Hamas kills civilians, but not as many as Israel
By Ray Hanania — Reuters, which is slightly more objective in covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict than most of its other Western counterparts, conservatively estimates that Israel’s military has killed “more than 100″ Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip during the past four months of this year. Palestinians put the number higher, at more than 250. B’tselem, the besieged Israeli human rights organization ostracized by fellow Jews, reports that Israeli soldiers have killed a total of 323 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year. When it comes to counting Palestinian lives, the numbers are always fast and loose, often dictated by Israeli control and a pro-Israel Western news media that hesitates to criticize Israeli policies too harshly.

Part of the problem is that Israel never conducts complete and open investigations into the killing of civilians, unless those killed are Israeli Jews. There’s no pressure to stop.

In the very few instances where charges have been brought against Israeli soldiers, despite harsh sentences and convictions, the punishments are often revoked and the soldiers pardoned, treated as heroes by mainstream Israelis

The latest Palestinian civilian killed is Wafa al-Daghma. Israel’s military declared it conducted an “investigation” concluding al-Daghma was the “victim of Hamas terrorist actions,” even though she was killed by Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli military issued its typically weak and unconvincing declaration of “regret,” providing no details about the incident other than it’s word.

Palestinian sources said al-Daghma, a United Nation’s elementary school teacher, was killed when the Israelis exploded a bomb that ripped open her front door of her home.

Sorry. But “we’re sorry” doesn’t cut it any more.

If anything is fueling the hatred of Israel in the Arab World, it is Israel’s hypocritical military and government policies.

Civilians are routinely killed by Israeli soldiers, and there is no pressure to force Israel to stop this kind of conduct. There is no pressure on Israel because the murders have the complicity of the members of the United States Congress, which vote like broken records to defend Israel and blame everyone else. And Congress doesn’t care because the American news media cares even less.

Israel says it is more concerned about civilians than the Hamas terrorists. But the lopsided numbers which show Israel killing more civilians than Hamas challenges that claim. Challenging Israel’s assertions even more is the fact that Israel’s military uses Cluster-bomb like weapons filled with thousands of “flechettes,” tiny pieces of metal that explode in a brilliant fireball of darts that tear to shreds anyone within several thousand feet of the explosion. The flechettes are similar to the metal shrapnel found in the suicide bombs used by brainwashed Hamas surrogates.

But while the United States and Israel rightly condemn suicide bombings, they wrongly defend Israel’s use of these cluster bombs, which are illegal by International Law.

Congress voted 404 to 1 on March 5 approving a resolution denouncing Palestinian attacks which have resulted in civilian Israeli injuries and deaths, but defended Israel’s attacks which have resulted in far more Palestinian civilian killings. That is slightly weaker than the similar resolution passed July 20, 2007 by a 410 to 8 vote which unconditionally endorsed Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon’s militia and civilian areas and in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s government says it is doing everything possible to avoid killing civilians while accusing Hamas of intentionally targeting Israeli civilians with their Qassam rockets, homemade firebombs that, once launched, have no control on targeting civilians, Israeli soldiers or the heavily armed Israeli settlers.

According to Israeli logic, what is really important in this battle is not whether or not you actually kill a civilian, but whether you issue a press release “regretting” the killings of civilians.

Hamas, according to Israel, intentionally tries to kill civilians. But when you compare Hamas “intentions” against Israel’s broken record claims of “we’re sorry,” the fact is Israel, without even trying, kills far more civilians than Hamas, which Israel claims tries hard.

You tell me who is worse.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, author and former national president of the Palestinian American Congress. He is managing editor of the Arab Americans Writers Syndicate, <a href=”http://www.ArabWritersGroup.com”>www.ArabWritersGroup.com</a> and he writes for the HuffingtonPost.com.)

Which people do you mean? Arabs? Palestinians? Christians? Muslims? Pakistanis? Terrorists?

Many mainstream Americans confuse us all, lumping us together in today’s world of racism and hatred that can’t seem to distinguish any more between the various differences between all of “us.”

It used to be so much easier to hate back in the 1960s when there was only one racism against one target, “Black people.”

Today, there is so much to hate it can be confusing for Americans. Arabs are seen as Muslim. Muslims are seen as Arab. Mainstream Americans often confuse “Pakistanis” with “Palestinians.”

One thing about racism is it doesn’t require you to be smart.

The sitcom “Aliens in America” is funny, for sure. I just don’t like the title, even though I am sure the producers had to call it that to sell it to the American public. Call “us” anything else besides Aliens, and no one would watch.

It’s no different than the similarly misguided effort of the Hollywood film “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World” featuring Albert Brooks. The problem with the Brooks movie is that he doesn’t go looking for Comedy in the world where most Muslims live. He goes to India.

People come up to me all the time and ask, “Did you like that Brooks film about looking for humor in the Muslim World. You’re a Muslim, right?”

Sure. All olive skinned people who criticize Israel and question American foreign policy in Iraq, who support the Palestinian cause and who look like a composite drawing of all 19 Sept. 11^th terrorist hijackers merged into one obviously must be “Muslim.”

I don’t mind being mistaken for a Muslim. It happens all the time.

That’s what bothers me about the TV Sitcom, “Aliens in America.” It feeds to mistaken stereotypes that Americans naively have about today’s post-Sept. 11^th world. They absolutely think we are all the same.

Taybeh School  Reflects Steadfastness of  Palestinians
Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D., – (Taybeh, Palestine) Thursday was simply a magnificent day in Taybeh with the Latin Patriarchate School celebrating their Open Day activities which included many “Dabkeh” dance groups, sports, poetry and even a special skit ironically reflecting life with the “Apartheid” Wall between Israelis and Palestinians.  Children, who have been deprived from every normal activity of childhood that others around the world take for granted finding the hope to laugh, sing, and dream of a better future but stuck in the misery of occupation.  Most of the performances encompassed holding the Palestinian flag in the highest position as a symbol of the strong yearning for a free Palestine.

