Jefferson Corner

Aljazeera International was launched last week with generous funding by the Emir of Qatar. I have to admit I am one of those living in the west for such a long time, who simply stopped watching US television and CNN with the exception of PBS when I am home.
From what I read in the press and reviews, Aljazeera International will be broadcasting 24/7 and promoted as the international satellite channel with a mission to bring the views of those long neglected by the US and western media.
Shortly after September 11, the New York Times, CBS and ABC, the German and Japanese televisions visited our house in Fairfax, Virginia to see where someone like me, and Arab-American, professional and a US Army veteran gets the news and of course it is from Aljazeera, certainly not Fox News or CNN.
My biggest complaint about the US and western media is the fact that it does not give fair coverage of the Palestinians under occupation, Israel’s continued occupation, its destructions of entire town and villages and uprooting of trees and its failure to cover the crimes of Israel and its crimes of occupation and give coverage only to the “innocent” Israeli victims and its captive soldiers and never mention the more than 10,000 innocent Palestinians hostages in Israeli jails. Even an organization like the BBC gives 5% coverage to the Palestinians while giving Israel 95% of its coverage.
One of the main reasons that I watch PBS is the in-depth coverage of major news, its independence of certain pressure political and religious lobbies and groups and most of its famous program “Front Line” There is no other similar program with such in-depth coverage of issues and topic. If I want to get my information right, I turn to PBS and watch Front Line and of course I do watch Aljazeera. These are my two souce of news, with Alarabia to follow.
Yes, it is time for Aljazeera International and yes, it is also time for people of the world to have a different perspective on the news from that of CNN, Fox and BBC, and yes, it is time for the news from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to be a focus of an international news organization and not simple sound bites.
The Arabs should have invested in such an international news organization some 20 years ago. However all is not lost and it is never too late. Israel and its Zionist agenda always have an open forum in US media especially Fox News and major newspapers and the Arab point of view hardly ever get a hearing. There is never fair coverage.
I am watching Aljazeera International now as I write this note, and all I can say, it is very professional and yes, it does give major coverage to Arab and Muslim issues and yes, there is nothing wrong with that and yes it is time to challenge the primacy of the CNN.
I thank Qatar for the challenge it has taken to bring issues of concern by the people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia to the forefront and give the people of the world a different perspective on the news and issues coming out of the region. It is time for the people of Africa, Asia and the Middle East to tell their stories without going through censorship and without going through filters and too much editing by news editors sitting in New York, Washington or London and who can be fired at any time for taking Israel and its crimes on. News editors are always at the mercy of the Israeli lobby and serve its wishes.

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Couple of days ago, the French Socialist Party, the last of Europe true socialist parties selected Segolene Royal as its candidate for next year French presidential election.
The selection of Segolene Royal by the 6,000 delegates over the former French prime minister Laurent Fabius and the former French economic minister Dominique Strauss-Khan means the French Socialist Party is serious about challenging and winning the next presidential over the presumed front runner and the candidate of the right, Nicolas Sarkozsy.
The French Socialist Party could not have done better and could not have selected a better candidate than Segolene Royal, who in her speech recognized the fact that France has changed and that France today is one of color, of diversity, and one where all French nationals regardless of their origin are French and are entitled the full right of citizenship, and that means the chance for a decent life and a chance for a good education.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant and a French mother was in Washington couple of weeks ago, giving support to the Republican Party and to George Bush and his NeoCons in their war in Iraq, in their war on terrorism and in their war in Islam. Nicholas Sarkozy who is presumed the front-runner over Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister is the present minister of interior with responsibilities for domestic policies including police, immigration and of course opportunities for sons and daughters of immigrants like him. While other immigrants are left to rot by the French domestic policies, someone like Sarkozy was able to become minister of interior and lead the war against immigrants and immigration, and his strength within the right.
The French Socialist Party with Ms. Royal as its candidate will have a good a chance of winning the election if it is able to convince the majority of French that France did change and that France can regain its economic health and reform without sacrificing its ideals and freedoms. Ms. Royal is offering the French a clear choice between the agenda of the French left and that of the French right.
The US Democratic Party must offer US voters clear and distinct programs from that of the Republican Party. It is too bad that the Democratic Party since Bill Clinton was unable to come up with a clear agenda for America, not only failed to challenge Republican of their presumed monopoly over national and security issues, but gave up its rights to challenge George Bush and his Tel-Aviv mafia over their fraud and lies and reasons for going to war in Iraq. Worst yet, it was unable, for the last two election to chose other than “too stiff” Al Gore and “too pompous and stuffy” John Kerry and could not offer smart candidates and programs to challenge George Bush and his agenda of recreating a new American in his image and in the image of his NeoCons.
Perhaps the Democratic Party can learn something from the French and offer us voters a candidate with clear lines of black and white. We are too tired of too many gray lines in our domestic and international policies. The Democratic Party failed American when it voted with George Bush knowing that he, Dick Chaney and the Tel-Aviv mafia lied all the way to the war in Iraq. The Democratic Party needs a candidate like Ms. Royal who is offering the French a clear choice between left and right, making sure there is nothing to be ashamed of in being on the left and being a liberal.

