tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41110042969533885342024-03-05T06:37:34.112+02:00Between Worlds*************************** Life, politics, faith, culture, peace, humanity and in-humanity; with an emphasis on the painful man-made context of Palestine/Israel *****************************
************** Vie, politique, foi, culture, paix, humanité et in-humanité; avec un intérêt particulier pour la situation en Palestine/Israël **************Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-53205597227649532242015-08-23T23:50:00.000+03:002015-09-25T04:59:27.811+03:00Non-violence? Maybe. Lesser-violence, always.A crazy guy, probably somehow related to ISIS, Al Qaeda or some other radical religious (Muslim in this case) terrorist organization, boarded a train from Belgium to Paris and was stopped by 4 courageous other guys. You can read all about it if you missed it <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/world/europe/americans-recount-gunmans-attack-on-train-to-france.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj45uZANm59kobsWHDeEciQM-2-rrmwh5TOb_-xan7yFUKFLMLGv04DeD57BjBaCbHoC0EbxVDL_UvKTdJWciFi73yJe3An09TRkb3kLxx3qTAc0Ie91mNZkmkOB9Vgy0quvekm0itVtsjn/s1600/rtx1p54p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj45uZANm59kobsWHDeEciQM-2-rrmwh5TOb_-xan7yFUKFLMLGv04DeD57BjBaCbHoC0EbxVDL_UvKTdJWciFi73yJe3An09TRkb3kLxx3qTAc0Ie91mNZkmkOB9Vgy0quvekm0itVtsjn/s400/rtx1p54p.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, and Chris Norman [Spencer Stone was under treatment]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Of course, I'm very grateful that the guy's AK-47 jammed, and that he didn't know how to handle his firearms. I'm also grateful for the rapid and courageous actions of the two American army guys and the British citizen who grabbed him, disarmed him and knocked him out. Thanks guys.<br />
<br />
I want to take this story as an illustration of a long-lasting discussion about non-violence, and the "what if" argument.<br />
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Background: Non-violent activists feel they have to answer the question of "what if ... someone came with a knife/gun/machete to kill your baby/mother/whoever? would you then use violence?" Hardcore non-violent activists and to me idealists usually dance around, bend over backward to try to land on their feet and say that they have a response to this, and yet would not have to use violence. The reason why I want to address this question is because of an internal tension that I live with, vis-à-vis non-violence. I am a bit of an idealist myself, so I need to resolve these things to move on. Sorry.<br />
<br />
I've been told that when writing in English, you first have to state upfront where you want to take the reader. So here's my 'thesis' of sorts:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Non-violence is a fantastic ideal, with 1,001 urgent and immediate applications needed right now.</li>
<li>As all panaceas it fails and breaks down somewhere. Maybe at a prophetic level, it lives on in eternal glory, but very few of us are the Messiah, and as a practical philosophy in the here and now for very fallible humans, there is a place where it breaks down -- the "what if" moment. By trying to stick to non-violence as an absolute rule valid in all situations, non-violence activists undermine their cause.</li>
<li>Where non-violence meets its frontier, lesser-violence remains valid and essential.</li>
</ol>
Let's get to it rapidly (this is a blog - I should be halfway out of here by now, dammit.)<br />
<br />
I'll skip over point 1 -- if you need to be convinced of the power, value, merit and ethos of non-violence, <a href="http://littletownofbethlehem.org/" target="_blank">watch this movie</a> and call me in the morning.<br />
<br />
Now let's look at the Brussels-Paris train story.<br />
<br />
It's no accident that the train controller ran away and that military trained people rushed the madman. We react differently to fear and the fight-or-flight instinct. Military training presumably selects and boosts the "fight" part of the equation in humans. But let's look at this story as a "what if" case study. What if... you were a nonviolence believer and saw the guy load his AK-47 and shoot off a bullet in a window as he did? I see a couple of options:<br />
<br />
<b>a- Run away. </b><br />
No non-violence activist would claim this as the response. Non-violence activists are far from cowards and have not given up on protecting their neighbor. I don't see one actually run away on account of philosophy. (Instincts are a very different thing.)<br />
<br />
<b>b- Address the root causes for the madman's recourse to violence. </b><br />
This is obviously a stupid contention, but I must address it because some proponents of non-violence have recourse to it.<br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Obviously, the root causes of why some young mostly men from mostly Arab and so-called Muslim lands turn to terror need to be addressed. If you know me, you must at least acknowledge that I don't think that this happens in a vacuum, I don't think 'our' hands are clean, and I am not blind to so-called Christian or so-called Jewish insanity. I even blame so-called humanists on occasion -- my misanthropy is universal, so you won't see me blame Islam and make it a scapegoat.]</span></i><br />
<br />
At the time of the "what if" question, you have 10 meters between you and a gunman. That gives you 1 to 5 seconds to take action, run, stand still, start debating, screaming, or waving your hands. None of these things can address the root causes of the madman's violence.<br />
<br />
<b>c- Move toward the gunman, hand raised, with calls to peace and quiet to soothe him, make a connection and convince him to stop his efforts and surrender to the police.</b><br />
Well, who knows? This might work. But as a miracle. And miracles are by definition rare occurrences.<br />
It doesn't mean that once in a while a person cannot feel the grace of the prophets fall on their shoulders. Maybe one can be called to be indeed a prophet of Old Testament and Messianic proportions. And if in addition to that you are reading my blog, I'm just thrilled. But seriously, while such a radical action could take place (not in 10 secs) in one place, one time (and I'm quite certain there are examples), it is statistically more likely that this would result in simply getting killed, leaving a madman to pursue his or her killing rage.<br />
<br />
And honestly, don't refer me to MLK or Gandhi to argue for this miraculous, prophetic action. Neither MLK, nor Gandhi were ever in this situation. And I for one, have trouble picturing MLK standing at a distance from the gunman to avoid acting in violence. You may have trouble picturing him jumping the guy. But neither of us has any evidence. This simply did not happen.<br />
<br />
What I can picture is that if absolute non-violence were the prevailing ethos in the three men who subdued the Brussels-to-Paris train shooter, chances are that a lot more people would have been injured and would have died. Their non-violence would have yielded a lot more violence and deaths.<br />
<br />
One might argue a moral success (I wouldn't) to this hypothetical choice, but from a strategic perspective it would be a failure. Both in terms of the immediate body count -- failure - and in terms of the triggering of more violence -- greater rage and failure, greater failure.<br />
<br />
<b>d- Use force to subdue the gunman.</b><br />
Using force against a person is called "violence" in my book. If this is not the case, then non-violence activists should clearly state that non-violence allows you to punch someone in the face (and in so doing agree with me for a logic of lesser-violence.)<br />
<br />
In the incident under review, three guys, at least two of them professionally trained, used violence to subdue a criminal and in the process stopped a greater violence. A couple of observations are worth a mention:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><b>They instinctively or purposefully chose "lesser-violence". </b><br />Having disarmed the man and gotten a hold of his AK-47, Alek Skarlatos might have chosen to put a bullet in his head. He did not. He used the butt of the gun to knock him unconscious.This says a lot. Compare, for example, with the indiscriminate use of violence that US police forces are encouraged to follow. Much has happened in terms of violence from US policemen on African-Americans, but it's also happened with Caucasian-Americans (albeit not in the same proportions) and once with a senior citizen leaving a Florida flight disoriented. Lesser-violence avoids lethal violence as much as possible. One would hope police forces got the memo.<br /></li>
<li><b>Non-lethal violence was possible because of circumstances.</b><br />At least two of the three guys who intervened were trained fighters. One of them knew how to use a choke hold, and the other knocked the criminal unconscious. In other circumstances -- imagine that the criminal's guns had worked rather than jammed, the guys who jumped him could not have covered the distance and lived. They would have been unable to stop him with a choke hold.<br /><br />Now imagine that he had working guns and started shooting, and that one of the intervening passengers, or a policeman/policewoman had had a gun, the lesser-violence action would have been to shoot him down. Bullets are more lethal than choke holds. The consequences of that violence on the killer would have been greater. But again, this would have been the lesser-violence alternative to letting him kill innocent travelers.<br /><br />Bottom line: the circumstances dictated what level of violence was required to stop the greater violence. If you have half a second, you have to shoot. If you have 10 seconds to cover the distance, you don't need to shoot. If you have 10 years, you can build a relationship and change the root causes of this man's madness. If you have a generation, you can change the world so that fewer men/women are born inclined to such madness.</li>
