"Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly." Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine,Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.
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Day-to-day FrictionIsrael and Palestine
Violence grabs the headlines but what is day-to-day life like in Palestine? My understanding was dramatically changed by an article describing how it takes hours to go 15 miles through 5 or more checkpoints? Is this the extent of the issue ... or is ongoing humiliation the routine as claimed by the Palestinians? How many articles like these ever appear in your newspaper?
Friday, May 28, 2004
Scientists say Gaza will have no drinkable water within 15 years: Israel seeks US funding so that it can retain control of 80% of West Bank water
New Scientist: "Israel lays claim to Palestine's water | 10:15 27 May 04 |
Israel has drawn up a secret plan for a giant desalination plant to supply drinking water to the Palestinian territory on the West Bank. It hopes the project will diminish pressure for it to grant any future Palestinian state greater access to the region's scarce supplies of fresh water.
Under an agreement signed a decade ago as part of the Oslo accord, four-fifths of the West Bank's water is allocated to Israel, though the aquifers that supply it are largely replenished by water falling onto Palestinian territory.
...
Israel, which wants the US to fund the project, would guarantee safe passage of the water across its territory in return for an agreement that Israel can continue to take the lion's share of the waters of the West Bank. ...
...
Shamir told New Scientist this week that the project could be complete in five to seven years. "The plant will be funded by the world for the Palestinians. Israel will not be willing to carry this burden, and the Palestinians are not able to."
But other leading hydrologists contacted by New Scientist point out that desalinating seawater and pumping it to the West Bank, parts of which lie 1000 metres above sea level, would cost around $1 per cubic metre.
"The question is whether an average Palestinian family can afford it," says Arie Issar, a water expert at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Sede Boker, Israel, who helped green the Israeli desert a generation ago by finding new water sources in the region. "It would be foolish to desalinate water on the coast and push it up the mountains when there are underground water resources up there, which cost only a third as much."
Tony Allan of King's College London, a leading authority on Middle East water, agrees: "Pumping desalinated water to the West Bank is not the best technical or economic option."
...
But Palestinian water negotiators are deeply uneasy about the plans being drawn up on their behalf, especially if they involve abandoning claims to the water beneath their feet. "We cannot do that. We don't have the money or the expertise for desalination," Ihab Barghothi, head of water projects for the Palestinian Water Authority, told New Scientist.
Palestinians badly need more water. Under the Oslo agreement they have access to 57 cubic metres of water per person per year from all sources. Israel gets 246 cubic metres per head per year. And in the nearly 40 years that Israel has controlled the West Bank, Palestinians have been largely forbidden from drilling new wells or rehabilitating old ones.
...
Meanwhile, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip depend almost exclusively on small wells tapping the coastal aquifer. As the water table falls, the aquifer is becoming increasingly polluted by salt water from the sea. UN scientists say Gaza will have no drinkable water within 15 years. ...
...
But now it appears that Israeli water planners see desalination as a means of retaining control of those aquifers ...
New Scientist: "Israel lays claim to Palestine's water | 10:15 27 May 04 |
Israel has drawn up a secret plan for a giant desalination plant to supply drinking water to the Palestinian territory on the West Bank. It hopes the project will diminish pressure for it to grant any future Palestinian state greater access to the region's scarce supplies of fresh water.
Under an agreement signed a decade ago as part of the Oslo accord, four-fifths of the West Bank's water is allocated to Israel, though the aquifers that supply it are largely replenished by water falling onto Palestinian territory.
...
Israel, which wants the US to fund the project, would guarantee safe passage of the water across its territory in return for an agreement that Israel can continue to take the lion's share of the waters of the West Bank. ...
...
Shamir told New Scientist this week that the project could be complete in five to seven years. "The plant will be funded by the world for the Palestinians. Israel will not be willing to carry this burden, and the Palestinians are not able to."
But other leading hydrologists contacted by New Scientist point out that desalinating seawater and pumping it to the West Bank, parts of which lie 1000 metres above sea level, would cost around $1 per cubic metre.
