What's Happening
in San Jose Vietnamese Community & Interested News:
April 28, 2002: Israel, Arafat Accept Plan to End Siege on Ramallah. The plan calls for U.S. and British monitors to supervise the custody of six Palestinians wanted by the Israelis. At least five of them have been surrounded inside of Arafat's compound for more than a month. In exchange, Israel would agree to allow Arafat to travel freely in the West Bank and Gaza, and it would withdraw its troops from Ramallah where they have kept Arafat under siege since March 29. More CNN.
Fresh Ways to Think About the Mideast. South Africa offers a way to address GRIEVANCES. That Zulu concept, which maintains that there can be no reconciliation without acknowledgement of each other's humanity, provided the framework for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would challenge Palestinians and Israelis to empathize with each other's suffering instead of caring only about their own. Like Lincoln, whose magnanimous Second Inaugural Address -- "with malice for none, with charity for all" -- helped heal a nation deeply divided by the Civil War.
The embittered black majority
heeded Mandela's plea in part because he was speaking not as a black man but
as a human being, and was appealing to blacks to put themselves in the shoes
of Afrikaners and recognize their humanity even though Afrikaners had wantonly
trampled on the humanity of others. Imagine if Yasser Arafat were to acknowledge
Jewish suffering and the dehumanizing atrocities of half a century ago; or
if Ariel Sharon were to acknowledge the pain of being driven, as worthless
refugees, from one's homeland as so many Palestinians have been. More
Wash. Post.
April 27, 2002: Palestinians kill 5 in settlement. Shooting comes after end of Israeli incursion in Qalqiliya. Palestinian gunmen infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the West Bank Saturday and killed five residents, shortly after Israel ended its latest raid on a Palestinian city in search of militants. On Friday, despite a new U.S. call to halt incursions, Israeli troops swept through the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, killing a local militia leader in a firefight. The new incursion came just hours after White House sources told NBC News that they were close to announcing a deal that would end the Israeli siege of Ramallah. More NBC.
April 26, 2002: Israel Raids West Bank City Despite Bush Call. Military Operation Widely Supported in Isreael. The military sweep in Qalqilya and the shooting incident at the Church of Nativity--where Israeli forces have surrounded Palestinian gunmen and clergy members that Israel says are hostages--came just hours after President Bush urged Israel to end its nearly month-long military incursion in the West Bank. More Wash. Post.
April 25, 2002: House votes to abolish INS. Bill would create 2 new agencies to deal with immigration. THE BILL PASSED the House 405-9 just hours after Attorney General John Ashcroft made a special trip up to the Capitol to endorse the legislation. More NBC.
April 23, 2002: U.S. signals shift in Mideast policy. Israel’s strategy of keeping troops on the outskirts of Palestinian-held territory was rejected Monday by the State Department, which renewed a U.S. demand for total withdrawal from the West Bank. The State Department also did not support Israel’s demand that the Palestinians surrender suspects in terror attacks. More NBC.
April 22, 2002: U.S. envoy meets Arafat. A U.S. envoy met Monday with Yasser Arafat to try to resolve the key dispute holding up the start of cease-fire talks standoffs between Israeli troops and wanted men in the Palestinian leader’s West Bank headquarters and Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. More NBC.
April 20, 2002: Guide on Vietnamese experience to debut. WESTMINSTER -- The first-ever guide for teaching junior high and high school students about the Vietnamese-American experience will be unveiled today to a group of local teachers and students. "Vietnamese Americans: Lessons in American History," is a set of lesson plans for seventh through 12th grades. The guide includes background information on how Vietnamese-Americans became the largest Asian population in Orange County, with 135,548 Vietnamese counted in the 2000 census. More OC. Register.
April 17, 2002: Powell’s failure felt beyond Mideast. After a week of meetings with Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Powell did not get the cease-fire he came for. The Israelis turned on electricity for Powell’s visit, but a lone worker rushing to mask the odor of rubbish and urine couldn’t complete his job before Powell’s arrival. Powell’s visit.
