"Thought Control for Middle East Studies"

Joel Beinin, CommonDreams.org

A band of neoconservative pundits with close ties to
Israel have mounted a campaign against American
scholars who study the Middle East. Martin Kramer, an
Israeli-American and former director of the Dayan
Center for Middle East Studies at Tel-Aviv University,
has led the way in blaming these scholars for failing
to warn the American public about the dangers of
radical Islam, claiming they bear some of the
responsibility for what befell us on September 11. In
2003, proponents of this position took their complaints
to Congress. The Senate is expected to review them
soon, as it discusses the Higher Education
Reauthorization bill.

Simon Wiesenthal Centre Testifies in Paris Libel Suit Against Norman Finkelstein

From Wiesenthal Center Los Angeles 

Paris, 26 March 2004 

Norman Finkelstein, the American author of The Holocaust Industry, and his publisher, are being sued under French law against libel. The French edition (based on the English-language original) is considered actionable and replete with Holocaust revisionism and incitement to antisemitism.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Liaison, Dr. Shimon Samuels, who three years ago publicly debated Finkelstein when the book was first published in London, presented the following testimony for today's Paris hearing:

"The Holocaust Industry presents a great danger. Mr. Finkelstein's thesis is an extremist attack on Jews in general, and American Jews in particular, accusing them of exploiting the suffering of the Shoah as 'a pretext for their crimes in the context of the Middle-East conflict. This thesis, so close to that of Roger Garaudy [a condemned French Holocaust denier and anti-Jewish hate-monger] today constitutes the principal credo of modern antisemitism. With particularly acute intellectual perversity, Finkelstein exploits his own Jewish antecedents in order to attack, as 'racist,' specific Jewish leaders, their organizations and the Jewish people.

I am convinced that, as in the aforementioned Garaudy trial, only a judicial penalty will contain the damage wreaked by this particularly offensive libel." 

"die jüdische" 25.03.2004 20:17 
http://www.juedische.at/TCgi/TCgi.cgi?target=home& Param_Kat=15&Param_RB=&Param_Red=1956

mobiustrip44 writes
When Jews cry wolf
Students at York University in Toronto are claiming victimhood and calling their recent suspension "the new Concordia." The truth is they're crying wolf, and they're not alone.

by Daniel Sieradski March 26, 2004

Toronto's York University has suspended their campus Hillel and a pro-Palestinian activist group after an altercation last week in which more than 100 Jewish students verbally and physically confronted a group of 25 activists who were partaking in an act of guerilla theatre depicting an Israeli military checkpoint.

Ronald B. McGuitre writes:

The great Puerto Rican activist, Richie Perez died
yesterday in Sloan Kettering hospital in New York City. My tears
tonight are not for Richie, but for the poor
Youngbloods who never knew him, who never heard his
wisdom, never saw his courage on the streets or felt
his compassion, or basked in his brilliance. The poor
Youngbloods who never invited Richie to enough CUNY
teach-ins to teach them their history and tell them
his vision. Richie Perez, a founder of the Young
Lords, organizer for the 1969 Open Admissions strike,
scourge of the drug lords, protector of the South
Bronx, enemy of every racist cop who ever profiled a
Black, Latino or Asian youth.

Richie Perez was the Che
Guevera of New York City rising up from the ghetto
streets with a boundless love for the Youngbloods,
who experienced the oppression of every disrespected
soul from Puerto Rico to Palestine like they was his
personal fam.

He was a revolutionary.

Richie Perez is dead.

But Richie Perez lived before he died and he lived
every moment as a revolutionary. He never punked out
of a fight or forgot a friend.

Richie was for real, he walked the whole walk and even
metastatic cancer couldn't quench his love of life or
his belief in the Youngbloods he leaves behind at
CUNY, in the prisons, in the 'hoods and on the island.

If I can only meet my end with one tenth the courage
and dignity of Richie, then count me a hero. Visitors
came away from his deathbed crying because Richie was
cheering them up, In his last days he was scheming
about organizing against the coup in Haiti and the war
in Iraq, and worrying about Bush getting re-elected
and networking people.

Folks will be paying last respects to Richie and
giving condolences to his family at the Campbell
Funeral Home at 1076 Madison Avenue at 81st street on
Monday March 29th from 2-5 PM and 7-9 PM. There will
also be viewing hours on Tuesday, March 30th. For more
information call the funeral home at 212-288-3570 or a
hotline set up by Richie's comrades at 347-245-0266.

Hasta La Victoria Siempre!

Que Viva Richie Perez!

Big Brother Watching:

The Predictions of Orwell

Rolando Perez Betancourt, Granma Diario, May 28, 2003

Without ceremony from those who, during the Cold War,
exalted him as if he were a god of letters, Englishman
George Orwell reaches his 100th birthday. Orwell was the
great critic of the Soviet State and of fascism, and his
sublime obsession was to transform political literature
into art.

"The al-Zawahiri Fiasco"

Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, March 23, 2004

It featured all the trappings of a glorified video
game. Thousands of Pakistani army and paramilitary
troops played the hammer. Hundreds of US troops and
Special Forces, plus the elite commando 121, were ready
to play the anvil across the border in Afghanistan.
What was supposed to be smashed in between was "high-
value target" Ayman al-Zawahiri, as Pakistani President
General Pervez Musharraf enthusiastically bragged --
with no hard evidence -- to an eager CNN last Thursday.
But what happened to this gigantic piece of psy-ops?
Nothing. And for a very simple reason: al-Qaeda's brain
and Osama bin Laden's deputy was never there in the
first place.

"New Hamas Chief Backs Off Threats Against U.S."

Reuters News Service

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas has no plans to attack American targets, the
group's new leader in Gaza said today, backing off earlier threats against
Washington following Israel's assassination of its founder. Abdel Aziz
Rantisi told reporters in Gaza that his group's militant activities are
aimed solely at Israel. "We are inside Palestinian land and acting only
inside Palestinian land. We are resisting the occupation, nothing else,"
Rantisi said. "Our resistance will continue just inside our border here
inside our country."

"Is Truth Enough?

The Bush Administration's Lies and the Anti-War Movement's Truths"

George Caffentzis

[A transcription of a talk given to the "Truth and Consequences" Anti-War Forum at the
University of Maine, Augusta, Maine, on March 20, 2004.]

1. Polls and Truth

I was preparing an up-date on the developments in the oil industry in Iraq since the US invasion last year when I noticed on the front page of the March 17, 2004 Portland Press Herald a graph showing the results of a poll taken in eight countries concerning the motives of the Bush Administration in launching the war on terrorism (which it elides with its invasion and occupation of Iraq).

It was very disconcerting and has forced me to think again about politics and truth. Along with a little summary up-date of the situation of Iraqi oil industry one year into the occupation then, I want to look more carefully at the consequences of the truth for our political work.

Israel Kills Hamas' Sheikh Ahmad Yasin

Reuters

Israeli helicopter gunships have fired missiles at Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as he left a mosque before dawn, killing the Hamas leader and at least three other people.

A Reuters reporter who rushed to the scene on Monday after hearing three loud explosions found the blown-up remains of Yassin's blood-soaked wheelchair.

"Pilger Claims Proof of WMD Lies"

Paul Mulvey, News.com Australia

Australian investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie that could cost George W. Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.

A television report by Pilger aired on British screens overnight said US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice confirmed in early 2001 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat.