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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (10883)5/8/2006 5:09:25 PM
From: Crimson Ghost  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 22250
 
WORLD BANK SAYS IT UNDERESTIMATED PALESTINE DISASTER

REUTERS - The World Bank warned donors on Sunday that the financial
crisis gripping the Palestinian Authority since Hamas won election was
deeper than it first thought and could render the West Bank and Gaza
ungovernable. In a memo circulated among major donors and obtained by
Reuters, the World Bank also said an existing aid program could be
expanded to pay for the salaries of employees of the Hamas-led
government. In March, the World Bank projected that by the end of 2006
Palestinian poverty and unemployment levels would rise to 67 and 40
percent, and personal incomes would drop by 30 percent. "We now consider
these figures underestimates," it said in the memo. . .

haaretzdaily.com

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HOW THE MEDIA MISSHAPES THE STORY OF PALESTINE

DIANA BUTTU, THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE - Watching Western television or
reading newspaper reports of Palestine always leaves me perplexed. If I
did not live in Palestine and bear witness to Israel's military
occupation, I would be left with the impression that Palestinians and
Israelis are equals - with no occupation existing - and that this
conflict simply requires "concessions" on both sides. I would be unaware
that the Palestinians have, for almost 39 years, been denied their
freedom and unaware that for more than five decades dispossessed of
their land. I would be unaware that this conflict is between, on the one
hand, an occupied party - the Palestinians - fighting for their
independence, freedom and the application of international law, and on
the other hand, the occupying party - Israel - which has denied freedom,
independence and the application of international law to the
Palestinians for almost four decades. Unfortunately, I am not the only
person who would walk away with such impressions. Independent studies
carried out in Europe and the United States have similarly concluded
that media coverage of this occupation is tilted to the point where a
significant number respondents in one survey believed that it was the
Palestinians occupying Israel. . .

Through my experience with Western journalists, I have learned that the
vast majority really want to tell the story and are thirsty for
knowledge but are hindered by a number of factors. . .

Western journalists often fall victim to Israel's framing of the issues
and the arguments. Take for example the recent Hamas PLC victory. Since
the elections, Israel has made much of Hamas's lack of recognition of
Israel and the signed agreements. Israel, for its part, claims that it
will not "deal with" the new Palestinian government and has its Western
allies lined up supporting it. As a result, story after story has hit
the front page of prominent newspapers and pundits have been brought in
to assess whether Hamas will eventually recognize Israel and the signed
agreements. Yet, the reality of the situation is ignored. Israel has,
for almost six decades, failed to recognize the Palestinians which is,
in essence, the heart of this conflict. . .

One of the reasons for a lack of clear understanding of the occupation
is the misuse of terminology. . . Take, for example, the term "military
occupation." Without clearly specifying to readers - viewers that this
conflict is between an occupying party (Israel) and the people it
occupies (the Palestinians), journalists remove the legal basis under
which Israel must behave. . . Examine also the terms "settlement" or
"colony" - both of which are increasingly disappearing in Western
reporting in favour of terms such as "Jewish neighborhood" and "Jewish
suburb" (both used liberally by newspapers such as the New York Times).
How is the average reader to understand that these structures are
illegal, that their presence has denied thousands of Palestinians rights
and access to their land, that the presence of these "neighborhoods" has
led to the fortified military structures around Palestinian cities,
towns and villages, and that, as a result of these innocuous "suburbs"
Palestinians need to obtain Israeli permission to be able to pass these
seemingly harmless "neighborhoods"? . . .

Without knowing more about the region, it is easy to believe that the
two sides, Palestinian and Israeli, are equal, for the structure of the
Palestinian government fails to reflect the reality of the occupation.
The Palestinians, like the Israelis, have a President and Prime
Minister. They even have a Minister of Tourism and a Minister of
Telecommunications. However, unlike their Israeli counterparts,
Palestinian leaders require Israeli permission to be able to function.
All Palestinian leaders must seek Israeli permission to move within
their own land and all are subject to Israeli checkpoints. And, in the
case of the Ministries of Tourism and Telecommunications, have
absolutely no control over the areas they are to develop (namely borders
and the electromagnet spectrum). Western journalists are largely unaware
of the power imbalance between these two governments. . .

[Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer. She previously served as
a legal advisor to the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department and
an advisor to President Abbas]

thisweekinpalestine.com

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To: sea_urchin who wrote (10883)5/9/2006 9:29:49 AM
From: Crimson Ghost  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 22250
 
Shimon Peres says he wants to remind Iran that it, too, can be wiped off the face of the earth, implying that Israel is capable of obliterating it with its nuclear arsenal. Peres also had the gall to blame Iran for provoking a nuclear arms race in the area!
There is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, as opposed to a still backward civilian energy research program. But if you were Iran's security establishment, what would you conclude you had to do after Peres's remarks?
The misquotation of Ahmadinejad, who actually quoted Khomeini as saying, "This occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time," now seems all by itself to be producing visions of nuclear war!
Ahmadinejad, however, has condemned mass killing of any sort and was not threatening military action (he is in any case not in command of the Iraqi military). He compares his hope for an end to any Zionist regime in geographical Palestine to Khomeini's prediction that the Soviet Union would one day vanish. It wasn't a hope to kill Soviet citizens, but a desire for regime change. Ahmadinejad's hostility to Israel and his Holocaust denial and bigotry are beneath contempt. But he has not threatened military action, and has no unconventional weapons, and his words, however hurtful, do not constitute a legitimate basis for a war of aggression on Iran.

Juan Cole


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