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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Peter Chamberlin

10/9/07

“But the book [The Israel Lobby], and the response to it, open up another controversy: the stifling of debate about unconditional U.S. support for Israeli policies… They work diligently to silence those who question ill-conceived policies of the Israeli and U.S. governments… the stifling of dissent… Even Walt and Mearsheimer, who are getting plenty of exposure, couldn’t have asked for better proof of their point that the lobby works to stifle dissent… Unless this atmosphere of intimidation is confronted, Americans will continue to lack access to information and perspectives necessary to formulate effective Middle East policies, virtually ensuring that Israel and the United States will be at war for many years to come.”

“Dissenting at Your Own Risk” http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/255318.html 

By CECILIE SURASKY, Jewish Voice for Peace http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/ 

Time is running out for the Zionists, time is catching up with them. If they panic now, everything is exposed; all their big dreams threaten to fail.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Ramzy Baroud

10/1/07

The assassination of Lebanese politician Antoine Ghanem on September 19 is likely to be used, predictably, to further US and Israeli interests in the region. Most Western and some Arab media have industriously argued that Syria is the greatest beneficiary from the death of Ghanem, a member of the Phalange party responsible for much of Lebanon’s bloodshed during the civil war years between 1975 and 1990. The reasoning provided is that Syria needs to maintain a measure of political control over Lebanon after being pressured to withdraw its troops. This political clout could only be maintained through the purging of anti-Syrian critics in Lebanon, and by ensuring a Lebanese parliament friendly to Syria. And indeed, with the elimination of Ghanem, the anti-Syrian coalition at the fractious Lebanese parliament is now left with an even slimmer majority - 68 MPs in a 128-member assembly.

Case solved.

Or is it?

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Peter Chamberlin

9/30/07

“To oppose the policies of a government does not mean you are against the country or the people that the government supposedly represents. Such opposition should be called what it really is: democracy, or democratic dissent, or having a critical perspective about what your leaders are doing. Either we have the right to democratic dissent and criticism of these policies or we all lie down and let the leader, the Fuhrer, do what is best, while we follow uncritically, and obey whatever he commands. That’s just what the Germans did with Hitler, and look where it got them.”

—Michael Parenti, author http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Fascism.html 

All of us who read these pages, on this side of the Internet, are stuck on the same unanswerable question: How can we stop this new war against Iran, before the “decider” pulls the trigger? The closest that anyone can come to an answer is expressed in the idea of rousing the American majority to take democratic action to oppose this rapidly approaching heinous act of pure evil. This leads to the question of “how?” Because Americans have been raised in a controlled illusory environment (which has been fabricated by decades of corporate/government brainwashing), like rats in cages, and because of the very effective “filtering” system on all public communications systems, it is practically impossible for the “Paul Reveres” of the Internet to awaken the town.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

Rana Ghassan’s “David and Goliath”

By Ramzy Baroud

9/27/07

When one commits to the life of an active citizen, spending their hours days and years reading and writing about current events, it becomes a daily struggle to overcome the cynicism that chases after you with the despairing headlines marking each newspaper or magazine. Rare is it when someone or something comes along to revive the feelings of courage, tenacity and wilfulness of the young and hopeful activist.

In my office, hanging above the fireplace in conspicuous view from any part of the room is a large print of Rana Ghassan’s “David and Goliath”. It has been placed in a strategic location, where beholding it daily is unavoidable. I am forced to study the foreboding danger portrayed as soldiers gather in the distant dust. I must consider that the young faceless boy in the work stands with no barricade to protect him, no riot gear, armoured vehicle, just a worn-out cotton t-shirt and a steadfastness that can move mountains.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Peter Chamberlin

9/16/07

Zionist leaders have taught that Israel can only exist, that it can only have peace and security, by beating the Palestinians (and indeed the entire Arab world) into total submission to its demands. Since the earliest days, Zionist leaders have recognized the need to forcefully dictate terms of surrender to the Palestinians, to the Arab world, even to all the Jews of the diaspora, in order to colonize the land formerly known as Israel. The central demand in this involuntary agreement calls for a Jewish majority to be established in Eretz Yisrael by physical intimidation (including the West Bank and Gaza) and absolute Israeli dominance over all the land of “Greater Israel” (from southern Turkey to the Nile River, all the way to the Euphrates River). [1]