</ol>
<div>
See, the more time you have, the more non-violence becomes fundamental. So non-violence is urgently needed to thwart tomorrow's violence.</div>
<div>
For today's violence, we may have to opt for lesser-violence.</div>
<div>
And greater violence today is going to yield more and more violence tomorrow. So lesser-violence is an absolute must.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I realize that these observations can be misused by some people to legitimate violence of their choosing. Sure. But I don't think people like Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Mohamed Atta, Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi or Benyamin Netanyahu are waiting for my blog to settle their conscience (I'm not <i>comparing </i>them; I'm grouping together people who believe in the healing power of lethal violence to defend their cause). The manipulation of an argument to justify one's crimes can work in the court of public opinion. But I'm an idealist who believes in right and wrong at some level, and I believe in human conscience -- I even believe that a mysterious creator may have gifted it to us through a set of amino acids which form our DNA, and through social learning. So you can buy the New York Times off, Fox News, and <a href="https://www.iraqbodycount.org/" target="_blank">sell your war</a>. You can capture the hearts of confused young people to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/my-madrassa-classmate-hated-politics-then-joined-the-islamic-state/2015/08/21/b8ebe826-4769-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html" target="_blank">sell them your jihad</a> (war in another language). That doesn't make you right or righteous in my book. Misuse of a rationale does not make it any less rational- it just makes you more corrupt.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I am making an argument for lesser-violence and for freeing the tremendous potential of nonviolence as an inspiring ethos, by freeing it from an artificial and pointless argument.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
1,500 words.</div>
<div>
I really suck at blogging.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Peace,</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Elrig </div>
<br />Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-27235560221552959972013-01-29T04:17:00.001+02:002013-01-29T04:17:17.332+02:00<div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><a name="igagkyarip" title="bbbennnqqpwsha" href="http://www.hansdampf.de/tmp/greatlifesz.php">http://www.hansdampf.de/tmp/greatlifesz.php</a><br><br><br>======================================<br>Bob B</div></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-69568779709045053482011-06-24T00:18:00.000+03:002011-06-24T00:19:38.851+03:00A CBS, Bob Simons Report<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/A7XtT91yO6g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-47273708585672151042011-04-04T22:11:00.002+03:002011-04-04T22:16:41.033+03:00No Surprise: More Conquest by Israel<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SWDwf1YJjSpdnm9mdtUxd-YtMmWuFNF1qdNxU1p7YUr2-XWVruHYkOgOGN3PLcAkkeC31ebJacXfe0ytWfyvwmJ6uinRgRXR4zEavLmbZYefBdIGILQe7Ieo6FH59MfsLnoqtjSr-wx8/s1600/Israeli-settlement-EI.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 190px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SWDwf1YJjSpdnm9mdtUxd-YtMmWuFNF1qdNxU1p7YUr2-XWVruHYkOgOGN3PLcAkkeC31ebJacXfe0ytWfyvwmJ6uinRgRXR4zEavLmbZYefBdIGILQe7Ieo6FH59MfsLnoqtjSr-wx8/s320/Israeli-settlement-EI.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591809268567338914" /></a>To those familiar with Israeli policies, the news today are an absolute non-event.<div><br /></div><div>But it's worth reminding folks that Israel has no credibility has pursuing peace when it continues conquest, home demolitions and settlement expansion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well -- no credibility except with 90% of the US Congress and about half to 60% of the US Jewish and Christian population--the loud constituency--which believes it is Israel's God-given, sorry G-d-given right to "cleanse" the land of Arabs. Well, either God or simply good old fashion racism.</div><div><br /></div><div>NYT article about new constructions <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/world/middleeast/05mideast.html?_r=1&hp">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Peace</div><div><br /><i>Elrig</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" ><a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Israeli-settlement-EI.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/%3Fp%3D27768&h=287&w=483&sz=69&tbnid=ytbUmd9jMUrxZM:&tbnh=77&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsettlements%2Bisrael&zoom=1&q=settlements+israel&hl=en&usg=__H6HxY3U24KfoDnM5puZnRJ41bcU=&sa=X&ei=vxiaTZqsLsfEgQfTn-nFCA&ved=0CFwQ9QEwCQ">Picture source.</a></span></i></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-77448186625941352032011-03-31T15:12:00.004+02:002011-04-01T04:01:44.630+03:00You "support Israel" - Answer me three simple questionsThere is a column in today's <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-the-israeli-knesset-some-undemocratic-activities/2011/03/30/AFf3QA5B_story.html">Washington Post about a Knesset</a> (Israeli Parliament) Committee investigation of the US Group J Street. J Street is a US Jewish Political Action Committee, which is pro-Israeli and--wait for it--also pro-Peace.<br /><br />This means among other things that J Street opposes the pursuit of settlements by Israel.<div><br /></div><div>Because of this, a Committee of the Knesset is investigating whether J Street should be called "pro-Israel".</div><div><br /></div><div>The author of the column, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/meyersonh@washpost.com">Harold Meyerson</a>, looks at this through the lens of McCarthyism. A fair critique.</div><div><br /></div><div>I want to look at this through another lens and ask Israel-First people, including the Christian Zionists of America and 90% of the US Congress, a simple set of questions.</div><div><ol><li>If the Israeli government (or a part of it) questions whether you can be pro-Israeli and against settlements, can you infer that the Israeli government (or part of it) is pro-settlements and consider settlements a step forward toward the greater Zionist ideal, Eretz Israel?<br /> <i>[Hint: the answer is "Yes".]</i><br /><br /></li><li>Is there any scenario possible whereby settlements don't lead to land confiscation, conflict, more deaths and ultimately the deportation, encampment or death of Palestinians?<br /> <i>[Hint: the answer is "No".]<br /><br /></i></li><li>Can a government which pursues or even simply allows such policies be credible in peace negotiations? Can you, at the same time, be conquering the land and lives of your enemy and negotiating a peace in good faith?<br /> <i>[Hint: the answer is "No".]</i></li></ol><div>See, I don't think there is a debate to be had about the answer to these three questions, but I'm sure you will find a way if you ever get to read them.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>To be a 21st Century Zionist (I don't mean being pro-Israel, its safety and right to exist, but for its expansion and domination of its neighbors, which is what it means more and more), you need to be able to dance around these simple questions. You need to be able to distort the facts, the identity of Palestinians, the history and geography of the place, even the humanity of your neighbors.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many conquerors have done well with creating their own facts and truths in the pursuit of their ideology. You may win many battles.</div><div><br /></div><div>But if you're Jewish or Christian... then you have to accommodate your professed faith and ethos with embracing The Lie.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have only one word for you: "Haram!"<br /><br />If you don't know what it means, look it up.</div><div>Shalom - Salaam - Pax.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Link to Meyerson's column: "</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-weight: bold; line-height: 30px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-the-israeli-knesset-some-undemocratic-activities/2011/03/30/AFf3QA5B_story.html">In the Israeli Knesset, some undemocratic activities</a>"</span></span></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-46379420737515469482011-03-25T14:46:00.005+02:002011-03-25T14:53:32.839+02:00Read Oxfam's Call As Violence is Raised a NotchI always have to remind people that when violence "is not raised", it mostly means that it's unilateral and there's marginally less death -- but just as much violence against the Palestinian population. Still recent trends are not helping anyone.<div>Reposting the call from Oxfam --</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">*****</div><div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span">As tensions rise, aid agency calls for calm</span></b></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9o2scNekYjOMVSmfG91BY4XfDcGhT-lMeTpPF5yTBaO8-f8mMfqo0ORhqwaWlNBrgYge2djqR4iPRtlXLgvFKMa4k_iyk5rs-VyzvLd-2tCpXyY_Sls1irf0G-vRP3Uj52vDEhJsE2EZ3/s320/Oxfam.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 215px; height: 67px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587999115519254418" /><div>25 March 2011</div><div><br /></div><div>With violence escalating over the past week, now is the time for both Palestinians and Israelis to show immediate restraint, says humanitarian aid agency Oxfam. Oxfam says that all sides must do everything they can in order to protect innocent civilians. With tensions running high across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, the stakes are too high to wait for the conflict to take a turn for the worse, warned Oxfam.