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Today's Stories August 22, 2006 Ramzi Kysia My Journey to South Lebanon August 21, 2006 Jonathan Cook Caught in a Net of Delusion Paul Craig Roberts Artificial Recovery; Real Job Losses Kathy Kelly Israel's "Proportionate Response": Measured Amid the Wreckage Mike Roselle Irony Runs Through It: Making a Ruckus Lenni Brenner Mayor Bloomberg: the Flying Faker Maher Osseiran Osama's Confession; Osama's Reprieve August 19 / 20, 2006 Weekend Edition Uri Avnery The 155th Victim Eliza Ernshire Terror and Freedom on the West Bank Virginia Tilley Inside 1701: What the UN Ceasefire Resolution Actually Says Kathy Kelly Funerals at Qana: a Journey to Southern Lebanon Marc Levy You are What You Dream: "Before you talk of heroes you must feel, taste, touch, smell the horror." Stephen Bradberry / Jeffrey Buchanan Hopes and Homes: Subject to Seizure on the Katrina's Anniversary Barbara Rose Johnston Banking on Violence: Guatemalan Genocide and US Security William Blum Perpetual Fear: Saved Again, Praise the Lord! Stephen Fleischman Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon Ralph Nader The Legacy of John Kenneth Galbraith Dave Lindorff Busted, Again: Bush is Two Times a Criminal Fred Gardner When Cannabis Failed to Sell David Krieger Nuclear Insecurity Dan La Botz The Minutemen: Mad at the Wrong Guys Poets' Basement Davies / Engel   August 18, 2006 Brian M. Downing American Generals and Iraq: Time to Call for a Rapid Withdrawal John Blair Divine Strike in the Bible Belt: Will They Bomb Bedford? Alan Hart The Lebanon War, a Post Mortem Craig Murray Hitting a Nerve: the Hair Gel Terror Hype Chris Dols Confronting Madison's NaziFest Emily Kirksey The Cuban Mirage: Self-Deception in Miami and Washington Joaquín Bustelo Forging a New Strategy for Immigrant Rights: Report from Chicago William S. Lind Beaten: Why the IDF Lost in Lebanon Podcast of the Day The F-22 PodCast Website of the Day Burn a Brick for Jesus   August 17, 2006 CounterPunch News Service "Goodbye to the Unipolar World": an Interview with Hasan Nasrallah Barucha Peller This Pain Has No Ceasefire Ramzy Baroud Lebanon: a Critical Battlefield for the New Middle East Rothem Shtarkman Gen. Dan Halutz: Inside Trader Craig Murray The UK Terror Plot: What's Really Going On? Samar Assad Gaza: One Year After Disengagement Mike Ferner Lt. Watada's Challenge Arnold Kohen A Second Rebirth for East Timor? Kevin Zeese Does the Invasion of Lebanon Foretell a Regional War? Missy Comley Beattie Open Wounds Uri Avnery From Mania to Depression Video of the Day Neil Young: After the Garden Website of the Day Art for Peace   August 16, 2006 Merav Yudilovitch Apocalypse Near: an Interview with Noam Chomsky on Lebanon Robert Fisk Behind the Lies of Bush and Blair: It Falls to Assad to Tell the Truth Mark Williams The Missiles of August: The Lebanon War and the Democratization of Missile Technology John Ross End Game Engulfs Mexico Christopher Brauchli The Poor Are Such a Nuisance John Walsh AIPAC Congratulates Itself for Slaughter in Lebanon Ron Jacobs Gee, Your Hair Smells Terror-ific!: Shampoo, Fear and Elections Rachard Itani It Ain't Over: What Did and Didn't Happen in Lebanon Felice Pace Forest Fires in the Klamath Mountains: The Real Threat is Not What You Expected Niranjan Ramakrishnan Lieberman the Enabler Frank, Sharma and Peterson Venezuela's Revolution of Hope: "In Two Years, Everything Has Changed!" Jonathan Cook Real Photo Fakers; Real War Crimes Website of the Day You Too Can Paint Like Jackson Pollock!   August 15, 2006 Andrew Ford Lyons Why Hezbollywood Was Born: Digitally Erasing a Massacre Binoy Kampmark Terrorism and the Art of Flying Robert Fisk Israel Wasn't Hoping for This Ralph Nader Bush to Israel: Take Your Time Destroying Lebanon Todd Chretien The US Antiwar Movement: Weak, Passive, Distracted Chris Floyd It's Bigger Than the Neo-Cons Mark Engler WTO: Best Left for Dead? George Galloway "You Don't Give a Damn:" the SkyNews Debate Laray Polk What's More Obscene: War or Sex? Trish Schuh Operation Change of Location?: Where Were the IDF Soldiers Captured? Website of the Day Jesus Never Existed August 14, 2006 Uri Avnery What the Hell Happened to the Israeli Army? Karim Makdisi The Flaws in the UN Resolution Kathy Kelly Approaching a Ceasefire Robert Fisk The Truce That Won't Last Norman Solomon Who's Afraid of Hillary Clinton? MoveOn, for One Sunsara Taylor Ned Lamont and the Antiwar Movement: False Hopes, Bad Terms and Ticking Clocks Robert Jensen Outside the Frame: The Limits of George Lakoff's Politics Mike Whitney The Litani Gambit: Ceasefire or Trojan Horse? P. Sainath An Indian Farmer About to Commit Suicide Writes a Note of Clarification