The militant teachings of Vladimir (”Wolf”) Jabotinsky, the father of Jewish self-defense and creator of the Iron Wall doctrine, have formed the basis for all Israeli government policies toward the native Palestinian population. [2] The Iron Wall doctrine envisioned by him has been given physical form in the great wall dividing them from the Palestinians. [3] These policies call for the use force, restrictions and imposed suffering, to drive the Palestinians to desperation and eventual resignation to their imposed fate. To quote David Ben-Gurion, “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.” [4] (David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978)

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

Reacting to the decision, Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, said, “They can deny me tenure, deny me the right to teach. But they will never stop me from saying what I believe.”

[NOTICE TO OUR ESTEEMED READERS: Cyrano’s Journal Online/Thomas Paine’s Corner has weathered numerous contradictory and false accusations concerning our stance on Israel and Zionism. Some assert that we are “Jewish conspirators”; others contend we are “anti-Semitic”; and there are even those who characterize us as “Zionists.” Guess what, folks? We are none of the above!

As a declaration of our position on the highly contentious subject of Israel and the Palestinians, we are throwing our full support behind people of all races, religions, ethnicities, nationalities, and political stripes who oppose Zionism and the myriad miseries it has rained down upon the Palestinian people. We salute bold groups like Jews for a Just Peace, intrepid Jewish American academics like Norman Finkelstein, and many courageous Jewish people within the state of Israel (including much-decorated members of the IDF and Israel’s brave peace movement) who vehemently oppose the horrific crimes their state commits against the Palestinians (with the full approval and financial backing of the filthy plutocracy ruling the United States)—The editors]

06.21.2007 | www.mostlywater.org

By Yom Shamash, on behalf of
Jews for a Just Peace, Vancouver, B.C.

Vancouver, British Columbia – On the eighth of June, DePaul University in Chicago denied tenure to one of the world experts on the Israel/Palestine conflict, Norman G. Finkelstein. There’s been a great uproar on campus and worldwide because it is well known that Prof. Finkelstein’s contract was terminated as a result of intervention from outside the university, and ultimately because of the power of his ideas. In a book entitled The Holocaust Industry, Dr. Finkelstein argues that since 1967 Zionist organizations and certain Jewish leaders have capitalized on the memory of the Holocaust to generate wealth and power for themselves and to silence criticism of Israel’s [war] crimes against Palestinians. Professor Finkelstein’s ideas are dangerous, and he has paid the price, losing his position in academia despite his tremendous intellectual productivity – 5 books in 12 years.

We, Jews for a Just Peace, write this statement because we are disturbed by the events at DePaul. We have been impressed by Dr. Finkelstein’s incisive analysis and passionate defense of human rights and international law in the context of Israel/Palestine. We take this opportunity to share our thoughts about the relationship between his dismissal and the struggle to which we are committed.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

“The total of dead and displaced comes to 20 percent of the Iraqi population. If this is not fanaticism on the part of the Bush administration, what is it? Certainly it is not reason, tolerance, and deliberation.”

BY PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Dateline: September 5, 2007

President Jimmy Carter was demonized for pointing out in his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, that there are actually two sides to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Distinguished American scholars, such as John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have suffered the same fate for documenting the excessive influence the Israel Lobby has on US foreign policy.

Americans would be astonished at the criticisms in the Israeli press of the Israeli government’s policies toward the Palestinians and Arabs generally. In Israel facts are still part of the discussion. If the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, could replace Fox “News,” CNN, New York Times and Washington Post, Americans would know the truth about US and Israeli policies in the MIddle East and their likely consequences.

On September 1, Haaretz reported that Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, which represents 900 Congregations and 1.5 million Jews, “accused American media, politicians and religious groups of demonizing Islam” and turning Muslims into “satanic figures.”

