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| Iraq + war on terrorism + Middle East conflict + critical perspectives |
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Listening to Ted Turner Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, June 23, 2002 Deep in our hearts we are perhaps beginning to understand that we, too, have a part in the deterioration that has brought us and the Palestinians to our present state, which is more fraught with despair than anything in the past, and to which our only response is to attack. [The complete article] Send more teaspoons Doron Rosenblum, Ha'aretz, June 23, 2002 With what surprising indifference we received the chilling conclusion of the FBI and CIA - published in The New York Times - that America's war against Qaida in Afghanistan has actually failed. Not only did the indiscriminate revenge and carpet bombings not eliminate terror, but in fact they may have doubled the threat. The terror organizations have apparently branched out and turned into a global jihad movement, with 10 times more motivation to seek vengeance and wreak destruction. Since we worked so hard to draw a parallel between our war against terrorism and America's war in Afghanistan, this conclusion should be all the more disturbing to us. In our equation, we were America and the Palestinian Authority was Qaida. But when the Pentagon admits defeat, what are little we (and the mighty Uzi Landau) to do? Apply more force? Drop more bombs? [The complete article] U.S. signal is turning green as Sharon weighs a blow against Syria Geoffrey Aronson, Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2002 While public attention in the United States and elsewhere is riveted to the latest maneuvers in the stalemated Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something far more significant may be brewing on Israel's northern frontier. For the first time since then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, under a benevolent American eye, led Israel's star-crossed invasion of Lebanon in 1982, there are growing indications that a U.S. president has given Israel a green light to attack targets on Syrian soil if the on-again-off-again battle between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies. [The complete article - registration required] Of lies and oil David Martin, Counterpunch, June 21, 2002 After years of working to end the sanctions against Iraq, Rahul Mahajan has emerged as a leading voice of dissent in these conformist times. He has critiqued the mainstream media's coverage of the so-called "war on terrorism" in an article for the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and even more extensively in his new book. With the recent barrage of news stories about what happened before 9-11 and the new warnings of future attacks, the Current interviewed Mahajan to see if he could clarify some of the realities behind the mainstream media myths. [The complete article] Shoppers killed as Israeli tank opens fire in market Phil Reeves, The Independent, June 22, 2002 At least three Palestinians – including two children – were killed yesterday when an Israeli tank fired shells into a West Bank market place in what army officials said was an attempt to disperse a crowd of people breaking the curfew. The killings in Jenin came after Israeli troops invaded the town in response to a surge of Palestinian attacks in which 33 Israelis, mainly civilians, have been killed in three days. Atrocities and despair have engulfed the region anew, overshadowing the latest frail American initiative even before President George Bush has unveiled it to the outside world. The bloodshed in Jenin came less than a day after a Palestinian from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia infiltrated a Jewish settlement near Nablus, broke into a house and shot dead five people, including a mother and three of her children inside their home. [The complete article] Civil wrongs Maya Jaggi, The Guardian, June 22, 2002 Since September 11, President Bush's war on terror has highlighted issues of immigration, nationality, race and culture, and widened the divide between 'insiders' and 'outsiders'. And what that means, according to law professor and author Patricia Williams, is that a great many Americans have more to fear than ever. [The complete article] U.S. increasing its military dominance, reports show Jim Lobe, OneWorld, June 21, 2002 Led by sharp increases in the United States defense budget, particularly since last September 11, the world appears to be on a course toward growing militarization, according to recent reports on global military trends. [The complete article] The Bush doctrine Richard Wolffe, Financial Times, June 20, 2002 In burying the cold war doctrines, Mr Bush and his national security team are running head first into the clearest foreign policy principles of the Reagan administration. As the Reagan cabinet pursued containment and deterrence against the Soviet Union, it definitively rejected pre-emption. When the last pre-emptive military strike was launched to destroy Iraq's nuclear ambitions, the US had no hesitation in condemning the Israelis for bombing the Osirak reactor in 1981. Jeane Kirkpatrick, then US representative to the United Nations, said: "I don't think anybody in the whole cabinet believed in the use of