The War has Begun: News Update

Editor's Note: Following an Israeli security cabinet meeting today, Israel declared an 'extended war' on the Palestinians, a war that doesn't abide by 'geographic borders'. The war has in fact begun.
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Beware the martyr
If assassinated, Yasser Arafat really would be an 'enemy' to be reckoned with

Ever since he was confined to his Ramallah headquarters, Yasser Arafat - the world's most exalted political prisoner - has been making it clear that he is prepared to die for his cause. Several weeks ago he reportedly ordered his guards to resist Israeli assault "up to and including the death of the president". And now, from the windowless basement where he has taken refuge from Israeli troops already within his compound, a pistol on his desk and a mobile phone to his ear, he proclaims to the world that "the Palestinians will never kneel" and that the only form in which his historic adversary, General Ariel Sharon, will ever lay hands on him is "as the corpse of a martyr".

His demise would certainly have as dire a posthumous impact as any one man's could have. For he is now, in what could be his last hours, the supreme, heroic embodiment of his people's will. At the same time, this is an Israeli assault on the whole quest for Middle East peace, both in its Palestinian and its wider Arab dimension, which he has come to embody as never before. It comes just after the most convincing olive branch ever to come from the Arab world. At their summit conference in Beirut, the Arab kings and presidents unanimously offered that full acceptance, and integration into, the region for which Israel has been striving since it came into being.
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Robert Fisk: The lies leaders tell when they want to go to war
'The problem with Arafat is that he has a lot in common with Sharon: old, ruthless and cynical'

How much longer can Ariel Sharon pretend that he's fighting in the "war against terror"? How much longer are we supposed to believe this nonsense? How much longer can the Americans remain so gutlessly silent in the face of a vicious conflict which is coming close to obscuring the crimes against humanity of 11 September? Terror, terror, terror. Like a punctuation mark, the word infects every Israeli speech, every American speech, almost every newspaper article. When will someone admit the truth: that the Israelis and Palestinians are engaged in a dirty colonial war which will leave both sides shamed and humiliated?
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For some background...

Unholy Alliance -- Sharon, Hamas Work in Concert Against Peace

Though enemies, Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian militant group Hamas are working in a tacit alliance, writes PNS contributor Michael Lerner. Their shared goal: the elimination of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. Lerner (RabbiLerner@tikkun.org) is editor of TIKKUN Magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics, culture and society, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco.
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You can get timely information at indymedia israel and Palestine Independent Media Center, although most of the Palestinians have been evacuated form the Palestine Independent Media Center.