We all Live on the West Bank.

 

The violence that wrecks the lives of hundreds of thousands living in what Christians call The Holy Land - has put all of us in danger - no matter that we may live thousands of miles from Israel. This violence is a spreading and growing concern around the world. It forces governments and people to look at their own responsibility for the continuing grave situation in these lands, for the injustices that continue, for the way violence has wrecked the lives of so very many.

There are marvelous websites, and good researchers and writers, that do a wonderful job at keeping people up to date with what is really going on in this region. My own work has focussed on other issues- but nonetheless, as an investigative journalist who has researched biological weapons, espionage (interviewing the former head of US Intelligence in the Middle East and former members of MOSSAD, who has graveled in the Middle East, inevitably I have picked up some back ground knowledge. Thus I will do on this page a 'blog', with frequent short items that hopefully fill in gaps or shed new light on current events.

 

The Contractual Workers and Iraq - 3rd May 2004

I am a bit concerned by the false impression given by the many UK media reports that refer to the 4 'civilian contractors' murdered at Fallujah before the siege- giving this as a major reason for the American attack on Fallujah. Just who were these men? Were they simply civilians, or noncombatants? Several journalists have investigated and discovered that they worked for an America-based security firm - and that one of the four had links to the CIA while the others were retired soldiers. The firm they worked for was highly military in orientation - but skilled in hiding this. It had the contract to protect Paul Brenner, the American Head of the Occupation Authority. One source estimates that there are now some 16,000 'civilian security officers' engaged in Iraq - more than there are British soldiers - making the 'civilian' armed contractors the second largest armed force in Iraq. I have long known of many 'private companies' that provide 'deniable' cover for agents working for the US (and other nations') authorities. As officially not directly employed by the US or UK authorities, they can carry out 'dirty' operations that governments can later deny they were responsible for. It is thus not surprising to learn today that the interrogators used on Iraqi prisoners by US and UK authorities in Iraq include 'private contractors'. These 'civilians' are now everywhere in Iraq. Iraqi 'Blogs" talk of the many who drive cars that often have no number-plates - and keep submachine guns and other weapons on display inside.

Israel and its Constitution - at the root of the Middle East Crisis - 5th May 2004

Israel is proud of being a democracy - but it has now to face a major issue. It is not set up as a state in which all religions are both honoured and equal, but as one in which Judaism is supreme. Until now it thus gives Jews living overseas a unique 'Right of Return' - keeping an open door to all Jews no matter where they live so that Israel can be truly seen as the homeland for all Jews, the one state and nation to which all belong. This policy evolved out of the horrors of the Second World War and of widespread anti-Semitism. It was set up to give security to a very battered people.

But over half a century has passed since the Second World War and Israel now exists in a very different world. It now has to face the fact that this same policy of the Jewish right of return discriminates against all those of other faiths who also see the lands of Israel as their homelands. As things stand, of the people who lived in Palestine prior to the setting up of Israel, only the descendants who are Jews have the right to return and live in Israel. If they are Christians or of Islam, then they are denied the right to return and to live in Israel. Many tens of thousands of families are thus excluded - despite their ancestors having previously lived in the lands of Israel for perhaps thousands of years. This law is thus of its essence a religiously discriminatory law. It embodies a very basic injustice. The anger of those excluded stokes the fire that creates the frustrated violence of the Middle East. Without a solution that embodies justice, this violence could continue for another century or more.

This religious discrimination is however seen as pragmatically necessary by the State of Israel. The Israeli authorities fear that if they ended this discrimination, so many non-Jews would return that Israel's politics would be changed for ever. They fear that the non-Jews would be able to out-vote the Jewish citizens in elections. Likewise if the right to vote were given to the many non-Jews who live in the Occupied Territories - the West Bank and Gaza. Thus the basic law of the state of Israel is forced to use religious discrimination in order to keep the ascendancy in Israel of those of the Jewish faith.

Yet - in the United States or in Europe, such religious discrimination would be seen as utterly unacceptable. It would in effect be both a violation of the US Constitution and a violation of the basic European Human Right Law.

A very intesting just published Jewish Critique of the settlers on the West Bank can be found here. The Golem turns on his Creator

 

The Reports on Prisoner Abuse in Iraq

The US government report that first detailed the horror happening in Coalition gaols in Iraq can be downloaded - with other key reports - such as the Seymour Hersch for the New Yorker - from the excellent Yurica Report (which also covers fundamentalist Christian influences on the White House.