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Nonviolence * US/Sharon * Israeli Reservists * Powell: Iraq Attack * 9/11 Fiasco

09 May 2002


1) A Nonviolent Strategy by Mubarak Awad
2) Sharon Thanks the Americans for Scuttling Jenin Investigations
3) The US Congress Not Stopping the Cycle of Violence
4) Rebel reservists tell why they refuse to go to the territories
5) US wants to oust Saddam even if he makes concessions
6) Conspiracy could have been discovered before 9/11


This issue of Flyby News returns to the critical situation in the Mid East and in the policies of the US that need to listen about how to stop the cycle of violence. At the end of the 1980's, Israel expelled Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian Christian psychologist who organized a nonviolent resistance movement against the occupation of Palestinian lands. But the Israelis have not expelled Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, who vows continued suicide attacks. When one realizes that non violence is more of a threat to the Israeli agenda than suicide bombers, their agenda becomes increasingly transparent. This is a story that should be explored but seems to have been overlooked. Thank you Dianne who brought this to our attention and forwarded us the articles in item 1 about a nonviolent strategy. Both Israeli analysts and Palestinian spokesmen agree military action alone won't stop suicide bombers.

Item 2 is a Guardian article about Sharon putting US officials on the spot by publicly announcing, or strongly hinting and praising Americans, for their help in scuttling UN investigations on the Israeli military actions in Jenin. Item 3 lists those few courageous enough in the US Congress not to give Israel the green light for their military incursions into the West Bank. That the majority of Congress voted for brutality as a policy for peace and security is not surprising. No wonder so few have joined in support of H.R. 3616 to stop the dangerous arms race, or have spoken in support of the Saudi Peace Plan. This is not the government of the people, but an agenda of deceit and ill will

Item 4 is on the courage of Israel's finest. 436 Israeli reserve officers and men, who have announced their intention to refuse to serve in the territories occupied by the Palestinian people. A poll in yesterday's Ma'ariv newspaper indicated that most Israelis were not so far removed from the reservists' thinking: 52 per cent supported a regional conference based on the principles of Saudi Arabia's peace proposal - full withdrawal from the territories in exchange for peace with all the Arab states.

Item 5 is simply scary, last Sunday, on the day that God rests, US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said that the US plans to oust Saddam even if he makes concessions for new weapons inspections. And if you missed last Wednesday's Sixty-Minutes 2, make sure you check out the transcript link from item 6. This shows more evidences that the September 11 conspiracy could have been discovered before the attack. Also, following this is a link to Online Journal's coverage on the smear tactics used against Representative Cynthia McKinney. She is one strong voice for real investigations on the truth surrounding what the US and Bush administration knew (and/or tried not to know) prior to the 9/11 attacks.

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"Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. Destruction is not the law of the humans. Man lives freely by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause is a crime against humanity."

— Mahatma Gandhi

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1) A Nonviolent Strategy by Mubarak Awad

To Win, Palestinians Must Adopt a Nonviolent Strategy by Mubarak Awad

The Palestinians need to pursue a conscious, organized strategy of nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Violence, fiery speeches and threats of war against Israel are counterproductive. Instead, Palestinians should organize massive peaceful marches to demand an end to Israeli settlements and occupation, which are violations of morality and international law.

Such a strategy must involve Palestinians, the Arab world, the international community and committed Israelis. It must be grounded in broad public discussions involving unions, students, civil-society institutions and the local media.

The role of the Arab and Muslim worlds is crucial. Nonviolent resistance in the form of boycotts, protests and diplomatic pressure must be applied to translate the support of the various Arab populations into pressure on Israel.

The international community should focus on ending the Israeli settlements and occupation. Every opportunity should be taken to frame the question in moral and legal terms and to challenge Israel's war crimes. We must insist that the United Nations take action on these issues, regardless of U.S. opinion.

Boycotts of Israeli products should be linked to specific individuals or policies hurting Palestinians.

The Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims should view acceptance of Israelis as an acceptance of the humanity of other people who were born in the land and have a right to stay.

As a consequence of this new way of thinking, Arabs and Palestinians would accept the economic need for open borders between Palestine, Israel and the Arab world. Jews would be accepted as a minority in the Middle East and would not have to rely on the protection of the United States and Europe. Instead, they would be protected by a regional security arrangement such as the one put forth in the recent Saudi initiative.

This proposal has the potential of becoming a solid building block.

How can Israelis born in Israel, who possess the right to live there as citizens, coexist with the neighboring Arab and Islamic communities, especially the Palestinians, with equality and dignity for all?

The answer does not consist of believing in Israeli superiority or the power of military might. Salvation lies in Israel's relationship with the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim community. Israel has no future as a colonizing power without being seen as an apartheid state. Whites in South Africa, despite their power, were not able to enforce their rule forever. The sooner Israel reaches this conclusion, the sooner we will see an end to this conflict, which has taken a devastating toll on Palestinians and Israelis.