Goretti Horgan The Raytheon Nine: Irish Antiwar Protesters Face "Terrorism" Charges Christopher Reed London Fog: Doubts Hang Over Terror Plot   August 12 / 13, 2006 Weekend Edition Jean Bricmont The De-Zionization of the American Mind Norman Finkelstein Should Alan Dershowitz Target Himself for Assassination? Robert Fisk How the London Terror Scare Looks from Beirut Adrian Grima Forget the 50 Civilians: Watching Lebanon from Malta Barucha Peller Letter from Lebanon: the Proximity of Death Omar Barghouti The UN, Lebanon and Palestine Adam Engel Tearing Down the Master's House: an Interview with Derrick Jensen Conn Hallinan How the Irish Could Save the Middle East John Stauber Meet the GOP's Latest Smear Machine: Vets for Freedom Rev. William Alberts Bush's Primetime Lies Still Go Unchallenged by the Press Fred Gardner Hollywood Does Cannabis: "Weeds," the First Season Lucinda Marshall Penis Politics: Does Dick Cheney Want Us All to Fly Nude? Ron Jacobs Kill the Precedent: an Interview with Rapper Nate Mezmer CounterPunch News Service Kerala Throws Out Coke and Pepsi Poets' Basement Katz, Davies and Orloski August 11, 2006 Col. Dan Smith Crimes Against Peace: Beyond Nuremberg John Ross Class War in Mexico City's Gridlock Michael Donnelly Sore Loserman, Redux William S. Lind Collapse of the Flanks Linda Milazzo Chertoff's New Math: Hair Gel Plot Might Have "Killed 100s of Thousands" Rep. Cynthia McKinney Something is Happening Around the World Azmi Bishara When the Skies Rain Death Henri Picciotto Jewish Dissidents Must Challenge Israel CounterPunch News Wire The Warrior Lawyer: Tom Crumpacker, 1934-2006 Dave Lindorff War Crimes in Lebanon Jonathan Cook From High Wycombe to Nazrareth: How I Found Myself with the Islamic Fascists   August 10, 2006 Uri Avnery The Buck Stops Where? Dave Marsh Who Are Mr and Mrs Lamont? Gabriel Kolko Reflections on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Arthur Versluis How Neocons' Nazi Hero Schmitt Spawned Bush's Totalitarian Lunge Jennifer Loewenstein Awakening the Resistance August 9, 2006 Linda Schade Incumbents Beware: Peace Voters Mean Business Jackie Mason Defends Mel Gibson; Ridicules Abe Foxman Jonathan Cook Hypocrisy and the Clamor Against Hizbullah Gilad Atzmon Operation Security Roof Charles Hirschkind Doing the Lebanese a Favor Tom Barry Right-wingers Ramp Up War on Migrants Cockburn & St. Clair The Sweetness of Lieberman's Defeat   August 8, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Requiem for Baghdad Paul Larudee The Lebanese Nakba and Israeli Ambitions Joan Roelofs The Malleable US Constitution: a Deterrent to Democracy? Dimi Reider An Interview with IDF Refusenik Sgt. Zohar Milchgrub John A. Murphy The Democrats: a Party on the Run ... from Its Own Members! Eliot Katz The View from the Big Woods: In Which a NYC Antiwar Poet Takes a Summer Vacation in Canada's Boreal Forest Tim Llewellyn Into the Valley of Death Website of the Day Galloway Speaks!   August 7, 2006 Uri Avnery The Junkies of War Karim Makdisi The Draft UN Resolutions: the View from Beirut Nadia Hijab What Israel and the US Wanted May Not Be At All What They Get Sharon Smith Birth Pangs and Dead Babies Magan Wiles Encounter at an Israeli Checkpoint George Beres A New Kind of Bigotry: Lebanon War Exposes Strange Religious Bedfellows Rachard Itani Nice Try, Mr. Bolton Norman Solomon Some Nukes Are A-Okay with the US Media Stan Cox Presidential Doping Scandal Erupts! Mickey Z. Go Ahead, Please Stare at Her Chest Jonathan Cook The Deadly US-Israeli Shell Game at the UN Website of the Day Sam Husseini Interrogates Newt Gingrich on Lebanon   August 5 / 6, 2006 Virginia Tilley Boycott Now!: the Case for Boycotting Israel Uri Avnery The Black Flag Patrick Cockburn Yes, It is a Crusade!: Blair's Mad Speech on Iraq Sgt. Martin Smith Military Training and Atrocities: Bad Apples from a Rotten Tree Gary Leupp America's Heroes on Trial Neve Gordon The New McCarthyism: Academic Freedom After 9/11 Ralph Nader Hey Joe!: the Ghosts of Lieberman's Past Peter Bouckaert For Israel, Innocent Civilians Are Fair Game Peter Montague Nukes Rising: Bush Oversees a Global Nuclear Expansion David Krieger Global Hiroshima: the Stakes Have Been Raised Michael Donnelly "Sir! No Sir!": the Story of the GI Anti-War Movement Fred Gardner Dr. Denney Sues the DEA Catherine Norris Seeking Justice Abroad: Spanish Courts Issue Arrest Warrants for the Butchers of Guatemala Imraan Siddiqi The Smokescreens of War: Moral Superiority, 9/11 and Islamic-Fascism Missy Comley Beattie One Year After the Death of Chase Comley Ira Kay Where is Geography? Getting Beyond the Place Name Game Dave Lindorff Let's Build a Wall Pratyush Chandra Nuclear Fascism in India Ron Jacobs Keeping It Radical St. Clair / Donnelly Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Katz and Davies Website of the Day Defend Bear Butte

