Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Institute for Palestine Studies: The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe

This article, excerpted and adapted from the early chapters of a new book, emphasizes the systematic preparations that laid the ground for the expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from what became Israel in 1948. While sketching the context and diplomatic and political developments of the period, the article highlights in particular a multi-year “Village Files” project (1940–47) involving the systematic compilation of maps and intelligence for each Arab village and the elaboration—under the direction of an inner “caucus” of fewer than a dozen men led by David Ben-Gurion—of a series of military plans culminating in Plan Dalet, according to which the 1948 war was fought. The article ends with a statement of one of the author’s underlying goals in writing the book: to make the case for a paradigm of ethnic cleansing to replace the paradigm of war as the basis for the scholarly research of, and the public debate about, 1948.

ILAN PAPPÉ, an Israeli historian and professor of political science at Haifa University, is the author of a number of books, including The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947–1951 (I.B. Tauris, 1994) and A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 2004). The current article is extracted from early chapters of his latest book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld Publications, Oxford, England, forthcoming in October 2006).


# posted by Blackie @ 11:39 PM | 0 comments

Action Alert: Mohammed Omer Stranded in Egypt: WRMEA

Washington Report

Action Alert—Call your Congressman
December 19, 2006
Contact: Matt Horton (202) 939-6050 x103
communications@wrmea.com

Mohammed Omer Stranded in Egypt

Dear Friends of the Washington Report,

Please find a letter we have faxed 13 Senators and six members of the House of Representatives regarding our prize-winning Gaza correspondent Mohammed Omer who is trapped in Egypt. Please call or fax your own representatives to help this young man get home.

Mr. Omer feels sure that with your help he could get permission to return to Gaza through a different border crossing and be home in time to celebrate Eid with his family. Or Israel can open the Rafah crossing again to help Palestinians, like Omer, get home to their families.

December 19, 2006

Dear Senator,

Our award-winning Gaza correspondent, Mohammed Omer, just completed a very effective U.S. speaking tour. He has received hundreds of e-mails a day (two of which are attached) thanking him for telling Americans about daily life in Gaza. Now he, along with thousands of other Gazans, cannot return home because the Rafah crossing is closed. Unlike several thousands trapped at the actual border, Mohammed is fortunate to be in a hotel in Cairo. Like his fellow Gazans, however, he is waiting in limbo, and frantic. At 22, he is the oldest of seven children and the head of his household. His mother and brothers need him home most urgently.

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has asked Israel to permit Mohammed to cross at Rafah, but Israel has refused to reopen the border. Our embassy asked if Mohammed could return through another border—Allenby or Eretz—but Israel will not deviate from its very stringent rule: a Palestinian must return through the same crossing from which he left.

According to the American staffmember we spoke with, the U.S. Embassy does not have the “horsepower” to convince Israel on its own. This person suggested we generate “high level interest” to convince Israel to reopen the Rafah border for “humanitarian reasons.”

We have written Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ask for her intervention. Now we are asking members of Congress who care deeply about peace in this region to ask Israel to open the Rafah crossing and allow the thousands of Palestinians stranded there to return home.

Mohammed’s nationwide speaking tour built bridges and sparked peaceful dialogue. C-SPAN covered his talk and rebroadcast it seven times, generating wonderful responses from around the country. Please help this young journalist return safely home to his family, who need him during these uncertain times in Gaza.

Sincerely,


Andrew I. Killgore
Publisher

# posted by Blackie @ 5:01 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The oil connection in the Iraq Study Group: Blood for Oil, Loud and Clear: Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Interestingly, the Iraq Study Group report released last week emphasized that an equitable oil law was a necessary cornerstone to the process of national reconciliation and thus to ending the war. In a major far reaching recommendation to deal with the situation in Iraq , the report called for opening Iraq to privatize foreign oil and energy companies, providing direct technical assistance for the "drafting" of a new national oil law for Iraq, and assuring that all of Iraq's oil revenues accrue to the central government.

# posted by Blackie @ 1:15 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Iraq Study Group: PDF File at Antiwar.com

Antiwar.com has posted the Iraq Study Group findings on its site as a PDF file. Spend several hours reading what you already knew. . . .

# posted by Blackie @ 11:40 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

The Secret Relationship Between Israel and Oil: What the U. S. Media Hides by Wendy Campbell

The article in the Wall Street Journal dated September 21, 2004, that rankled me into finally writing this article which has been brewing in my mind for some time was one by Jeffrey Ball entitled "As Prices Soar, Doomsayers Provoke Debate on Oil's Future". The sub-title was: "In a 1970's echo, Dr. Campbell (no relation to me!) Warns Supply Is Drying Up, but Industry Isn't Worried".

Now let me explain to you that I have already come to the conclusion a while ago that this controversy about the 'shortage of oil' is being pushed forward by mostly pro-Israel forces for their own narrow agenda that has nothing to do with the vast majority of the American people's interests.

Even in this article, it is explained that: "Dr. Campbell is at the center of a small but suddenly influential band of contrarians known as the 'peak oil movement'".

# posted by Blackie @ 3:54 PM | 1 comments

Ten Fallacies About the Violence in Iraq: AlterNet

The distortions about the violence in Iraq persist even as the mayhem increases. Here are ten of the worst myths being spread in the media.

The escalating violence in Iraq's civil war is now earning considerable attention as we pass yet another milestone -- U.S. occupation there, in two weeks, will exceed the length of the Second World War for America. While the news media have finally started to grapple with the colossal amount of killing, a number of misunderstandings persist. Some are willful deceptions. Let's look at a few of them:


# posted by Blackie @ 3:32 PM | 1 comments



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