pre-emptive force and that is why we condemned Israel." [The complete article] Israeli settlers rampage after blood-soaked week Phil Reeves, The Independent, June 22, 2002 Armed Israeli settlers appeared to have taken the law into their own hands yesterday by raiding a West Bank town as divisions emerged within the Israeli government over how to respond to the latest wave of Palestinian attacks. [The complete article] They hate women, don't they? Arzu Merali, The Guardian, June 21, 2002 Muslim women have become an absolute symbol of oppression, and distorted images of them permeate news coverage. While Daisy Cutters began to thunder down on Afghans last year, journalists from across the political spectrum - from Boris Johnson in the Telegraph to Polly Toynbee on these pages - maintained that it was Islam that oppressed Afghan women. Beware Muslims, they screamed in their unlikely unanimity. They hate women, don't they? [...] While the gap between Muslims and the west is widening the most striking feature of each other's critiques of their treatment of women is the lack of dissimilarity. Violence, workplace discrimination, educational opportunity and a desire for basic respect from men are universal issues. [The complete article] Martyrdom missions: To what end? A growing debate in Palestinian society Muntaser Hamdan, Jerusalem Times, June 13, 2002 While Israel continues to escalate military preparedness to thwart possible martyrdom missions in Israeli cities, a heated debate is brewing among the Palestinians as to the usefulness, timing and location of such missions and also the fact that the missions target Israeli civilians. [The complete article] The new suicide bombers James Bennet, New York Times, June 21, 2002 The range of recruits to suicide missions continues to broaden in often bewildering ways. This week, Israel's forces arrested a 12-year-old Palestinian boy its intelligence had identified as planning an attack. Dr. Iyad Sarraj, a Palestinian psychiatrist in Gaza City, has watched the trend toward suicide bombing with growing alarm. He said that having grown up with the idea of suicide attacks, Palestinian children were equating death with power. "They are creating a new kind of culture," he said, arguing that they were in part compensating for the powerlessness of their parents in the face of the restrictions and frequent humiliations of Israeli occupation. [The complete article - registration required] WAR! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? When William Bennett, James Woolsey, Frank Gaffney and their buddies founded Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, they promised to "take to task those who blame America first and who do not understand -- or who are unwilling to defend -- our fundamental principles." Early indications are that they haven't been winning the battle on America's college campuses. Only a paltry 5% of students surveyed strongly agree that "the values of the U.S. are superior to those of other nations." 57% believe the policies of the United States are "at least somewhat responsible" for the September 11th terrorist attacks. The results of the AVOT survey. Among the many noteworthy findings of the survey is that there is a direct correlation between church attendance and the willingness to die for America - one more reason for the neocons to keep chipping away at that pesky old wrinkle in the Constitution that stipulates a separation between Church and State. More discussion on the survey's findings is provided at Christian Science Monitor. The warlords win in Kabul Omar Zakhilwal and Adeen Niazi, New York Times, June 21, 2002 On the final night of the loya jirga, more than 1,500 delegates gathered for the unveiling of the new cabinet. Our hearts sank when we heard President Hamid Karzai pronounce one name after another. A woman activist turned to us in disbelief: "This is worse than our worst expectations. The warlords have been promoted and the professionals kicked out. Who calls this democracy?" [The complete article - registration required] Cheney's silence says plenty Juan Andrade, Chicago Sun-Times, June 14, 2002 When Cheney suddenly popped up, I couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. It didn't take more than a few minutes of watching Cheney that I knew Bush and his bush-league intelligence team had screwed up. Cheney is Bush's pit bull. When Cheney senses danger, he puts on his fighting face, characterized by his snarling monotone manner of speaking, barely opening his mouth and using only one side to deliver his bite. [The complete article] U.S. aid to Israel subsidizes a potent weapons exporter Jim Krane (AP), Boston Globe, June 19, 2002 In France, Turkey, The Netherlands and Finland, Israeli companies have edged such U.S. firms as Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics out of arms deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years. The irony, experts say, is that tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars and transfers of American military technology helped create and nurture Israel's industry, in effect subsidizing a foreign competitor. No other country receives as much U.S. aid or freedom to plow it into its own export industries as Israel, say experts in academia, industry and the U.S. government. [The complete article] Peace through 'de-occupation' Michael