</div><div><br /></div><div>“At a time of great uncertainty in the Middle East, we cannot afford to let senseless casualties mount. The protection of civilians on both sides of the conflict must be prioritized and the international community must call upon the government of Israel and all other parties to the conflict to abide by international law as a first step towards a just peace in the region,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ten consecutive days of violence between the Israeli army and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip have caused injuries to 24 Palestinians, claiming the lives of 6 civilians, including 4 children. A strike on a Gaza suburb two days ago left 4 civilians dead, including 3 children. Three Israeli civilians have also been injured in the crossfire. A bomb planted at a Jerusalem bus station Thursday claimed the life of a woman tourist and caused injuries to over 30 people. To date, no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing.</div><div><br /></div><div>“For over two years, Palestinians in Gaza have been struggling to rebuild their lives shattered from the military operation Cast Lead. As the ongoing Israeli blockade continues to block reconstruction and recovery, escalating violence will only move people away from peace and towards hopelessness and despair,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs.</div><div><br /></div><div>***For media inquiries please contact: Willow Heske, Oxfam Media Lead in Jerusalem</div><div>+972 (0) 59 7133646 or +972 (0) 54 6395002 or willow.heske@oxfamnovib.nl</div></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-68590663942934387532011-01-23T20:09:00.004+02:002011-01-23T20:18:14.246+02:00Gaza Manifesto (Gaza Youth Break Out)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6huw0f6C4WO1i71Nr9kMps_b9i6crZrvz1HG0sF_mQ0RkvcV2af8J3gBsneroG1wfb-7m8h04onZ6fBsPKdDNXuCsZ9COzfaqRyiL3n59wQWCalGNZbrm7tYo-hWuR2z3Hw1Zmf1ctwv1/s1600/gazayouthlogo_web_245x245.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 245px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6huw0f6C4WO1i71Nr9kMps_b9i6crZrvz1HG0sF_mQ0RkvcV2af8J3gBsneroG1wfb-7m8h04onZ6fBsPKdDNXuCsZ9COzfaqRyiL3n59wQWCalGNZbrm7tYo-hWuR2z3Hw1Zmf1ctwv1/s320/gazayouthlogo_web_245x245.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565447333213178274" /></a>When someone shouts "help!" I don't have to argue with their punctuation. When a group of people call for freedom, life and peace, I don't really care if they use words their moms would reprove.<div><br /></div><div>Read the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/23/AR2011012300267.html">Gaza Manifesto</a> and let's hope these guys go somewhere. Hear their voices and let's stop ignoring Gaza. Support them if you can.</div><div><br /></div><div>During that time, people on the other side of the prison wall--in the little town of Sderot--are also indicting the failure of political leaders and the word's conscience. Have a look at the <a href="http://www.gazasderot.org/main-e.htm">Gaza-Sderot International Conference site</a>. Send them a buck or two, register for the conference.</div><div><br /></div><div>Peace - Salam - Shalom</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-35227917624421647822011-01-15T23:02:00.007+02:002011-01-17T02:37:04.750+02:00Palestine-America: One Year Away, a Million Miles<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKT7PcY8NMV-PLQbmr7cc0HeulFDQKWVXbPizwOZOvd1yBxJ-w9bwaU_cfViHsqgPFLfQuJubol0y4RrH8T_C8-HFIUVQb2XhVz-maKGmRL3wtNjeAqqu6l1BLqoFhCQU9Ocuh8VjZn2G/s1600/3167215179_16775c3632.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 279px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKT7PcY8NMV-PLQbmr7cc0HeulFDQKWVXbPizwOZOvd1yBxJ-w9bwaU_cfViHsqgPFLfQuJubol0y4RrH8T_C8-HFIUVQb2XhVz-maKGmRL3wtNjeAqqu6l1BLqoFhCQU9Ocuh8VjZn2G/s400/3167215179_16775c3632.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562548801904541074" /></a>Well, it's been a whole year since I last set foot in Palestine, and this blog has been dormant for even more than that. But this morning I woke up self-reflective about the distance this has put between me and Palestine, Israel, the unevolving situation and my friends there. This quickly led me to some thoughts about living in the US after having witnessed the Israeli occupation and conquest, in a universe of bias and ignorance.<div><br /></div><div>This is not going to be a happy blog entry. If I can muster it, I'll make it hopeful.</div><div>Don't ask too much of me this morning.</div><div><br /></div><div>After a year, I've gotten used to living here. Life in America is pleasant, work is stimulating, and there's still a sense of openness to new ideas and new people, which makes my work quite often stimulating. Our neighborhood is lovely, peaceful, well kept but not too suburban -- it's still lively and close to places of culture. In spite of the stereotype, there are a lot places for cultural expression in the US, for art, for creativity, even for community. The city where we live is international enough, that you will run frequently into first and second generation immigrants, as well as old-blood Americans with ties to the Peace Corps and other opportunities to see the world. You can find places of eclectism, diversity, culture and intellect. </div><div><br /></div><div>The dominant flavor is one of ease, peacefulness and comfort. Although weekend conversations can drift to the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, which presumably is over, those are distant, potential risks for the nation, not pressing threats. The news are full of crises, as everywhere, but there was far more debate about the potential invasion of privacy of the TSA's new procedures, than the why and how we ended up in a Total Recall-like brand new world. The news are full of Tea-Party folks trying to "take back the country". And it seems that their main source of anger against the current president (who is black but this has nothing to do with it) is that he is a tyrant who is increasing health insurance coverage to the American working class. Also he pursued the Bush policy of saving capitalism by bailing out the banks -- a clear sign that he is an anti-capitalist set on establishing socialism (which I hear is a bad thing). Also he is black, but this has nothing to do with it.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's what the news cover. That and the fact that a lunatic used a semi-automatic to kill a dozen people or so because he was deranged and having a bad day. The news debate whether this proves the danger of the right-wing's "lock and load" rhetoric, or the dangers of the left's criticism of the "lock and load" rhetoric. There's also a debate about whether Obama's speech asking people to mourn together and get along without blaming each other, wasn't a treasonous attack on the right. That and the fact that he's black, but this has nothing to do with it. </div><div><br /></div><div>In this context, it's already hard to pay attention to Afghanistan were the US and NATO Coalition are at war. How is one to pay attention to Israel and Palestine?</div><div><br /></div><div>When circumstances or my own sheer stupidity lead me to breach the topic, I am faced with three types of responses:</div><div><b>1- Absolute total and crass ignorance.</b> I will try to describe what is happening, and how the US are heavily involved, subsidizing and arming the military occupation and terrorizing of a civilian population, and I will get blank stares, occasional gratitude for having brought some "awareness of the larger world", and the kind of nods Stephen Hawkins must get from his aunt Irma when he explains his theory about a negative value of time preceding the Big Bang.</div><div><b>2- Vague interest and concern for "those poor people who are suffering, but what can we do?"</b>. This gets compounded with a lot of different strands, from the classic "It's been going on for thousand of years - there's nothing to do about it.", to "Those poor Palestinian people; it's really the fault of politicians -- they never try to help the people.", or "We should remain neutral; it's not our job to intervene" (based on the assumption that arming and funding the most powerful military in the Middle East is somehow "neutral").</div><div><b>3- Finally, the implied or articulated cold rhetoric of "there will be more Palestinian blood spilled if they don't get the point that Israel will have its way."</b></div><div>It's almost refreshing to run into people who really do get what is happening. "The Palestinians have a boot on their face, a gun to their temple, and we'll pull the trigger if they continue being a nuisance." Now, it doesn't always come out as harshly. A lot of this is implied, muted, hidden behind the propaganda tales of Ehud Barak's "generous offer", clear convictions that Israel is a peaceful state, a democracy, faced by rabid fanatics who do not want peace and who want to kill all Jews. I'm serious, it's almost refreshing when someone stops the pretense for just one second and says--as I've heard--"listen, you may be right, and all this peace talk may sound sensible, but at the end of the day we just have to make sure that, when all hell breaks loose, we are left standing and they learn the lesson."</div><div>As I said, refreshing... Or something like this.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, at some point, given the pleasant environment and the option of an interaction that leaves you dumbfounded, frustrated, or fuming, you start going along with the flow. Put a cartoon on your office door. Hang a keffyah over a window frame. Post an article on Facebook. "Like" someone's comment. On occasion go to a movie. Refrain from listening or watching the news on the networks or even on cable. Listen on NPR until the lesser but still present bias makes you sick. Switch to <i>Radio Pacifica</i> and <i>Democracy Now</i>, ill-comforted by the thought that you're listening to a broadcast which most people ignore or would consider "alternative". In this case it is truly "alternative".