August 22 , 2006 "You Cannot Promise Victory, Produce a Humiliating Defeat and Stay in Power" Israel Must Win By GILAD ATZMON “The ceasefire in Lebanon was holding by a thread last night after Israel sanctioned a commando raid in the east of the country. Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, said Israel had violated the truce, and he was 'deeply concerned' about it.” The Guardian For those familiar with Israeli aggression, the IDF violation was no surprise at all. For a week or so, every Israeli cabinet member and military official promised publicly that it is just a question of time before there is a ‘second round’. Indeed, they must come up with something. Since the end of the hostilities, all Israeli political analysts and polls suggest that Israel’s political and military leadership failed completely. If elections were to be held soon, both Labor and Kadima would simply disappear. It is no secret that with each passing day, Olmert’s and Peretz’s popularity continually slumps to new lows. Jerusalem Post. One may wonder whether the Israelis are changing their spots, do they stop approving Olmert’s policies just because peace is what they really prefer? The influential political commentator Ari Shavit provided an answer two weeks ago. Mr Olmert, so he says, had ‘failed shamefully’ and should resign. Shavit continues, "You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power." As I mentioned more than once before, the Israeli politician has to cope with a demanding, bloodthirsty crowd. This realisation throws some light over the reasons behind the failed Israeli operation in Lebanon just three days ago. Israelis are simply desperate to win. But it may also explain why Israeli government decided to expand its military operation pretty much at the same time it accepted the UN ceasefire resolution. Olmert knew that he must serve his voters with what they interpret as a clear-cut victory. This would mean either some severe form of revenge with lots of Arab casualties or a significant land invasion. Olmert, his ‘national unity’ government and the army leadership have to do something that would cover up four weeks of disastrous military campaign that failed to serve the Israeli public with even a single second of glory. Indeed, the IDF military offensive doctrine is grounded on one basic axiom that was defined by David Ben Gurion in the early fifties: whatever it takes, Israel must always win! This axiom is indeed very powerful, yet, in reality, the Israeli army can’t provide the goods anymore. In the last three decades the Israeli army is constantly being beaten time after time by enemies that are getting smaller and smaller. Yet, one may mention that the IDF isn’t very original in being defeated. The IDF fails exactly where the American army has been failing since Vietnam. Shockingly, the IDF has managed to copy every possible American mistake. It religiously adopted the new American military philosophy of a ‘compact highly sophisticated fighting force’. Undeniably, this very doctrine is very effective in producing some gigantic collateral damage i.e., war crimes. Yet, in the long run, it fails miserably in wining wars. The new American military doctrine may win a battle or two but no more than that. In the most recent years it has been totally beaten in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza and obviously in Lebanon. Though the early stages of the Israeli campaign in Lebanon looked very much like the first few days of the second Gulf War (major air assault on civilian infrastructure and populated areas), there is at least one major noticeable difference. While America can stand and even ignore international criticism referring to its own war crimes, it isn’t willing to suffer much international criticism for Israeli atrocities. While in the early stages of the war America was rushing to provide Israel with air convoys loaded with its most lethal conventional arsenal, we have learned towards the last week of the war that the American administration changed its mind, it suddenly refused to provide the IDF with a shipment of cluster bombs because it “would endanger the civilian population”. Seemingly, there is a limit to what the Americans are willing to do for their ‘closest friend’ in the Middle East. This is exactly where the Israeli limbo is. In order to maintain its status as a winning regional super power, Israel needs the blind support of America (politically, financially and logistically). Yet American blind support can be grunted to Israel only if the Jewish State is indeed a regional