Tarazi, Washington Post, June 19, 2002 After 35 years of Israeli occupation, most Palestinians roll their eyes at the mention of the phrase "interim agreement" -- and with good reason. Interim agreements are Israel's way of tossing the Palestinians a few bones, such as the right to design postage stamps or issue license plates -- while Israel continues to confiscate Palestinian land and build more illegal Israeli colonies. In other words, interim agreements are Israel's way of prolonging its occupation of Palestinian territory, not ending it. This is why Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon keeps talking of a "long-term" interim agreement -- and why Palestinians will have none of it. [The complete article] Hamas history tied to Israel Richard Sale, UPI, June 18, 2002 Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years. Israel "aided Hamas directly -- the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)," said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies. Israel's support for Hamas "was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative," said a former senior CIA official. [The complete article] The art of war J. Hoberman, Village Voice, June 19, 2002 Not since the flurry of Vietnam movies in the late 1980s has the combat film been so viable or so visible. And not since the gung ho Reagan-era warnography of Rambo and Top Gun has the brass been as pleased. Vice President Dick Cheney took a breather from his undisclosed location to join Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the gala Washington premiere of Black Hawk Down, the first movie for which (thanks to Rumsfeld's personal intervention) U.S. troops were dispatched to a foreign country to aid in its production. [The complete article] Christian Science Monitor report published August 14, 2001 A suicide bomber's world Cameron W. Barr The Monitor has interviewed Palestinian militants involved in suicide bombings, a young man who has considered carrying out such an operation, the father of a deceased bomber, and some Israelis who were affected by one attack. The following accounts offer a closer look at this form of violence - the motivations of its perpetrators and the experiences of its victims. [The complete article] Isn't democracy worth it? Bob Herbert, New York Times, June 17, 2002 Mr. Padilla, an American citizen, has been sucked into a procedural black hole in which he no longer has any legal rights. This is a new and dangerous region that is outside the public's view and, for the time being at least, beyond the reach of the Constitution. If left unchecked, this contempt for the law and due process could pose more of a threat to our way of life than Al Qaeda. [The complete article - registration required] Palestinian intellectuals call for end to suicide attacks Reuters, Ha'aretz, June 20, 2002 A group of Palestinian intellectuals urged Palestinian militants Wednesday to halt attacks on civilians inside Israel, saying they hindered Palestinian aspirations for independence. "We urge those behind military attacks against civilians inside Israel to reconsider their positions and to stop pushing our youth to carry out these attacks, which only result in deepening hatred between the two peoples," said the 55-member group in a full-page advertisement in the al-Quds Arabic daily. [The complete article] Rebuilding Afghanistan: Promises, promises, promises Stephanie Salter, San Francisco Chronicle, June 19, 2002 Over the past two decades, as their wild and once-beautiful country has been wrecked by a revolving cast of super-powers, religious fanatics and thugs, the people of Afghanistan have been promised much. Almost nothing has been delivered, a reality that hovered like the proverbial dark cloud over the lofty speeches and ambitious plans of the recent loya jirga. This time, thanks to eight months of hunting Osama bin Laden with jets and bombs, the promise-makers are we. But, as Abdul Azimi, a law professor, told the Los Angeles Times last week: "A lot of Afghan people are still not sure if the United States is sincere this time or will disappear after a year or two when the first part of its goals are achieved." [The complete article] U.S. RESERVES ITS RIGHT TO ENGAGE IN WAR CRIMES US demands immunity for its peacekeepers Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, June 20, 2002 America has infuriated its allies at the United Nations by threatening to keep US troops out of peacekeeping forces unless they are granted a blanket immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which comes into being next month. [The complete article] The curse of the infidel Karen Armstrong, The Guardian, June 20, 2002 On July 15 1099, the crusaders from western Europe conquered Jerusalem, falling upon its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants like the avenging angels from the Apocalypse. In a massacre that makes September 11 look puny in comparison, some 40,000 people were slaughtered in two days. A thriving, populous city had been transformed into a stinking charnel house. Yet in Europe scholar monks hailed this crime against humanity as the greatest event in world history since the crucifixion of Christ. [The complete article] Is America the New Roman Empire? Michael Lind, The Globalist, June 19, 2002 In the past, parallels between Imperial