A German MP makes the absurd claim that Jews today bear responsibility for the war excesses of Jewish Bolsheviks almost a hundred years ago, and the commander of German Special Forces publicly agrees. An opinion poll suggests that 60% of Europeans think Israel is a threat to world peace. But whilst there is little doubt that some parts of European societies are again seeing a rise in anti-Semitic activity, a more than cursory glance at the issue reveals that sentiment amongst the masses is of a totally different kind to that which preceded the Holocaust.

Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories passed through a profound transformation during the last several months, as the West Bank “security fence” gradually revealed itself to be the backbone of a comprehensive new system of land theft, imprisonment, collective punishment? and worse. The question is not whether it is a “political fence” or a “security fence,” but whether it is an engine of ethnic cleansing.

Includes link at the bottom to the latest and most comprehensive map of the apartheid wall

What happened in Georgia last weekend was no spontaneous popular uprising by a disaffected, furious populace rebelling against a tyrant but rather, a campaign orchestrated from abroad to place a pro-west, pro-NATO sycophant on the throne in Tbilisi.

The raid by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi officials on an Arab television network bureau in Baghdad and the ban on its broadcasts hardly fits my idea of how to spread democracy in the Middle East. Isn’t that the first thing dictators do—shut down broadcast outlets and newspapers? For those in power, tolerating a free press is difficult, even in a democracy. As a foreign occupier in Iraq, we are proving that it is intolerable.

USA military base in Baghdad. Intelligence analysts around the world are studying the videotapes. “It certainly looked and sounded like him, but we get so few glimpses at Bush in real-life situations that it is hard to tell,” said one operative from a Western intelligence agency. People who know Bush said it appeared to him. “That’s him, all right,” said one long-time associate.

Contrary to White House, Pentagon and corporate media propaganda, Iraq today is an amalgam of Saddam loyalists, a few foreign fighters and an ever-growing number of ordinary civilians joining those which Bush calls “terrorists”, but who in reality are nationalists and insurgents fighting a resistance against our Iraqifation. To Iraqis and the rest of the world, they would be called “freedom fighters,” much like the ones clandestinely trained, supplied and supported by the United States in their resistance against the Soviets in 1980?s Afghanistan.

As the pressure mounts on the occupiers of Iraq, Bush administration is faced with two alternatives. The first is to transfer power to an interim Iraqi government. This would allow USA troops to re-deploy in fortified positions away from the cities, reducing the risk of attack. The second alternative would be to manipulate circumstances in such a way as to precipitate a conflict with Iran or Syria, and then rely on the American people standing behind their president in such a crisis. The White House, for the time being at least, appears to have opted for the first alternative. We should not, however, discount a switch to the second.

Why do we allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everyone on the planet? To put it bluntly, the problem is a lack of political will. Most hungry people live in rural areas of the developing world, far from the centres of power. They are forgotten by the media in developed countries.

At present we are not meant to know what is happening at Guantanamo Bay. But history will not be neutered. What takes place there today in the name of the United States will assuredly, in due course, be judged at the bar of informed international opinion. As a lawyer brought up to admire the ideals of American democracy and justice, I would have to say that I regard this as a monstrous failure of justice.

Eduard Shevardnadze told reporters that he believes that USA diplomatic staff were involved in the campaign of opposition that unseated him from power on Sunday. He said he couldn?t understand why he had been abandoned, after giving Washington full support in foreign policy, including on Iraq. Someone should have told him, his office was too close to the Caspian basin.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and is usually an occasion for celebration and inward contemplation. This year, with the Muslim world under occupation of one sort or another by the ground troops of secular capitalism, with Muslims in the west suffering increased levels of discrimination, abuse, and attacks by racist thugs, and with the holy places in Palestine off limits to most Muslims, it is more likely to be contemplation than celebration that occupies the thoughts of Muslims this time around, and this in a different way than usual. Here, Mike Odetalla of the Philadelphia Inquirer gives us his thoughts and recollections.

