Weekly Briefing No. 13 (July 19, 2007) In this Briefing: Corrie vs. Caterpiller Case Goes to Court (2 links) Uri Avnery Comments on Lessons from Lebanon War The Indian-Israeli-Palestinian relationship (1 article) Bush's Palestine Speech and US objectives: 2 articles Eight Minute Video on YouTube: Reality of Oppression in the West Bank ********************************* CORRIE VS CATERPILLER: Members of Rachel Corrie’s family and friends took part in a vigil and informational flyering July 9 as the family as the oral arguments in the case against Caterpillar got under way the in the US Court of Appeals at the Park Place Building in downtown Seattle. The Center for Constitutional Rights (representing the Corrie family and four Palestinian families in the case) held a press conference at noon. The case was widely covered. What follows is a rundown of what’s been reported. See http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/?p=271#more-271 For complete story. Excerpt from Summary of Case by Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which is bringing the case: Al Sho'bi family: Mahmoud Omar Al Sho'bi is from Nablus in the West Bank. In April 2002, a D9 bulldozer destroyed Mr. Al Sho'bi's family home without warning in an IDF attack in the middle of the night. His father Umar, his sisters Fatima and Abir, his brother Samir and pregnant sister-in-law Nabila, and their three children, ages 4, 7, and 9, were all killed. After the Al Sho'bi family home was demolished, the IDF kept the area under strict curfew for days, denying access to rescue workers, and it was not until a week later that the families' bodies were found under the rubble of the house by relatives and neighbors. For more see: http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/corporate_accountability/corporateArticle.asp?ObjID=CRXBCCBcud&Content=1069 ********************************************************************* A STUPID WAR by Uri Avnery (from Gush Shalom) Excerpt: The day before yesterday, a full year after the war, the Israeli media devoted most of their time to the retrospective analysis of the war. Hour after hour of television time, page after page of print. When the war broke out, all the media rooted for Olmert. Except for a few lone voices, the media performed like a group of prancing cheerleaders at an American football game. The anti-war demonstrations were hidden away. No wonder, therefore, that this week, too, the anti-war protest was completely ignored, and all the criticism in the media came from the right. Dozens of penetrating questions: Why was the decision taken in haste? Why wasn't the army ready? Why wasn't the rear prepared for war? But one issue was not considered: why was there a war at all? Full Article: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1184484639/ ************************************************************************* Indian - Israeli Ties Could Neutralize Delhi’s Palestinian Policy By Nicola Nasser Excerpt: ... India was among 13 nations who voted against the UN General Assembly resolution 181 for the partition of Palestine in 1947. In the same year, as a member of the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), India proposed a minority plan which called for the establishment of a federal Palestine with internal autonomy for the Jewish illegal immigrants. She was also among the first non-Arab nations to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974 and the first non-Arab country to recognize Palestine as an independent state in 1988; in 1996 India opened a diplomatic representative office with the autonomous Palestinian Authority. ... but the pragmatism which marked the Indian foreign policy in dealing with Israel, particularly since 1992, would potentially compromise this approach sooner or later. Arab and Palestinian strategists should not underestimate this possible strategist shift in the foreign policy of the world’s largest democracy, which a CIA study in 2005 envisaged as the second rising world power after China during the next two decades. Full Article reprinted at: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/07/15/indian_israeli_ties_could_neutralize_del *********************************************************************** Bush will sponsor new Middle East talks President Bush announced today that he will sponsor a new international conference this fall aimed at reviving moribund Middle East peace talks and paving the way toward a final settlement that would see a new Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel. Bush called upon Palestinians to reject Hamas, a militant group also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement and supported by Iran and Syria but deemed a terrorist organization by the United States, Europe and Israel. Making that choice, he added, would be the only way to achieve a viable Palestinian state. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/16/AR2007071600063.html?nav=rss_world U.S. fears Abbas is politically weak Washington - A flurry of intelligence assessments has warned that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the man US policymakers hope can help salvage the Middle East peace process, may not be politically strong enough to achieve that goal, according to US officials. The assessments have also cautioned that his opponents in Hamas that is being shunned by Abbas, Israel and the United States - will not be easily marginalised. The "West Bank first" strategy is the White House's biggest and potentially riskiest policy departure in its dealings with the Palestinian National Authority since it was created in 1994. http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10139814.html ***************************************************************************************************************************** Eight Minute Video: Very powerful single example of oppression. Everyday life in the West Bank. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cjwI26-zV74 (From Marvin Wingfield, Educational Associate, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)