Letters to the Editor, November 21, 2005

The Time Is Right for a Different Demonstration

The United States Congress has shown by a vote of 403 to 3 that it is grossly out of step with the will of the people they supposedly represent. An ongoing poll of politically active Americans conducted by PhxNews.com shows that 55 percent of Americans believe the United States should pull US troops out of Iraq ( http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=28411 ).

By proclaiming that the United States will "stay in the fight until victory in Iraq" President Bush similarly threw mud in the face of the majority of Americans, those Americans who know that US forces don't belong in Iraq and never did.

One of the most common objections to our immediate withdrawal from Iraq is the claim by the Bush administration that our presence is needed to maintain order and to prevent anarchy and instability. Iraqis, on the other hand, have stated clearly many times that order and stability will never be restored as long as US forces remain in Iraq.

Iraqis now have an unusual opportunity to demonstrate to the world that they control Iraq. By ceasing all hostilities for a period that is long enough to be noticed (say, 48 hours), Iraqis can demonstrate that American forces do not maintain order and stability; Iraqis do.

Mark Yannone

Catholic Church in Occupied Palestine being Taxed by illegal Occupiers

The hypocrisy of the Israeli Occupiers trying to Tax the Church on its Property & Buildings is hutsba being practiced at a new higher level. The FATHER of first Church in Jerusalem forced the Money Changers out of the Temples. Now to day this bunch of Money Changers are trying to tax the Church on lands they do not even have Legal Rights to be administering under International Law. For the Church to bow down and pay Taxes to them would recognize their authority over Palestinian Lands in legal dispute, and Church sovereignty.

Haaretz reports that "Israel strongly resists giving any special tax exemptions to the Vatican "---Israel has tried to convince the U.S. government that it has already done all it can for the Vatican." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/646993.html

It dose make one ask what was the Tax Agreement & Land Rights with the Palestinian Authority under its late President Arafat and the Church. The occupiers most likely would look at that agreement as flawed as President Arafat's Wife was a Catholic Christian. And President Arafat Attending Christmas Mass in Jerusalem (Until he was denied this right by the occupiers) as being favorable to the Christian Church.

If the state of Israel is ever given Legal Rights to the lands of Palestine taken at the point of a gun in its preemptive invasion of Palestine in 1967 & its Original Agreement made with the UN on its founding in 1947-48, a tax agreement might be in line with the tax agreement they have with their State Religion for buildings & lands minus whatever the Israeli State gives to them.

Ronald Douglas Kennedy, CA, USA