Rabbi Yoffie is certainly correct. In America there is only one side to the issue. An entire industry has been created that is devoted to demonizing Islam. Books abound that misrepresent Islam as the greatest possible threat to Western Civilization and seek to instill fear and hatred of Muslims in Americans. For example, Norman Podhoretz proclaims “World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism.” Daniel Pipes shrieks that “Militant Islam Reaches America.” Lee Harris warns of “The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam’s Threat to the West.”

Think tanks have well-funded Middle East programs, the purpose of which is to spread Islamophobia. Fear and loathing pour out of the Middle East Forum and the American Enterprise Institute.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

Jim Miles Reviews Hamas – A History from Within by Azzam Tamimi. Olive Branch Press, Northampton, Massachusetts. 2007.

9/5/07

Most of the world knows the superficial history of Hamas as presented by western media, the stories of the suicide bombers, the election results that were argued to be a vote against the PLO/Fatah but not for Hamas, the resulting denial of that democratic vote by all western governments, and most recently, the Hamas takeover of the dysfunctional governance of the Gaza Strip. Azzam Tamimi’s book, Hamas – a History from Within, presents a much broader and much more accurate perspective on a group that has had much more significance for the Palestinian people than simply being a militant suicidal terrorist group.

Consistent with the title, Tamimi presents a history that shows Hamas’ development from its roots within the Muslim Brotherhood, from its aspects of international cooperation and denial, and from ‘within’ – the development of the ideas, policies, and implementation of ideas that is rarely seen in western media sources. It is not a fawning sycophantic review, as it also reveals the internal struggles within Hamas between the various people and political institutions involved in its history and development, and further reveals the precarious hold it had on survival, a survival that became ensured only with the advent of more serious Israeli atrocities during the first Intifada.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Tony Dillon

9/4/07

The functional if chilling calculus of the Cold War has given way to the hot headed fundamentalist terror of a troika of gratuitous murderers, an obtuse triangle of Judeo-Christian-Muslim fanatics who are intent on destroying each other and the rest of us if we get in their way. That’s the standard menu anyway unless you’re an outsider with your own opinion, harboring a radical agenda beyond the memory hole of accepted conventional “wisdom”. In the Middle East where the dogma of a thousand eyes for an eye is practised by a punch drunk Amerika at an ever more frenetic pace as apartheid appendage Israel (with its Zionist master plan fist in glove with the Bush cabal’s hallucination of a permanent Amerikan Reich) revels with Amerika in the shredded flesh and blood of their victims as they blow their enemies to bits ad nauseam.

Bush the mentally handicapped “southern” craw thumper bashing his biblical road-map on his way to world disorder and hell with his sanctimonious and sacrilegious justification of the daily butchering of innocents in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the name of “family values” and corporate profit for the bottom feeders that incited the Bush machine to this madness, he perpetually lies through teeth to keep his handlers’ machinery of war economics grinding, defiling the very idea of the God he hypocritically invokes. Amerika and its Straussian Machiavellian primitives mouth their “democratic” claptrap to a dumbed-down nation desecrating everything they touch as Bush the Lesser spews his fire and brimstone hate-filled cant direct from the Old Testament.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Peter Chamberlin

9/3/07

The Bush war plan (the “Road Map” to peace) in the Middle East has let the “genie” out of the bottle. Forces that were once restrained by diplomacy and the projection of American force have been set in motion and now seek their own resolution. The wonderful Neocon plan to remake the region by force has weakened America’s ability to shape the outcome of the ongoing conflict, but it has not yet taken this capability from us. For the sake of maintaining a semblance of control and influence in the unfolding conflagration, America must come down on the side of peace, instead of fomenting the destabilizing conflict.

The Soviets (that’s right, I didn’t say “Russians”) are acting as a stabilizing force for the region with their moves to expand their protection of Syria and to defend their rights to deal with the Iranians. If not for open Soviet backing for these two black-listed regimes in their confrontation with the United States, it is very likely that things may have been resolved forcibly by now. By the same line of reasoning, if not for the successful resistance against American military power in Iraq, we would now be living in a post-Iraqi/Iranian world, as citizens of the “New World Order”. The natural flow of weaponry into the region, to those wanting them, is a big part of the problem, to those seeking the path to peace in the region.

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