</div><div><br /></div><div>So, you spend days without raising the issue with anyone. What's the point?</div><div>You grew weary of writing to Congressmen and Senators who reply with ready-made politically correct (aka Israel-first) language and who, for 90% of them, supported the bombing of Lebanese children during the last war, voted resolutions of support to Ariel Sharon, or supported Israel in its massacre of the Gaza population.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even trying to get a church to pray for peace and examine the US astounding investments in weapons of targeted or massive destruction is like pulling teeth. I think it would be easier to turn the annual Christmas nativity scene into a version of <i>The Rocky Horror Picture Show</i>, than to try and show <i><a href="http://littletownofbethlehem.org/">Little Town of Bethlehem</a></i>, a brilliant movie about a Christian, a Muslim and a Jewish non-violent peace activists.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once in a while, you run into a Palestinian friend, an Israeli heroic peace activist, someone with conscience and awareness who comforts you, reminds you that this isn't just a bad dream, that it is a reality that gnaws at your soul and joy. Then you return to the office.</div><div>For your own sake, you make an effort not to bring up the topic all the time.</div><div>One of my clients once asked me to share my experience living in Palestine. I did, with all due sensitivity and civility. She thanked me profusely. A month later Israel sent troops to board a Turkish boat in international water and killed I think nine people on that boat, before towing it to Ashkelon and arresting the international travelers for "illegally entering Israeli territory." Normal, regular, expected insanity. My client asked me why the Turks had not "used the normal channels for providing assistance to Gaza?"</div><div>How do you stay polite and respond to this. I think I had a split second choice to make. I could--option 1--smile and move on. Or I could--option 2--yell, "Do you have any idea what you're saying, you f***ing a**hole? Are you so racist and blind to call normal what is happening there? Does not your total ignorance and blindness throw even one grain of sand in the well-oiled propaganda which passes for an opinion in your p*ss-poor s**t of a brain?" </div><div>I still have my job, so I'll let you guess which option I took.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the end, it gets difficult to call or write to my Palestinian friends whom I've left behind. At least when I lived there, I had the impression--the illusion perhaps--that I was at least sharing the struggle and the suffering in some small manner. Now, I can drive to California and back without a checkpoint. And, with all its weaknesses, America is still a place where a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian or a Zoroastrian have the same rights in front of the law. No one has to take a separate road and face hours at a checkpoint to go to work. All people enjoy the same roads. Along with me.</div><div><br /></div><div>To seal the deal of my alienation from Palestine, I just have to read the newspaper. Even "balanced" reporting is so skewed. You get ecstatic when a journalist suggests that Palestinians are not monsters who eat their children and dream of nothing but 74 virgins. "Waw; this guys is more balanced", you find yourself saying, even if the article suggests that Israel is "helping" the Fayyad government establish rule of law in West Bank cities. Once you've read Charles Krauthammer and Georges Will, anyone not cheering for the death of Palestinian children as a humanitarian necessity sounds like a peacenick.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, when I think of my friends, Bassam, Nassim, Saheer, Fyrial, all the children, Mahmoud, Abdallah, Wajdi, Hanadi, Ali, Nadira, Bishara, our church community in Jerusalem, my former colleagues, I feel close to those who are in exile because they share the powerlessness of distance. I know not to believe this feeling, but I feel somewhat guilty when I think or talk to my friends in Gaza, Bethlehem, Nablus, or Ramallah. I am literally worlds apart and years apart.</div><div><br /></div><div>The one thing that raises my spirit is when I hear of Palestinian or Israeli groups' initiatives for peace and reconciliation in the land. I'm so grateful for those Israeli, often Jewish friends, like <i><a href="http://www.othervoice.org/welcome-eng.htm">Other Voice</a></i>, who have taken a stand for conscience, as well as groups like the <i><a href="http://www.holylandtrust.org/">Holy Land Trust</a></i> who are pushing for freedom from any alienation in the land of Palestine, foreign or domestic. The illusion about my own relevance has disappeared, so I have to have faith and support them, as modestly as I can.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, I have tried to participate in a <a href="http://prayforrealpeace.blogspot.com/">prayer initiative</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>I know what the less religious among you will think: prayer is a sign of surrender, weakness and despair.</div><div>To which I can only respond: point well taken. Yes to all of the above. Haven't you just read about how I feel here? </div><div><br /></div><div>So, prayer <i>is</i> surrender. And certainly, if I felt any less powerless and weak, I would dodge prayer. But it's sometimes the only thing which turns despair into hope. The least I can do is strive to keep hope, and with this hope and my words and small actions, try to encourage the peacemakers who do the real world. Try to see them persevere also in hope, with persistence and vision, against all obstacles.</div><div><br /></div><div>Soumoud and Peace.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-13662738822243254862010-09-04T21:14:00.003+02:002010-09-04T21:20:15.985+02:00A Guide to Understanding the Peace Talks by the Most Excellent Uri AvneryToday's column by Avnery in <a href="http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1283599151/">Gush Shalom</a> gives as good information as the "real" news. His is an exercise in imagination--reading the thoughts of Netanyahu, Abbas and Obama--but I find it far more insightful than a lot of news coverage.<div><br /></div><div>If I ever get the courage again, I'd like to write the thoughts of Ismael Hanyeh (the Hamas Prime Minister) and the average Jo (average Mohammed I guess) in the West Bank and the average Amal in Khan Younis.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I don't have the courage today.</div><div>Read <a href="http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1283599151/">Avnery</a>:</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">***</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; "><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-family: arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; "><tbody><tr><td style="font-size: 12pt; "><span class="item-title" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); ">Damage Control</span><br /></td></tr><tr><td width="350" class="item-summary" wrap="" style="font-size: 12pt; "><p class="article_date" style="font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; direction: ltr; text-align: left; ">04/09/10</p><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; ">A DUTCH journalist asked me last Wednesday to try and divine the thoughts of Binyamin Netanyahu on his way to Washington.</p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; ">It seems that she was satisfied with the results, because she asked me to divine the thoughts of Mahmoud Abbas, too.</p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; ">She must have liked that as well, because then she asked me to do the same for Barack Obama.</p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; ">Here, then, is what I told her:</p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">NETANYAHU’S THOUGHTS on the way to Washington:</span></b></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">The main thing is to minimize the damage.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Just now, someone asked me how I see our situation in four years time. Four years! I am thinking about what is going to happen in four weeks, when the settlement freeze is due to come to an end!</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">I feel like an officer on the bridge of the Titanic, who sees the awful iceberg looming up.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">These settlers (yes, yes, I know I should call them “inhabitants of Judea and Samaria”) cannot be trifled with. Impossible to reason with them and convince them to keep silent while we look for ways to get around the freeze.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Arik [Sharon] tried. When he planned the separation, he told the settlers: let’s sacrifice a dozen small settlements in order to save the hundreds of others. Let’s amputate a little finger in order to save the entire body. It didn’t help. The settlers decided to fight for every single settlement.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Last year, when we started to discuss the freeze, I fought like a lion to limit it to ten months, instead of a year, as Obama had demanded. We both understood the difference: the ten months come to an end at the height of the American election campaign. A year would have finished after the elections. I thought that if the freeze came to an end in September, Obama wouldn’t dare to press me to extend the moratorium. Jewish votes and Jewish money would make the difference.