But Arafat, though he thanked
Powell for coming, couldn’t contain his anger after their meeting. I
have to ask the whole international world, I have to ask excellency President
Bush, I have to ask the United Nations, is this acceptable that I can’t
go outside the door? said Arafat. This isolation of Arafat is a big concern
for Washington. Unless the Palestinian leader can communicate freely, his
ability to meet the tests the United States’ has set for him is extremely
limited. At his news conference, Powell said that Israel should allow Arafat
a better opportunity to communicate with the rest of the world. More
NBC.
on the global stage, has seen his world reduced to two buildings in his West Bank compound, where offices are cramped with dozens of advisers, soldiers sleep on the floor in shifts and hallways are rank with the odor of sweat. The Palestinian leader has been besieged for 17 days with about 100 to 200 followers, including soldiers and armed security guards, administrative staff and a han
April 15, 2002: Arafat's Offices Are Battered Inside and Out. Food, Water in Short Supply As Illnesses Begin to Spread. Yasser Arafat, a leader accustomed to playing dful of journalists and medical personnel. Israeli snipers are less than 30 yards away from the Palestinian gunmen who peer out of the building through dirty blinds. More Wash. Post.
Apr.13, 2002: Arafat-Powell meeting back on. Announcement follows terror condemnation by Arafat.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Arafat-Powell meeting was set for 11 a.m. local time. More CNN.
Why Suicide Bombing Is Now All The Rage. Among Palestinians, dying to kill has become a noble calling. Here's how the practice went from extreme to mainstream. These days Palestinians celebrate the suicides in newspaper announcements that read, perversely, like wedding invitations. Once upon a time, in the years immediately following that first bombing in 1993, it was a challenge to recruit suicide bombers.
For years after the 1993 Oslo peace accord, which brought limited self-rule to the Palestinians and the prospect of an independent state, polls showed a strong majority of Palestinians supporting the peace process with Israel and only a minority endorsing suicide bombings. "When you see the funerals, the killing of Palestinian civilians, the feelings inside the Palestinians become very strong," "There's enormous despair. There's no meaning to life.".
Killing Israelis, goes this argument, is an act of national self-defense, since the Israelis occupy Palestinian territory, deny the Palestinians their national rights and, in enforcing their rule, frequently kill Palestinian civilians. If the goal is to empower the powerless and shake the foundation of Israeli society, the bombings have proved highly effective.
Presumably the Palestinians would be happy to fight the Israelis conventionally, army against army, but they have no real military. They have no tanks, no air force, no artillery--just a bunch of militias armed with machine guns and, if you count Hamas' illicit arsenal, some mortars and rockets. Israel, on the other hand, has one of the most powerful and modern militaries in the world.
Since the fighting began in September 2000, some 1,200 Palestinians have been killed, compared with some 400 Israelis. That disparity feeds the drive to frighten and punish the enemy with bombings. "As they have war jets and missiles, we have human bombs that can inflict losses on the enemy and achieve some balance. For 35 years, Palestinians have tried every, every, every means to deal with this intolerable occupation," he says. "We tried to coexist with it. It didn't work. We tried demonstrating against it. It didn't work. We tried secret negotiating channels that led to Oslo and assumed it would lead to a Palestinian state. It didn't work."
Israeli security officials concede. "These operations cannot, absolutely cannot, be stopped," says Marzouk. "Nothing, neither policies nor military barricades, can prevent a person who chooses to be a martyr from carrying out his action."Two weeks ago, a neighbor came by to pay a condolence call. She mentioned that she wished she were Mohammed's mother so her son could be a martyr. Ibtisam began crying uncontrollably, and another one of her sons showed the woman out the door. Says Ibtisam: "Palestinian mothers share the sadness of Israeli mothers. A mother is a mother. We are helpless. We can only cry tears." More Times.com.