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Any one, whether Arab, Muslim, or American must wonder what in the hell is going on in Iraq not today but for the last 30 years. Iraq was a blood bath for over centuries ever since the days of the Umayyad Empire and nothing has changed.
Arabs who are familiar with Iraq will tell you that “only a dictator could ever rule Iraq” may be right. The Umayyad rulers tried to subdue Iraq some centuries ago and succeeded only when they send Alhajaj Yousef Althaqafi to rule Iraq. On his first sermon in Al-Kufa he stood there silent for few minutes and as expected, some of the believer sitting waiting to hear the new ruler started to throw small pebbles at Alhajaj who was diminutive in stature. The scene continued for few minutes until Ahajaj began his most famous sermon, which we as young students had to remember and recite. He called the Iraqis “hypocrites” who deserver severe punishment and he ended his sermon with the beheadings of few people and that was the only way for the Umayyad to subdue Iraq. Saddam sad to say followed the same advice of Alhajaj to the letter. The daily carnage and the savagery of the crimes and the daily statements coming out of Iraq, make so many others and me a believer that Alhajaj may have been right!
It is even harder to imagine that such sectarian crimes take place on a daily basis killing hundreds of innocent people every day. When one sees the daily statements made by many of the politicians, Shiite and Sunnis one has to wonder where were these people when Saddam ruled and was killing and murdering hundreds of thousands. The Sunnis and some of the Baathist Shiites were not only silent during this time, but also actively participated in Saddam’s killing machine. No one can convince me or any one that Saddam can carry on killing hundreds of thousands if not millions of Iraqis without the support of a large segment of society. The same is true of Hitler. He could not have carried his crime of murdering millions of Jews and others with the active support of substantial number of the German people. Too bad that the same Sunnis who now are speaking out about the murder of Sunnis where so silent for many years. I am not aware of one single Sunni leader who ever came out and publicly spoke out against Saddam and his crimes against the Shiite and the Kurds. (I invite corrections here).
It is also sad to see the Shiites who suffered so much under Saddam commit similar crimes against innocent Iraqi civilians. What is wrong with these people? It is so hard to even imagine that such killing is taking place on a daily basis in Iraq in 2006.
Why so much killing and why so much murder? Perhaps the Iraqis, both Sunnis and Shiites want to prove Alhajaj right? That Iraq as a nation could never be ruled by democratic means but instead must be ruled by bloodthirsty dictators. If this is the case then there is no reason to even have a country called Iraq, as the people and their leaders proved to be unfit and unqualified to rule and manage such a country. It is time for those with ‘blood on their hands” to step aside. George Bush and his Zionist mafia could not have chosen a worse model for implementing democracy in the Middle East.
The only way out of this blood bath and the only way out of the American military occupation and the only way to end the sectarian violence is to make Iraq a ward of the UN or some other organization and place it under a trusteeship, thus putting an end to the senseless and sectarian killings and murder, saving American lives and tax payers money and of course putting an end to the big fraud committed by Bush and his Tel-Aviv mafia.
It is sad and simply too bad that the Iraqi leadership, both Sunni and Shiite could not and is unable to rise up to the occasion and prove to the world that both Saddam and Alhajaj are wrong, that Iraq can be a peaceful democratic country and a model for others.

