is apparently a lot less glamorous than the cult of the worship surrounding those who were murdered, which provides a stage for every politician who is seeking his way to the center of the consensus. Thus, as was recently published again in Haaretz, the state is continuing to nationalize the reparations monies that are transferred to it for the benefit of those hundreds of thousands of survivors - while criminally neglecting many of them. The primitive instrumentalist use that Iranian politics is making of the Holocaust is nothing but a mirror image of the way the memory of the Holocaust is exploited in political life in Israel. One of the aims of the Iranian campaign to `research the historical truth` surrounding the Holocaust is to unravel the system of justifications that Israeli politics has been accustomed to using in its all-too-frequent definition of the criticism of those politics, expressed both domestically and abroad as being tainted with anti-Semitism. Thus the role of the Holocaust as the sole justification for the existence of Israel has been sharpened, instead of focusing on the fact that today more than 7 million people of varied origins and nationalities are living in this country - a place which in most cases is their only possible home. If indeed the Iranian foreign minister is correct and this is the sole source of legitimacy from which the Zionist project derives today, then apparently the time has indeed come for a radical revision of the concept of Zionism. And it would be a good thing if this is done before Ahmadinejad and his ultra-Orthodox partners from Brooklyn launch a new production. The author coordinates the settlement follow-up in the Peace Now movement.

Congressman Virgil Goode, bigots have nothing to be proud of!

Unable to search the linage of Congressman Virgil Goode (R-7VA), to learn of when his ancestors arrived in this country, but from what I read he is popular in his district not because of the outstanding job he’s done for this constituents but because he is the son of Virgil Goode, Sr. a very popular politician. However I assume he is not of an American Indian origin and his ancestors did not arrive before Columbus and certainly not before the Muslims who arrived here from Spain and West African centuries before Columbus. As such it is safe to assume that Congressman Goode comes from an immigrant family, as such he and Congressman Keith Ellison have something in common, both are sons of immigrants to the US.
It seems that Congressman Goode is living to the good old tradition of the South and is living up to the good old traditional Christian values that allowed the lynching of Leon Frank, an innocent Jew, who was kidnapped from prison and was lynched in 1915 by a group of prominent White and no doubt devote Christian in Marietta, Georgia.
Those same good old American values that he and the like of Prager and Beck speak of that was responsible for the hanging and lynching of thousands of Blacks and it was the same values that also discriminated against the Irish, the Italian, the Jews and of course now the Muslim. I salute the Anti-Defamation League for taking on the bigots of this country and for taking on the a long tradition of anti-Semite, way before White, Christian Hitler came to power and introduced the massive killing and murder of Jews and million others. Yes, the old traditional American values of the time past there is nothing to be proud of, as it was full of hate, full of bigotry, full of anti-Christian values that we those who immigrated from the Middle East. Certainly these values that Congressman Goode, Prager and Beck talks about are not the one taught by Jesus Christ and are not the values that are inscribed in the Bible and in the Old Testament. These are no relations and no connections between the Christian values of the Bible and those taunted by the likes of Congressman Goode, CNN and the Prager Report.
It is an insult to both Christian and Jewish values when someone like Prager claims that Congressman Keith Ellison decision to swear the oath of office on the Quran “undermines American civilization”. Now I do understand Western Civilization, but American civilization this is the first time. I am sure the American civilization that Prager talks about is not the one that lynched Leon Frank and hundreds of Blacks and certainly is the not the one that discriminated against the newly arriving immigrants from Ireland, and Italy. Prager continues to say “ But, Mr. Ellison, America, not you, decides on what boos its public servant take their oath” My question is who appointed and anointed Prager as the cardinal of American values and patriotism. I have read the US Constitution many times and have read many history books by the founding fathers, and have done some research, but I did not see where Prager, Beck and Congressman Goode have been appointed the guardians of America’s value and tradition, let alone America’s civilization and certainly not the guardians of the America’s Christianity. These days, every Tom, Dick and Harry claim to be the guardian of America’s value and civilizations. Somehow all of these “guardians” fail to read the US Constitution and failed to read the many letters exchanged between the Founding Fathers, were such values and traditions were discussed at length and where the true value of freedoms and democracy are clearly pronounced. I am sure if the Prager, Goode and Beck were the Founding Fathers, this country will not even exist. This country is a great country, because it has giants, not midgets, as the founding fathers, and is has great believers in the human worth and respect for the rights of people, and not bigots who falsely claim they are the guardian of our freedom and civilizations. Yes, some of America’s history of slavery, bigotry and anti-Semitism is best to be forgotten, nothing to be proud of.
The Muslims of this country should learn well from the Anti-Defamation League that made the costs of any anti-Semitic or bigoted statement very costly for any one, and made sure that those who defame the Jews pay well for their behavior. Again, I do salute and tip my hat” turban” to the Anti-Defamation League. It shut up the bigots and racists and rendered them irrelevant to America’s values and “civilization”.

Hamas is commiting the same mistake that Arafat made for over 45 years. The Palestinian cause must not be in the hands of Damascus or Teheran

The late Yaser Arafat thought he was very bright and smart when he was nothing but a clown and fool who thought he used Palestine as a a game, a game between himself and some of his sponsors at the time, the likes of Hafiz Al-Assad, Saddam Hussein and of course that lunatic of all times, Muamar Qaddafi. Arafat was proud of the fact he was playing the game of politics with the big boys, who were losers to begin with. The Palestinians lost a chance back in 1977 of being free from the Israeli Occupation because Arafat could not stand up to Assad and make his own independent decision and accept Jimmy Carter’s offer for a peaceful settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, a settlement much more generous than his stupid, ill advice, and reckless Oslo Accord.
Arafat for over 40 years used the Palestinian cause as a game, a chess game, and now Hamas is doing the same thing, using the Palestinian cause and all that it entails as a pawn in the hands of the guys sitting in Damascus, and in Teheran, repeating the same mistake Arafat committed for over 40 years.
The Palestinian cause and its leadership must be independent of any regional politics and must be independent of any personal aspirations for a wider role in regional politics. The Palestinian leadership have to put the Palestinian people and for the first time ahead of any thing else, ahead of any competing regional interests and games and must give liberation and ending the occupation the top and only priority.
Today the Washington Post came out with an editorial in support of Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party and against the “enemy of peace” Hamas. Also in the Post, Secretary Rice admits that Arafat stole the Palestinians blind, forgetting that Arafat was head of Fatah and Abbas is head of Fatah and nothing has changes.
More troubling is Ismail Henyia offer of “blood money” to settle the issue of those innocent people gunned down by Hamas and Fatah thugs and gangs, as if the “blood money” will bring back the lives of the three innocent children gunned down or the livers of the innocent that were lost. Equally troubling is the offer made of a long term “Hudna” truce with Israel that he offered today. The offer of the Hudna or truce tell us where his mind is, in time past as if he is trying to live the days of early Islam. The Israelis and the Palestinians do not want a long term hudna, they want a long term peace that is workable, give security and peace to both parties and people, one that opens the area for development and progress and more importantly, one that also address the issue of the Palestinians exile in a logical and fair way. This is what the people want Mr. Henyia, not you’re proposed long term “Hudna”.
The Post like Dr. Rice and of course with support from key people within Fatah and inner circles of President Abbas, the liked of Saeb Euraikat, Nabil Amr, Yaser Abed-Rabo made the issue one of competition between Fatah and Hamas and all forgot to put on the table with Israel and the US the main issue which is ending the Israeli Occupation. Hamas think that their Hudna and bedding the Syrians and the Iranians will end the Occupation and Fatah, after some 45 years of fleecing the people and total incompetence and failure of leadership and so called institutions, is only thinking of coming back in power to steal and rob the people blind and giving the people the left over crumbs believing this will quite the situation down and will allow Israel to continue to do what it does best in the Occupied Territories, stealing and confiscating property, building the Wall, expanding the settlements, continue targeted killings, jailing of innocent people and keeping and expanding the humiliating check point, while Fatah leadership enjoy the generous funding coming in from donors so that they can pick up where they left off.
Hamas is repeating the same mistake Arafat made that caused the people so many years of suffering one of the most cruel and criminal occupation, and Fatah is only thinking of how to get back the bank to steal from it, and both forgot the people and the Israeli Occupation.
Small minds do not make great leadership and it is proven fact that Fatah leadership for the last 45 years is made of small minds without any intellectual depth and without any clue of what is needed and now the situation for the Palestinians is even worse with Hamas coming to power with no clue of what needs to be done and speak as if time has stopped in Medina some 1,400 years ago. With both committing murder, it is time not for a new election that brings Fatah back, but for a courageous call by the people of Palestine calling on the UN to take over from this imbecile leadership.