"The question is whether an average Palestinian family can afford it," says Arie Issar, a water expert at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Sede Boker, Israel, who helped green the Israeli desert a generation ago by finding new water sources in the region. "It would be foolish to desalinate water on the coast and push it up the mountains when there are underground water resources up there, which cost only a third as much."
Tony Allan of King's College London, a leading authority on Middle East water, agrees: "Pumping desalinated water to the West Bank is not the best technical or economic option."
...
But Palestinian water negotiators are deeply uneasy about the plans being drawn up on their behalf, especially if they involve abandoning claims to the water beneath their feet. "We cannot do that. We don't have the money or the expertise for desalination," Ihab Barghothi, head of water projects for the Palestinian Water Authority, told New Scientist.
Palestinians badly need more water. Under the Oslo agreement they have access to 57 cubic metres of water per person per year from all sources. Israel gets 246 cubic metres per head per year. And in the nearly 40 years that Israel has controlled the West Bank, Palestinians have been largely forbidden from drilling new wells or rehabilitating old ones.
...
Meanwhile, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip depend almost exclusively on small wells tapping the coastal aquifer. As the water table falls, the aquifer is becoming increasingly polluted by salt water from the sea. UN scientists say Gaza will have no drinkable water within 15 years. ...
...
But now it appears that Israeli water planners see desalination as a means of retaining control of those aquifers ...
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Iraqi neocon favourite Ahmed Chalabi dentified by the CIA and DIA as an Iranian double-agent: cosseted, promoted and paid $30M be neo-cons
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The Bush orthodoxy is in shreds: A series of investigations has shattered neocon self-belief | Sidney Blumenthal | Thursday May 27, 2004 | The Guardian
At a conservative thinktank in downtown Washington, and across the Potomac at the Pentagon, FBI agents have begun paying quiet calls on prominent neoconservatives, who are being interviewed in an investigation of potential espionage, according to intelligence sources. Who gave Ahmed Chalabi classified information about the plans of the US government and military?
The Iraqi neocon favourite, tipped to lead his liberated country post-invasion, has been identified by the CIA and Defence Intelligence Agency as an Iranian double-agent, passing secrets to that citadel of the "axis of evil" for decades. All the while the neocons cosseted, promoted and arranged for more than $30m in Pentagon payments to the George Washington manque of Iraq. In return, he fed them a steady diet of disinformation ...
The CIA and other US agencies had long ago decided that Chalabi was a charlatan, so their dismissive and correct analysis of his lies prompted their suppression by the Bush White House.
In place of the normal channels of intelligence vetting, a jerry-rigged system was hastily constructed, running from the office of the vice president to the newly created Office of Special Plans inside the Pentagon, staffed by fervent neocons. CIA director George Tenet, possessed with the survival instinct of the inveterate staffer, ceased protecting the sanctity of his agency and cast in his lot. Secretary of state Colin Powell, resistant internally but overcome, decided to become the most ardent champion, unveiling a series of neatly manufactured lies before the UN.
Last week, Powell declared "it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that I'm disappointed, and I regret it".
A former staff member of the Office of Special Plans and a currently serving defence official, two of those said to be questioned by the FBI, are considered witnesses, at least for now. Higher figures are under suspicion. Were they witting or unwitting?
...
Washington, just weeks ago in the grip of neoconservative orthodoxy, absolute belief in Bush's inevitability and righteousness, is in the throes of being ripped apart by investigations. Things fall apart: the military, loyal and lumbering, betrayed and embittered; the general in the field, General Sanchez, disgraced and cashiered; the intelligence agencies abused and angry, their retired operatives plying their craft with the press corps, seeping dangerous truths; the press, hesitating and wobbly, investigating its own falsehoods; the neocons, publicly redoubling defence of their hero and deceiver Chalabi, privately squabbling, anxiously awaiting the footsteps of FBI agents; Colin Powell, once the most acclaimed man in America, embarked on an endless quest to restore his reputation, damaged above all by his failure of nerve; everyone in the line of fire motioning toward the chain of command, spiralling upwards and sideways, until the finger pointing in a phalanx is directed at the hollow crown.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The Bush orthodoxy is in shreds: A series of investigations has shattered neocon self-belief | Sidney Blumenthal | Thursday May 27, 2004 | The Guardian
At a conservative thinktank in downtown Washington, and across the Potomac at the Pentagon, FBI agents have begun paying quiet calls on prominent neoconservatives, who are being interviewed in an investigation of potential espionage, according to intelligence sources. Who gave Ahmed Chalabi classified information about the plans of the US government and military?
