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Cut and Run

By Stanley Heller
MECC Chairperson
Organizing Committee Member
CT United for Peace

Now that General Petraeus and the Admnistration have issued their latest spin on their Iraq disaster perhaps the public may be interested in a view from a voice in the peace movement. After all we had it right about Iraq from the start.

The question of whether the "surge" is working, of course, depends on your definition of "working". If it means that the insurgents have pulled back in Baghdad due to the big show of force then there has been success. But that was predictable. Any guerrilla force responds to a surge with a retreat. If on the other hand the question is whether Iraq is settling down and its government is fostering order and progress then the surge is revealed as a gold-plated scam.

CONTINUED

Criticism Grows of Axing of NYC Principal

New York City's pit bull newspapers have succeeded in forcing the resignation of Debbie Almontaser, principal of the brand new Khalil Gibran School in New York City, but criticism is growing. In a long analysis in the New York Times on August 29 Samuel G. Freedman called attacks on Almontaser a "smear". A teacher union steward made a fine statement critical of United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten for joining in the defamation and a noted Israeli columnist said his heart goes out to American Muslims like Almontaser.

CONTINUED

Groups Question ANSWER Call for Sept. 15

A number of groups have signed on to a letter to ANSWER questioning why it has dropped its upfront support for Palestine in favor of a lowest common denominator "End the War Now" slogan
CONTINUED

Report from the Land of Apartheid

MECC Chair Stanley Heller is just back from a Palestine/Israel. His second report was published on August 2 on Counterpunch

The two babies lay nearly side by side in the incubator. One had eyes open, the other shut. It's against medical standards to put more than one child in an incubator, but with only six working incubators in the hospital in Jenin they had to double up. Jenin Hospital, in the north of the West Bank, is the only hospital in the Jenin Governate. It serves 350,00 people with 123 beds.

At the moment the hospital has no working ambulance. At one time it had three. Two were destroyed by Israeli missiles during this uprising. In one the doctor inside, Khalil Sulaiman, was martyred. The last working one suffered a car accident last week and it will take another week to repair it.

The wards were crowded. In the pediatric wing each small room had three beds and not much medical equipment. There is no air conditioning though temperatures in summer are at least in the 80's. Hospital officials said the hospital was getting aid from Europe, but it's been cut off.

CONTINUED

Tear Gassed in Bil'in

By Stanley Heller

The smell of Israeli tear gas is a mix between a charcoal fire and burning garbage. I was afraid of it so I stayed far away and observed the attempt at a demonstration in front of the Separation Wall in Bil'in. However, the brave Israeli soldiers shot over a hundred shells of tear gas so even from 200 yards away the sharply diluted gas filled my nostrils, rasped the throat and, of course, burned my eyes. Of course, it was far worse for the people in the march. Some passed out.

The wall is not concrete in Bil'in. It's made up of rows of razor sharp barbed wire in front of a military access road and a number of 21st century electronic security gadgets. Palestinians hate it even more than the 30 foot high concrete walls as it takes more of their land.

The wall goes by many names "Apartheid Wall", "Separation Wall", "Security Barrier". One could also call it the "Theft Wall" as its main purpose is to steal Palestinian land.

CONTINUED (along with video)

West Bank Misery Tour (published in the New Haven Register)

When I saw the U.S. customs official in Newark International Airport I broke into a smile. I was away from Israel at last. I was away from the checkpoints, away from the settlements and away from the soldiers. I no longer had to have a fanciful story of the tourist sights I visited when I was actually touring the misery of the West Bank.

CONTINUED

Strip Searching

Revolting accounts of humiliation and abuse in the new report by "If Americans Knew" about the decades old Israeli practice of strip searching Palestinians and dissidents. They do it to Israeli Palestinians, to American citizens, to children younger than 7. Read here and watch the video by clicking here.

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May 20 Israelis Shoot Dead Fetus

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