Salute to Mubarak Awad and his vision of non-violence

Back in 1978 while working in NY City, I used to meet for lunch and on regular basis with my good friend Jonathan Kuttab, a very bright and successful Palestinian lawyer who left a very promising career with one of the top Wall Street law firm to return home to Palestine. Jonathan a devout Christian always starts his lunch with a prayer and blessing of the food and as a decent Muslim, I followed his model and kept it that way.
The interesting thing about Jonathan is that he was a committed “peace maker” and committed to non-violence as a way to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was at that time that I was first introduced to Jonathan friend, Mubarak Awad, a leading pacifist and long time advocate of non-violence. My wife hosted a large group of peace activists at our home in Virginian and Mubarak and his brother were among them. This note is a salute to Mubarak and to my old friend Jonathan Kuttab for their persistent and long-term vision for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Below is a statement issued by Mubarak as he was exiled from his town by an Israeli court. Of course for being Palestinian. I got this message today from our friend Mark Braverman.

"I am a Palestinian in an enemy court.I am a Christian in a court of Jewish justice.I am from occupied Jerusalem in an Israeli High Court.I accepted coming to court knowing all the odds. I gave you legitimacy andrecognized your High Court of Justice because I am searching for true peace.Only peaceful means can achieve peace. If peace is the sign of victory,victory has to be for both Palestinians and Israelis. Both must be winners;there can be no losers. This would be the great measure of justice.Moral and judicial responsibility is not a historical or religious debate.It is the reality that I face today with the rest of the Palestinian people.You have the power, the law and the gun pointing in my face. I am armed withhope, truth and nonviolence pointing toward your conscience. If the uprisingwill not open your eyes and soul to tell you we need freedom I don't knowwhat will.I am here to fight my deportation order. Uprooting me from my family, land,friends and culture is a disgrace. As a government Israel is doing all itcan to rid Palestinians from their land. It is deliberate,, through unjustlaws that we can't change, with tricks and unfair practices. You aredepriving me of my basic human and religious rights.As a Palestinian I never hated you. I don't hate you now. And I will neverhate you.But as a Jerusalemite I am telling you -- I will be back."

Tehran's conference on the Holocaust was a shameful act of stupidity

The conference on the Holocaust sponsored by Iran’s president Mohamed Ahmadinejad in Tehran from December 11-12, 2006 was a simply act of stupidity, ill advised and with no purpose other than to give anti-Muslims more ammunition on how retarded Islamic politics have become. Of course the turn up of the likes of the former KKK David Duke is nothing to be proud of.
While as Arabs and Muslims we have lots of issues to pick with Israel and Zionism, the Holocaust must not be one of those issues. It is time for our people to simply admit the fact that, yes, Hilter's Germany did kill more than 6 million Jews, simply because they are Jews and of course Hitler’s army also killed many more millions. Never the less, it is a simple fact that no one can deny and documents of liberating US Army is but a proof of that. Moreover it is also stupid and unethical to argue about the numbers, whether it is 3 millions, or 5 millions of 6 millions is irrelevant. The simple fact that the Holocaust was a crime against the Jews and against humanity and we all must, once for all honor the memory of all those who died.
Of course we also know that key Zionist leaders made the Holocaust an “industry” a cash machine for the benefit of Zionist causes and for the State of Israel to squeeze money, sympathy and black mail out of Germany and Europe. Anti-Zionist Jewish intellectuals take issue with how Zionist used the Holocaust to advance the agenda of the Zionist and Israel and how the money generated did not serve well those who survived.
While the Holocaust will remain a “unique” crime against humanity, there are similar and perhaps equally compelling crimes committed against the Armenians, the Blacks of Africa arising out of colonialism and of course centuries of American slavery of Blacks that resulted in tens of millions of dead victims. Yes, no one should ever forget nor forgive the Holocaust and those who committed it, but we also must remember the many innocent millions who were killed and murdered simply because they are Black or Christian Armenians. That does not ever give Israel and the Zionist the right or the excuse to expel more than 700,000 Palestinians from their home lands and deny the more than 6 million Palestinians the right to their own free state and does not give any excuse to Israel and the Zionist for insisting on keeping some 4 million Palestinians under armed and criminal occupation that not only jails them, kills them, humiliate them, but confiscate and steal their property as well, for the benefits of Jews. That is simply wrong.
Perhaps it was much better for the President of Iran to sponsor a conference on Zionism and its crimes, and its racist ideology, rather than sponsor a conference on the Holocaust. It is time for even the worst enemies of Israel to stop denying the Holocaust and admit that 6 million innocent Jews where put to their deaths simply because they are Jews. The crimes of the Holocaust is not a crime against Jews, it is a crime against Muslims, and more so a crime against German Christian who committed this horrible crime and a crime that should shame Christendom for all of the crimes committed in Europe, in African, in the Middle East, in Latin America and of course here at home in the USA. The president of Iran proved that he is of simple mind, and simple view. There is no honor in being in the company of former KKK the like of David Duke, and there is no honor in being in the company of anti-Semite. Yes, denying the Holocaust is a form of anti-Semitism, criticizing Israel and taking issues with Zionism is not and must not be acts of anti-Semitism, a label used to threatened any discourse on Israel, its policies, practices and of course on Zionism, its history, its ideology and practices. Here in this country, we are free to debate God, whether he/she exists or not, we can debate, whether God is a man or woman, we can debate Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Mohamed. We can even debate George Bush how smart or how not so smart he is, we can debate the creation, we can debate any and all issues without ever getting in trouble, but God forbid, we debate Israel and Zionism. There is nothing wrong with Arab leadership and intellectuals and the people on the streets to recognize and denounce the Holocaust a crimes against humanity, a crime against the Jews, and their is nothing wrong with Jewish intellectuals and civil right leaders to also recognize that the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine and the continued ethnic cleansing of "Arabs" are also a crime against humanity. The Arabs have to recongize the wrongs done to the Jews and the Jews have to recognize the wrongs done to the Arabs, then and only then, there will be room for understanding and certainly room for reconciliation.