It is important for Palestinians to focus on nonviolent struggle. Many Israelis, who truly yearn for a just peace, can be enlisted in this nonviolent struggle against occupation and settlements, whereas there is almost no chance of enlisting them in any armed Palestinian activity. Palestinians will choose nonviolence only if they are convinced of its efficacy.

The Israelis know well how to fight an armed antagonist, yet they have little understanding of how to deal with massive nonviolent resistance. They expect and, in fact, need for Palestinians to be either submissive or violent.

A nonviolent approach would neutralize much of Israel's military might and disrupt its actions. We need to embark on this course now.


Mubarak Awad is founder and director of Nonviolence International, a nonprofit organization that helps those seeking nonviolent means to achieve their social and political goals.

Copyright 2002 Miami Herald

Published on Friday, April 12, 2002 in the Christian Science Monitor
also posted http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0412-06.htm

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Related Interview: Nonviolence in the Middle East:
A Talk with Mubarak Awad

Mubarak Awad is a Palestinian Christian psychologist who organized a nonviolent resistance movement against the occupation of Palestinian lands at the end of the 1980s. Israel expelled him to the United States, where his organization is known as Nonviolence International. Meir Amor, an Israeli peace activist living in Canada, interviewed him.

http://www.peacemagazine.org/0010/awad.htm

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2) Sharon Thanks the Americans for Scuttling Jenin Investigations

Sharon puts Washington on the spot Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian
May 08 2002


The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, went out of his way to embarrass the divided US administration yesterday, openly thanking the Americans for scuttling the proposed UN investigation of Palestinian deaths in the West Bank town of Jenin.

His remarks were made only hours before he met George Bush in the White House. There are sharp differences between Israel and the US about the role of Yasser Arafat and Saudi Arabia in future peace negotiations. The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, played an important part in setting up the Jenin mission, in response to Palestinian claims of a massacre. It collapsed last month, because of Israeli opposition, before it even reached the West Bank.

Addressing the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish American pressure group, Mr Sharon hinted heavily that the Bush administration had ultimately helped block the inquiry. "No nation in the world has the right to bring Israel to court," he said. "I would like to thank the American administration and its leadership that helped us, understood us, and supported us to get out of this trap."

The speech put the administration in an awkward situation by suggesting that the US had acted privately to thwart a mission it supported in public. Denying Mr Sharon's claim would anger the fervently pro-Israel Congress, which is currently debating whether to increase the annual $2.8bn (£1.9bn) subsidy to Israel. There was no immediate US response to Mr Sharon's comments yesterday, but a diplomat watching the speech said that state department officials present turned "dour" when they heard them.

UN officials said the US had initially proposed a fact-finding mission principally as a means of heading off a security council resolution establishing a full investigative commission. But as opposition in the Israeli defence force became clear and the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, dropped his initial support, the US envoy to the UN, John Negroponte, distanced himself from the idea.

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, was left "holding the baby", a UN official said. "He read the writing on the wall and pulled the plug." Another diplomat at the UN headquarters in New York agreed. "I don't think the US were out to get Sharon off the hook, but once it was clear he was not going to accept the mission, they may have tried to use it to get a package out of him."

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The complete story is posted at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4409055,00.html

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3) The US Congress Not Stopping the Cycle of Violence

In case you missed it here is the list of senators and representatives who voted against the resolutions endorsing the Israeli military action in the West Bank. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous acts by the Israeli Defense Forces which, in their opinion, constitute war crimes. They include the use of human shields, the destruction of houses with civilians inside, the prevention of adequate medical care to wounded civilians who are allowed to die in the streets, and gratuitous attacks on civilians (including children) and civilian infrastructure that cannot be justified by military necessity.

If you can't find your representatives on this list that voted against supporting such military incursions against the Palestinian people and humanity, contact them and ask why they are supporting such policies that only continue the cycle of violence and threatens everyone.


Senators voting no. Byrd, Dem, W. Va, Hollings, Dem. S.C.

Senators not voting:

Bennett, Rep. Utah; Bunning, Rep., Ky.;
Helms, Rep. N.C.; Torricelli, Dem, NJ.

House of Representatives, Voting No.

Democrats: Abercrombie, Hawaii; Bonior, Mich; Boucher, Va.; Condit, Calif.; Conyers, Mich.; DeFazio, Ore.; Dingell, Mich.; Hilliard, Ala.; Inslee, Wash.; Jackson, Ill.; Kleczka, Wisc.; Lee, Calif.; McKinney, Ga.; Miller, Calif.; Obey, Wisc.; Rahall, W. Va.; Stark, Calif.

Republicans: Paul, Tex.; Petri, Wisc.; Rohrabacher, Calif.; Nick Smith, Mich.