The Iraqi neocon favourite, tipped to lead his liberated country post-invasion, has been identified by the CIA and Defence Intelligence Agency as an Iranian double-agent, passing secrets to that citadel of the "axis of evil" for decades. All the while the neocons cosseted, promoted and arranged for more than $30m in Pentagon payments to the George Washington manque of Iraq. In return, he fed them a steady diet of disinformation ...
The CIA and other US agencies had long ago decided that Chalabi was a charlatan, so their dismissive and correct analysis of his lies prompted their suppression by the Bush White House.
In place of the normal channels of intelligence vetting, a jerry-rigged system was hastily constructed, running from the office of the vice president to the newly created Office of Special Plans inside the Pentagon, staffed by fervent neocons. CIA director George Tenet, possessed with the survival instinct of the inveterate staffer, ceased protecting the sanctity of his agency and cast in his lot. Secretary of state Colin Powell, resistant internally but overcome, decided to become the most ardent champion, unveiling a series of neatly manufactured lies before the UN.
Last week, Powell declared "it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that I'm disappointed, and I regret it".
A former staff member of the Office of Special Plans and a currently serving defence official, two of those said to be questioned by the FBI, are considered witnesses, at least for now. Higher figures are under suspicion. Were they witting or unwitting?
...
Washington, just weeks ago in the grip of neoconservative orthodoxy, absolute belief in Bush's inevitability and righteousness, is in the throes of being ripped apart by investigations. Things fall apart: the military, loyal and lumbering, betrayed and embittered; the general in the field, General Sanchez, disgraced and cashiered; the intelligence agencies abused and angry, their retired operatives plying their craft with the press corps, seeping dangerous truths; the press, hesitating and wobbly, investigating its own falsehoods; the neocons, publicly redoubling defence of their hero and deceiver Chalabi, privately squabbling, anxiously awaiting the footsteps of FBI agents; Colin Powell, once the most acclaimed man in America, embarked on an endless quest to restore his reputation, damaged above all by his failure of nerve; everyone in the line of fire motioning toward the chain of command, spiralling upwards and sideways, until the finger pointing in a phalanx is directed at the hollow crown.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Israeli army admits it killed civilians: [still denying the extent of civilian dead]
News: "Dead were civilians, Israeli army admits | By Donald Macintyre | 25 May 2004
The Israeli army admitted last night for the first time that at least of the seven of the people killed in last Wednesday's demonstration here were unarmed civilians.
Brigadier-General Shmuel Zakai, commander of the Rafah 'Operation Rainbow', said in Tel Aviv that one of those killed in the protest had been identified as a 'terrorist' although military sources said later that they could not say whether he was armed at the time.
The running dispute between the army and human rights groups, who have been pressing for an independent inquiry into the deaths of the demonstrators, is complicated by the fact that the army say eight people were killed.
Officials at Rafah's main hospital have said 10 people were killed in a protest outside the Tel Sultan neighbourhood where an army siege was lifted yesterday.
But the new admission contradicts early claims by government sources that as many as five of those killed were armed militants. It came as General Zakai also said the whole operation had claimed the lives of 41 militants and 12 civilians. Palestinian human rights groups, who put the total at more than 60 over the past fortnight, claim that the proportion of civilians is significantly higher."
