Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Israel Just says NO to a Just Peace - Part 2

Today is Day 14,318 of the Maintenance of the Immoral (and Illegal) West Bank Settlements and more than 40 years since the start of the immoral (and illegal) occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Rabbi Akiva - “ ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18) - this is the major principle of the Torah.”

Israel Just Says NO to a Just Peace

Infuriating!!!

What a way to start another day!!

The supreme court has been taken over by five judges who surprisingly enough did not graduate from Regent Law School. Remember them? They are the ones who, against the opinion of constitutional scholars, took the case which resulted in George Bush becoming President of the United States in 2000. How did that work out? Yesterday they stopped a young person who put up a banner that (oh my God) might have been interpreted as supporting the use of drugs but they (oh my God) agreed that drug companies should be permitted to pour millions of dollars into the election for president. While we are on that subject (oh my God) on the positive side they did stop an atheist challenge to the government giving money to God-fearing charities.

The vice-president says that he is independent of the executive branch and the legislature. As has been suggested, that makes him an independent multi-national entity or country. Who knew? Probably anyone who has read the three part series in the Washington Post about Dick Cheney or anyone who has not been under a rock since 1969.

Here in Boston, an 8 year old was accidentally shot to death with a handgun by his 7 year old cousin. Wouldn’t you think that someone would suggest that there be some kind of a ban on the possession of handguns? Oh, what was I thinking? If guns were banned only outlaws would have guns!!??

In Iraq, five sheiks and a political official supporting the arming of Sunni Arab tribes to fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq were among 12 people killed yesterday in a massive bomb blast at a heavily guarded Baghdad hotel. Why is Al Qaeda in Iraq? Oh yeh, because the United States invaded the country, has been responsible for the deaths of over 3,500 US soldiers, has either killed or been responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis, has been responsible for the civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites and created the conditions suitable for the growth of Al Qaeda.

And now in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza where brutality, injustice and stupidity (or insanity) is mistaken for acceptable political behavior, the government of Israel (“GOI”) continues to take steps to insure that one by one every country in the world will consider Israel as the greatest threat to peace next to the United States.

In the next edition of the Webster’s International Dictionary, a picture of Ehud Olmert will be placed next to the definition of both hypocritical (possessing beliefs one does not have) and disingenuous (not straightforward or candid, crafty)

Is there anyone, anyone, out there who now honestly believes that the GOI will participate in an effort to bring about a just peace for the Palestinians in the West Bank or in Gaza?

Todays article in the Boston Globe describes the participation by Mr Olmert in the discussion with three other leaders in Sharm el-Sheik, Jordan's King Abdullah II, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Abbas. This is another in a series of pretend moves by the GOI to give the slightest appearance that it is, what is the phrase that is used in American Jewish Committee million dollar marketing campaigns, “constantly striving for peace”.

At the conference Mr. Olmert reportedly said that he would release 250 Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails “who do not have blood on their hands” in an effort to strengthen Abbas’s position in the Palestinian territories.

Don’t you wonder why they are in jail in the first place? Was it: for writing articles opposing the occupation; for complaining about the wait in line at a checkpoint; or for jaywalking during a helicopter attack in Gaza?

Don’t you wonder how many Fatah prisoners are in Israeli jails “without blood on their hands”?

Don’t you wonder how many Hamas prisoners are in Israeli jails “without blood on their hands”?

Don’t you wonder how many of these prisoners are being held in jails under administrative detention and have never been charged with a crime and have never had a day in court and how many have been sentenced after having been tried in a court of law?

And if you believe, as I do, that the release of that number of prisoners (probably held with as much evidence as the United States has for holding detainees in Guantanamo) is likely to do nothing except increase the anger and frustration of the Palestinians who know that so many of their family members remain in the custody of the GOI with no justification, then you know that the GOI is aware that it is giving very little and that this move will not strengthen Abbas. This is an example of hypocrisy: the GOI vows to support Abbas and then acts in a way to undermine him.

“Olmert also pledged to make it easier for Palestinians to travel in the West Bank and to renew trade ties between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinians have called on Israel to remove some of the 500 checkpoints that strangle commerce and restrict movement for 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. But Israeli military officials have advised the government against such a move, citing fears of new suicide attacks.”