In the Taybeh drama directed by Ms. Valentine, the female character played by Hannen, reminds the world that it has been sixty years since over 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes and belongings, businesses, farms, their towns and cities. This awful “catastrophe” is termed “Nakba” in Arabic.  Israel’s 60^th Independence celebration this week in creating a Jewish state is in reality Palestine’s destruction and mourned as the national day of tragedy. Palestinians have experienced forced displacement, dispossession, and the suffering continues until today.  The “Apartheid” Wall and the brutal military occupation are aimed at continuing to expel Palestinians like the Taybeh students who attempt steadfastness in Palestine with their mere presence and hope for a better future in their beloved homeland.

By the end of 1948, two-thirds of the Palestinian population was exiled. It is estimated that more than 50% were driven out under direct military assault. Others fled as news spread of massacres committed by Jewish militias in Palestinian villages like Deir Yassin. When my late father-in-law, Canaan, would speak on public radio in Boston about Deir Yassin and that over 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed and all the atrocities committed against Palestinians in 1948, I would just wanted to hide under a rock because I did not believe it.  I thought how can you say to Americans that the newly-established Israeli government confiscated refugee land and properties without respect to Palestinian rights? I thought in my mind “Baba how can you say that Palestinians lost all they had while Jews found everything they needed and took it while the world was watching?”  However, every Palestinian that I have met in the last thirty years has confirmed this catastrophe.  It is a fact that Israel rapidly moved Jews into the newly-emptied Palestinian homes. Today, the United Nation has registered approximately 4.4 million Palestinian refugees and at least another estimated 1 million who are not so registered.

Jewish leaders spoke openly of the need to use military clashes to expel as many Palestinians as possible before other Arab countries could come to their defense. The Haganah militia’s Plan Dalet

As Israel celebrates 60 years on May 15^th, Palestinians are encouraged to plan mass demonstrations across Palestine to commemorate sixty years of exile and dispossession. A silent march will take place in the Western neighborhoods of Jerusalem to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Nakba organized by Nakba survivors who want to create greater understanding and awareness of this catastrophe. No flags, no posters but advised to wear black garments. The Ellahi Holy Land Christian group is promoting flying 29,915black balloons over Jerusalem (exactly 365 days X 60 years).  Across the globe different solidarity actions are taken place to demand the restoration of Palestinian rights. The famous Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, reflects on the Nakba, “I came from there… and remember.” The late renowned Edward Said emphasized what the Holocaust is to the Jews is what the Nakba is to the Palestinians.

Another important fact about the Nakba is that it not finished.  The “Apartheid” State of Israel is driving Christian and Muslim Palestinians out of Jerusalem.

Following the Orthodox Pascha (Easter) celebrations, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch receives visitors in Jerusalem to exchange good wishes and celebrate the Resurrection of Christ.  I set out from my village of Taybeh on Bright Tuesday with my family, whom all hold valid American passports and they had obtained the permits needed based on their Palestinian Id card from Bet El to enter Jerusalem. 

However after four hours sitting in my car, I still could not enter Jerusalem from the Hizma checkpoint.  After a few hours I pleaded with the soldier to please allow me to either pass the checkpoint to go to the patriarchate or return home to Taybeh but it was inhumane to sit in the car for no logical reason.  The solider insisted that I need to be punished because “you are smuggling illegal immigrants into Israel.” 

I asked her to look at the passport that showed my husband was born in Jerusalem and taking my husband and my 75 year old mother-in-law to Jerusalem during holy days is a basic right especially since they are dual citizens. I could not get anywhere with the soldier that kept saying “go back to your car” every time I tried to approach her. I was so frustrated and angry that day that to top it off this is a normal story that the American Consulate officers hear all the time. 

The only thought that kept going through my mind is that even normal people being treated by violent and unfair actions every day can simply turn to violence to resist injustice.

Furthermore, I would like to quote Dr. Elias Akleh who recently wrote: “Greek Orthodox Christian celebrations of Saturday’s Holy Fire and Sunday’s Easter in the Church of the Holy sepulcher in Jerusalem late April were violated an spoiled by aggressive interruptions of Israeli army and police.  Instead of Christian worshippers, armed Israeli soldiers crowded the entrance to the Church.  Instead of lighted candles, police batons were raised.  Instead of musical bands playing their instruments, Israeli soldiers brandished their automatic weapons, and instead of celebrating, Palestinian Christians were confronted by Israeli police thuds, were beaten, and many were arrested.”

The world must finally understand that the Nakba is a root cause of the Israeli Palestinian problem and it is marked on May 15^th the day after Israel declared its independence in l948.

The world should not celebrate the birthday of a state that currently engages in ethnic cleansing, violates international law, is inflicting a brutal collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and continues to deny Palestinians their basic human rights.

As a mother of three children, I cannot understand how Jewish mothers teach their children to celebrate their state founded on terrorism, massacres, and the dispossession of another people from their land.

The only way to justice and a just peace in Israel and Palestine is one state for all of its citizens and the return of the Palestinian refugees to the homes and lands that were stolen from them as adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 11, 1948, resolution no. 194. The two state solutions have failed us. We cannot survive behind a 27 foot wall with closed boarders while the harsh treatment is creating more fanatics.Until there is a free Palestine with Jerusalem open for all faiths, you have to assume that Palestinians have no other alternative but to continue with their resistance.  But, for us in Taybeh that resistance will continue to be peaceful and promoting non-violent resolutions. Therefore, Kudos to the principal Mr. Ghaleeb, Ms. Suhair and all of the teachers at the Latin School for the hard work reflected in this excellent day where students are yearning just to be normal in the most abnormal of circumstances.

