Capitol Hill Forum Rips Middle East Policy

[Resistance]

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/2464/

Who’s responsible for getting the U.S. into this Iraqi War quagmire? Try Richard Perle for starters! This was one of the answers given at a public Forum, sponsored by the Institute for Research for Middle East Policy, (IRmep), a think tank. The affair was held in Washington, D.C., in Room 2168, (Gold Room), of the Rayburn Building, on Capitol Hill, Wed., Nov. 26, 2003.

The Forum focused on the deadly ramifications of the now infamous 1996 Middle East policy paper, entitled, “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.” The paper was originally prepared for Israel’s hard right Benjamin Netanyahu regime, but due to the enormous influence of Neocons, like the shadowy Perle, it became, especially after the 9/11 tragedy, a significant part of the hawkish Bush-Cheney Gang’s Middle East policy. It urged, among other things, toppling the government of Iraq, “rolling back” Syria and Iran, and Isolating Palestinian Chairman, Yassar Arafat.

Panel members included Adam Shapiro of the International Solidarity Movement; former congressional candidate and “Million Man March” leader, Dr. E. Faye Williams; Muhammad Khaddam, First Secretary of the Syrian Embassy; Khaled Dawoud, D.C. Bureau chief of “Al-Ahram”; and Adib Farha, adviser of the Lebanese Minister of Finance and also a professor at the Lebanese American U. in Beirut, Lebanon.

Mr. Shapiro reminded the audience of how the Israelis had killed Rachel Corrie, a peace and justice activist from Olympia, WA, on March 16, 2003, by using a bulldozer to run her over. She was at Rafah, in Gaza, at the time protesting the Israelis’ brutal collective punishment policy directed at destroying the homes and vineyards of innocent Palestinians. He said the failure of the Bush administration and the Congress to demand an “independent investigation” regarding Corrie’s death is evidence of “weakness and cowardice.” Shapiro urged Americans to “stop funding the Israeli Occupation, to support the peace makers, to bring down the ‘Wall’ and to end the Occupation.”

[Resistance]

1. link and C-Span video

http://www.irmep.org/Defaults.asp

what is "A Clean Break?" What are the plan's core assumptions? How has it affected US regional policy? What insights does it reveal about US policy initiatives in the Middle East? How do Arab countries perceive current US regional policy? Are Clean Break assumptions and strategies beneficial to US interests? What are the potential costs? The IRmep Capitol Hill Forum took place on Wednesday, November 26th 2003 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in the Gold Room of the Rayburn Congressional House
Office Building. Our distinguished and diverse panel of experts and IRmep analysts reviewed the implications of A Clean Break and took questions from the public. Panel members included Adam Shapiro of the International Solidarity Movement, former congressional candidate and Million Man March
leader Dr. E. Faye Williams, Muhammad Khaddam, First Secretary of the Syrian Embassy; Khaled Dawoud, D.C. bureau chief of Al-Ahram; and Adib Farha, adviser of the Lebanese Minister of Finance and professor at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon.

[Resistance]

2. I'm glad Shapiro was there

to remind people that Israeli forces did indeed murder an American peace worker with a bulldozer.