Please consider calling and thanking these above Senators and Representatives who voted against the resolution in support of Israeli military policies that can only continue the cycle of violence and suffering in the Mid East. And if you can't find your elected representatives on this list, please call and ask them why they support policies that makes the situation worse. Not seeing Dennis Kucinich's name on the list, we called and discovered that he (and perhaps others) voted "present" which is registered neither as a "yes" or a "no" vote.

"It is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners."
- Albert Camus

The Congressional Switchboard telephone number is 202-224-3121
Additional Congressional Contact Information:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html

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4) Rebel reservists tell why they refuse to go to the territories

Rebel reservists tell why they refuse to go to the territories 'WE
NEED TO STRENGTHEN IMAGE OF OUR SOCIETY'

Financial Times; Apr 27, 2002

By HARVEY MORRIS

Reserve staff sergeant Amit Mashiah is a self-proclaimed patriot and committed Zionist who is proud of what he calls one of the most moral armies in the world. That, he says, is why he is prepared to court accusations of treachery and cowardice by publicly refusing to serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip.

Mr Mashiah is one of 436 Israeli reserve officers and men who have announced their intention to refuse to serve in the territories, an almost tenfold increase since the movement was launched three months ago.

"We believe it works against Israel society to maintain the occupation and that we have to push to end it," says Mr Mashiah.

On the eve of the planned arrival of a UN fact-finding mission into events at the Jenin refugee camp, the rebel reservists have decided to break a self-imposed silence towards the outside world by talking for the first time to the foreign press.

"We didn't want to be a stick with which to beat Israel," says Mr. Mashiah. "But now we really need to strengthen the image of Israeli society."

The last month has been a difficult time for the reservists' movement. Israeli passions were inflamed by a series of devastating Palestinian suicide bomb attacks and by the war that followed in the West Bank.

A majority appeared to accept the argument of Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, that the invasion of the West Bank was part of a war to safeguard the existence of Israel.

The reservists' movement has turned that argument on its head.

"If Israeli society, more than any other society in the world, abandons its core values, it won't be able to continue," Mr Mashiah says. "That's why we feel the country has left us no option but to refuse to serve in the occupied territories. As patriots we won't do it."

Mr Mashiah, who has served in the artillery in Lebanon and the occupied territories, says the army sets great store by morality in its training. It is the occupation that is immoral.

The 30-year-old former advertising man, who now works full-time as the reservists' spokesman, says: "The situation of an army in a populated area is an impossible reality."

He plans to reject his next reserve call-up papers in May, if it means service in the territories, and join 42 reservists already serving 28- day jail sentences.

The rebels firmly refuse to engage in politics - Mr. Mashiah says most are centrists and some even voted for Mr Sharon. "We go into the army, we fight, we go to university, we work, we pay taxes. But we can't sit aside and do nothing any more."

However, with feelings in Israel so raw, it looks like being an uphill struggle. In a mounting mood of intolerance in Israel, Limor Livnat, the education minister, this week raised the prospect of indicting Hebrew University lecturers who supported the rebel reservists.

An opinion poll published yesterday indicated 58 per cent of Israelis believe that journalists who criticise the army's role or government policy in the territories are damaging national security.

But, yesterday's poll in the Ma'ariv newspaper also indicated that most Israelis were not so far removed from the reservists' thinking 52 per cent supported a regional conference based on the principles of Saudi Arabia's peace proposal - full withdrawal from the territories in exchange for peace with all the Arab states.

http://www.ft.com/mideastcrisis

Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002

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5) US wants to oust Saddam even if he makes concessions

US wants to oust Saddam even if he makes concessions
Brian Whitaker and agencies
Sunday May 05 2002
The Observer

The US may try to remove Saddam Hussein from power even if he agrees to new weapons inspections, the secretary of state, Colin Powell, said yesterday.

For this article, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4408022,00.html

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6) Conspiracy could have been discovered before 9/11

New information suggests a key to the Sep. 11 conspiracy could have been discovered before the
attack - if it hadn't been for what appears to be a communication breakdown between the FBI and the French intelligence.

This report was aired on Sixty-Minutes 2 on 08 May 2002
Scott Pelley of Sixty-Minutes 2, reports in this following link:
Could It Have Been Stopped?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/08/60II/main508362.shtml

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Related Article:

A case history in the culture of lies: The Washington Post
By Charles Utwater II
Online Journal Contributing Writer
The Strange Case of Cynthia McKinney

May 6, 2002—Actually, it wasn't strange. It was standard smear politics. Take what someone says, stretch it into what she didn't say and then ridicule her for it. The only thing that's strange is that McKinney hasn't gone down to punch Post editor Len Downie a few feet below the nose.

This article is posted at:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Media/Utwater050602/utwater050602.html

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