Rome and Imperial America were primarily drawn by leftists or right-wing isolationists. They thought that U.S. power politics corrupted the world, the American republic — or both. What is new since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 is the embrace of U.S. imperialism by many mainstream voices as something desirable and defensible. [The complete article] Occupation without end Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz, June 19, 2002 Throwing down the gauntlet of conquering Palestinian Authority lands again in response to suicide bombings, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has sparked charges that his proposal means no less than a return to permanent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In a dramatic, dead-of-night announcement following one of the bloodiest suicide bus attacks on record, the heads of the parties that make up Sharon's ruling coalition declared early Wednesday that Israel would henceforth reply to every Palestinian terror attack by seizing PA territory, "which will be held for as long as the terror continues." Additional terrorist attacks, the statement warned, "will bring about the capture of additional territories." For the past 18 months, Israel has consistently maintained that it had "no interest in remaining in Area A" - the regions specified by past peace accords as under formal PA rule - and that its troops would withdraw from these areas as soon as their specific, limited missions there had been completed. Sources said right-wing cabinet ministers - many of whom still nurse hopes of a return to the concept of Greater Israel, Israeli dominion over all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip - left the meeting with little-disguised satisfaction. [The complete article] Islam has a progressive tradition too Hamza Yusuf, The Guardian, June 19, 2002 When a Welsh resistance leader was captured and brought before the emperor in Rome, he said: "Because you desire to conquer the world, it does not necessarily follow that the world desires to be conquered by you." Today one could offer an echo of this sentiment to western liberals: "Because you wish your values to prevail throughout the world, it does not always follow that the world wishes to adopt them." The imperial voice is based on ignorance of the rich traditions of other civilisations, and on an undue optimism about what the west is doing to the world politically, economically and environmentally. [The complete article] Behind 'plot' on Hussein, a secret agenda Scott Ritter, Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2002 President Bush has reportedly authorized the CIA to use all of the means at its disposal--including U.S. military special operations forces and CIA paramilitary teams--to eliminate Iraq's Saddam Hussein. According to reports, the CIA is to view any such plan as "preparatory" for a larger military strike. Congressional leaders from both parties have greeted these reports with enthusiasm. In their rush to be seen as embracing the president's hard-line stance on Iraq, however, almost no one in Congress has questioned why a supposedly covert operation would be made public, thus undermining the very mission it was intended to accomplish. [The complete article - registration required] A legal tool emerges in terror war Warren Richey, Christian Science Monitor, June 19, 2002 Since the terror attacks on Sept. 11, the so-called material-witness statute has emerged as a key – and highly controversial – weapon in the legal arsenal being used to wage the Bush administration's war against terrorism in America's homeland. [The complete article] Court jousters A small cartel of conservative lawyers rewrites the American rule James Ridgeway, Village Voice, June 19, 2002 Behind the Bush Administration's attack on civil rights in the name of war lurks the network of attorneys crafting laws for a new America. Their hodgepodge of rules and statutes either now or soon will remake the nation, providing local police with sweeping federal authority, pushing the military and CIA directly into everyday domestic politics, and sanctioning indefinite detention without a charge or even a court hearing. Immigration policy already has disintegrated into the random search and arrest of anyone with dark skin. College students are to be singled out on the basis of ethnic background and required to carry special identity papers. In the rather near future, all citizens will be registered in a national database that includes criminal records, welfare payments, delinquent loans, credit card debt, and so on. Committees of local vigilantes are on the way to being sanctioned as legitimate militias assigned to root out terrorists, just as the Ku Klux Klan was after the Civil War. These are not distant ideas out of George Orwell, but real laws and practices about to be put in place. [The complete article] Code of quiet The secret war on whistle-blowers Geoffrey Gray, Village Voice, June 19, 2002 "The FBI never fires whistle-blowers, directly," says psychiatric social worker Don Soeken. In the late '70s, Soeken worked for the U.S. Public Health Service, and his job was to perform "fitness for duty" examinations for federal employees whose supervisors thought they were mentally unstable. But Soeken noticed something curious about his clientele. All his