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Last update - 09:39 12/11/2006
No one is guilty in Israel
By Gideon Levy
Nineteen inhabitants of Beit Hanun were killed with malice aforethought. There is no other way of describing the circumstances of their killing. Someone who throws burning matches into a forest can’t claim he didn’t mean to set it on fire, and anyone who bombards residential neighborhoods with artillery can’t claim he didn’t mean to kill innocent inhabitants. Therefore it takes considerable gall and cynicism to dare to claim that the Israel Defense Forces did not intend to kill inhabitants of Beit Hanun. Even if there was a glitch in the balancing of the aiming mechanism or in a component of the radar, a mistake in the input of the data or a human error, the overwhelming, crucial, shocking fact is that the IDF bombards helpless civilians. Even shells that are supposedly aimed 200 meters from houses, into “open areas,” are intended to kill, and they do kill. In this respect, nothing new happened on Wednesday morning in Gaza: The IDF has been behaving like this for months now. But this isn’t just a matter of “the IDF,” “the government” or “Israel” bearing the responsibility. It must be said explicitly: The blame rests directly on people who hold official positions, flesh-and-blood human beings, and they must pay the price of their criminal responsibility for needless killing. Attorney Avigdor Klagsbald caused the death of a woman and her child without anyone imagining that he intended to hit them, but nevertheless he is sitting in prison. And what about the killers of women and children in Beit Hanun? Will they all be absolved? Will no one be tried? Will no one even be reprimanded and shunned? GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant will say with exasperating coolness that apparently there was “a problem with the battery’s targeting apparatus,” without moving a facial muscle, and will that be enough? Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh will say, “The IDF is militarily responsible, but not morally responsible,” and will he thus exculpate himself? And who will bear the responsibility for the renewal of the terror attacks? Only Hamas? Who will be accused of the tumble in Israel’s status and its depiction as a violent, leper state, and who will be judged for the danger that hovers over world Jewry in the wake of the IDF’s acts? The electronic component that went on the blink in the radar? No one is guilty in Israel. There is never anyone guilty in Israel. The prime minister who is responsible for the brutal policy toward the Palestinians, the defense minister who knew about and approved the bombardments, the chief of staff, the chief of command and the commander of the division who gave the orders to bombard - not one of them is guilty. They will continue with the work of killing as though nothing has happened: The sun shone, the system flourished and the ritual slaughterer slaughtered. They will continue to pursue the routine of their daily lives, accepted in society like anyone else, and remain in their posts despite the blood on their hands. A few hours after the disaster, while the Gaza Strip was still enveloped in sorrow and deep in shock, the air force was already hastening to carry out another targeted killing, an arrogant demonstration of just how much this disaster does not concern us. Israel after the disaster was split: There were those who did their duty and “expressed sorrow,” like the prime minister and the defense minister, and there were those who hastened with appalling insensitivity to cast the responsibility onto the Palestinians, like the “moderate” foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and the deputy defense minister from the Labor Party, Sneh. The silent majority did not bother to emerge from its yawning indifference. The entertainment shows on television continued to make people laugh, and one of the radio stations even broadcast, in a demonstrable lack of taste, Sarit Hadad’s song “You’re a Big Gun.” Mourning, of course, did not descend on Israel, and there was not even a single manifestation of genuine participation in the sorrow. It did not occur to Israel to promise compensation to the families and it did not provide help, apart from transferring some of the wounded to hospitals in Israel. We provided more aid to the victims of the earthquake in Mexico, even though there we didn’t have a hand in the disaster. For the most part, the media were not very disturbed by the killing and devoted less attention to it than to the Gay Pride parade. A day or two after the disaster it was totally forgotten and other affairs are filling our lives. But it is impossible just to go on to the next item on the agenda. This disaster is not an act of God. There are people who are clearly responsible for it, and they must be brought to justice. The fact that the International Court of Justice in The Hague still looks very far from Israel, and the various “Halutzes” and “Galants” can still move around freely in the world, because in Israel they forgive nearly everything, does not mean that war crimes are not being committed here. The IDF may well be a big gun, but an army that is responsible for needless killing in such large dimensions, as in recent months in Lebanon and in Gaza, is a failed and dangerous army that must urgently be repaired. The Defense Forces are not only killing Arabs for no reason, they are also directly endangering Israel’s security, disgracing it in the world and embroiling it again and again. The heedless and arrogant reaction to such deeds contains a dangerous moral message. If it is possible to dismiss mass killing with a wealth of technical excuses, and not take any drastic measure against those who are truly guilty of it, then Israel is saying that, as far as it is concerned, nothing happened apart from the faulty component in the radar system or the glitch in balancing the sights. But what happened at Beit Hanun, what happened in Israel on the day after and what is continuing to happen in Gaza day after day is a far more frightening distortion than the calibrating of a gun sight.
Editor note: this article appeared in Haaretz, the Israeli paper. No US paper and no US editor dare to write what this paper publish.