Talking with the enemy, there is nothing wrong with that, Dr. Rice

Secretary Rice is taking her cue from Tel-Aviv Ehud Olmert and is refusing to open talks with both Syria and Iran. It seems that the Secretary of State of the most powerful country is not her one boss, and is waiting for instruction to come not from the White House but from Tel-Aviv.
It is difficult to understand why Secretary Rice is insistence on not talking with Iran and Iraq if that will help this country and will help stabilize Iraq and perhaps if not putting an end to the mayhem in Iraq, at least slow the bloodshed in the street of Baghdad. Saving the life of one single American soldier should be worth all the efforts, but not for Secretary Rice and her masters.
As Secretary of State she is able to open talks with so many enemies of the US, especially with North Korea, but to open talks with countries in the Middle East and especially countries that are odd with Israel is another story. The interest of the US always takes a second seat to that of the State of Israel. Not talking with the enemy does not solve the problems at hand.
While I have been consistent with my outspoken critic of Syria and the Ba’athist regime sitting in Damascus for the last 40 years, not opening dialogue with the enemy is an absolute wrong. It is an absolute wrong for Israel not to open channel of discussions with Arab countries, and it is wrong for Arab countries not to open dialogue with Israel if such a dialogue will help in one way or the other break the impasse in peace talks between the Arabs and Israel. The same is true of the failure of Secretary Rice to open a dialogue and a channel of communications between Washington and Damascus and Teheran. I know that Conservative Republicans and AIPAC will go into frenzy and mental seizures if such a channel of communications is open, but the question is what is wrong with that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with talking with the enemy. Absolutely nothing.
For the last few years, Secretary Rice action and decisions has proved the country is much better off with her at some academic instructions where her decisions do not affect the lives of American or for that matter any human being, and it is time for her to retire.
More troubling is her philosophy of building democracies under occupations where people lives are threatened by the occupiers every day and where people not only lose their dignity at check points but their lives as is the case in Occupied Palestine, but she also promoted and sponsored the dropping of over 5 million cluster bombs over Lebanon so that she can force Hizballah to talk of disarming. While she was supporting the Lebanese government of Fouad Sinyoura, she was prompting Israel to drop more bombs and kill more civilians and destroy more building and infrastructures. Never one could understand such a policy and decision maker. Rice is nothing but trouble for American and for the world. American and the world will be much safer if she was in some class room, where she can talk of politics but not make decisions that results in death and destruction of American, Arabs and Israeli lives. He attitude toward talking with the enemy does not serve any one. President Bush is making a big mistake following Secretary Rice refusal to open a dialogue with both Iran and Syrian if such talks can help bring our troops home and if such dialogues will bring an end to the bloodshed that claimed the lives of over 650,000 Iraqis.
Perhaps the families of the brave American soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq due to fraudulent case for war should travel to Tel-Aviv and lobby Rice masters to giving her the green line to open dialogue with both Syrian and Iran.
I have to conclude with the caveat, that I was never a great fan of these two nations. Perhaps American and the world are safer with Rice in the classroom.

No Mr. Kincaid, I never denounced you, never appointed nor anoited you as the cardinal on patriotism. In fact I never knew who in the hell are you!

Once a while I sit down and do some “googling” sound like George Bush’s “Internets”. Tonight I did just that and I ran into a posting where someone by the name of Cliff Kincaid, who present himself as editor of AIM, Accuracy in Media made the false and in-accurate statement that I in one of my bloggs in support of Al-Jazeera International denounced him and quote” A pro-Arab blogger named Sami Jadallah has denounced me as "the appointed and anointed cardinal on patriotism" for opposing Al-Jazeera. ...” Sorry Mr. Kincaid, I never knew who in the hell are you to denounce you let alone to give you the title of “appointed and anointed cardinal on patriotism “ for apposing Al-Jazeera. Now my friends, here is Accuracy in Media, where some one like Mr. Kincaid tries to make himself important and the guardian of patriotism. No doubt he is one of the many chicken hawks who hide behind their mothers skirts and never bother to serve their country and yet claim they are the guardian of patriotism. It seems these days, every NeoCons and Conservative Republicans, no doubt armed services avoiders, claim they are the standard of patriotism. Well if they truly love American they have to live up to the principals that made this country, the great country it was before they hijacked this country and hijacked all that it stands for and took us down the road to disaster.
Those guys, who claim they love America, have stood and supported the Talibans and supported Islamic Fundamentalist who later carried out the attack on the World Trade Center killing thousands of our people. The conservative groups are responsible for the disaster and the world of terrorism we live in. They have supported only criminal regimes the like of the Mujahideens and Augusto Pinochet, who not only committed tens of thousands of murder, but also robbed the country blind. These are the kind of heroes, Conservative Republicans love. Dictators, murderers and crooks. The list goes on and on, from Pinochet, to Samoza , to Suharto, to the Argentine generals to the Panamanian generals, to the Salvadorian and Guatemala Generals, to the Shah of Iran and to Saddam Hussein. Yes my friends, Conservative Republicans supported and sponsored Saddam for over 25 years and now claim they are the guardians of Iraq's freedom. They could not resist falling in love with a world leader who is a murderers and a crook and embrace them and then they have the galls to say they love American and are true patriot. Poor America for having such lousy chicken hawks as lovers and lovers of crooks and murderers.
Mr. Kincaid claim to fame is that he went to Congress seeking support for preventing Al-Jazeera International to broadcast here in the US. Perhaps he, like so many staffers on the Hill, don’t like any other point of view and they feel threatened by having a very sophisticated new media with a world view that is different from the sound bite they love to hear on Fox News. It seem that they are having difficulties understanding sophisticated journalist who do not talk sound bites and who do not shout people down. Of course Al-Jazeera does have a very sophisticated and smart audience and not the kind of audience that listen to inaccuracy in the media. When traveling overseas, I do watch Al-Jazeera International and all I can say it has a much wider world view that any of the American media. The unelected and accountable fourth branch of governing.
It is too bad that Kincaid and his likes are afraid of Al-Jazeera. If AIM has the whole truth all the truth then it should not be afraid if someone have a different point of view, or see the news from different angle, where editors are not beholding to special lobbies and interest groups and are afraid of getting fired for airing a story that may anger someone sitting in Tel-Aviv.
I am so glad we live in this great country of ours, yes, Mr. Kincaid, I am an Arab, and a Muslim and an American who have the honor together with four other brothers to serve honorably in the armed forces of this country and defend its freedoms so that you and the like of you can enjoy AIM and can lobby against news media that may not support your point of view. I like to remind you that this was the case in old Soviet Union and in other dictatorship that you and the like of you supported and sponsored. No fear, America is much stronger that couple of million Conservative Republicans and our people, your people, are much more intelligent and much smarter than you give them credit. If Al-Jazeera is a terror network, then yours must be the stupid network that could not rise to the level of intelligence that is prelevant here and must reduce its news to sound bite, as if the people are not smart enough to understand full stories. No Mr. Kincaid, I never appointed you nor anointed you as the cardinal of American patriotism, it is wishful thinking, and beside, you do not need someone like me, an “Arab”, to anoint someone like you, a true and no doubt “pureblooded” American as a cardinal of American Patriotism. You should be glad that you and someone like you live in this country, this great country. You are not the only patriot and you do not rise to a cardinal and don’t give your self the title of Cardinal. America's Patriotism takes more than AIM and much more than Conservative Republicans.

