Trapped in Someone Else's Dream

There is a brutal military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza and it is being used to systematically expropriate land from the Palestinians and lock them into ghettos. This is a lived reality for the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. However, these facts are carefully avoided in the official language of peace. The latest 'road map' does not even mention the occupation, nor that Palestinians lands are being taken from them at gun point. Instead, it shamelessly places all the responsibility for the violence on the shoulders of an essentially unarmed and outgunned people

Rafah is perhaps one of the first Palestinian ghettos. A town of about 100,000 it is surrounded by steel walls, electric fences, checkpoints and gun towers. Pilotless drones patrol the skies at night and curfews control the movement of people. It is from such a hell that the Palestinians are expected to extend a 'hand towards peace', and to 'give up their violent ways'. Meanwhile, the occupation continues, and so does the theft of land.

The final kiss. A father bids farewell to his 14-year old son killed by a stray bullet while playing football on the streets. The image reminds me of Goethe’s poem about the erl-king - ‘who rides through the night dark and drear? The father it is, with his infant so dear’ and so on

117 Palestinians killed, hundreds injured during media's "relative calm"

On December 25, an Israeli assassination squad killed five Palestinians in Gaza, and injured fifteen. Three of the dead were civilians. A short time later, a Palestinian blew himself up at a bus stop in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva, killing four Israelis, three of whom were confirmed by Ha'aretz to be soldiers.

Many leading media organizations were quick to declare that these two incidents marked the end of a period of "relative calm" or "lull" in Israeli-Palestinian violence, that had supposedly lasted since the last Palestinian suicide attack in Haifa on 4 October.

In fact, the period since 4 October has been one of intense Israeli violence, in which 117 Palestinians were killed, including 23 children. At the same time, Israel destroyed almost five hundred Palestinian homes throughout the Occupied Territories.
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Sharon's Speech: Decoded Version
by Uri Avnery

He read out the written text of his speech, word for word, without raising his eyes from the page.

It was vital for him to stick to the exact wording, since it was an encoded text. It is impossible to decipher it without breaking the code. And it is impossible to break the code without knowing Ariel Sharon very well indeed.

So it is no surprise that the flood of interpretations in Israel and abroad was ridiculous. The commentators just did not understand what they had heard. That's why they wrote things like "He did not say anything new", "He has no plan", "He is marking time", "He is old and tired". And the usual Washington reaction: "A positive step, but..."

Nonsense. In his speech, Sharon outlined a whole, detailed - and extremely dangerous - plan. Those who did not understand - Israelis, Palestinians and foreign diplomats - will be unable to react effectively.
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Ghosts of a Dream
My parents rise up from the grave, demanding to know: How has it come to this? How did a great and persecuted people become the persecutors?

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan

Q Is the President in favor of international inspection of Israel's nuclear arsenal, which is pretty well known?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know that I agree with that, the premise of your question. But the United States has a longstanding position of universal adherence to the treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. That has been our longstanding position --

Q They never signed it.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and that is universal adherence. Well, we have urged all states that have not yet adhered to the treaty to do so, and to accept the IAEA safeguards on nuclear activities that would come with it.

Q Are we trying to persuade Israel to sign it, and to be open to inspection?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that, one, in terms of specifics about the Israeli government, you need to refer those questions to the Israeli government.

Q No, no, I'm asking our position.

MR. McCLELLAN: And I've told you that the long held position of the United States is the universal adherence to the nonproliferation treaty.
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The Jewish Choice:
Human Equality or Israel?

Demolishing the Myths of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

UN satellites eye Israeli barrier
The UN is keeping a close eye from space on the path of Israel's controversial West Bank barrier.

The price of ignorance
By Gideon Levy

The suicide bomber at the Geha Junction, Shehad Hanani, was from Beit Furik, one of the most imprisoned villages in the territories that is surrounded by earth roadblocks on all sides. It's a place where women in labor and the sick have to risk walking through fields to get to the hospital in adjacent Nablus. At least one woman in labor, Rula Ashatiya, gave birth at the Beit Furik checkpoint and lost her infant. Few Israelis are capable of imagining what life is like in Beit Furik: the almost universal unemployment, poverty, endless siege and humiliations of life inside a prison. A young man like Hanani, who was 21, had no reason to get up in the morning other than to face another day of joblessness and humiliation.
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