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Sometime I wonder when the Arabs and Muslims will get a sense of honor and feel the shame and take responsibility for the actions of Arab states when it comes to international crimes committed toward citizens of Arab states.
The long time silence over the crimes committed by the central government in Khartoum and its twenty years war against the people of South Sudan resulting in the death of over 2 million people and now the silence toward a similar crimes committed by the central government in Sudan and its allies in Darfur. How can any Arab and Muslims ever be so silent about what is going on in Sudan?
The central government of Sudan over the years justified its war against the animist and Christian south that its war is against imperialist and colonial interventions in the south that undermines the unity of Sudan and at times justified its war as a way to implement Sharia law in a region of the country without any Muslim majority.
While it true that colonial powers did support the south in the war with the central government and its it true that missionaries played a an important role in keeping the war going hoping to recruit more and more animist to its Christian ranks. However all of this could never justify the war the Sudanese government waged against its own people in the south and imposing Sharia could never be justified under any and all circumstance with the killing of millions of people and the wasting of the very few precious resource the country have. The central government in Khartoum is responsible for the war in the south and is responsible for the crimes its forces and its allies wage against the people of Darfur. Frankly, I could never find any justification for such wars and could never find any excuses for the central government in Sudan.
Now that the conflict in the south seems to be on its way of getting solves, the problem in Darfur and the daily killings going on and the uprooting of indigenous people and the racial uprooting and ethnic cleansing going on in Sudan, require the immediate intervention of the Arab states and the Arab League with the central government of Khartoum to its is crimes against its own people in Darfur.
One also has to question the wisdom of the government in Khartoum and its justifications of its actions in Darfur when the people of Sudan need urgently investment in development. One has to wonder how much infrastructure could have been built in Sudan if the government put all of its sources in development and not in stupid wars that only kills people, destroy infrastructure and keep army generals well fed and fat. How many rails line could have been rebuilt? How many schools and clinics could have been built with the billions wasted on such useless and criminal actions against its own people?
But then the Arab league and Arab states are not know for being ahead of time, always behind time. There was a chance to avoid the invasion of Iraq and Mr. Amr Musa made sure the Arab League does not take any action that calls for Saddam to step aside, thus saving the more than 600,000 victims and saving Iraq from destruction and disintegration. The same is true when recently the Arab League decided to break the total boycott of the Palestinian people and allow Arab Banks to provide funding to the Palestinian Authority and the people. This action was done of course in anticipation of the US agreeing to a lifting of siege over the Palestinian government when Hamas step aside. One has to wonder what this Arab League is for and what service it provide. With all due respect to Mr. Amr Musa, the time ran out for the Arab League and its time for it to fold and close shop. It is an organization without any bones and without any courage and leadership and without any sense of shame.

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For over 50 years, the Arabs are convinced that only the US can solve the Arab-Israeli conflicts. The same is true of so many Palestinian- Americans who share the views that the US is very much interested in peace in the Middle East and convinced that the US is interested in settling once and for all the Arab-Israeli conflict. I am one of those who disagree with all of this non-sense and who sees the US not only a party to the conflict on the side of Israel but share in the daily crimes committed by Israel toward the Palestinian people and recently the Lebanese.
The recent veto by the US of a draft resolution holding Israel responsible for the massacre of so many innocent civilians in Beit Hanoun and the more than 38 vetoes in support of Israel, its crimes and its continued occupation should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the US is, was never interested in peace in the Middle East, and in fact the US is one of the promoters and sponsors of all of the conflicts between the Arabs and Israel and could not, even if it wants to, due to domestic political reasons, sponsor any efforts that could lead to real peace between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and the Arabs.
US foreign policies from the days of Lyndon Johnson to Bush Jr., was always against the Arab interests even as they pursue genuine peace with Israel. And it is not all because of the influence of the Israeli/Jewish lobby, which has something to do with it, but long established policy directives that want to keep the Middle East a source of conflict and instability drive US policies in the Middle East. Other wise the US is perhaps in the best position to push for and demand an immediate halt to the violence and conflict and can in no time organize a world conference between Israel and the Arab countries and push for a total and comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflict.
The recent veto can only demonstrate that this Bush administration lacks any sense of moral values, and even devoid of any of its often-pronounced Judea-Christian values. How can a cold-blooded murder of innocent people of an entire family be justified? Even criminal Israel admitted the killings and murder in Beit Hanoun to be a technical mistake, yet Ms. Rice and Mr. Bush could never see any thing wrong with killing and murder of innocent Palestinian and could not see any thing wrong with killing of innocent Arabs. To Bush and Rice, the only good Arab is a dead Arab. This is the same Ms. Rice who not too long ago stood up and spoke at the annual conference of the American Task Force for Palestine and gave its commitments to do something about the daily crimes committed by Israel and who promised to work toward peace. It seem that peace is one defined by death.
The US is always covering up for Israel and always covering up for the daily crimes committed by Israel and its criminal army, and always find a way not only to provide international cover for such crimes, but fund it as well. We as taxpayers pay for all of the bombs and weapons that kill Palestinians and killed Lebanese. Someone like the ex-senator from Virginia, George Allen gave Tel-Aviv more than $30 BIILION, tens time the money he voted to give to his state of Virginia.
One day all of this will catch up with Israeli leaders, and US who will sooner than later will have to face international tribunals for the daily international crimes committed by Israel and its defense forces. For those who think the US is an honest broker should take notice and recognize once and for all that the US is not only a party to the conflict in the Middle East but is a partner in the daily crimes committed by Israel and its army, crimes committed on a daily basis in Gaza and in the West Bank.

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