Palestinians, Time for Change. I first said that in 74

May/June 1991, Page 18a Reprit from the Washington Report on the Middle East

Time For Change
By Sami Jadallah
Iraqi Information Minister Hamid Yussef Hummodi recently announced the award to President Saddam Hussain of his country's highest award, the Rafaidain Medal, "in appreciation of the president's exceptional and historic role and noble service to Iraq."
We must demand an accounting of all our assets.
This "award" should not surprise those familiar with the ways of the Arabs in this century who have bestowed such honors on those leaders who have led their nations to humiliation and destruction. When the late President Gamal Abdul Nasser lost the 1967 war he was tricked into fighting (and Jerusalem was lost with it), the Palestinians were sentenced to indefinite imprisonment at hard labor under Israeli occupation. The "Arab street, " however, went into a frenzy and demanded that Abdul Nasser rescind his largely theatrical decision to step down.
This, of course, stands in contrast to the Israeli Jews, who forced Prime Minister Golda Meir and General Moshe Dayan to step down, holding both responsible for the initial setbacks suffered by the Israeli Defense Forces in the first few days of the 1973 war.
It is difficult to understand our behavior as Arabs in this matter of accountability. If the "Arab street" were to make their leaders accountable for their failures, it is doubtful that many contemporary Arab leaders would remain in power. However, as a Palestinian, it is not my purpose to judge other people's leaders, but only our own leaders. It is not only our inalienable right to hold our leaders accountable, it is our duty as well. The fact that the US and other countries are "unhappy " with the PLO is irrelevant to Palestinians as we exercise that duty.
For the last 25 years or so, the present Palestinian leadership has enjoyed an undisputed monopoly as leaders of the Palestinian people. With the exception of Abu Musa's internal and costly challenge to Arafat, no one from outside or inside the formal structure of the Palestine Liberation Organization has tried to challenge the leadership. The PLO and the Palestine National Council (the Palestinian parliament in exile) continue to reinforce each other, and both continue to perpetuate their own existence and exclusive role at the expense of the cause to liberate Palestine. After so many years, the fact remains that neither have liberated a single inch of our land.
We Palestinians must subject our leaders to a stringent cost benefit analysis of their decisions and performance.
Ever since 1964, when the present leadership assumed its current position of authority, the Palestinian ledger has been in the red, with the exception of the second quarter of 1982. (This was the period of the valiant defense of Beirut during the Israeli invasion.) Without discounting the strength of Israel and its powerful lobbies, we must demand an accounting of all our assets including those most valuable to us—our people.
We must not single out Yasser Arafat and his personal circle of advisers, but must also include George Habbash, Nayef Hawatmeh, Abu Musa and all the remaining "Abus" who engage themselves as full-time public servants of the Palestinian cause.
We can identify many major failures of the Palestinian leadership. Among them are the rout of Palestinians in Jordan in 1970, the inter-factional fighting in Lebanon in the good old days, the leaving behind in 1982 of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of weapons and ammunition which were confiscated by the advancing Israeli army and, most tragically, the failure to protect the lives of innocent thousands who were sacrificed in incompetent military operations. While the Israeli leaders look after their dead, our leaders have failed to look after the living.
Without sounding ungrateful to the Palestinian leadership named above, it is time for the "old guard" to retire with dignity, with the full respect of a grateful nation. Whichever way we look at it, the current leadership is of the same mold and mentality of the leadership which lost Palestine in the first place.
As disturbing as the failures of our leadership is the deafening silence of our "intellectuals." Unlike intellectuals at the forefront of change in other countries, our "intellectuals" generally supported the status quo.
Whenever Palestinians have dared to criticize the leadership of the PLO and its institutions, they are automatically labeled as "traitors." No distinctions are made between loyalty to a cause and loyalty to individuals. In the past, our hesitation to criticize has been a reaction to the criticism of Palestinians and their leaders by those outside of the Palestinian nation. In a hostile environment, we have been concerned that any attempt to hold our leaders accountable would leave the Palestinian community in even greater jeopardy. Ironically, this policy has resulted in that very same jeopardy we hoped to avoid.
Perhaps the most disastrous failure of our leadership has been in the United States—just where it counts the most. Here, the leaders of the PLO and the Palestinian people have failed to recognize the importance of the US, its Congress, the media and other institutions. Judging by the efforts expended upon the US, one may conclude that the Palestinian leadership has given the least emphasis to Israel's primary ally, wasting precious resources in dictatorial Eastern Europe and Africa.
If for no other reason, the Palestinian leadership's failure in the United States is sufficient and compelling reason to step aside and allow a more enlightened, competent, and accountable leadership to take charge of a very moral and humane cause.
Sami Jadallah is a Palestinian-American businessman not affiliated with any government or political organization.

