Legal Background Israel and Palestine
What national and international Laws govern the conflict? What of Geneva Conventions? UN resolutions? US Law?
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Conservative foreign policy experts ... [document] Broad indictment against the Bush administration:
The Vision Thing (washingtonpost.com): "The Vision Thing | Reviewed by Stanley I. Kutler | Sunday, August 15, 2004; Page BW05 | AMERICA ALONE | The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order | By Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke
Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke are experienced, conservative foreign policy experts. ....
...
... For them, victory in the Cold War resulted from a firm U.S. adherence to the doctrine of containment and a moral authority rooted in fostering the idea of a free, open society. Now, the authors contend, President George W. Bush and a band of ideological zealots have put that moral authority at risk.
America Alone levels a broad indictment against the Bush administration, which in the name of the war on terror has launched the Iraq war, mounted an assault on personal liberties at home, engaged in a purposeful deceit of the media and the public (both of which suspended any critical judgment) and, above all, has inflicted terrible damage on U.S. moral authority and international legitimacy. The chief culprits for the authors are the neocons, who are depicted as conspirators who hijacked American foreign policy.
This is not exactly news, but the argument never has been put together so persuasively, so conclusively and so effectively.
...
Today neocons are the key players in the Bush administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney; his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; and his assistant Paul Wolfowitz. They are seconded by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and influential academic intellectuals and writers who preach warnings and celebrate their alleged triumphs. ...
...
The neocons, apparently aided by the incumbent president's "higher Father," persuaded Bush that regime change was essential in Iraq, although in his few pre-presidential foreign policy utterances he had specifically rejected such a course. After Sept. 11, the neocons advanced "evidence" that Iraq played a crucial role in al Qaeda's worldwide terrorism plans. Halper and Clarke demonstrate that the neocons knew that the fundamentalist-dominated al Qaeda had no connection to the secular Saddam. They knew that Saddam was no threat to American interests or values. The Persian Gulf War taught him not to threaten his neighbors -- exactly as Richard Clarke argued, to no avail. The administration had very little evidence -- precious little, as we have learned -- that Iraq had nuclear, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction. As Wolfowitz famously said, "For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on." ...
The Vision Thing (washingtonpost.com): "The Vision Thing | Reviewed by Stanley I. Kutler | Sunday, August 15, 2004; Page BW05 | AMERICA ALONE | The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order | By Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke
Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke are experienced, conservative foreign policy experts. ....
...
... For them, victory in the Cold War resulted from a firm U.S. adherence to the doctrine of containment and a moral authority rooted in fostering the idea of a free, open society. Now, the authors contend, President George W. Bush and a band of ideological zealots have put that moral authority at risk.
America Alone levels a broad indictment against the Bush administration, which in the name of the war on terror has launched the Iraq war, mounted an assault on personal liberties at home, engaged in a purposeful deceit of the media and the public (both of which suspended any critical judgment) and, above all, has inflicted terrible damage on U.S. moral authority and international legitimacy. The chief culprits for the authors are the neocons, who are depicted as conspirators who hijacked American foreign policy.
This is not exactly news, but the argument never has been put together so persuasively, so conclusively and so effectively.
...
Today neocons are the key players in the Bush administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney; his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; and his assistant Paul Wolfowitz. They are seconded by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and influential academic intellectuals and writers who preach warnings and celebrate their alleged triumphs. ...
...
The neocons, apparently aided by the incumbent president's "higher Father," persuaded Bush that regime change was essential in Iraq, although in his few pre-presidential foreign policy utterances he had specifically rejected such a course. After Sept. 11, the neocons advanced "evidence" that Iraq played a crucial role in al Qaeda's worldwide terrorism plans. Halper and Clarke demonstrate that the neocons knew that the fundamentalist-dominated al Qaeda had no connection to the secular Saddam. They knew that Saddam was no threat to American interests or values. The Persian Gulf War taught him not to threaten his neighbors -- exactly as Richard Clarke argued, to no avail. The administration had very little evidence -- precious little, as we have learned -- that Iraq had nuclear, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction. As Wolfowitz famously said, "For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on." ...
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Chicago Tribune | More settlements, more conflict
Chicago Tribune | More settlements, more conflict: "More settlements, more conflict | Published August 6, 2004
The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians most often resembles a fragile figure struggling to stay up despite getting socked by one side or the other.
The latest blow is a report that Israel has plans to expand the Maale Adumim settlement--the largest Israeli enclave in the West Bank--by adding more than 600 housing units. The addition of roads and houses eventually would connect the settlement to Jerusalem, about four miles away, effectively making it a neighborhood of that city.
...
Just about every attempt to bring peace to the area, including the seemingly moribund "road map," has insisted that Israel cease expanding settlements or building new ones.
The reason is simple--it's impossible to negotiate peace while one side keeps encroaching and annexing the other side's land.
Earlier this year, in an off-the-table agreement with the Sharon government, the U.S. acknowledged that some unidentified settlements would remain part of Israel even after an eventual peace pact, and effectively dismissed the Palestinian "right of return" to Israel as unrealistic. But even this understanding provided for a freeze in the construction of additional settlements or expansion of existing ones. ...
Chicago Tribune | More settlements, more conflict: "More settlements, more conflict | Published August 6, 2004
The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians most often resembles a fragile figure struggling to stay up despite getting socked by one side or the other.
The latest blow is a report that Israel has plans to expand the Maale Adumim settlement--the largest Israeli enclave in the West Bank--by adding more than 600 housing units. The addition of roads and houses eventually would connect the settlement to Jerusalem, about four miles away, effectively making it a neighborhood of that city.
...
Just about every attempt to bring peace to the area, including the seemingly moribund "road map," has insisted that Israel cease expanding settlements or building new ones.
The reason is simple--it's impossible to negotiate peace while one side keeps encroaching and annexing the other side's land.
Earlier this year, in an off-the-table agreement with the Sharon government, the U.S. acknowledged that some unidentified settlements would remain part of Israel even after an eventual peace pact, and effectively dismissed the Palestinian "right of return" to Israel as unrealistic. But even this understanding provided for a freeze in the construction of additional settlements or expansion of existing ones. ...