(Maria Khoury is writer and the author of Witness in the Holy Land. She lives in Taybeh, Palestine.)

Why are some people partying like it’s 1948?
By Linda Mamoun - Two weeks before Israel’s 60th anniversary the House and Senate voted unanimously to pass resolutions honoring “the founding of the modern State of Israel.” Before the House vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in on the deliberations saying, “I urge our colleagues to speak with one voice, and support this resolution recognizing the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. In doing so, we not only commend Israel, we also bring luster to this House by associating ourselves with that great state of Israel.” To further commemorate Israeli independence, Pelosi reserved time through the month of June for a weekly series of floor speeches.

Israel Independence Day has been celebrated within Jewish communities in the United States since Israel was founded. Traditionally the celebrations were organized by synagogues or Hebrew schools. Children would sing Ha’Tikvah, the Israeli national anthem, and read scriptures on the Promised Land. But these days the anniversaries are geared toward the broader public, making headlines in places where there are large Jewish communities, but also in areas where one would be hard-pressed to find a single person identifying as Jewish. Not only are the anniversaries endorsed by celebrities and political committees (this year’s “National Committee” includes former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the three presidential frontrunners, and all living secretaries of state), but the organizers offer a dizzying array of festivities, requiring careful planning by those hoping to partake in all the revelry.

Israel’s Independence Day fell on May 8 this year, but in the US the festivities run from early April through the beginning of June. With all the events going on around the country, have you planned how you will celebrate Israeli independence?

Mark Your Calendar

If you really had your act together, you could have booked a trip to the Holy Land with Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United For Israel (CUFI) tour. During ten days in early April, the Celebrate Jerusalem Tour featured a Night to Honor Jerusalem, a Middle East Intelligence Briefing, a luncheon at the Jerusalem Convention Center, a Jerusalem Unity Rally Walk, and a “special CUFI salute” to Israel’s 60th anniversary. Best of all, you would have gotten to hear Hagee’s rallying speech, in which he announced his pledge of $6 million for Israeli causes (mostly settlement-related) and declared that ”Turning part or all of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban.”

For those who don’t like to travel, not to worry. You can get a taste of Israel from the comfort of your own suburb. On May 18, jaunt on over to Dunwoody, just outside of Atlanta, where you can see all the major Israeli cities with the “re-creation” of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, the Negev, Sefat and Haifa. The Dunwoody events feature “interactive family activities, such as camel rides, rowing across the Dead Sea, and climbing Masada.”

In Beachwood, Ohio, party planners are encouraging revelers to “Take in the sights and sounds of Israel without leaving home!” Among other festivities, organizers have planned a faux Israeli marketplace, where shoppers can “wander displays of one-of-a-kind jewelry, crafts and artwork; smell the flowers; pick up a unique book; and enjoy family-friendly crafts, games, songs and dances.”

In April, homebodies in north Jersey could have seen West Englewood Avenue in Teaneck transformed into Jerusalem’s Ben Yehuda Street, featuring “wonderful vendors, delicious food and fabulous music.”

If you’re not into sightseeing, don’t fret. You can celebrate in more traditional ways -with parades, marching bands and fireworks. To learn about festivals near you, sign up for Facebook’s “Party Like It’s 1948” group, or just google “Israel@60″ and the name of your town.

The Israel Hobby

You’ve heard of the Israel Lobby? Well, this is the Israel Hobby, and there’s something for everyone. (And if you missed this year’s big events, it’s not too early to start planning for next year.)

If you’re a poetry or film buff, drop by an Israel@60 reading or film festival. If you’re a bookworm, join a 60th birthday book club. If you’re a cyclist, register for a 5k, 10k or 60k “Ride with Israel@60″ race.

If you like to pamper yourself, try Dead Sea Spa Days. If you’re an art lover, why not amble into an exhibit commemorating Israeli independence? If you’re a foodie, join the Israel@60 Mission, which offers a “food and wine tour of Israel culminating in a star-studded international leadership gathering.” If you prefer to cook your own Israeli delicacies, sign up for an Israel@60 pita-making or Israeli hors d’œuvre class.

Not into falafel? Other options beckon.

If you’re an American Idol addict, check out the results of the Israeli Idol Competition (part of a series of anniversary events in Ann Arbor). If The Amazing Race is more your thing, see who won the 2nd Annual Amazing Israel Race (a citywide treasure hunt in NYC to commemorate Israel’s 60th birthday.)

If you’d rather concentrate on learning a new language, launch a “Café Ivrit” club and commit to speaking 60 minutes of Hebrew each month to honor Israel’s 60-year history. If you’re a budding filmmaker, try your luck in the Israel@60 video contest. If you’re a famous blogger, well, you guessed it: Blog ’til you drop on 60bloggers.com. (Or mark your personal blog with the Israel@60 icon.)

If music is what you live for, hopefully you saw the “60@60″ opening night gala at Radio City Music Hall on May 7. (60@60 is a “month-long musical celebration comprising 60 musical events across North America through June 1.”) If you’re a left coaster, you probably dropped by the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on May 10 for the “Israel 60 At The Kodak” extravaganza. (The Los Angeles “mega-celebration” is a continuation of 60@60, but is also part of another series featuring “60 hours of live entertainment in and around L.A. culminating in an exclusive, star-studded concert.”)

Didn’t get your tickets on time? There are still other options.

If you’re an Indiana Jones-type, go on an Israel@60 archaeological dig, or watch one on video. If you’re more of an intellectual, sign up for a history course on the Israeli Declaration of Independence, or join other “mythbusters” in a class that promises to “break through the myths and get to the truth of Israel’s contributions to the world… technology, medicine, television, music and more.” (Light refreshments served.)