patients seemed to be whistle-blowers, Soeken says, and he was asked to label the muckrakers mentally unfit, giving the government the green light to dismiss them. Soeken refused. He then became a whistle-blower himself, reporting the shameful practice to Congress, and now helps whistle-blowers recover on a farm in West Virginia. He calls it the Whistlestop. "There's only one commandment in the FBI," says one of his patients, Fred Whitehurst. "Thou shall not say anything bad about the FBI." [The complete article] Tension down, danger high Sadanand Dhume and Joanna Slater, Far Eastern Economic Review, June 20, 2002 [The Indian soldier] doesn't see anybody, but the stillness of the scorching afternoon is deceptive. At any minute, either side can let loose a barrage of artillery or heavy machine-gun fire. The soldier smiles wryly when a visitor asks him whether the situation has calmed down after a flurry of Western diplomatic visits to New Delhi and Islamabad. "Maybe in Delhi," he says. "Not here." [The complete article] Palestinians offer peace proposal with concessions Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, June 18, 2002 The Palestinian Authority has presented the Bush administration with the written outline of a peace proposal with concessions over two of the most contentious Arab-Israeli issues, the status of Jerusalem and refugees, while insisting that Israel retreat to its pre-1967 borders for the formation of a Palestinian state. [The complete article] A changed president -- or a new repression? FAIR, June 17, 2002 FAIR reports on the protests against Bush at Ohio State University that the Washington Post failed to report. [The complete article] The "Turn Your Back on Bush" campaign is presented here. 'We were better off under the Russians' Michael Ware, Time, June 17, 2002 The Allies are still on the hunt in Afghanistan—and the locals aren't happy. [The complete article] Before Baghdad burns Laura Miller, Salon, June 18, 2002 The author of a new book on Iraq cautions that a U.S. invasion to get rid of Saddam Hussein could be even more dangerous than his weapons of mass destruction. [The complete article] Gunning for Saddam - but is the CIA capable of riggering his demise? David Usborne, The Independent, June 18, 2002 So dismal was the image of the CIA when it turned 50 in 1997 that voices were raised in Washington including those of two former directors that it be dismantled and a new intelligence body be built from scratch. That didn't happen. It is ironic that since 11 September, when its worst failure of all protecting America from foreign terror was exposed, the agency has been given new and multiplied burdens, notably hunting al-Qa'ida and now toppling President Saddam. [The complete article] Iraq and ruin Toppling Saddam Hussein still tops George Bush's 'to do' list - how to achieve it is another matter Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, June 17, 2002 Since the early days of the Bush administration, its policy on Iraq has been absolutely clear: Saddam must be removed, by force if necessary. What is less clear is the rationale for the use of force to do so. The usual justifications, cited by both Democrat and Republican members of Congress, are Iraq's alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and violations of United Nations resolutions and international law. But the trouble with this is that the same arguments can be applied to Israel, though there are no US plans to bomb Tel Aviv or depose Ariel Sharon. Israel actually has nuclear weapons, whereas Iraq - so far as anyone knows - is still trying to acquire them. In terms of flouting UN resolutions and international law, many would argue that Israel's behaviour is a more serious threat to international stability, at the present time, than that of Iraq. [The complete article] For '60s activists, fear of old abuses in new FBI powers Wayne Washington, Boston Globe, June 17, 2002 The FBI's counterintelligence programs on civil rights advocates, black radicals, and pacifists - code-named Cointelpro - generated a backlash after they came to light in the early 1970s. That backlash led to restrictions on how agents could conduct surveillance, how long they could conduct it, and who could be the subject of such surveillance. Sept. 11, however, has provided federal officials with the motivation for a return to domestic surveillance. [The complete article] Restoring the imperial presidency Bruce Shapiro, Salon, June 17, 2002 With the political aftershocks of Sept. 11 only now beginning to be felt in Washington, it's especially important to recall the real lessons of Watergate. Thirty years on, it is easy to forget that "Watergate" was really misleading shorthand: It was shorthand not only for the 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters and Nixon's subsequent coverup of campaign shenanigans, but also for a vast array of domestic spying and other executive-branch abuses, which the Nixon crew perfected but did not invent. It is fashionable now to blame Watergate on Nixon's paranoia and rogue personality. But the crimes of Watergate grew directly from the kind of unchecked presidential powers now sought by the Bush administration both at home and abroad. [The complete article] Why a first strike will surely backfire William A. Galston, Washington Post, June 16, 2002 As