Letters to the Editor, September 22, 2004

Scouse hostage in Iraq

Hi, an odd thing, in Liverpool we have a name for ourselves, 'scousers' and consider ourselves a different nationality to anyone else. Now, I see a fellow scouuser being held hostage and worse threatened with being beheaded by people that really are our allies, scousers are the dispossessed of Britain, forced to try to earn a living wherever. Now one of my brethren is caught up in a trap in Iraq... We are really the 'Palestinians' of the UK,. a people disregarded and disposed of, forced to try to earn a living wherever we can, and at the same time fully supporting of our fellow dispossessed, whether Palestinian, Chechen, Mayan or US native American.

Could you please convey this reality to readers?

Thanks

Alan Kelly

Editor: Not only the scouse from Liverpool but all hostages and all Iraqi prisoners should be free to return to their loved ones. Let's pray for freedom for all of them and for peace for our troubled planet.

Images That Can Not Be Seen in North America

The media in North America has, in the last few days, showered its readers and viewers with images the singer Madona, during her visit to Zionist Israel and Occupied East Jerusalem. But the media in North America does NOT care about such images that address the horror of the Israeli Occupiers against helpless elderly Palestinians. Thanks !!! to the Tax Dollars of the American citizens.

Please see this image of a Palestinian old man, while an Israeli young soldier points his automatic gun at the nick of the old man,

This is, however, Israel, THE ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST, as always described by the Zionist media in North America.

Hilmi Salem


An invader Israeli occupation soldier putting his gun at the neck of an elderly Palestinian man inside his home town of Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank yesterday (Alquds, Alhayat Aljadeeda, 9/19/04).

Send Me Back to Jerusalem

Please take a look at the following site, stateless Ammar Mahmoud.

www.sendmetojerusalem.com

Thank you

Ammar Mahmoud

Greetings from professor S. Lavie in Tel Aviv

Greetings, here's a little link from "women against occupation" that might spell out who I am http://nonprofitnet.ca/wao/wao.php?show&340

"ahoti" (sistah) - israel's feminist of color organization. We've got an ongoing anti-apartheid campaign.

Best

prof. smadar lavie

Anthropology and critical theory

Closing the Circle

“Hence, a growing number of activists and intellectuals on both sides have come to explore and advocate the creation of a united, democratic and civil state in all of mandatory Palestine (Israel and the Occupied Territories) where Jews and Palestinians live equally as citizens regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliations. “

I am sorry, but only fools would propose this as a solution.

Why would this country be a democracy, when there is no other Arab democracy in the world? Because the word democracy makes westerners feel good. For Arabs it is just another piece of propaganda.

Secondly, with the birthrates of Arabs, several times higher than the Jews, this joint country would quickly turn into another extermination ghetto for the Jews!

Do Arabs really think we Jews are stupid?

By the way, I do support the establishment of a peaceful Arab state for the “Palestinians”, as long as it does not require the destruction of Israel!

Jeffrey Levine

Los Angeles, CA USA

Editor: Nobody thinks Jews are stupid. But if a group of Palestinians and a group of Israelis want to live together in peace and work for that goal, they should be encouraged, not ridiculed. Actually, the two-state solution could be the first step into the final solution, a real democratic state in which people enjoy rights without reference to their religion or race. What's wrong with that? This is how you and me live in America and everywhere in the world.

National Guardsmen and Iraq: A Question

Dear Editor,

Perhaps your American readers may enlighten me on this point? I thought that the National Guard was a territorial army; meaning that it operated solely on U.S. soil. Didn't Bush join the National Guard to avoid being sent to Vietnam? How is it then, that Bush is sending National Guardsmen to Iraq? Under what authority, can he lay claim to these militias?

Sincerely,

Peter Lewycky

Editor: Answers are appreciated.

Bush and Kerry are different

Dear Al-Jazeerah Editor,

[Iraq] "Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time,"

"I would not have done just one thing differently than the president on Iraq, I would have done everything differently than the president on Iraq,"

"Washington should make it clear to the world that the United States had no "long-term designs to maintain bases and troops in Iraq."

"We want those troops home and my goal would be to try to get them home in my first term and I believe that can be done,"

As you also well reported and emphasized , these words of Mr. John Kerry in his recent Labor day speech are most significant. They are what so many people were wanting to hear. Kerry; a Trojan horse with Peace inside?

To say there is no difference between Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry is no longer true. Mr. Bush has committed himself to war in hopes of commandeering oil for corporations, rustling for some religious zealots the Land of Abraham who want it for themselves, and satisfying the testosterone laden egos of some Americans. Mr. Kerry, on the other hand, is not totally playing to those themes. He holds open the possibility of Peace.

Hopefully, Mr. Kerry by his words will not be marginalized by the organized evil that controls so much of the media and politics in this country. All others who were running for President in the Democratic primaries who spoke of Peace met that fateful end. It is interesting to note how George Bush was shown "suddenly" surging in the polls just after Mr. Kerry spoke Labor day. One can only conclude that the poll numbers are being manufactured. Mr. Kerry now needs the support of good people more then ever. Evil is not interested in Peace.

Either way, the election is unveiling itself. It is no longer about some tidily-do, tree toads in the woods, the boy scouts, who is getting married, or what somebody is saying about a movie; It is about Peace or war. That's life and death!

Robert Shule

U.S. Citizen.

Virginia

P.S. How do you define the term "Neocon"?

Editor: They are absolutely different but Kerry needs to do more in appealing to the peace movement, anti-war movement, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans. He should not take them for granted. He needs to fire them up, they the polls will be completely different. Read my open letter to him:

An Open Letter to Senator John Kerry: The Peace Camp Is Waiting a Word From You By Hassan El-Najjar

Dutch anti-terror measures

Dear Editor,

I've learnt with astonishment about the recently announced Dutch governmental decision, implying the limitation of civil rights due to the strategy against terrorism.

In the first place the judicial, political, and security institutions are given extraordinary powers like house searching without any judicial proof for possible involvement in criminal activities.

In the second place it is now legally permitted, that suspects of a possible terrorist attack are being detained longer and with lesser rights. This is not only a violation of the rights of suspects in general, but also a violation of the equality-system of the judicial treatment of suspects in the Dutch legal system.

In the third place regarding these measures explicitly members of the Muslim community are being referred to, which shows an unacceptable form of discrimination. Also the Dutch allegation of the presence of a war-situation, which legally enables the government to suspend some rights, makes no sense, since this is only applying to a regular war or an internal uprising.

Therefore it would be highly recommendable that above-named measures, which are the results of mostly vague and uncontrollable accusations and could lead to further arbitration and violations of basic human rights, be reviewed.

Astrid Essed,

astridessed@hotmail.com Amsterdam