If all this sounds too tame, journey to the front lines with Volunteers for Israel where you’ll commemorate Israeli independence by working on special projects to support the IDF in northern and southern Israel.

With so much going on, you won’t even have time to wonder why we’re seeing such a proliferation of festivities.

The Sellabrations

In economic terms, you could say that Israel Independence Day has “market dominance.” When most people think of Israel Independence Day -if they contemplate it at all- they think of it in terms of Israel’s national narrative.

But in spite of all the festivities, Israel Independence Day may be losing some of its market share. Unable to market the brand to at least two demographics (Muslim and Arab Americans) and losing market share to a generation transformed by a deeper understanding of military occupation (whether in Palestine, Iraq or Tibet), a quality of desperation seems to underlie the latest efforts to sell the holiday.

While advocates of Israel Independence Day still market the holiday to the country as a whole, they’re increasingly turning to niche markets like health & wellness and adventure travel to achieve their main objective: market saturation.

But is it working?

According to Marc Ellis, a Jewish theologian and professor of American and Jewish Studies, the festivities that mark Israel’s anniversaries have little public support in the US, even in the Jewish community: “Look at what happened with Israel’s 50th. They planned a lot of things, but it just sort of fizzled. This is typically what happens.”

Ellis thinks the celebrations fizzle for a variety of reasons. First, despite the attempts to make it seem otherwise, Israel isn’t a top priority for most Americans, even Jewish Americans. Opinion polls, including one recently commissioned by a prominent Israel advocacy group, confirm this. (News flash for MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who recently surmised that Israel is the “one key concern” of Jewish voters.)

But Israel’s anniversaries fizzle for other reasons, as well. The most obvious is that many people don’t see much to celebrate. Blaring Kool & the Gang as loud as you can won’t block out the roar of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. And if the myriad celebrations have anything in common -aside from their glorification of Israel- it is that they all downplay the decades-long war. The party planners seem to think they can erase the image of Israel as it really is by evoking the Israel of legend and lore. (If you google “Israel” and “make the desert bloom” you’ll see how often they try.)

But the edifice of legend is cracking. M.J. Rosenberg, director of the Israel Policy Forum, recently wrote about the reluctance of young Jewish Americans to embrace the Israel of lore, saying in a newsletter that “The Internet generation is not into tired organizational talking points which mix facts and myths in equal measure.” Rosenberg argues that, “you can’t defend the occupation and sell Israel at the same time.”

For those trying to sell Israel to the public, opinion polls show that, while Americans tend to sympathize more with Israelis, most people believe that Israelis and Palestinians share the blame for their conflict -along with the United States. A BBC World Service Poll released in early April describes the American public as “nearly evenly divided” in their opinions on Israel. This doesn’t jibe with a narrative that casts Israelis as innocent transplants who got stuck in a bad neighborhood, but are thriving just the same.

The frenzy around Israel Independence Day can be seen as an attempt to freeze history back to 1948 when the public’s support of Israel was mostly unequivocal.

People vs. Projects

There is a new ethos now: If you feel for one side, you should feel for the other. Those who subscribe to this view condemn all violence. They put the needs of the people, Israelis and Palestinians, before everything else. You could call them the People-First Movement.

The advocates of this movement, many of whom are American Jews and Israelis, believe that the official Israeli story has to be outsold by a new narrative. This means, first, acknowledging all that happened in 1948, including al nakba: the organized killings of Palestinians, the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages, and the expulsion of over seven hundred thousand Palestinians from their land. And it means looking at the US-backed occupation, and the fact that all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank live under the reach of Israeli military power.

The most striking thing about this movement is how grassroots it is. Although it has a growing DC contingent, the movement is comprised mainly of peace activists, faith-based organizations, and campus groups, which means it doesn’t get much attention from the press. Even so, it has certain people worried, and they have mounted a Herculean effort to regain control -with support from the political and religious establishment, evangelical Christian groups like CUFI and the Joshua Fund, lobbies like AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee, and newer organizations like the Israel Project, the David Project, and the Solomon Project. You might well call this the Project-First Movement. And it has well-funded campus arms like Stand With Us, Campus Watch, and the Israel On Campus Coalition.

The Project-First Movement has begun to use niche marketing to attract narrower and narrower cross-sections of the American public. The goal is to enshrine ever more abstracted conceptions of Israel in the minds of key constituencies, increasingly on the right.

For these activists, the state of Israel -or at least its governing regime- comes first. And just as they direct many of their appeals to the most extreme right-wing constituencies in America, they are increasingly aligned with the most hawkish Israeli politicians.

The movement has a grassroots following (and history), but its core organizations tend to be centralized with munificent funding for PR. They administer surveys, conduct focus groups, implement dial testing, and do interviews to fine-tune their campaigns. This might explain why the PR initiatives behind Israel Independence Day tend to be sophisticated, even if their output seems relatively uninspired.

The Marketing Wars

There is a clear connection between public discourse and policy. Majority support of the status quo has to be maintained if Americans will continue to allow $3 billion of their tax dollars to be allocated annually to Israeli aid. (And up to $3 billion more in loan guarantees.) And what people hear about Israel, Palestine, and US policy in the region shapes how they think.

Public discourse affects policy in more indirect ways, as well. If the root causes of a conflict are obscured, or if one side is characterized as inherently violent, then efforts to negotiate a fair resolution are undermined. In a forthcoming book, Challenging Global Terrorism and American Neo-Conservatism, international law scholar Tom Farer writes that Israel “has championed the view that groups and governments employing terrorist means either have non-negotiable ends or should at least be treated as if they had them, the view that negotiations or even the examination of the substantive claims such groups make merely feeds the terrorist appetite.” The Project-First Movement promotes this narrative above all others, leaving pro-peace policy initiatives dead on arrival.

