ALI ABUNIMAH
Abunimah wrote an op-ed article that appears in today’s New York Times. He is vice president of the Arab-American Action Network. [AAAN’s offices were burned by an arsonist yesterday, according to investigators. No motive is yet known.] More Information
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RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW
Director of The Shalom Center, Waskow said today: “Shortly before the latest suicide bombings, the mass-circulation right-of-center Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot ran a prominent front-page analysis pointing out that Hamas had suspended suicide bombings, but was sure to return to them, since Sharon had once again turned to assassinating Hamas’ leaders. Surely Sharon knew this as well. What is really going on here is a conspiracy of right-wingers — Palestinian and Israeli, Hamas and Sharon — to shatter any chance of peace. Sharon thinks if he does that, the result will be permanent Israeli control over the West Bank, and probably the piece-by-piece expulsion of the Palestinians. Hamas thinks that over a longer time, the result will be the shattering of Israel. Of course, this analysis does not lessen the horror and inhumanity of the suicide bombings. They are inexcusable — as is Sharon’s callous attitude toward Israeli and Palestinian lives.”
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SIMONA SHARONI
Sharoni, professor of peace and conflict studies and Middle East politics at Evergreen State College, is executive director of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development. On an August 3 news release from IPA, she said: “The targeted assassinations campaign against Palestinian leaders is likely to provoke a violent response. In fact, one wonders if Israel is using these illegal attacks to provoke such a response and then use that as a pretext to reoccupy the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip.” She said today: “Sharon is trying to use the suicide bombings to re-occupy the West Bank and Gaza.”
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FRANCIS BOYLE
Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Boyle said today: “Israel is acting in total violation of international law, including UN resolutions that allowed it into the UN in the first place. If something is not done quite soon to stop Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinians, it could very well degenerate into genocide, literally fit that legal definition — if Israel is not there already. In this regard, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is what international lawyers call a genocidaire — one who has already committed genocide in the past. There is currently a criminal case against Sharon in Belgium, using the Pinochet principle, for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacres against Palestinian refugees. Sharon is ready, willing, and able to inflict genocide yet again upon the Palestinians.”

LAMIS ANDONI
An independent journalist and analyst who has written extensively about the Mideast, Andoni said today: “Israel is sending a message: Either the Palestinian leadership does the dirty work for Israel of repressing the Palestinian people, or it will be eliminated.”
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STEPHEN ZUNES
Zunes, associate professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, is Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus Project.
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; Norman Solomon, (415) 552-5378