be just

Obama Channeling Cheney - by Gordon Prather : "Well that tears it. At least for you who considered President Barack Obama our best chance to avoid a war of aggression with Iran. Apparently Obama has been invaded by the same spirit that has long been speaking through Dick Cheney. According to his campaign aides, Obama told a synagogue in Philadelphia last week that: 'As president, I will do everything that I can to help (Israel) protect itself ... We will make sure that it can defend itself from any attack, whether it comes from as close as Gaza or as far as Tehran.' Cheney, last month, just prior to meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, had told reporters that: 'America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is our commitment to Israel's right to defend itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,'"

Mahmoud al-Zahar - No Peace Without Hamas - washingtonpost.com GAZA -- President Jimmy Carter's sensible plan to visit the Hamas leadership this week brings honesty and pragmatism to the Middle East while underscoring the fact that American policy has reached its dead end. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acts as if a few alterations here and there would make the hideous straitjacket of apartheid fit better. While Rice persuades Israeli occupation forces to cut a few dozen meaningless roadblocks from among the more than 500 West Bank control points, these forces simultaneously choke off fuel supplies to Gaza; blockade its 1.5 million people; approve illegal housing projects on West Bank land; and attack Gaza City with F-16s, killing men, women and children. Sadly, this is "business as usual" for the Palestinians.