The future was being modelled on both sides of the massive steel fence erected around the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami last Thursday. Inside, delegates from every nation in the western hemisphere but Cuba watered down some portions of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement and postponed deciding on others in an attempt to prevent a failure as stark as that of the World Trade Organization ministerial in Cancun two months before. Outside, an army of 2,500 police in full armour used a broad arsenal of weapons against thousands of demonstrators and their constitutional rights.

Right-wing Israeli lexicographers have been doing dome revisions lately to the words, ‘Semite’ and ‘anti-Semitic’. Apparently a crack is created in the definition of anti-Semitism large enough to conveniently include two more groups of people: the first any Palestinians who oppose the illegal occupation of their land; the sencond group are those who have the moral courage to point out the atrocities committed by the Israeli Government in carrying out the occupation.

There is little doubt that Iran and Syria are numbers Two and Three after Iraq, though perhaps not necessarily in that order, on the Bush neo-Cons “hit list” of “rogue states” identified for regime change in the near future. The only unknown is the manner in which the administration will accomplish policy that is undoubtedly, in diplomatic speak, ‘on the table ‘.

I believe that there was a moral case for deposing Saddam by violent means. I also believe that there was a moral case for not doing so, and that this case was the stronger. But the key point, overlooked by all those who have made the moral case for war, is this: that a moral case is not the same as a moral reason. Whatever the argument for toppling Saddam on humanitarian grounds may have been, this is not why Bush and Blair went to war.

Oh, man, you wouldn’t believe what those antiwar “extremists” are up to! According to our intrepid G-men: “Protesters have sometimes used ‘training camps’ to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money and gas masks to defend against tear gas.”

There was a time after September 11th 2001 when the word terrorist meant something really bad. The term has lost its solemnity right after the Israeli government had opportunistically borrowed it and used it to describe any Palestinian child who threw a stone at an Israeli bulldozer that had just illegally demolished his house.

Seven months into the illegal occupation of Iraq, and despite the overwhelming force in numbers, training, and equipment, there is no sign of an end to the resistance activities of Iraqi partisans. The question begs to be answered: How? How are people without the vast amounts of money, weapons and training enjoyed by American forces succeeding in killing and wounding so many of our soldiers?

It’s the price of joining George Bush’s “war on terror”. Al-Qa’ida was quite specific. The Saudis would pay. The Australians would pay. The Italians would pay. The British would pay. They have. Canada is still on the list. Until, I suppose, it is our turn again.

The USA President?s visit to Britain has attracted considerable attention, criticism and debate. The first state visit by a USA President since Woodrow Wilson in 1918 has attracted tens of thousands to the streets, significant column inches in newspapers and passionate views on both sides. However in the whole hullabaloo surrounding the visit and the accompanying circus, a number of important points have been missed.

We in the Arab world all learned to dream of democracy, even without making its acquaintance, even without knowing what it could do for us, but somehow, democracy never found us. Then its messengers started telling a different story. We now know that a new era is starting, an era of post-democracy, an era in which democracy is having a facelift, its norms being tailored to special needs, its laws revised.

No links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, no weapons of mass destruction, and now no question that the invasion of Iraq has led to a massive increase in the threat of terrorism, as the series of bombings across Iraq, in Riyadh, Casablanca, Jakarta, and Istanbul have made horrifically clear.

David Kelly, giving evidence to the prime minister’s intelligence and security committee in closed session on July 16 - the day before his suicide - made a comment the significance of which has so far been missed. He said: “Within the defence intelligence services I liaise with the Rockingham cell.” Unfortunately nobody on the committee followed up this lead, which is a pity because the Rockingham reference may turn out to be very important indeed.

Following the bombing last week of the synagogues in Istanbul, the leaders of the Zionist state arrogantly proclaim that such events make it necessary for Jews to leave their native countries and move to the most dangerous place on Earth for the Jewish People ? the State of Israel.