Lose guns and democracy don't mix. Just like drinking and driving.. Part II

Hamas won the elections not because it offered a way to peace and ending the occupation, but because it was an alternative to a long time corrupt and incompetent Fatah. However, Hamas did try to reach over its head and thought it can offer a way out of the occupation, by having its own simplified way of solving the Arab-Palestinian conflict by continuing the armed resistance when, all knows that the kind of armed resistance they talk about could not liberate a chicken house. Simple minds think simply and Hamas leadership appeared to be “drunk” with their success began to make too many mistakes. Fatah with some help from the US and Israel fell into the trap and all conspired to nullified the election of Hamas by turning the issues from ending the occupation to paying the salaries and finding a way out of the boycott by the US and the European, who were never in favor of a democratically elected Palestinian government in the first place.
Hamas again committing a fatal mistake when it declared from Damascus and not Gaza, its terms and conditions for peace, in fact, it did not have any offers except continuing the armed resistance.
Hamas should have from day one after winning the election declared its “Peace Plan” with Israel and counting on the support of all major and key Arab states should have stated to the world that it accept King Abdullah Arab Peace Plan adopted in Beirut and conditioned its acceptance of Israel on Israel accepting an independent Palestinian state within 67 borders with Jerusalem as the shared capital of the two states and of course asking for a UN peace keeping force to take over the function of the different security forces organized by Arafat and funded by the US, Israel and the EC.
Simply stated Hamas blew it, because and sad to say Hamas leadership have a very simple “world view” and with no sophistication and no real understanding of world politics. Simple minds living in poor and besieged Gaza or living in big prison like Syria could not have any clue of what is going on and for sure perhaps hardly read any reports or finding or study papers by any of the key players. They simply followed the masses and did not rise to the occasion.
More troubling and stupid, is their continued insistence on armed resistance to Israel after Israel left Gaza. Instead of trying to find ways to make Gaza bloom creating jobs and creating economies that can feed the miserable people of Gaza, they succumbed to the notion they have won over Israel and gave way to small squads of illiterate and gun ho thugs who began to fire their stupid and useless “Qassam” rockets. Of course Israel was just waiting for these simple, stupid and arrogant mistakes and started to do what it wanted to do in the first place, destroy Gaza. Now it has good reasons to do so giving the world the impression that these stupid, useless rockets are ballistic missiles.
For sure Hamas was above its head in leading the Palestinians toward solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Fatah proved over some 45 years it is simply unfit and too corrupt and too incompetent and simply unprepared to lead the people to independence let alone managing the affairs of the state. Of course two poor choices put the Palestinians where they are now. Between a “rock and hard stone” with no choices between Hamas and Fatah. Both organizations are unfit for prime time democracy, let alone ending the occupation. Hamas succumbed to intoxication to power and Fatah never accepting defeat and its ability to continue to rob and steal, both have reduced the issue to one of open and armed civil conflict and not one of ending the more pressing issue of the Israeli Occupation. It is too sad that after some 60 years after the first exiles that the Palestinians do not have the visionary leadership to lead the people to independence.

Lose guns and democracy don't mix. Just like drinking and driving... Part 1

For the last 45 years, Arafat and the PLO were center stage and of course with Arafat, as always, self promoting, advancing himself as “Palestine”. The PLO sad to say was nothing more than a “shop/dukkan” for Arafat to give candy to his supporters and promoters and was never an organization that is representative of the Palestinian people. The PLO was nothing more than a self-perpetuating organization similar to that of the old Communist Party in Russia.
More troubling and fatal to the Palestinian people and cause is the fact that most if not all Palestinians leaders and heads of the so called” fasa’el” are beholding to Arab governments and now Iran, taking directions and instructions and never beholding to the people of Palestine.
Arafat had a chance, long time ago, to end the occupation, when Jimmy Carter offered him a Palestinian state and recognition of Palestinian rights in exchange for recognition of Israel. That was before Camp David agreement between Israel and Egypt and this was way before Israel took over more than 40 % of the Occupied Territories. Arafat, the clown as ever, could not stand up to Hafiz Al-Assad who threatened to massacre the Palestinians in the camps. Well, Assad did just that later on any way. And so to save his “ass” from Assad, Arafat turned down an offer, accepting a whole lot less in Oslo, again to save his” ass” and his PLO from insignificance after he stood by his friend Saddam.
It is also a fact that the PLO in some 45 years never attempted to train and educate our people in democracy. Never allowed open elections anywhere, and as the old Communist Party has its own way to select and elect those it wished to join its rank.
The first presidential election and election of members of Palestinian Legislative Council was not perfect, but was a good start with candidates like Dr. Haider Abdul-Shafi and Mr. Abdul-Jawad Saleh winning substantial and unprecedented votes even though they were independent. The second presidential election where the late Sameeha Khalil competed in the primaries was nothing but a farce, a deal between Arafat the late Mrs. Khalil to show that Arafat had competition.
Then Arafat died, after a long and corrupt and incompetent leadership, and the election of Mahmoud Abbas, which was in so many ways, fair and square given the fact that with the presence of large and armed Fatah militias, there was no chance fort any one else. In all cases the elections were “OK” by Arab standards.
With the parliamentary elections, Hamas, which for a long time shunned and turned down participations in elections decided to compete and it won the elections fair and square. However Fatah, which has ruled the Palestinian cause for its own selfish interest and never putting the interest of Palestine and the people ahead of its own agenda, was not too happy that it lost the election and began from day one to plot to unravel the elections won by Hamas making sure that one way or the other, it remains in charge, not to serve the people but to serve itself and serve its officials and officers who were used to helping themselves and generously from public funds. Simply stated, Fatah leadership were “on the take” taking from the Americans, taking from Israel and of course taking more than their shares from the public treasury, keeping a long and well established way of doing business left over from Arafat.
Hamas came to power and sad to say, with a domestic agenda to clean the place and clean the Palestinian Authority from corruption and incompetence and of course, it failed to do that, since it has no power or authority over the civil service dominated by Fatah. More..

President George Bush reached to the bottom of the barrel and award Sharansky and Safire America's Medal of Freedom. No sense of shame, Mr. Bush

This week, President George Bush awarded America’s highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom to the great B.B. King, a great musician and great talent that perhaps not a single person in the US would disagree on honoring such a personality. Then George Bush screwed that up, like he did the War on Iraq and scraped the bottom of the barrel and awarded the Medal of Freedom to William, Safire and to Natan Sharansky. Awarding the medal to these two recipient in particular is a serious offense to America’s sense of morality, fairness and democracy and an affront to all that which American stand for.
There has been some great and well deserving people who have been awarded such an honor, people like the late Pope John Paul II, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, Gregory Peck, David Brinkley, Jackie Robinson, and civil rights greats such as Martin Luther King, Dorothy Irene Heights, Fred Korenmatsue, but to award such a medal to such great hypocrites as Elie Wiesel, and now to Natan Sharansky and William Safire is an insult to all decent Americans.
If I was President Bush, I will be ashamed to even mention Natan Sharansky and his book, “The Case for Democracy” and will keep quite about his affair with Sharansky. Perhaps that is why George Bush is in deep (fill in the blanks) in Iraq and in deep (fill in the blanks) everywhere else he is trying to promote Sharansky’s style of democracy. Of course, I like to remind readers, that this Natan Sharansky, like all die hard immigrant Zionist to Israel is one who sponsored legislation to strip Palestinian Arabs of their properties in Jerusalem to give it to Jews, and he is the one who is one of the greatest proponent of ethnic cleansing and the system of apartheid in Israel. This creep and hypocrite join the ranks of likes of William Safire and the greatest of all creeps and hypocrites Eli Wiesel who are not only silent about Israeli Jews committing crimes against Palestinians, but who are also die hard Zionist with all that it stand for.
Sharansky joins his fellow Tel-Aviv mafia, the likes of Richard Perle, Eliot Abrams, Douglas Feith, Abram Shulsky, Elie Wiesel and of course Paul Wolfowitz as the promoters and advocates for the War on Iraq and who lead America to disaster, all of the sake of Israel and never for the sake of America, nor for the sake of democracy.
While pretending to promote democracy in the Middle East, these people have been doing nothing but promoting death and destruction, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by their fellow Israeli Jews and have caused the greatest disaster for American this past and present century, costing the lives of thousands of great soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, all for the sake of Israel. William Safir perhaps deserve a medal in grammar, but not the Medal of Freedom. The Tel-Aviv mafia of the US and Israel knows nothing of democracy and freedom, they only know loyalty and absolute devotion to Zionism, which is totally in contradiction to democracy and freedom. One would expect that some of these people would speak out and condemn the daily crimes committed by their fellow Jewish brothers in Israel. But as expected they dare not to rise up to the level of human being and human decency. It is from the bottom of the barrel that George Bush reached out to pick Sharansky and Safire and awarded them the Medal of Freedom.