Although the Project-First Movement is succeeding on the political front, and probably will for the foreseeable future, the People-First Movement has been winning some of the most important narrative wars. In the IPF newsletter cited earlier, Rosenberg describes this trend within the Jewish community: “They are losing the campus battle big time….I’m talking about young opinion leaders who are turned off by the occupation and identify Israel with settlers there and neoconservatives like Feith, Perle, and Krauthammer here. They hate the paranoid style in which all dissent from the status quo is deemed anti-Israel or anti-Semitic and, generally, have no use for the mindless emotionalism and ethnic sentimentality that characterize so much of the organized pro-Israel community. As third or fourth generation Americans, they cannot be won over with scare tactics about the Holocaust or Ahmedinejad.”

For the Project-First Movement to prevail -within the Jewish community and in the broader society- it needs to succeed in two gargantuan tasks: it has to construct a narrative that perpetually glorifies Israel, and it has to block all counter-narratives so that even questioning its project is unthinkable.
For the People-First Movement to succeed, it has to achieve only one goal: to humanize the conflict. And this is how they do it:

1.      Through events focused on local organizing, public education, and interfaith dialogue. The main orgs here are peace centers, student and faith-based groups, and indy media outlets.

2.      Through non-violent campaigns to end the Israeli occupation and lift the siege of Gaza. These include everything from action alerts and petitions to boycott, divestment and sanctions initiatives to fact-finding tours and direct action in the West Bank and Gaza.

3.      Through policy and media work by advocacy groups. A random list (pulled from my inbox) of different kinds of US-based groups includes the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Jewish Voice for Peace (and their MuzzleWatch and StopCaterpillar sites), Electronic Intifada, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, J Street, the American Task Force on Palestine, Americans for Peace Now, Al Awda, and SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax-funded Aid to Israel NOW).

In the last decade, there has been a surge of activism in the US, Canada and Europe. Omar Baddar, who works with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, explains that “Activism had died down in the 1990s due to the misconception that the ‘peace process’ was working and could achieve something. Once that fell through, and it became obvious that Israel was choosing illegal territorial expansion over peace with the Palestinians, people felt the need to get active on the issue again.” Baddar believes the movement is growing because it engages supporters “democratically and on many different levels.” The anniversary of Al Nakba on May 15 provides a focal point.

On its website, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation lists commemorations happening around the country. Just looking at the cities where I’ve lived, there has been a firestorm of activism: In Philadelphia, a coalition of groups organized “60 Days for 60 Years,” a series of events and actions to commemorate Al Nakba and mobilize support for ending the occupation. In New York, a group called “Jews Remember the Nakba” held a No Time To Celebrate rally on May 7 outside the Israel@60 gala at Radio City Music Hall. New York peace activists will also converge on Dag Hammarskjöld Park (May 16) to commemorate Al Nakba. In Chicago, home to one of the largest Palestinian communities in the US, people will mark the anniversary at the Palestinian American National Conference from May 23 - 25. In Denver, activists organized a variety of educational and cultural events, which will conclude in a demonstration at the state Capitol on May 17.

Some anniversary events focus attention on specific campaigns like divestment initiatives targeting companies that are involved with the occupation, or ending the siege of Gaza. Several organizations planned cross-country speaking tours to coincide with the anniversary. I met Marc Ellis, the Jewish theologian referenced earlier, before a lecture on Jewish activism against the occupation. He was invited by Students for Justice in Palestine (University of Colorado) to take part in a commemoration of the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre.

The last group I’ll mention is an Israeli organization called Zochrot (which means “remembrance” in Hebrew). Its members post signs on the sites of Palestinian villages destroyed by the IDF and distribute maps identifying these sites. To commemorate the events of 1948, activists in Israel and the US have been displaying Zochrot’s maps to show how Palestinians have been cleansed from their land.

The Forecast

Sociologists look at holidays as a form of public ritual. Not only do holidays reflect a society’s values, but they serve to mold these values. With Israel Independence Day, we see a reflection of America’s strategic and cultural alliance with Israel. But we also see the outlines of a continuing military project: A campaign to sanitize Israel’s history and legitimize its aggression against the Palestinians.

On April 24, The Washington Post reported on the Bush Administration’s “secret” agreement with Israel to support settlement expansion in the West Bank. But it’s no secret that, even since the Annapolis talks in November, the Israeli government has authorized a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. And it’s no secret that the US backs virtually all of Israel’s policies: its settlements and separation wall, its occupation and siege; policies that have strangled the Palestinian people and resulted in many lost lives on both sides.

Because Project-First organizations promote these policies, and thwart people’s desire for peace, they’re essentially a movement without a people, representing the needs of no one but a narrow fringe of ideologues and PR professionals.

 (Linda Mamoun is a writer and media critic. Her blog NewsWhacker highlights the best and the worst news coverage of the day. Linda is a member of the National Arab American Journalists Association and the Arab American Writers Group.)

At 60, Palestinians and Israelis must apologize and speak against their extremists as one voice
By Ray Hanania– The Hebrews fled Egyptian persecution more than 5,000 years ago, and yet their modern day ancestors continue to live in “da-nile.” Palestinians are often described as the most educated people in the Arab world, and yet they allow reason and common sense to be occupied by emotion. Israeli denial and Palestinian emotions stand in the way of peace and fuel the extremists on both sides. Neither side will acknowledge the pain they bring to the other nor will they stand up and silence the loud but small minority of extremists among their own people who exploit the conflict and have helped work against peace. What else is new after more than 60 years of conflict?

Palestinians and Israelis are so far apart that they can’t even agree on what date to celebrate or commemorate their conflicting intersections of history.