Apr. 12, 2002: Bombing Rocks Jerusalem After Powell Meets Sharon. At Least 6 Killed, 60 Wounded in Bus Stop Blast. A young woman mingling in a crowd of shoppers this afternoon detonated a powerful explosive strapped to her body, killing six people and injuring as many as 60 on the day that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell began his difficult peace-making efforts in the region. Witnesses described today's bomber as a young girl of small stature. "We are talking about a young woman," said the police chief, Mickey Levy. More Wash. Post.
CARACAS, Venezuela. Chavez quits Venezuelan presidency. Hugo Chavez, the former army paratrooper turned president who polarized Venezuela with his strong-arm rule and whose friendship with Cuba and Iraq irritated the United States, resigned under military pressure Friday after a massive opposition demonstration ended in a bloodbath. Pedro Carmona, head of Venezuela’s largest business association, announced he would head a transitional government to be installed later Friday. More NBC.
Apr. 11, 2002: Defiant Sharon Losing Support in White House. As part of the emerging shift of opinion about the Israeli leader, some White House officials are now making a distinction between support for Israel and support for Sharon. "Sharon is arguably doing what he thinks needs to be done," a senior administration official said. "After he's finished, what's next? The fear is that he knows no other way than being tough." More Wash. Post.
West Bank: A landscape of devastation. But it is safe to say that the infrastructure of life itself and of any future Palestinian state -- roads, schools, electricity pylons, water pipes, telephone lines -- has been devastated. "The Palestinian administration was highly functional, and delivered good services," said Nigel Roberts, the World Bank representative for the West Bank and Gaza. "One of the good stories of the past 19 months was that they managed to maintain a functioning civil administration that delivered basic services, health, education, despite all the problems of delivering these services. Schools were running, municipalities were working, there was a government out there that was functioning." More Seattle P-I.
April 10, 3002: Blast hardens Israeli resolve. The bomber slipped undetected onto the bus near this northern Israeli city, sitting down alongside rush-hour commuters before detonating explosives strapped to his body. Almost two weeks into Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian militants, Wednesday’s blast reminded Israelis that even their massive West Bank military operation can’t keep suicide bombers at bay. More NBC.
April 9, 2002: Powell says he’ll meet with Arafat. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that he intended to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat later this week and offered to put U.S. observers on the ground if it would lead to a truce between Israel and the Palestinians. More NBC.
April 5, 2002: U.S. envoy meets besieged Arafat. Within hours of President Bush’s announcing he will dispatch Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Mideast, Israel allowed the White House’s Mideast envoy to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, still under siege in his West Bank headquarters. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at journalists trying to cover the meeting, and tanks pointed barrels at the group. NBC’s Dana Lewis was arrested by Israeli forces. More NBC.
Attacks Strip Away Foundation of Palestinian Rule. No one was at work on next year's curriculum at the Palestinian Education Ministry. But green-clad Israeli soldiers there seemed interested in the three R's. From a distance, the troops appeared to be rummaging through drawers in the ministry's bare offices. To Palestinians, the end of Arafat and his Palestinian Authority would signal that the long period of halting peace negotiations known as the Oslo process is dead and buried. The Oslo accords, reached in 1993.
The accords also created the authority -- and the ragged dream of autonomous Palestinian areas that would evolve peacefully into a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Arafat himself and the remnants of the authority's administration are the last pieces of Oslo still in place, if only nominally, and represent a thin hope that the dream can be revived.
Palestinians are now more sympathetic toward Arafat and the authority, each of which is now in dire straits, than they had been before. Eighteen months ago, Palestinians complained loudly about Arafat and his authority -- for mismanaging negotiations with Israel and for corruption, incompetence and a bullying style. Now, they cling to the survival of both as a means of stability and source of reconstruction.
The alternative, in the Palestinian view, will likely be the reorganization of society into underground resistance factions and support groups. "There are plenty of recruits for armed action. There are plenty of candidates for suicide bombers," said Samir Huleileh, a businessman and one-time political activist. "The real infrastructure of terror will be 3 million people without hope." More Wash. Post.