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">I grew up in the States. I know how things work. AIPAC rules Congress. The politicians are afraid of us all the time, and even more so at election time. They know very well that if they don’t support Israel, they will be kicked out.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">But now we have a mess. Obama wants at all costs to do something that can be presented to the voters as a great achievement. But Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] refuses to negotiate if we restart building in the settlements. So Obama pressures me to continue with the moratorium. If I agree, my coalition will break up. I have not forgotten that last time, in 1999, it was not the left that toppled my government, but my rightist partners.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">For sure, Obama and his people will come up with all sorts of compromise solutions. A “symbolic” freeze that will not really prevent us from building. Or a “symbolic” lifting of the moratorium, that will really prevent building. Or something on the lines of the Meridor proposal. That’s a trial balloon I asked Dan to float in his name. [Minister without portfolio Dan Meridor proposed building only in the large settlement blocs that the government intends to annex to Israel.] But the settlers don’t agree to that either.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">So what to do? I don’t know. I must rely on my talent for improvisation and get round this obstacle. But even if I succeed in postponing this matter until after September 26, it may blow up then. The main thing is to make sure the blame falls on Abu Mazen.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">And peace? Don’t make me laugh. I have no time for such foolishness. Clearly, the maximum I can offer does not even come close to the minimum they can accept. What, I should partition Jerusalem? I should dismantle the hundreds of settlements and outposts? I should give up the Jordan valley? I should agree to the return of even one refugee? Even if I wanted to – and I most decidedly do not! – I would be unable to do it. What, to break up the good coalition I have now and be dependent on that dreadful woman?</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">I shall not say so, of course. On the contrary, I shall shower them with highfalutin’ words. I shall tell Abu Mazen that he is my partner. I shall talk about painful concessions. I shall sell myself as the New Netanyahu. (My God, how many times must I become the New Netanyahu?)</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">The main thing is to get safely out of this mess and preserve the status quo. The status quo is the best of all worlds.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">ABBAS’ THOUGHTS on the way to Washington:</span></b></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">The main thing is to minimize the damage.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">Nothing good can come out of this. That’s clear. But the blame must not fall on us.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">I am sure that Abu Amar [Yasser Arafat] thought the same, when in 2000 he was dragged to Camp David. He knew that Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton would form a nutcracker, with him as the nut to be cracked.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">OK, Obama is no Clinton. I trust him. He does indeed want to make peace. But can he? Until now, every time he tried, he gave in to Netanyahu in the end. Now he must compel Netanyahu to extend the settlement freeze. Can he do it?</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">I can’t retreat from this demand. Hamas, may Allah punish them, is breathing down my neck. They are already cursing me for going to Washington at all (as if I had a choice). It would be ridiculous to negotiate while the settlements are being enlarged. As that young fellow, Michael Tarazi, so aptly put it: “It’s like talking about dividing a pizza while they [the Israelis] are eating the pizza.”</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">Hamas is trying to undercut me in every possible way. The killing of the four settlers near al-Khalil [Hebron] was designed to hurt the negotiations. It’s really amazing how Hamas and the settlers are cooperating in trying to stop the peace process. But the incident also has a good side: the entire world has now seen what can be expected if I fail.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">Hamas says that I serve the Americans. What do they propose as an alternative? To renew the armed struggle? They are even afraid to launch their Qassams! The attacks have achieved nothing. International public opinion cannot be relied on, either. Our only option is to rely on Obama. When they understand in Washington that the conflict hurts their own national interests, as this what’s-his-name general [David Petraeus] has said, they will impose peace on the Israelis.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">Abu Amar fixed the parameters, and no one among us can accept less: a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, the June 4, 1967 borders, limited 1:1 swaps of territory, the removal of all settlements from our territory, an agreed solution of the refugee problem with a symbolic return of some tens of thousands. I am ready to accept an international force on our land, but definitely not an Israeli armed presence. If I get such an agreement, Hamas will have no alternative but to go along with it. Palestinian public opinion will force them to.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">They, too, have read the results of Dr. Nabil Kukali’s poll this week: an unequivocal 2:1 majority of Palestinians support the two-state solution.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">Can one rely on Obama? They say that after the elections in November he will be free of Jewish pressure. But then he will already start to think about the presidential election in two years’ time. Only if he is reelected – and I am not at all sure that this will happen – will he be able to act without fear of AIPAC.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">In the meantime, we must hold on. That is the main thing: to hold on and wait for time to do its work.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">OBAMA’S THOUGHTS on the eve of the conference:</span></b></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">The main thing is to minimize the damage.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">Before my election, I believed that one could influence people with logic. After all, peace is essential for the Israelis as much as for the Palestinians. What chance has Israel, if within a few years the entire Arab world falls into the hands of the extreme Islamists? And what chance will moderate Palestinians have? Don’t they understand this? They drive me crazy.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">[Henry] Kissinger said that Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic policy. That is true also for the Palestinians, and – alas – for us Americans, too. Domestic politics is dominant everywhere.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">The economy is in a mess. The situation in Afghanistan is as bad as possible. (What the hell got into me during the election campaign, when I promised to go on with this war?!) The crackpots of the Tea Party are gathering momentum. I suspect that the Jewish lobby is secretly helping them. Who is running the campaign about me not having been born in the United States? A Jewish Israeli woman. And the campaign about me being a Muslim? Another Jewish woman. They want to bring me down. And why? Because I want to make peace, which is in Israel’s best interest!</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">Now the main thing is to get through the elections in November without too heavy losses. As I told Rahm [Emanuel], at this point in time we must suck up to the Jews. That’s why I appeased again and again that repugnant guy, Netanyahu. Now we must find some compromise about the settlement moratorium.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">My God, here we are, leaders who are responsible for the fate of nations, busy with nonsense like the freeze, instead of concentrating on forging a peace that will save the lives of thousands and tens of thousands!</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">The main thing is to get September 26 behind us, when the moratorium comes to an end, and then the November 2 elections. After that, God knows. Perhaps I shall succeed, after all, in creating a situation which will allow me to present my own peace plan and impose it on them. Ever so softly, of course.</span></p><p style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;">What the hell, aren’t I the goddam President of the United States of America?</span></p></span></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-23614697554225978082010-07-05T07:01:00.003+03:002010-07-05T07:15:07.257+03:00Interesting Notes from a Young World Traveler<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_I7tQjAHw7Ogvqr3HCh6HN0yEpU2wQyUgoOVqNsF16c3Yax6b34IloHo8eMOlMmE8AVILAmN1z-TcLop8IM6R8azPoZ4w4WzGfPoxgNRmFAFleMGhooqV9Xd5k3fEHLP7fOgzZAqR68e/s1600/Wall.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 217px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_I7tQjAHw7Ogvqr3HCh6HN0yEpU2wQyUgoOVqNsF16c3Yax6b34IloHo8eMOlMmE8AVILAmN1z-TcLop8IM6R8azPoZ4w4WzGfPoxgNRmFAFleMGhooqV9Xd5k3fEHLP7fOgzZAqR68e/s320/Wall.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490270718156249090" /></a>Well, truth be told, I'm pretty dormant these days in terms of updating this blog.