The struggle for power in the Desert Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Will the rest of us pay for it?

By Aladdin Elaasar – (New York City, NY) Saudi Crown Prince Sultan’s has been rushed abruptly for urgent medical care last week. It was an alarming signal for a possible power struggle in the world’s biggest oil exporter, and a sign of a serious problem that may disturb the succession line in the absolute monarchy and create the possibility for internal instability, analysts and diplomats say.

Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz is no ordinary royalty. He is has been the minister of Defense and Aviation and the Inspector General and Deputy Prime Minister for more than a quarter of a century. He is one of the wealthiest and powerful princes in Saudi Arabia. He is the Crown Prince and second in succession.

Sultan, in his early 80s, had an intestinal cyst removed in Saudi Arabia in 2005 and diplomats say he is in weaker health than King Abdullah, who is thought to be in his mid-80s. Sultan is also father to Prince Bandar Bin Sultan the former long time ambassador to Washington, a controversial figure who has been accused of taking multi billion dollar bribes facilitating military contracts. Bandar is the current Saudi National Security Advisor and brother in law of Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Saud al-Faisal, and prince Turki al-Faisal the former long serving chief of Saudi Intelligence agency.

Sultan has had several ailments, including an intestinal cancer that required surgery and extended hospitalization in 2004.  The uncertainty of Sultan’s health and possible incapacitation would re-shift the political sands in the desert kingdom.

According to Saudi opposition groups, Sultan’s reputation as corrupt earned him the title of “the Sultan of Thieves.” In addition to billions of dollars of kickbacks he allegedly earned in the multi-billion arms deals from the U K and the US, Sultan has been accused of expropriating huge plots of land across the country from common citizens. The  concerns about Sultan’s health highlighted potential instability in the country, a key U.S. ally and strict Islamic state, over who among the Saudi royal family will take the reins of power after the era of King Abdullah and his heir Sultan, according to Ali Al-Ahmed a think tank analyst at the Institute for the Gulf in Washington, D.C.

There is no designated second-in-line to the throne, and since coming to power in 2005 King Abdullah has set up an “allegiance council” of sons and grandsons of the kingdom’s founder to regulate the affairs of the succession. Saudi Arabia has no political parties or elected parliament and governance is the prerogative of the al-Saud family, legitimized by clerics who administer Islamic sharia law. Still, there is more obscurity than ever over who could succeed Sultan and Abdullah.

“The council opens the floor for everyone. It is by secret ballot, and of course that way anything could happen,” said Saudi political scientist Khaled al-Dakhil.

Up to now, the best-positioned sons of the kingdom’s founder Abdul-Aziz bin Saud have appeared to be Interior Minister Prince Nayef and Riyadh governor Prince Salman, both of whom are full-brothers of Crown Prince Sultan and former King Fahd.

Dakhil said the allegiance council could open the path for other sons of Abdul-Aziz such as Prince Mishaal, the council’s chairman, or intelligence service chief Prince Muqrin, who are both seen as close to King Abdullah.

Grandsons could also garner support. Sons of Salman, Sultan, Abdullah, Prince Talal, former kings Fahd and Faisal are all prominent figures in politics, economy or the media.

Sultan’s demise will diminish the power and influence of the Sudairys, allowing King Abdullah and his allies to pass the throne to another branch,” the Gulf Institute in Washington, a Saudi dissident group.

The powerful clerical establishment and some of the Sudairy brothers have stood in the way of the reformers, who they consider too liberal, diplomat say. Much of the clerics’ efforts have focused on keeping women veiled, segregated and at home.

According to Saad Al-Fagih head of MIRA, a Saudi opposition group, Sultan’s death will make the picking of the next crown prince an issue of contention among the rival clans of Al-Saud. This could split the family even further, as a non-Sudayri crown prince would mark the decline of their powerful reign.

Saudi society is strife with dissent and turmoil; it seems divided over whether to allow women full participation, or not. It is divided between the ultra zealous orthodox believers of Wahabism and westernized liberals. It is divided between the large young population and the ailing Old Guard, royalties and commoners, alike. It is divided between the super rich elite and the seemingly struggling class complaining of the rise in the prices of commodities in spite of the economic boom that Saudi Arabia is witnessing again. Besides, al-Qaida sympathizers and sleeping cells have not been uprooted yet from Saudi Arabia.

Adding to that, the situation in Iraq and the escalating threats from Iran in the region and the heavy involvement of Saudi Arabia in regional politics and promulgating its militant brand of Islam worldwide: Any sign of turmoil and disturbance of oil production in the Happy Kingdom could send shock waves and panic through an already hyped stock market affecting consumers of energy and other products everywhere.

(Aladdin Elaasar is an award winning Arab American journalist and author of several books including “Silent Victims: The plight of Arabs and Muslims in Post 9/11 America.” Elaasar is also a member of the National Arab American Journalists Association.)

Mother’s Day gift from Hillary Clinton—Obliterate Iran?
By Saffiya Shillo – As a woman I was thrilled to see, in my lifetime, a woman run for president.  A woman that actually had a good chance at winning.  On the heals of the primary in Indiana and a Mother’s Day weekend, the race for Democratic Party nominee ends.  As it does, Mother’s across America need to seriously reconsider their support for Hillary Clinton.  She has crossed the line of motherhood by vowing to “obliterate” Iran this past week.  Threatening to kill mothers and children does not reflect well on American mothers.  She has revealed that she does not have the compassion and wisdom to be president.  The very thing people are looking for in a woman president. 
 
Her recent reference to “obliterate” Iran if it threatened Israel has left me dumbfounded and deeply disappointed.  I simply could not believe my eyes and ears as I heard her reiterate her support of those words on the Sunday morning talk shows.  I hope she does not win. 
 