President Bush’s recent speech, setting an agenda for democratisation of the Middle East, is still causing reverberations around the region.  After all, it features a momentous missionary call. With this in mind, this article takes as its starting point, the question of whether President Bush ever finds time to read some of the major books analyzing the course of empires throughout history.

The public disarray of the occupation and ‘rebuilding’ of Iraq has forced the Bush administration into a turning point, but no one should think that the new strategy will involve a precipitate withdrawal, or the early installation of self-determination. All indications are that the White House and Pentagon are preparing an onslaught of military violence, and levels of barbarism not seen since the Vietnam war.

Seven months after Baghdad fell to USA troops, Washington is unveiling a crisis strategy that attempts to consolidate its plans for a USA-friendly regime in Iraq. And as the occupying power begins using massive firepower aimed at intimidating Iraqi resistance, there are ominous indications that this “job” will be prosecuted through a resumption of the war against the Iraqi people.

As President Bush arrives in London amid unprecedented security, the politicisation of policing across Europe has never been clearer. This is a lesson Simon Chapman, a young British man detained on charges of carrying petrol bombs during anti-EU summit protests in Salonika in June, has learned to his cost.

If USA President Bush’s visit to London provides the motivation for massive demonstrations in opposition to his presence, it would be a mistake the visit monopolised their message. If the leader who is coming is a problem, the leader who invited him is no less so. As the man who led the charge to war Bush, is a worthy target of our ire. As the man who followed him, and in so doing, lent the war what little legitimacy it ever had, Blair is even more so.

Have you ever heard people say that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. This article explodes that myth, as it explores the matrix of control used by Israel since its inception to control its Arab citizens, and it warns that a similar fate awaits the people of a Palestinian state emasculated behind the newly built apartheid wall.

The USA would like its enemies to put down their guns and trust in the good old American spirit of justice and freedom. If they would just submit to the USA?s illegal occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq everything would be alright. This may sound sensible to an American tucked away behind his enormous television set, watching other Americans make war with an increasing number of enemies as if it were a video game, cheering on cue for the president.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush’s entourage this week. In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush’s protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.

From all over Europe and beyond they came, idealists, activists, dreamers and revolutionaries, but their sights were set on events in the Middle East. The streets of Paris were brought to a halt in a blaze of colour, music and optimism as 100,000 people demonstrated against capitalist globalisation at the end of the second European Social Forum (ESF). “The message of our protest is that we want a Europe that has rights for all its citizens, in a world without war,” Pierre Khalfa, a march organiser said on Saturday.

According to the freedom-loving democrat Paul Wolfowitz, “our friends in the Gulf” can do a lot to make Arab media more USA-friendly. He wants, with insolent and blunt clarity, for Qatar to officially intervene and hand Al Jazeera administration to a “ruling council” it would appoint and be stratified with.

What can USA President Bush possibly mean by saying that “the United States has adopted a new policy, a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East”? Is the USA preparing to administer a dose of its Iraqi medicine to other states in the area? Has the neo-con agenda of softening up the area to make it comply with USA and Israeli demands been given a new lease of life? Should Damascus and Tehran, the butt of Bush’s particular insults, now fear attack?

Monarchs and their Prime Ministers enjoy many privileges not granted to their subjects. Clairvoyance, however, is not among them. For how were the Queen and Tony Blair to know in 2001, when they extended the invitation for President Bush to make his state visit next week, that two years later it would be shaping up as the most fraught and ill-timed exercise of its kind in living memory?

There is a horrible scandal eating away the heart of the American body politic. Among the many corrupted currents loosed upon the nation by the Bush Regime, this scandal is perhaps the worst, for it abets all the others and breeds new pestilence, new perversions at every turn.

Abdula Yusuf is too afraid to climb the rocky terraces beyond his village and see the damage for himself. “They’ll kill me,” he said, waving a hand at the container homes on the top of a neighbouring hill. “If they can do that thing to trees as old as the Roman times, they will not hesitate to do it to me.”