News: "Dead were civilians, Israeli army admits | By Donald Macintyre | 25 May 2004
The Israeli army admitted last night for the first time that at least of the seven of the people killed in last Wednesday's demonstration here were unarmed civilians.
Brigadier-General Shmuel Zakai, commander of the Rafah 'Operation Rainbow', said in Tel Aviv that one of those killed in the protest had been identified as a 'terrorist' although military sources said later that they could not say whether he was armed at the time.
The running dispute between the army and human rights groups, who have been pressing for an independent inquiry into the deaths of the demonstrators, is complicated by the fact that the army say eight people were killed.
Officials at Rafah's main hospital have said 10 people were killed in a protest outside the Tel Sultan neighbourhood where an army siege was lifted yesterday.
But the new admission contradicts early claims by government sources that as many as five of those killed were armed militants. It came as General Zakai also said the whole operation had claimed the lives of 41 militants and 12 civilians. Palestinian human rights groups, who put the total at more than 60 over the past fortnight, claim that the proportion of civilians is significantly higher."
Lantos slams Egypt, Arafat / Egypt and the Palestinians shared responsibility for the attack [... let's blame the 12+ child victims for killigs!]
Lantos slams Egypt, Arafat / Congressman calls PLO leader 'poison': "Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Jerusalem -- Rep. Tom Lantos accused Egypt and the Palestinians Monday of responsibility for Israel's invasion of the southern Gaza Strip and denounced Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as 'poison' and 'a pest' who should 'fade into oblivion.'
Lantos, the ranking Democratic member of the House International Relations Committee, sharply criticized the U.N. agency responsible for Palestinian refugees for "shielding terrorists" and corruption, and said an investigation was "long overdue."
He also said he was "a very strong supporter'' of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, despite the plan's rejection earlier this month by members of Sharon's Likud Party.
Lantos said the loss of every life in Gaza over the past week was "a tragedy" but said Egypt and the Palestinians shared responsibility for the attack. ...
...
The San Mateo congressman, a Holocaust survivor who came to the United States in 1947, said he and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt were the same age, had met many times and knew each other "very well" -- saying they even share hair care advice -- but he slammed Mubarak for failing to prevent the smuggling of illegal weapons from Egypt into the Gaza Strip via tunnels dug from the Gaza town and refugee camp of Rafah. ...
Lantos slams Egypt, Arafat / Congressman calls PLO leader 'poison': "Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Jerusalem -- Rep. Tom Lantos accused Egypt and the Palestinians Monday of responsibility for Israel's invasion of the southern Gaza Strip and denounced Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as 'poison' and 'a pest' who should 'fade into oblivion.'
Lantos, the ranking Democratic member of the House International Relations Committee, sharply criticized the U.N. agency responsible for Palestinian refugees for "shielding terrorists" and corruption, and said an investigation was "long overdue."
He also said he was "a very strong supporter'' of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, despite the plan's rejection earlier this month by members of Sharon's Likud Party.
Lantos said the loss of every life in Gaza over the past week was "a tragedy" but said Egypt and the Palestinians shared responsibility for the attack. ...
...
The San Mateo congressman, a Holocaust survivor who came to the United States in 1947, said he and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt were the same age, had met many times and knew each other "very well" -- saying they even share hair care advice -- but he slammed Mubarak for failing to prevent the smuggling of illegal weapons from Egypt into the Gaza Strip via tunnels dug from the Gaza town and refugee camp of Rafah. ...
Israel's Gaza raids 'left 2,000 homeless' in 1 month, 575 in one week
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Gaza raids 'left 2,000 homeless': "25 May, 2004
Israel's operation in Gaza was criticised internationally, even by Washington
The UN says nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been made homeless this month by Israeli house demolitions in Gaza.
May has been one of the worst months in last three years, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees said, with 575 people made homeless in the last week. "
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Gaza raids 'left 2,000 homeless': "25 May, 2004
Israel's operation in Gaza was criticised internationally, even by Washington
The UN says nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been made homeless this month by Israeli house demolitions in Gaza.
