From Challenge # 77

January-February 2003

In This Issue 

Again an Israeli government has failed to complete its term. Likud and Labor stood shoulder to shoulder: United They Fall. Divided, they also fall. The impasse with the Palestinians brings each government down, as a stymied Nation Shifts to the Right. Ridden by scandals of corruption in the Likud, PM Ariel Sharon attempts to Manipulate the public into war hysteria. Soon we won't know which line to stand on: gas-masks, voting, or free soup. If Sharon is smart, he'll combine them. 

The rightward shift leaves the Arab parties without a political anchor. After ten years of supporting Labor candidates, they Pay the Price: indifference on the Arab street, and on the Israeli, a right-wing witch-hunt. 

A Fence is rising on the West Bank with a remarkable capacity for Eating Olives. We went to observe this phenomenon and to talk with the villagers of Qaffin, who are losing their livelihood to it.

Is it all gloom and doom? Do we see no hope? Not in the present labyrinth of power, all of whose paths are non-starters. But the ODA (Da'am), a leftist party, is Running for Parliament, building an alternative. Challenge interviews its candidates. WAC has put more than 400 Arab workers back at the construction sites (it was 150 two issues ago). See the report on its visit to the ESF in Firenze. And 2002 was the Year of Conscientious Objection. More than 200 Israelis went to prison rather than serve. They are a glimmer of hope, a pointer toward the only way out.

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Challenge wants to wish you a year of No War on Iraq. Thank you for reading and supporting us in the struggle for a Middle East of justice – a world of justice.

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