The world should form a world solidarity movement against capitalist-dominated globalisation - this was the message of more than 60,000 delegates from 1,750 non-governmental European organizations meeting in Paris, amid much fanfare between Tuesday and Friday this week.

Paul Bremer’s hasty summons to Washington for an emergency meeting this week was a clear sign that the White House is operating in crisis mode. The impression of barely concealed panic was reinforced by the outcome of that lightning conference: a plan, as yet hazy, for quickly transferring more power to Iraqis—a concept, remember, that the United States lately derided as … French.

"It?s a kind of collective punishment,” sighs Abed, resigned to the mess. “The Israelis go slow so as to make our lives hell.” He estimates that of an average 1,500 would-be travellers a day, only 150 are let through. The rest are forced to return to their houses, or, if the Rafah-Gaza City road is closed, to find some relatives or acquaintances who can put them up locally.

Asked about the CIA report that found growing popular disillusionment with the USA occupation, Bremer was unusually uncertain. “I think the situation with the Iraqi public is, frankly, not easy to quantify.” Meanwhile, a leaked CIA report, whose existence was disclosed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, concluded that growing numbers of Iraqis believe that the occupation can be defeated and are supporting the insurgents.

As events in Iraq enter a critical phase, where according to the CIA’s own sources, Iraqi oposition could become so widespread and popular that the USA-led occupation could fail altogether, this article offers an analysis of events since the war began, and how, despite caving into USA pressure at last month’s UN Security Council vote, other key state players may still leave the occupiers to deal with their own self-made catastrophe.

With both the rate, the coordination, and the success of attacks against ?coalition? troops increasing exponentially since before the beginning of Ramadan, it?s been a bad few weeks for the new occupier of Baghdad?s Republican palace, and no better for the other illegal President over the water in Washington. The one a mere underling of the other, Paul Bremer has been summarily summoned to the White House for talks on how to “push the envelope” further in Iraq (euphemism for “get your f***ing act together, Bremer!").

It is six months since Baghdad fell to General Tommy Franks’ forces, and already it is clear that the Bush administration’s decision to launch the fundamentally unilateral, preventive war of early 2003 will change the whole Middle East and the whole global balance - just not in the way they intended it to.

President George W. Bush’s sudden call last week to make democratic freedoms the goal of USA policy in the Middle East is a good idea in principle, but it should be studied more carefully: this is like a used car that has been offered to us for purchase before. We need to kick these tires a few times, look closely under the hood, and buy only when we’re sure the product on offer is the real thing.

The rapidly decreasing morale and increasingly high suicide rate among USA soldiers in Iraq is probably attributable to the ululating musicals being sung by the locals in their honour - not exactly Metallica material. Helicopter crewmen, too, have been irked as villagers below happily hurl flowers in the air with such vigour that it’s doing a number on the rotor blades.

Those who would take us to war must first shut down the public imagination. They must convince us that there is no other means of preventing invasion, or conquering terrorism, or even defending human rights. When information is scarce, imagination is easy to control. As intelligence gathering and diplomacy are conducted in secret, we seldom discover - until it is too late - how plausible the alternatives may be.

Sarab rolls up her sleeve and looks at the thick scar across her upper arm. The eight-year-old says she was playing in the bathroom of her house when the shots were fired but cannot remember anything else. “It is their routine,” said her grandfather, Turk Jassim. “After the Americans are attacked, they shoot everywhere. This is inhuman - a stupid act by a country always talking about human rights.”

It all sounds innocent enough. Operation Christmas Child “is a unique ministry that brings Christmas joy, packed in gift-filled shoeboxes, to children around the world”. But what many parents and teachers don’t know is that behind Operation Christmas Child is the Christian right charity ‘Samaritan’s Purse’. Their aim is “the advancement of the Christian faith through educational projects and the relief of poverty”. And a particularly toxic version of Christianity it is.

USA intelligence agents have admitted that turning over suspected terrorists to countries noted for their violent interrogation methods is now common practice in a no-holds-barred war on ‘terrorism’.