The NeoCons got us in a big mess and walked away to a $50,000 per lecture and with well paying jobs at their stupid think tanks

I am one of those former veterans who supported the US objective of getting rid of Saddam Hussein, though I was not too comfortable and was not convinced with the arguments put forward. Every one in the Middle East knew about Saddam and his crimes against his people and against all of his neighbors. Every one knew about his killing machines and about the state of fear in place in Iraq. For many in the Middle East, including governments, they looked the other way around, making sure they are the beneficiaries of Saddam cash. He was buying governments, journalist, intellectuals, and labor unions left and right, and of course he has lots of cash, cash he stole from his people. Others were silent because they were fearful for their lives. This was not the case here in the US, where the Reagan administration opened its doors and offices to Saddam and his criminal gangs. In the days of Reagan the Iraqi ambassador was the “man of town” winning and dinning members of congress and military industries. Billions of contracts were concluded and in fact the present secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld visiting Iraq twice and met with Saddam offering whatever the US could offer in aids against Iran. Of course we all know what happened with Iran and the story of the cake and the Bible taken to Tehran by non other than Ollie North. The US all along known every thing about Saddam and his military plans and his ambitions, and went along. There is even some debate as to whether the US gave the “wink” for the invasion of Kuwait. Why taking Saddam out of during the presidency of George W. Bush remains a big question and even bigger questions are raised by the sponsorship of the war on Iraq by members of the Israeli shop in Washington, like the likes of Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and the godfather of the war, Richard Pearl. Too bad wall of those guys left President George Bush holding the bag. The US tax payers got stuck with over $200 billions for the war and with thousands of young courageous men and women giving their lives so that those guys get the US in a mess and walk away, mission accomplished. The Peace March this past weekend was no doubt a great event and an expression of freedom of speech. It is too bad that such an anti-war rallies tend to be hijacked by anarchists and supporters of leftist dictatorships. If only they keep the issue of the war and make the case for the people, that will be great for America’s democracy, but it takes away from the credibility of all those who are against the war because it was the wrong war for the wrong reason. No one could ever believe that this administration could make such a mess of the war and turn Iraq, a country longing and hopeful to take Saddam out, to a country that is a big mess with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis paying for their lives because some one in Washington failed to think. Yes, failed to think what after the war. The objective of taking Saddam gets a 100 while managing the war gets a ZERO. One thing for sure, this demonstration and those in it, could not manage a flood, could not manage a war, and God help us if we have a catastrophic terrorist attack. It seems that every one in Washington missed the mark so far. Sami Jamil Jadallah September 27, 2005
By 9/27/2005 jefferson1

Conservative Republicans re-invented modern day Islamic Jihad, and America is paying the price

Republicans and so called intellectual advocates for the Reagan Doctrine such as columnist Charles Krauthhammer and ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick should always remember that they and the late president Ronald Reagan are the ones who re-invented, supported and financed modern “jihad” after it has been dead and forgotten by Muslims for over 700 years. When Ronald Reagan declared in his 1985 State of the Union Message his support for the “Mujahideen” as Freedom Fighter, he set the stage for a monster in the making. Little did the conservative Republicans knew that these Mujahideen would one day haunt and attack the very hand that created and supported them. In his determination to appose the Soviet Union and its expanding military and political influence around the world, the Reagan White House with input and management from the CIA sought to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and else where. Someone must have been very clever within the Reagan Administration to even suggest the name “Mujahideen” as the name of Muslim fighters in Afghanistan. Billions of US dollars were spent on recruiting potential fighters from around the Arab and Muslim World to come to Afghanistan and join the Jihad. Like ideological armies before the Mujahideen, such as the Nazi Arm, Soviet Army and the Israeli Army, the CIA recruited political and ideological offices such as Sheik Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman (convicted of organizing the first attack on the World Trade Center) as the political officers of these Mujahideen. Osama bin Laden was one of those recruited by the CIA to head to Pakistan and help organize the recruitment of Muslim Jihadists from around the world. Tens of millions of dollars of CIA money funded the office of “ Maktab Alkhadamat” Office of Services to facilitate Muslim Jihadists joining the American fight against the Soviet Union. It is these Muslim Jihadists that are now menacing their former sponsors. Many of the Arab governments that allowed the CIA to recruit its citizens for the fight in Afghanistan later became the victims of these very American Jihadists. The late Robin Cook, the former British foreign secretary gave a very logical explanation of the meaning of Al-Qaida, which he defined as database, computer files of the tens of thousands of former veterans of the CIA Mujahideen War in Afghanistan. One should not forget the great support and of course the greatest of benefits the Pakistani’s Inter-Service Intelligence Agency which was the commercial manager of the Mujahideen war against the Soviet, with officers and agents making millions of dollars. Please let us not forget and never let these Republican conservatives leading the war on terror that they are the one who in the first place are responsible for the resurrection and rise of modern day Islamic Jihad. It was they who redefined Jihad to fit their Reagan Doctrine and it was they who organized and managed the Holy War in Afghanistan. I think they owe the American people and all victims of terror an apology.
By 11/19/2006 jefferson1

Who is funding Jewish Terrorists in Hebron

A most telling and frightening story of Israeli/American Jewish terrorism. As a Palestinian American, dedicated to a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and as one who always stood up and spoke against Arab terrorism and suicide bombing, and the killing of innocent people, I find the extent of support of such terrorist and extremist group within Israel is very threatening, not only for Israel but for the Arabs as well. I wonder when well organize American Jewish organization raises money in this country for such group, does our government here in the US look the other way and does the media and our Congress and prosecutors look the other way because the intended victims are Arabs. Why does our government fail to make sure that these terrorist are not welcomed here in the US and why does professional terrorist hunters like Steve Emerson do not bother to talk about and document such terrorist organizations. It seems that these Jewish terrorist are well funded and I have to ask the question, where they get the money to live on, so they can dedicate their lives to professional terrorism. I also have to wonder whether these Jewish terrorist could behave the same way toward Arabs if they do not have their guns to their side. It is a sad day for Jews and Muslims, when the killing is always in the name of G-d or Allah

Special Note: this was written couple of years ago, after watching a program on Front Line where the main topic was the Israeli settlers in the West Bank, in Hebron and in Jerusalem and how these settlers are able not only to take over with the use of force, Palestinian property, but also secure the financial and political support from within the American Jewish community. Where are you Mr. Emerson? If you can track of “Muslim” terrorist, you should also keep track of “Jewish” terrorists.