She lost my vote and many more with those words.  
 
Threatening to obliterate any country, let alone Iran located right next door to where our enlisted men and women are serving and dying (47 last month) in the Middle East is not a sign of good leadership.  In fact, her remarks mirror the often fanatical rants of Iran’s president.  Why answer dangerous behavior with dangerous behavior especially when it puts our own in harms way?  Her words have much more impact on America than Reverend Wright’s sermons.  Where is our ever-sensationalizing mainstream media on this debacle?
 
The fact that these remarks come not for OUR safety but for Israel’s is unnerving.  Last I checked, our government is sworn to serve and protect its citizens, not Israel’s or any other country for that matter.  
 
Perhaps the reason for the reckless comments is strategy to gain votes from undecided voters leaning towards pro-war stances.  Perhaps it is an effort to gain support and funding from pro-Israeli groups that deny they have power to influence our government’s foreign policy.  If this is the case, it’s pretty obvious that Clinton’s advisors fully believe it to be true.  Perhaps it is just a show of blatant disregard for U.S. interests and citizens–a proven character flaw for someone seeking the presidency.    
 
As Mother’s Day approaches, Hillary Clinton’s threatening posturing speaks loud and clear to many mothers and peace loving people of the world.  It says that she is not the woman, mother, sister, wife, human being we want in the White House.  The people of Iran and the Middle East and the rest of the world are fellow human beings.  They are mothers, fathers and children.  They need not fear the U.S. will obliterate them or anyone else.  Unfortunately, they suffer the consequences of the hate-rhetoric their governments dole out, we, however, can voice our concerns through our votes when our elected officials engage in hate-speak.  We have the opportunity to change the course of our country by not voting for anyone that espouses violence to solve any world problem.  How incredibly callous and ugly to see a mother speak in such a manner. 

As a woman and a mother, I am ashamed of Hillary Clinton!

(Saffiya Shillo is a peace activist, domestic violence/sexual assault consultant and cultural sensitivity trainer on Muslim/Arab issues.)

Can we “obliterate” the emotion-filled election pandering, please?
By Ray Hanania – I think I actually now prefer a president who can’t properly pronounce the word “nuclear” over someone who keeps using it like the theme in a “Get Out the Vote” election strategy. Hillary Clinton said she would “obliterate” Iran if the Persian nation were to use a nuclear weapon against Israel. My guess is Israel can take care of itself. But vowing to “obliterate” Iran sure doesn’t hurt when you face the very likely possibility that the only way to win the Democratic Party nomination is to steal it.

Clinton clearly believes she can broader her support among Jewish voters by pandering to them, and by throwing a Barry Goldwater mushroom cloud to Republicans who think John McCain isn’t quite fanatic enough.

I had to look up the word “obliterate” just to make sure I knew exactly what she meant.

It has several meanings, according to the dictionary I am sure Hillary is using, Merriam-Webster. It has a long history of applying racist definitions to Persian-looking and other Middle Easterners.

The M-W says “obliterate” means: “1a — to remove utterly from recognition or memory; 1b — to remove from existence, destroy utterly all trace, indication, or significance; 1c — to cause to disappear (as a bodily part or a scar) or collapse (as a duct conveying body fluid), to remove like a “blood vessel” obliterated by inflammation; or, 2 — to make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or wearing away; or, 3 — cancel.”

I think Hillary means Option “1B,” to remove from existence, destroy utterly all trace, indication or significance.

Of course, I could never read the precise style of a dictionary definition. M-W defines an “Arab” as a “vagabond,” too.

The United Nations tried definition “2” on Saddam Hussein, but before they could wear away the dictator’s power, President Bush, who pronounces “nuclear” as “nuke-a-ler,” tried “1b” too.

That’s how we got into this Iraq thing, which is a war but technically isn’t a real war by Constitutional definition, I suppose, which is a conflict that has been going on for 4  and one-half years beyond the date in which we were told we had “prevailed.”

Frankly, I’d prefer to apply “1b” to the Iraq War. I just want to make it go away at this point. We can’t win. And I don’t see how bombing Iran will help us achieve what voters have clearly asked the next president to do: Get us out of Iraq.

But to “obliterate” Iran gets Americans into a potential conflict that has a certainty of allowing them to prevail in a real way, as opposed to the White House “spin” way.

Hey. Can’t get us out of Iraq. Obliterate Iran. It makes sense. Certainly more sense than even the lies we were spoon fed about Iraq in the first place.

“Obliterate” Iran and we don’t have to worry about Osama Bin Laden. Rising oil prices. The collapsing home mortgage market. The recession. What to do when social security runs out?

Maybe Hillary didn’t mean “obliterate.”

I mean, we can give Hillary, a First Lady who couldn’t remember whether or not the Serbs were firing bullets at her as she was running or walking from the helicopter during a tour of Kosovo, a little slack, don’t you think?

Maybe she meant to say, “obligate,” as in “We need to obligate Iran to adhere to international weapons treaties so they don’t threaten to fire weapons at Israel.”

Which is a good point since Iran’s off-kilter President Ahmadinejad hasn’t really threatened to nuke Israel.

Chances are even before Iran’s nuclear plants even get close to being weapons-grade facilities, Israel, using American-made fighter jets and bombs, will probably render the nuclear centers useless.

Is Hillary trying to disparage Israel, by chance? Maybe she is trying to act the way a man acts when someone suggests that a “woman” might fight their battle for them.

This could be a maybe too sophisticated strategy to appeal to male voters. You know. The “I don’t need my wife to fight my battles for me because I am a man.”

Maybe Hillary meant to use the term “obfuscate” rather than “obliterate,” which would make sense since she clearly has no idea how to handle foreign policy.