<div><br /></div><div>Why don't you have a look at this young lady traveling the holy land and sharing her thoughts about peace, humanity and it inner contradictions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Click <a href="http://jessicaponders.blogspot.com/">here to read her last blog entry</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Click here to read my favorite entry so far: <a href="http://jessicaponders.blogspot.com/2010/06/dancin-in-streets.html">Dancin' in the Street</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>[I discovered she links to presumably a friend of hers - which presents a much more "technical" appreciation of the situation in the land. Worth reading: <a href="http://jmsbackinbethlehem.blogspot.com/2010/07/hydro-terrorism-and-so-called-security.html">Hydro-Terrorism</a>.]</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll get back to writing some time.</div><div><br />Peace,</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Picture Source: </span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"></span></i><a href="http://www.elca.org/~/media/Images/Our%20Faith%20In%20Action/Justice/Peace%20Not%20Walls/Trips/SC%20WI/Wall.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.elca.org/~/media/Images/Our%20Faith%20In%20Action/Justice/Peace%20Not%20Walls/Trips/SC%20WI/Wall.jpg</span></a></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-43373558021983044102010-06-24T01:56:00.003+03:002010-06-24T02:02:02.878+03:00A Simple Perhaps Healing Jewish TestimonyThanks to Sami Awad for pointing out to this resource. <a href="http://markbraverman.org/">Mark Braverman</a> was apparently visiting <a href="http://www.holylandtrust.org/">Holy Land Trust</a> this week. I was stunned by the simplicity and veracity of his short video testimonial.<div><br /></div><div><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3HkkMKoF67U&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3HkkMKoF67U&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-6615961602440480212010-06-01T17:17:00.002+03:002010-06-01T17:21:15.290+03:00Robert Fisk: Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives [Robert Fisk - The Independent]I am foaming at the mouth - so I can't articulate words. Here's a column from <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-western-leaders-are-too-cowardly-to-help-save-lives-1987989.html">Robert Fisk in the Independent</a>.<div><br /></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div><div><i>*********</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 12px; "><h1 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 2.6em/normal Georgia, Verdana, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives</h1><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-size: 13px; "><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Has Israel lost it? Can the Gaza War of 2008-09 (1,300 dead) and the Lebanon War of 2006 (1,006 dead) and all the other wars and now yesterday's killings mean that the world will no longer accept Israel's rule?</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Don't hold your breath.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">You only have to read the gutless White House statement – that the Obama administration was "working to understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy". Not a single word of condemnation. And that's it. Nine dead. Just another statistic to add to the Middle East's toll.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">But it's not.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">In 1948, our politicians – the Americans and the British – staged an airlift into Berlin. A starving population (our enemies only three years before) were surrounded by a brutal army, the Russians, who had erected a fence around the city. The Berlin airlift was one of the great moments in the Cold War. Our soldiers and our airmen risked and gave their lives for these starving Germans.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Incredible, isn't it? In those days, our politicians took decisions; our leaders took decisions to save lives. Messrs Attlee and Truman knew that Berlin was important in moral and human as well as political terms.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">And today? It was people – ordinary people, Europeans, Americans, Holocaust survivors – yes, for heaven's sake, survivors of the Nazis – who took the decision to go to Gaza because their politicians and their statesmen had failed them.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Where were our politicians yesterday? Well, we had the ridiculous Ban Ki-moon, the White House's pathetic statement, and dear Mr Blair's expression of "deep regret and shock at the tragic loss of life". Where was Mr Cameron? Where was Mr Clegg?</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Back in 1948, they would have ignored the Palestinians, of course. It is, after all, a terrible irony that the Berlin airlift coincided with the destruction of Arab Palestine.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">But it is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events. Our politicians are too spineless, too cowardly, to take decisions to save lives. Why is this? Why didn't we hear courageous words from Messrs Cameron and Clegg yesterday?</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">For it is a fact, is it not, that had Europeans (and yes, the Turks are Europeans, are they not?) been gunned down by any other Middle Eastern army (which the Israeli army is, is it not?) there would have been waves of outrage.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">And what does this say about Israel? Isn't Turkey a close ally of Israel? Is this what the Turks can expect? Now Israel's only ally in the Muslim world is saying this is a massacre – and Israel doesn't seem to care.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">But then Israel didn't care when London and Canberra expelled Israeli diplomats after British and Australian passports were forged and then provided to the assassins of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. It didn't care when it announced new Jewish settlements on occupied land in East Jerusalem while Joe Biden, the Vice-President of its erstwhile ally, the United States, was in town. Why should Israel care now?</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">How did we get to this point? Maybe because we all grew used to seeing the Israelis kill Arabs, maybe the Israelis grew used to killing Arabs. Now they kill Turks. Or Europeans. Something has changed in the Middle East these past 24 hours – and the Israelis (given their extraordinarily stupid political response to the slaughter) don't seem to have grasped what has happened. The world is tired of these outrages. Only the politicians are silent.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><b>Diplomatic storms</b></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><b>*Goldstone report, November 2009</b></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 with the declared aim of halting rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the three-week conflict along with 13 Israelis. The South African jurist Richard Goldstone's report into the conflict found both Israel and the Hamas movement that controls the Strip guilty of war crimes, but focused more on Israel. Israel refused to co-operate with Goldstone and described his report as distorted and biased.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><b>* The al-Mabhouh assassination, January-May 2010</b></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Britain and Australia expelled Israeli diplomats after concluding that Israel had forged British and Australian passports used by assassins to kill a Hamas commander in Dubai. Israel has neither confirmed or denied a role in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room in January. Britain said such misuse of British passports was "intolerable". Australia said it was not the behaviour of "a nation with whom we have had such a close, friendly and supportive relationship".</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><b>*Settlements row, March 2010</b></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Israel announces plans, during visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden, to build 1,600 homes for Jews in an area of the West Bank annexed by Israel. The announcement triggers unusually harsh criticism from the United States. Washington said it damaged its efforts to revive the Middle East peace process. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the project was an insult. Netanyahu said he was blindsided by planning bureaucrats and apologised to Biden. Today's meeting with Barack Obama at the White House, called off by Mr Netanyahu so he could return home to deal with the flotilla crisis, was supposed to be another part of the fence-mending between the two allies.</p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><b>*Nuclear secrecy, May 2010</b></p><p class="font-null" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Israel, widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has faced renewed calls to sign a global treaty barring the spread of atomic weapons. Signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) last week called for a conference in 2012 to discuss banning weapons of mass destruction throughout the Middle East. The declaration was adopted by all 189 parties to the NPT, including the US. It urged Israel to sign the NPT and put its nuclear facilities under UN safeguards.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p></span></div></span></i></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-17007771768376118892010-04-13T19:36:00.005+03:002010-04-13T22:39:44.876+03:00Meanwhile Back at the [Palestinian] Ranch - Israeli Control and Eviction ContinuesI've often written that the status quo is not a status quo.<div>That "freezing" settlements or not freezing settlements is of little consequences.