England should be held resposible for all wrongs arising out of its Belfour Declaration promising a Jewish state in Palestine

Special Note: Instead of asking for compensation and restoration of Palestinian rights due to wrongs committed by the British, the late Arafat was only interested in training his militias and his occupation protection force. I thought I revisit this to remind Palestinians what a fraud Arafat was.

On his first visit to the Court of St. James, shortly after Oslo. Arafat was asked by the British what is his wish as the Palestinian leader. Well, you guessed it, Arafat asked the British to “train his security forces”. This is the only wish that he had on the first occasion he had as representative of the Palestinian people. Arafat knew that his support only comes from the militias that he sponsors and he forgot about the millions of Palestinians he represents, who had to flee their homes in 48, who are made exiled and refugees as a result of the British Mandate and its policy in Palestine. He forgot that what the British did to the Palestinians is no less of a crime than what the Germans did to the Jews. The British are responsible for the living millions who are made refugees for the last 55 years, in the same way that Germany was made responsible for the 6 million Jews it killed. Instead of asking for compensation and reparations for the millions who lost every thing, Arafat very excited about being in London forgot all about this and the only thing he could come up with on such a historic occasion was to “train his security forces”. When I see the support that Arafat has received from the Palestinian Diaspora, I know what kind of a leader Arafat is, but it makes me wonder what kind of people we are to accept such a stupid, incompetent and corrupt leader for so long. It is the Palestinians, not the Israelis, who should chase and throw Arafat out of Ramallah.

After Arafat, wishful thinking!

Now that Arafat is dead, I will proceed to change the name and mission of this webpage. We will now focus on After Arafat, and look at the positive things that are taking place in Occupied Palestine.
The new election, if and when they happen, should signal to the world a new Palestinian order and a new renaissance. The fact that there are many who have filed to run for the office of the president tells a lot about the maturity of the Palestinian community, that Arafat, Allah forgive him, refused to admit and take advantage of.
Of course more than ever, we need a break from the Old Guards, those who were part of Arafat regime. We need new dynamic, intelligent leadership that can smartly negotiate with Israel a final peace settlement. Leadership that can read and write.
While I have nothing against Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, I think that he has done a good job so far, taking over from the now dead Arafat, making sure there is no major breakdown of safety and security. However, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, was a loyal friend and confident for Yasser Arafat and was in his inner circles. What we need now is someone who is not part of Arafat inner circles and who does not owe his political life to Arafat and who is true independent democrat. A leader who earned his position by competence not loyalty.
As I look at the names and backgrounds of the candidate, there is one name that I would like to support and I hope the Palestinian people would support, and that person is Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi, who is the head of the “Palestinian Mubadara”, the Palestinian Initiative, an organization dedicated to the rule of law and one that stood against corruption and incompetence within Arafat regime. Dr. Bargouthi has what it takes to be the right leader at the right time.
In addition to being corrupt free and not tainted with any corruption or scandal, Dr. Mustafa has a vision for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian nation. His emphasis on education and social and economic development is a far cry from Arafat and his Palestinian Authority that emphasized and benefited from supply of cheap and unskilled labor and one that supported and made substantial investment in militias and thugs, diverting very important financial resources to these militias and bandits.
Dr. Mustafa understands the needs for human and social development, if the Palestinians are ever to catch up with Israel. The only way we can challenge the supremacy enjoyed by Israel now is to make all of the investment in people, in their education building the best schools and universities, building the infrastructure that will change our society from job dependent on Israel, as envisioned by Arafat and his buddies to a society that is well qualified to have the best jobs any where in the Middle East with free enterprises that can use the best talents we have. Our asset as Palestinians was and always will be our people. It is too bad that the late Arafat did not even come close to understand this. We do hope and expect Dr. Mustafa to learn from Arafat and learn from his mistakes and never, never allow the Palestinian state to be like all other states in the regions. We must and will insist on leadership that is fully accountable to the people. Good luck to Dr. Mustafa and to all the others, and may the best man or woman win.
Note: this was written after Arafat death… it was a wishful thinking. So far there is no hope for the Palestinians under the PLO, Fatah or Hamas.

Fox News reaches to the sewers to recruit its anchors and commentators

If Fox News is known for something, it is known for its outrageous commentary and its chicken-hawk attitude and its holy than though flaunting its American “nationalism” as if trying to prove something. It is news that does not report the news but create news with its team of reporters and commentators who perhaps were trained by that most infamous of all propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
With its policy of discrediting anything that is Islamic or Middle Eastern, Fox News the other day, suggested that the new Muslim Congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison might as well use Mien comph in stead of the Quran for his the searing in ceremony as the first congressman who professes Islam as a faith. Of course the comparison is not lost on any intelligent person, but of course with all due respect to those who get their source of news from Fox News, they probably could not tell the difference between Mein comph or the Quran and for sure they probably never heard of Mein comph and for sure never heard of Hitler’s most famous propagandist of all time, Goebbels. Fox News outrageous commentary is nothing news, what is new is its willingness to go to the gutter, and a sewer line to get its news and where it recruits is commentators and anchors.
I do not see what is wrong with using the Quran as a “holy book” for the purpose of searing ceremony or for that matter its use in courts as book of faith to swear honesty and truthfulness. Perhaps Fox News wishes but dare not deny Jewish congressmen and senators the right to use the Torah as a book of faith for the swearing in ceremony.
One has to wonder when was the last time that any of the commentators and anchors at Fox News read the US Constitution or read any of the classic in democratic philosophy from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams. One need to wonder if these anchormen ever read any thing except what is put in front of them on the teleprompter and one has to wonder at all that they could read, let alone write any intelligent and intellectual commentary.
This line of outrageous attitude also drove Fox News to question the loyalty of NBC News and its use of “civil war” to describe what is going on in Iraq. One has to wonder how many of those chicken hawks sitting behind teleprompter ever served in the US military or the Peace Corps or ever provided any civic or voluntary service to America or the American public. It seems that these anchor persons and reporters make lots of money for being outrageous and for insulting the very basic American values that made this country the great country it was before the like of Fox New and the Zionist-Judea-Christian NeoCons decided to take over American and change over 200 years of basic commitments to democracy and freedom and constitutional rights that allows and permit such a stupid channels and stupid anchors to make fools of themselves. I am sure if these anchors where the founding fathers, there will be no American and there will be no constitutional, rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. For sure, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Blacks and Hispanic would not be part of such a country and if they were they would be relegated to slavery and second class citizenship.
Yes, thanks God for our constitution that gives Fox News and its anchors and its commentators the right to make such outrageous comments and use such dangerous words that create nothing but ill feelings among the different members of the community. Yes, Fox News, you may and can continue to make any comments you wish to make, and should be thankful you are here in the US and not in some other country. And Yes, thanks to American and its constitutional guarantees that allows me to write what I write.