If the strategy of fiery rhetoric doesn’t bump up the polls the way she hopes, she can always fall back on her “get out of trouble” card again, and use the “dumb blond routine.”

It worked with the Kosovo bullets raining down on her head, her decision to stick it out with Bill despite his embarrassing infidelity, and the last time her polls started to slip.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, author and Chicago-based radio talk show host. He can be reached at www.hanania.com.)

Mistrial in war related corruption case proves there is more to it
By Ray Hanania – A jury in Rock Island, Illinois said they were deadlocked on the Bush Administration’s prosecution of a former middle-level sub-contractor for Halliburton that the federal government has targeted for more than three years. The jury was split evenly over charges that Jeff Mazon, a manager for Kellogg, Brown & Root, (KBR), a construction and engineering company that had received a contract from the U.S. Army Sustainment Command at the Rock Island Arsenal to provide services to troops in the Middle East, had accepted a bribe to increase the contract for a Kuwaiti contractors. U.S. District Court Judge Joe B. McDade, who muzzled the trial by refusing to allow Mazon’s defense team to address the larger issues of the Iraq War and the widespread contract corruption involving politically connected Halliburton, the parent company of KBR, had no choice but to declare a mistrial. But what are the real issues behind why the jurors could not convict Mazon, who the Bush Administration has targeted for more than three years in a politically-motivated campaign that cost taxpayers millions of dollars?Clearly, for the public at least, Mazon was not viewed as the real problem when it comes to the ongoing abuse of war related contracts in Iraq and Kuwait.

Mazon was always small potatoes. The Bush Administration’s prosecutors always carefully focused their prosecutions against individuals, avoiding allowing the bigger issue of Halliburton’s inherent abuses, and the abuses of their politically connected sub-contractors, like KBR, to surface in the trial.

That’s the real reason why, in my opinion, Judge McDade ordered that the Mazon defense team not try to turn the trial into an indictment of the corrupt, scandal-plagued Iraq War where the history of contract abuses under Halliburton’s watch has been endless.

If these war contract abuse cases are really that important – and there are dozens that have been prosecuted over the past several years – why did the government put the case on trial in Rock Island, Illinois where the glare of the national media is so dim? Although the local news media is very competent, they do not cover the federal criminal issues related to the Iraq War and Halliburton as often as does the national media.

The Bush Administration’s PR machine has been repeating over and over again that they took the case to the obscure northern Illinois federal courtroom because that’s where the contract was originally issued.

Wow. If that logic were genuine, then the military would be prosecuting all of their criminal cases in regional courts rather than with their own specific laws and on their military bases.

But we know better.

For the Bush Administration, this is about politics, not corruption. It is about Bush being able to tell the public that he is doing something about the ongoing corruption that goes far beyond the weak evidence against Mazon, without having to raise suspicions that maybe the real problem isn’t one middle manager who oversaw one contract, but rather the culture of corruption that infested the entire Iraq War contract system controlled by Halliburton, which was run by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney was the architect of the Iraq War. He had direct control over Halliburton. And before one year even passed when he stepped down from Halliburton as its CEO, he was already drafting plans to invade Iraq and make Halliburton the lead contractor in a scheme to topple Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and replace it with his own.

The strategy to prosecute these cases outside of the national limelight would have worked, had the Bush Administration been able to hoodwink the public into believing that the prosecutions are on the up-and-up.

Very few newspapers even bothered to cover the trial in Rock Island. Even the Associated Press lifted reporting from the two local news organizations that did excellent reporting on the case, the Quad-City Times Newspaper and the Quad Cities Online and Argus Newspapers.

But now that the prosecution has stumbled, and half of the jury members have said the government’s case was inadequate, the media is all over the story. More than 300 newspapers have picked up on the news just in the first 10 hours since the jury came back and handed the federal prosecutors their shameful blow.

Now, to save face, and with the media focused on the case, the prosecuting team, led by a Washington D.C. based prosecutor – another anomaly considering the government insisted that the case need not be prosecuted in the nation’s capitol – has indicated they will seek to retry Mazon, who happens to be from the Southwest Suburbs of Chicago.

Why? The government spent three years building this case and apparently all the evidence they had was worthless. They have persecuted Mazon’s alleged conspirator, Ali Hijazi, a contractor in Kuwait who was also “indicted,” and they have slandered him by describing him as a “fugitive.”

Hijazi is a free man in Kuwait. And the government of Kuwait, which is a strong ally of the United States, has ruled that there is no evidence to prove any of the U.S. government’s claims against Hijazi. Yet the Feds, who have no authority to take Hijazi into custody, have refused to lift the indictment.

Now they want to save face and retry the case? Is it worth the millions of dollars that will be spent to re-prosecute? I don’t think so.

However, if the government wants to set the Mazon case aside and instead open a wider investigation into the contract abuses that all come back to Cheney’s company, Halliburton, I would say let’s do it!

That is where the real focus belongs and where the Bush administration just doesn’t want to go.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, author and radio talk show host based in Chicago. He can be reached at 

www.hanania.com. Distributed by the Arab American Writers Group, www.ArabWritersGroup.com.)

Obama “controversies” bring out America’s underlying race problems
By Ray Hanania – Some people say the controversy surrounding presidential nominee Barack Obama is about his policies and his controversial associates. But the real issues underlying everything in this presidential election is race and the failure of America’s to really get past the racial divide that up until the late 1960s was characterized by hatred, violence and a Black-White divide.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright continues to speak out despite the mainstream media’s snickering, and head shaking. From the far right wing fanatics to the mainstream network journalism veterans, all seem to be wondering why is Wright continuing to speak out when his silence would better assist the Obama campaign.

www.hanania.com. Distributed by Arab American Writers Group, www.ArabWritersGroup.com.)