May has been one of the worst months in last three years, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees said, with 575 people made homeless in the last week. "
Weeklong offensive: 45 Palestinians dead, few tunnels or weapons found, $7million in damage, hundreds homeless
Yahoo! News - Israeli Army Criticized for Gaza Action: "Tue May 25, 4:24 PM ET | By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - The Israeli government and army faced growing criticism Tuesday after a weeklong offensive in a Gaza refugee camp that netted few arms-smuggling tunnels or weapons caches, but killed 45 Palestinians, destroyed dozens of homes and earned Israel an international rebuke.
Israeli troops pulled out of the Rafah refugee camp late Monday, without completing a sweep for tunnels used by militants to smuggle weapons across the Egyptian border. The army said it uncovered three tunnels and detained 10 wanted men for questioning.
...
Israeli tanks and bulldozers left behind piles of rubble, pitted streets and dozens of demolished or damaged buildings. A local official estimated troops caused about $7 million in damage to infrastructure in Rafah, including the electricity grid and water and sewage pipes.
Israel launched the Rafah offensive after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza this month. But the high number of casualties and scenes of displaced Palestinians picking through the rubble of their homes sparked fierce international criticism. ...
Yahoo! News - Israeli Army Criticized for Gaza Action: "Tue May 25, 4:24 PM ET | By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - The Israeli government and army faced growing criticism Tuesday after a weeklong offensive in a Gaza refugee camp that netted few arms-smuggling tunnels or weapons caches, but killed 45 Palestinians, destroyed dozens of homes and earned Israel an international rebuke.
Israeli troops pulled out of the Rafah refugee camp late Monday, without completing a sweep for tunnels used by militants to smuggle weapons across the Egyptian border. The army said it uncovered three tunnels and detained 10 wanted men for questioning.
...
Israeli tanks and bulldozers left behind piles of rubble, pitted streets and dozens of demolished or damaged buildings. A local official estimated troops caused about $7 million in damage to infrastructure in Rafah, including the electricity grid and water and sewage pipes.
Israel launched the Rafah offensive after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza this month. But the high number of casualties and scenes of displaced Palestinians picking through the rubble of their homes sparked fierce international criticism. ...
Monday, May 17, 2004
Home destroyed by armored bulldozer, moves, 16 months later, second home is demolished by advancing bulldozers
Community Razed Along With Its Homes in Gaza (washingtonpost.com): "Palestinian Camp Is in Crossfire Between Gunmen, Israeli Army | By Molly Moore | Washington Post Foreign Service | Sunday, May 16, 2004; Page A19
RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- Azizah Abu Anzah was watching an Arab soap opera on television when a 56-ton armored bulldozer ate its way to her house in this Palestinian refugee camp on the Gaza Strip's southern edge
...
She and her husband, Musa, moved their family deeper into the refugee camp -- farther from the encroaching bulldozers, spasms of gunfire and thunderous tank rounds. But the bulldozers kept coming, flattening the neighborhood, house by house. Last week, 16 months after their first house was demolished, the Abu Anzahs' second home was demolished by Israeli forces during a new outbreak of battles between the Israeli military and Palestinian fighters.
Community Razed Along With Its Homes in Gaza (washingtonpost.com): "Palestinian Camp Is in Crossfire Between Gunmen, Israeli Army | By Molly Moore | Washington Post Foreign Service | Sunday, May 16, 2004; Page A19
RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- Azizah Abu Anzah was watching an Arab soap opera on television when a 56-ton armored bulldozer ate its way to her house in this Palestinian refugee camp on the Gaza Strip's southern edge
...
She and her husband, Musa, moved their family deeper into the refugee camp -- farther from the encroaching bulldozers, spasms of gunfire and thunderous tank rounds. But the bulldozers kept coming, flattening the neighborhood, house by house. Last week, 16 months after their first house was demolished, the Abu Anzahs' second home was demolished by Israeli forces during a new outbreak of battles between the Israeli military and Palestinian fighters.