Zionist started the process of stripping Jimmy Carter of his presidency

Former President Carter new book on peace in the Middle East “Palestine, Peace not Apartheid” where he describe Israeli policies of uprooting Palestinians and trees and confiscation of properties as acts of “apartheid” got Israel and its Jewish supporters in the US up the wall, and one would not be surprised if former president Carter is hauled to Washington and crucified for his frank and honest opinion. Of course and as expected defenders of Israeli criminal policies rose to its defense and challenge president Carter and I have no idea what a guy like Alan Dershowitz calls mass imprisonment, confiscation of properties on large scale for benefits of Jews, denials of Palestinians families the right to be together and the often used policies of targeted killings. Perhaps Alan Dershowitz can call that building Zionist and Jewish democracy. Some fifty years ago, Christian Germans used that same practice and did the same to the Jews what Israel is doing to Palestinians, of course minus the ovens and the extermination camps, but the ideology that drove National Socialism to exterminate the Jews is the same that drives Jewish Zionism to create an “apartheid” Jewish occupational state unseen and un-witnessed in modern times. I could not help but chose large quotes from an article in the Washington Post, where guns where opened on president Carter, perhaps with the idea of the Democratic Party passing Congressional resolutions depriving Carter of his title as “former President Carter” {“Speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," he said he was glad the book had raised controversy. "If it provokes debate and assessment and disputes and arguments and maybe some action in the Middle East to get the peace process, which is now completely absent or dormant, rejuvenated, and brings peace ultimately to Israel, that's what I want," he said. Criticism of the book, primarily from Jewish groups and leaders, began even before it was published, and it became an issue in the midterm elections last month. The New York-based Jewish Daily Forward noted in October that Democrats were trying to distance themselves from its reported contents as Republicans were seeking to widely disseminate Carter's views in an effort to win Jewish votes. Speaking to the Forward about Carter, Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matthew Brooks said the coalition had "not shied away from shining a light on some of his misguided and outrageous comments about Israel in the past . . . . So far, there's been nothing but silence on the part of the Democratic establishment in terms of holding Carter accountable." Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat from New York, told the Forward that the "book clearly does not reflect the direction of the party." Since then, the controversy has only grown. In a widely published commentary last weekend, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz wrote that Carter's "use of the loaded word 'apartheid,' suggesting an analogy to the hated policies of South Africa, is especially outrageous." In a statement issued Monday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles contended that Carter "abandons all objectivity and unabashedly acts as a virtual spokesman for the Palestinian cause." In a telephone interview yesterday, Stein said that Carter had "taken [material] directly" from a published work written by a third party but that legal action was being contemplated and he was not yet at liberty to make the details public. He said accounts in the book about meetings he had attended with Carter between 1980 and 1990 had left out key facts in order to "make the Israelis look like they're the only ones responsible" for the failure of peace efforts} Welcome to America’s democracy and America’s freedom of speech, where those criticizing Israel are truly crucified for their opinions, including presidents, congressmen, politicians, and intellectuals. It is really too bad that a community that has been a light unto other nations have become so blinded by unquestionable loyalty to Israel. They know deep down in their hearts what Israel is doing is absolute wrong, but have no courage to speak out against such crimes. It seems that Israel had sucked out the sense of decency and love of freedom out of this community.

NeoCons blew away America's new century before it started!

America’s Tel-Aviv mafia not only blew away America’s New Century, but manage to blow away trillion dollars of hard earned money contributed by millions of hard working American and they blew apart a country with over 600,000 dead and murdered not to mention over 3,000 of our soldiers and over 40,000 permanently injured US service men.
As it happened and in many cases before, all those responsible for the mess walk away and join academia and other think tanks, or become head of international organizations and with the exception of Dick Chaney and George Bush they will continue in office and continue to do more damage to America and the world for the newt two years.
The sad part is that these NeoCons where not alone in their conspiracy to bring constructive chaos and damage America’s standing in the world with their now discredited theories, but those institutions and think tanks that promote their ideas and give them a platforms to do the kind of damage they did and will continue to do.
Dick Chaney and his Tel-Aviv mafia did not think they are playing with the lives of millions of people when they came up with the idea of the war on Iraq and to secure Israel from the East. They did not think of the thousands of families whose lives are shattered by the death and loss of a son or daughter or the tens of thousands of families whose lives are ruined and changed forever because of permanent injuries. So sure they did not think of these things, because their sons and daughters are not the one that will have to go and fight their wars. Their son and daughters are working at prestigious banks and think tanks and attending some of the finest schools in America. To these people, the world is a game and they were setting the rule of the game and where and when the game will take place. In George Bush they found the right man, and with his limited “world view”, they found a man to take on their agenda and go to war in defense of Israel, certainly not the US or the world.
The Tel-Aviv mafia thought they can transform the dictatorships in the Middle East, the same dictatorships they supported for years, they thought they will transform these countries to democracies so that they can forge peace with Israel as if the issue and conflict in the Middle East is only about democracy and has nothing to do with displacing millions of people and uprooting them from their land. They forgot that the conflict with Israel is over its continued occupation of Palestinian land, and the daily confiscations of land and properties. These NeoCons thought they could forge a world in their own ugly image and in their own ugly and fascist ideas and ideology.
Now trillion dollars later and with so many lives ruined, the Baker-Hamilton report confirms what all of us knew, that the war in Iraq was lost before it started. A war for the wrong reasons and for the wrong purpose will always fail.
It is too bad that both Dick Chaney and George Bush are yet to realize their blunder and their mistake and admit they blew it and blew over 50 years of reservoirs of good will for America. Perhaps the American public and the families of all those dead Americans and Iraqis should demand to bring to trial all those NeoCons who orchestrated this war and lied and continue to lie. Yes, someone should pay the price for this stupid and ill-advised war and it should not and must not be the American or the Iraqi public but Dick Chaney and his Tel-Aviv mafia and the think tanks behind him or her. We should hold all of them responsible and accountable and we should let George Bush know that his own friends and ideological partners ruined his presidency. They not only ruined George Bush presidency, but they ruined the world as well.