Another disingenuous pledge, a transparent and false manipulative use of “security” blamed on the military. There are only a few checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel. The other 400 or so are within the West Bank and are there either to protect the Jewish Israeli squatters (which makes it clear that the government of Israel has no intention of dismantling the squatterments) or to harass the Palestinians (so that family by family they will leave “judea and samaria”). I have not read (although there might be such cases) of a suicide bomber attempting to cross a road closure or checkpoint to get to a squatterment in the West Bank.

“But they parted ways on the topic of how best to bolster Abbas and create a new Israeli-Palestinina peace process. Olmert voiced strong support for the Palestinian president. Unlike Hamas leaders, Abbas has renounced violence, recognizes Israel, and is committed to a two-state peace agreement. Olmert rebuffed Egyptian, Jordanian, and Palestinian demands for an immediate resumption of peace talks and a timeline for a final deal to create a Palestinian state. Abdullah told the gathering that unless Israel makes such broad gestures, hope will fade for moderate Palestinians and the forces of militancy will grow stronger.”

“Israeli officials said that such developments were impossible as long as the split between the Abbas-backed government in the West Bank and the Hamas-led government in Gaza was not resolved.”

Aaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhh!!!!!

I wish I had the ability to marshall the facts and the laws in order to express in a forceful and persuasive way how disingenuous this statement is. Let me try my best:

Now who is it that recently was not a partner for peace? Oh, yeh, Fatah and Abbas, the representative of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

And who is it that the GOI is providing strong support for and vows to support? Oh yeh, Fatah and Abbas.

But who is it that arose out of the failure of the GOI to work for a just peace? Hamas.

And who was it that was democratically elected to lead the Palestinians? Hamas.

And who is the United States and the GOI providing financial support for in a desperate last ditch attempt to prevent Hamas from eventually gaining control over the West Bank? Fatah and Abbas.

And what is likely to happen in the West Bank if the GOI fails to enter into serious peace with justice negotiations? A civil war between Hamas and Fatah with many deaths and injuries to militants and innocent Palestinian men, women and children.

The GOI knows that Fatah is weak and that Hamas is growing stronger and gaining more and more support every day among Palestinians. The comment of the "Israeli officials", if it is true that they made it, that the resolution of the split between Fatah and Hamas is a precondition to peace talks, is the equivalent of the clock striking thirteen. No longer can anyone take seriously the OGI excuses; i.e., the Palestinians must stop their violence, there is no partner for peace, there can never be a Palestinian right of return.

I know I have not been able to do it well. There is such arrogance in the GOI when they make such an absurd excuse for not wanting to work for peace. To its credit, however, it has learned over the years that it CAN fully exhibit hypocrisy and there is no huge negative response or even analysis on the part of the media.

As an example, the headline of the Boston Globe article was:

“Israeli and Arab leaders vow to back Abbas”

He or she shares some of the blame for the ongoing bias of the media against Judeo-Christian and Islamic core values. What was the reason he or she did not add this fact based subtitle:

“But the Israeli Leader Does Not Agree to Take Any Genuine Action to Accomplish This”

The GOI will, until forced by the United States (only possible after the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney or the election of 2008, whichever comes first) or the United Nations, continue to avoid all attempts to enter into genuice peace talks and to make statements so disingenuous as to cause disgust not only to those who hold dear the core values of Judaism but anyone who believes in international law and justice.

The reality is that the GOI has no intention of ending the hundreds of road closures, road blockades and checkpoints that prohibit movement by the Palestinians, no intention of dismantling the illegal and immoral squatterments, no intention of moving its borders back to the 1967 green line and, in fact, no intention of ever allowing the creation of an independent, viable, contiguous state for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Can’t anyone bring the pressure needed to get the GOI to pursue justice?

Deuteronomy 16:20 – “Justice, justice shall you pursue that you may live and inherit the land which God gave you” and the footnote in the 1980 Hertz Edition “(T)here is international justice, which demands respect for the personality of every national group, and proclaims that no people can of right be robbed of its national life or territory, its language or spiritual heritage.

2 comments:

janinsanfran said...

Keep on keeping on, brother.

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