</div><div><br /></div><div>The heart of the issue is, does Israel have the right and the justification to consider Palestinian Arabs as theirs to be controlled, dominated, told what to do, who to see, where to live, where to go and not go. Basically, as Israel conquers more land, it demands "security" conditions which only those that people with rights can ask of people without rights, and which are only a thin veil for continued control and ultimately expulsion.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the Torah, after Joshua conquered the Holy Land, foreigners were allowed to live if they accepted the status of wood cutters. I don't know what a "wood cutter" is, but I suspect it's not the same thing as a "Landlord." I actually have come to think that -- although it's not repeated often in polite conversation -- a number of Israeli Jews and their Christian Fundamentalist supporters actually are pretty much in line with that thinking. "We do OK with the Palestinians if they know they have been conquered, if they know their place." Others are more straightforward and advocate loud and clear for "transfer", aka expulsion and accelerated ethnic cleansing. (I once perused a nice glossy brochure which left me absolutely speechless. My Hasidim friend had shared it with me to explain how humane their plans to transfer were!)</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, last week Israel took one more measure -- poorly understood in the US -- to increase pressure, control and prepare for the next step. As the world's leaders came to DC for the Nuclear Summit, there was a full page ad by an Israeli group portraying all the villains here to justify its warmongering (from Nasrallah to Ahmedinejad). And 2 pages later, a small text blurb referred to this new Israeli rule on the life of those it is not supposed to administer, those who live in the Palestinian Territories. Ironic how visible one was--the possible terror of tomorrow; and how invisible the other was--the actual terror of today. Except the Transgressor, just re-equipped with more US weapons for free, prefers to be painted as Eternal Victim.</div><div><br /></div><div>Read '<a href="http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/10183/pid/2254">Ethnic Cleansing by Another Name</a>' by Yousef Mounayyer to have a clear and paused treatment of this new rule applied by Israel to people living inside Palestine.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is no status quo. There is conquest and occupation and oppression and dispossession.</div><div>Paid by US tax dollars.</div><div>The US has taken sides, remember this.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-67844289633559015582010-03-31T19:19:00.006+03:002010-03-31T19:40:58.970+03:00An Ordinary Palm Sunday<div>On that same day, one of my good friends from the US was making his first visit to Israel and Jerusalem, discovering the city, its history, architecture, its smells and colors.</div><div>Funny thing -- did I say "funny"?--because he's Jewish, he could apply for citizenship and move to Jerusalem tomorrow. Birthright, some call it.</div><div>Those people--on the video below--are from the land; have been for generations.</div><div>On Palm Sunday, they tried to walk from the Church of the Nativity (Bethlehem) to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Jerusalem).</div><div><br /></div><div>To my US friends, please tell me: how do you feel about paying taxes to turn Bethlehem into a prison?</div><div><br /></div><div>Please watch. Listen to the comments after the first 4 minutes.</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div><div><i><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M1uBMnPBFCQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M1uBMnPBFCQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-31294493453530319612010-03-12T01:14:00.005+02:002010-03-12T01:26:32.704+02:00Israeli Activist: There is a New Left in Town<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4jCj1ubUism8acbRQgtfJhsAEy02cOR4ZOYEx8NtB68bP0yfEeWC9VSwNL73GCVfG_2Cs-82WKhQ3_OWRRUxC9c8iyRvOo7E2NRlZe7yu76CBR0-6E55xWgwv1y6bWwHAdm4a9EYDvAx-/s1600-h/mar06-10-sheikh-jarrah-demo-logo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 212px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4jCj1ubUism8acbRQgtfJhsAEy02cOR4ZOYEx8NtB68bP0yfEeWC9VSwNL73GCVfG_2Cs-82WKhQ3_OWRRUxC9c8iyRvOo7E2NRlZe7yu76CBR0-6E55xWgwv1y6bWwHAdm4a9EYDvAx-/s320/mar06-10-sheikh-jarrah-demo-logo.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447521463137922770" /></a>There's a moment in history, when young idealists step up. The old crowd smirks - "kids! what do they know? they don't understand the real world." Then the smirk turns to a frown. Then the frown turns to a silent scream. Then the old guard walks away in silence with head bowed in embarrassment and shame.<b><i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;">The real world has changed.</span></i></b><div><br /></div><div>This is the first time I hear of Sara Benninga -- an Israeli activist, but she sounds like other young idealists I know. And she's speaking loud and clear. <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">[Text of her speech in Sheikh Jarah pasted below. From </span></i><a href="http://coteret.com/2010/03/08/sara-benningas-rousing-speech-at-the-sheikh-jarrah-rally-there-is-a-new-left-in-town/"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">coteret.com</span></i></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.]</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div>Mazel Tov Sara. This old guy is smiling at you and your friends.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Elrig</i></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">******</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(85, 85, 85); line-height: 17px; font-family:Verdana, 'BitStream vera Sans', Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Sheikh Jarrah, March 6, 2010</span></em></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></em><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">There is a new Left in town!</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">There is a new Left and it is a Left that is not satisfied with peace talks. It is a Left that fights!</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">There is a new Left that knows there are things you must fight against even when they are identified with the State and even when they enjoy the protection of the law!</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">There is a new Left that knows that this fight will not be won on paper but on the ground, in the hills, in the vineyards and in the olive groves.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">There is a new Left that is not afraid of the settlers, even when they descend on it from the hilltops, blindfolded and armed.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">This Left does not surrender to the police’s political repression, and does not care what they write about it in Maariv. There is a new Left in town!</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">This Left does not want to be loved, does not fantasize about town squares and does not bask in the memory of the 400,000. This Left is a partnership between Palestinians, who understand the occupation will not be defeated by missiles and bombs, and Israelis, who understand that the Palestinian struggle is their struggle.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The new Left joins hands with Palestinians in a cloud of tear gas at Bil’in and gets beaten up together with them by settlers at the South Hebron Mountain.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">This Left stands by refugees and labor migrants in Tel Aviv and fights against the Wisconsin Plan.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The new Left is us — all of us!</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Everyone who came here tonight. Everyone who dared cross the imaginary line between West and East Jerusalem, despite the threats and intimidation.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">We are all the new Left that is emerging in Israel and Palestine.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">We are not fighting for a peace agreement. We are fighting for justice. But we believe that injustice is the main obstacle to peace.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">There will be no peace until the Ghawi and Hanoun and al-Kurd families return to their homes. Because peace does not grow on a soil of discrimination, oppression and theft.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">There is a new Left in town and that Left stands with the people of Sheikh Jarrah tonight and will continue standing with them until justice defeats fanaticism.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">But there is also a new Right in town.</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">A Right awash with fanaticism and racism that seduces the masses with nationalist rhetoric.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The new Right does not care about the welfare and well-being of human beings. The new Right only cares about ethnic, tribal, Liebermanistic loyalty.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">For the new Right charity begins at home only for Jews. And what makes a person a Jew is the fact that they are not an Arab.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The new Right has nothing to offer except for endless war.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span id="more-1633" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></span>The new Right is the empty wagon that went off the rails: religious and secular Jews who have nothing but hatred of the other: the Arabs the refugee, the leftist.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">That new Right manufactures the deluded settlers, because of whom we are demonstrating tonight.