the White House moves closer to a brand-new security doctrine that supports preemptive attacks against hostile states or terrorists that have chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, Iraq would be first on its list of targets. [...] [H]ardly anyone in either party [Democrat or Republican] is debating the long-term diplomatic consequences of a move against Iraq that is opposed by many of our staunchest friends. Fewer still have raised the most fundamental point: A global strategy based on the new Bush doctrine means the end of the system of international institutions, laws and norms that the United States has worked for more than half a century to build. What is at stake is nothing less than a fundamental shift in America's place in the world. Rather than continuing to serve as first among equals in the postwar international system, the United States would act as a law unto itself, creating new rules of international engagement without agreement by other nations. [The complete article] Citizens, combatants and the constitution Laurence H. Tribe, New York Times, June 16, 2002 The case of Mr. Padilla, who is a suspect in a plan to detonate a radioactive bomb in the United States, rightly concerns many civil libertarians. All citizens have the right to know the reasons they are being held, and if no adequate reasons are forthcoming, to be promptly released. If they are charged with a crime, they have the constitutional right to a speedy trial. But demanding a trial in these circumstances, where someone like Mr. Padilla would almost surely be found guilty, carries a high cost for civil liberties: it would stretch the meaning of already elastic concepts like criminal conspiracy to the point of creating what would amount to thought crimes. [The complete article - registration required] ExxonMobil-sponsored terrorism? David Corn, The Nation, June 14, 2002 The lawsuit against Exxon Mobil [facing charges made by villagers in the Aceh province of Indonesia] had been moving along slowly (as is normal) in a Washington federal court but took a turn that could threaten its continuation. At a hearing in April, federal district judge Louis Oberdorfer asked the oil company's attorneys whether the State Department had expressed an interest in the matter. Martin Weinstein, an Exxon Mobil lawyer, said that "this is a very difficult time in Indonesian-American relations" because al Qaeda fighters are residing in that large Muslim nation. He argued that if the judge allowed the lawsuit to proceed, Oberdorfer "would be forced to judge the conduct of the Indonesian government, an ally with whom America's relationship has never been more important, in order to determine whether the allegations in this complaint are those of murder or legitimate warfare against fundamentalist insurgents trying to break a country apart by bombings and other terrorist activities." That is, Exxon Mobil was saying the judge might end up interfering with the war on terrorism. Weinstein suggested Oberdorfer contact the State Department and ask for its advice on how to handle the case. [The complete article] Burning the Oslo candle at both ends Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, June 16, 2002 In Operation Defensive Shield, Israel not only destroyed the security services of the Palestinian Authority, but also a large part of its civilian infrastructure. As a result, the population is now facing a situation it has never experienced before: There is no governing body that deals with daily affairs. The civil administration of old is gone, and the Palestinian Authority has basically been destroyed. Who is in charge of sanitation? Who supplies water? Who runs the schools and the welfare system? Israel says it's the PA's responsibility, but in practice, it does not allow the Authority to do its work. [The complete article] A dirty bomb from Pakistan? Or a dirty trick from Washington? Rupert Cornwall, The Independent, June 16, 2002 It sure sent a jolt through the United States. Yet last week's much ballyhooed arrest of the "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla now seems, like other developments in the "war against terror", to have been a political device of the Bush administration – designed to distract attention from US intelligence failures and solidify support behind President Bush. [The complete article] Palestinian elections now Edward Said, Al-Ahram, June 13, 2002 The major interests in Palestinian society, those that have kept life going, from the trade unions, to health workers, teachers, farmers, lawyers, doctors, in addition to all the many NGOs must now become the basis on which Palestinian reform -- despite Israel's incursions and the occupation -- is to be constructed. It seems to me useless to wait for Arafat, or Europe, or the US, or the Arabs to do this: it must absolutely be done by Palestinians themselves by way of a Constituent Assembly that contains in it all the major elements of Palestinian society. Only such a group, constructed by the people themselves and not by the remnants of the Oslo dispensation, certainly not by the shabby fragments of Arafat's discredited Authority, can hope to succeed in re- organising society from the ruinous, indeed catastrophically incoherent condition in which it is to be found. 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