AIPAC Buying 2008?

By Michael Collins Piper
AmericanFreePress.net
March 26th, 2007

If you had been at the Washington convention Center in the nation’s capital over the weekend of March 10-12, you might have been reminded of a pig auction at an old-fashioned down-home country fair somewhere in middle America. However, the “pigs” for sale, in this case, were politicians eager to slop at the trough of some mighty powerful “farmers and ranchers” — some 6,000 of the most politically influential people in America, perhaps even on the face of the entire planet.

The “auction,” you see, was the annual conclave of the American Israel Public affairs Committee (AIPAC), the well-funded and energetic official front-line lobby for Israel. And the politicians — Democrats and Republicans alike — were on hand, eagerly pushing one another aside like swine rushing to their swill even as the AIPAC luminaries were deciding which “swine” to put their money on.

Vice President Dick Cheney was perhaps the “star” of the event, but two Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) And Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), made a big splash by hosting what were described as “dueling receptions” for AIPAC’s heavy hitters. It really need not be noted that both Obama and Clinton declared themselves just absolutely devoted to Israel and awfully upset about Iran.

It would be a waste of ink and print space to repeat their shamelessly sycophantic rhetoric, which is standard for every American politician who bows and scrapes before AIPAC and other illegal pro-Israel lobby groups such as the anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B’nai B’rith, the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress, to name just a few. (more…)

Gaza’s Tsunami

By Ahmed Abdullah
March 30th 2007

It’s been reported that at least five Palestinians, including two toddlers, were drowned in a “sewage Tsunami” that hit Gaza strip after a water treatment reservoir burst.  The incident destroyed Umm Naser, a village in the northern section of the coastal Strip.

The sad event coincided with the announcement that the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would have a bi-weekly meeting that will be coordinated with the U.S. government.

Despite claiming, as she usually does in almost all of her previous visits to the Middle East, that her mission’s goal is to revive the deadlocked peace process, the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, demonstrated once again the unwillingness of Washington to engage in any credible initiative aimed at bringing real peace to the region. Rice delivered Bush’s message of rejecting the democratically elected Hamas, branded by the U.S. as a terrorist organisation for its armed struggle against the Israeli occupation.

Some may find difficulty linking the meaningless political intercourse to the destructive sewage tsunami that hit Palestine- but the two reflect the extent of misery facing the Palestinian population on one hand, and the Western powers’ failure to show humanist or ethical commitment to the Palestinian crisis on the other.

This prevailing negligence towards the occupied and poor nation of Palestine, which has been struggling to secure its liberation from the Israeli occupation for decades, and whose sufferings intensified thanks to the West’s decision to starve the people and cut yearly aid sent to the government, is indeed reflected in the two sad realities Palestinians currently face. (more…)