super power to start with. Olmert and his government are fully aware of this very complexity. They know that without being a regional super power in the first place, they have nothing to offer their almighty American brothers. Israel is crucial for the strategy of the Americans as long as it can wipe out all its enemies in six days at the most. The way things appear now, the Israeli Army is basically defeated by the two smallest nations in the Arab world, the Palestinian and the Lebanese ones. As much as it clear to the Israelis, it is clear to the Americans that unlike the bold Hezbollah, the IDF soldier has lost his will to fight. The IDF is a spoiled, confused and tired army that is specializing solely in terrorizing civilian populations while being engaged in constant tactical withdraw. This Israeli Army is not trained to win wars anymore. Instead, its tank battalions are mainly engaged in daily shelling of schools and hospitals. Its Air Force uses the best American fighter planes to flatten neighborhoods and shoot deadly rockets at cars in the streets of Gaza. Its command units are expert in abducting democratically elected middle-aged Palestinian politicians. The IDF is basically a heavy army specializing in merciless regional bullying. Yet, it cannot win a war, and as such it has nothing to offer the American empire. But the Israeli military defeat has some further implications. Israel without a victorious army, has nothing to offer to world Jewry either. It can never present itself as the ultimate cosmic Judeo bunker. It is pretty shocking to prospect the relative silence of the infamous Zionist media shield. While just six weeks ago the loud supporters of Anglo-American interventionism were still pushing for democracy in the Arab world and beyond, they were enthusiastic about killing in the name of human rights and about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East. Somehow, since the war began, since Israel revealed once again its murderous tendencies and Hezbollah proved to be the new Robin Hood, these voices are caving in. Many among the global Zionists do already understand now that the Anglo-American assault on the Arab world just suffered a major blow. Some of them probably grasp that it is just a question of time before more and more Europeans and Americans join the sacred battle against the Americanized Global Zionism, i.e., neo-conservatism. The recent victory of the Hezbollah therefore must be realized as a major event with some global implications. While the Hezbollah regards itself a paramilitary organization concerned mainly with some local issues having to do with Israeli expansionism, it has managed to cause a serious blow to neo-conservatism as a political praxis as well as a philosophy. It has beaten the Zionized Anglo-American worldview. Standing up to Zionism and Americanism, it is the Lebanese, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Afghanis and the Iranians who happen to be at the vanguard of the war for humanity and humanism. For those who are yet to be convinced that this indeed the case, I will mention that the fact that it is Iran who rushed to pay 3 billion dollars to rebuild Lebanon after the destruction made by ‘American interventionism’ leaves no room for interpretation. While America spreads destruction and death all over the world, it is Iran and the Hezbollah that offers a new beginning. Olmert knows very well that if Israel doesn’t win this war, it is global Zionism that is defeated, he knows as well that without the backing of global Zionism, Israel is basically a dead entity. Olmert knows that without America, it won’t take long before Israel turns into an historic event. Israel will have to win its mighty regional power status whatever it takes. Israeli is indeed in the very eye of the neo-conservative storm. And the Hezbollah is threatening something far greater than just the Jewish State. As the Israelis keep telling us, the fight in Lebanon will resume soon and every European leader knows it. Even now, they all know who is going to be the aggressor when violence spreads again in the region. They are all clever enough to hesitate about whether they want to send their soldiers to the region. They know that if Israel must win, it is better to stay out of its way. Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military. He is the author of two novels: A Guide to the Perplexed and the recently released My One and Only Love. Atzmon is also one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe. His recent CD, Exile, was named the year's best jazz CD by the BBC. He now lives in London and can be reached at: atz@onetel.net.uk .

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