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Those settlers hate Jerusalem. They do not love the Jewish people and they do not love mankind. They love only themselves.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Among the settlers there are many with whom we should speak. But the settlers of Sheikh Jarrah, <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3857671,00.html" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(41, 112, 166); text-decoration: none; ">who sing canticles to Baruch Goldstein</a> — they must be defeated.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The new Right created Nir Barkat. A technocrat who does not understand Jerusalem and does not care about Jerusalem. A mayor who uses administrative terror against the residents of East Jerusalem and neglects the residents of West Jerusalem, while reciting endless clichés.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">If Jerusalem is a powder keg, the match that might light it is called Nir Barkat.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">But we are not afraid of Barkat, nor are we afraid of the settlers, nor are we afraid of Lieberman.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">We will keep coming to Sheikh Jarrah and to every place where justice is trampled by the forces of occupation and oppression.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Look around you. We are not as few as we thought! And we will win!</p></span></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-77693405295534437732010-02-03T17:34:00.005+02:002010-02-03T17:45:05.804+02:00Reposting: Fear of Peace Will be the Death of Israel"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi315gmpAwpMWd_adJIT2n8enzFnY1u5ttb-5dca65TlN8q5EajmoWRhnrChayKDdKI2_E4GY7QyGrND0sjrJ0fmkMUbwnFzpwXHSMBfAfQMIPjE_sllGwZHbpPG6ivnxztjsbr-NgctIdX/s1600-h/sheikh-jarrah.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi315gmpAwpMWd_adJIT2n8enzFnY1u5ttb-5dca65TlN8q5EajmoWRhnrChayKDdKI2_E4GY7QyGrND0sjrJ0fmkMUbwnFzpwXHSMBfAfQMIPjE_sllGwZHbpPG6ivnxztjsbr-NgctIdX/s400/sheikh-jarrah.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434043621266513650" border="0" /></a>A thought provoking piece by Bradley Burston in today's Haaretz.<br />Conclusion from the Israeli Defense Minister?<br /><span class="t13"><a></a></span><blockquote style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span class="t13"><a>"The lack of a solution to the problem of border demarcation within the historic Land of Israel - and not an Iranian bomb - is the most serious threat to Israel's future." </a></span></blockquote>No comments.<br /><br />[For explanations about Sheikh Jarrah, the neighborhood of Jerusalem being forcibly ethnically transformed, see a <a href="http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/05/11/tony-davies-resisting-dispossession-in-jerusalem/">report by Tony Davis</a>, with pictures and maps, or a <a href="http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/left-against-right-east-jerusalem">blog by Marijke Peters</a>.]<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Elrig</span><br />Picture source - <a href="http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/05/11/tony-davies-resisting-dispossession-in-jerusalem/">Palestine Think Tank</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*******<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fear of Peace will be the Death of Israel - </span></span>Bradley Burston<br /><br /></div></div><span class="t13">SHEIKH JARRAH, Jerusalem - As the grandson of anarchists, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for fanatics. Expressions of extremism, and passionately reasoned, exquisitely twisted world views make me feel, how shall I put this, at home.<br /><br />So it was with a certain relish that I approached the <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-deadly-price-of-pursuing-peace-15321" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue;"><u>cover story</u></span></a> of a recent issue of Commentary, "The Deadly Price of Pursuing Peace," written as it was by a talented colleague and friend, Evelyn Gordon.<br /><br />The thrust of the piece, which Commentary Editor John Podhoretz understandably calls "groundbreaking," is that Israel's international standing has plummeted to an unprecedented low - and the number of Palestinians killed by Israel has concurrently soared - specifically because of Israel's having done much too much for peace.<br /><br />"The answer is unpleasant to contemplate, but the mounting evidence makes it inescapable," she writes. "It was Israel's very willingness to make concessions for the sake of peace that has produced its current near-pariah status."<br /><br />The essay has the seamless, compellingly elegant, hyper-lucid, parallel universe logic of a hallucination - or a settlement rooted in the craw of the West Bank. Until I read it, it was difficult for me to comprehend the current runaway-freight recklessness of Israeli authorities and a certain segment of the hard right, bolstered by shady funding from abroad.<br /><br />It was hard to fathom why Israeli police in this quiet hollow of the Arab half of Jerusalem, would choose to openly flout and violate the rulings of an Israeli court. I was unable to grasp why they would manhandle and arrest non-violent demonstrators - among them the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel - for protesting the official expulsion from their homes of more than two dozen Palestinian families here, driven out and into the street, so that subsidized and sheltered settlers could move in.<br /><br />It was beyond my understanding why an Israeli government which views the idea of a Palestinian Right of Return as tantamount to annihilation of the Jewish state, would set a legal precedent that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hagai-elad/former-knesset-speaker-av_b_441093.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue;"><u>paves the way</u></span></a> for just such a right.<br /><br />Just as I was clueless as to why the Knesset was to vote Wednesday on a bill that would make aiding asylum seekers fleeing African genocide, granting them shelter, medical care, food, a crime subject to up to 20 years in prison.<br /><br />Or why there were vigorous new campaigns to increase gender segregation at the Western Wall and on public buses, and why women have been arrested and interrogated on suspicion of having worn prayer shawls while praying on their side of a barrier raised so that they would no longer be able to watch their sons' bar mitzvah on the mens' side.<br /><br />Or why a sudden and ferocious campaign against human rights organizations and charity work agencies in Israel is coinciding with new human rights outrages against Palestinians and foreigners, some of them unable to leave, others forced to.<br /><br />It was not until I saw the title of the Commentary piece that it all made sense. <br /><br />The right is terrified of peace. And, in the end, the right's fear of peace will be the death of Israel.<br /><br />They are afraid of peace, in part, because it threatens the core of what has come to replace other values as the goal of Judaism: permanent settlement of the West Bank. But that is only a part of it.<br /><br />They are afraid of peace because they are afraid of the world. They dismiss fellow Jews who want to see a two-state solution - a majority of Israelis - as unrealistic, as living in a bubble. The name of the bubble these moderates live in, however, is planet Earth.<br /><br />The right, meanwhile, wants to wall off Israel as the world's last remaining legally mandated Jewish ghetto. A place where all the rules are different, exit and entry, citizenship and human rights, because the residents within are Jews. A place where non-Jews, dehumanized as congenital Jew-haters, are rendered invisible. A place which, if suffocating and insufferable, still seems safer than the scary world outside.<br /><br />A place which, because of its walls and its politics and its cowardice, is losing its ability to function as a part of the world, reveling in cheap-shot humiliations of key foreign ambassadors, deliriously proud of its sense that of all the world, including most of its Jews and Israelis - only the right sees the real truth.<br /><br />This braid of thought was venomously endorsed this week both by an uncharacteristically Kahane-sounding Alan Dershowitz, and the obscenely infantile Im Tirtzu movement. According to them, where Cast Lead was concerned, the real war criminals are Richard Goldstone and Naomi Chazan - two people who are open about their love of Israel, and who have worked their whole adult lives for its well-being.<br /><br />The fears of the right are not mere devices of rhetoric. The risks of making peace are real. Every bit as real as the risks of failing to make peace.<br /><br />It all comes down to belief. It comes down to the kind of country the believer wants Israel to be. And for that reason, there is a civil war going on for Israel's soul.<br /><br />It will not be weaponry that decides this war, but courage. People who care about the direction that Israel is moving, and whose watchword is moderation, would do well to choose one facet of the fight, and join. One place to start, is to support the New Israel Fund and the groups it supports.<br /><br />Another place to start is this one. At the weekend, challenging the threats of rightist thugs and law-scorning police, the weekly demonstration on behalf of the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah doubled in size. The police backed down on their vow to break up the protest, and the Kahanists barely showed.<br /><br />If non-violent peace activism scares the right to this extent, there must be a great deal of power in it.<br /><br />After all, most Israelis can sense that if peace is to be the enemy, more dangerous even than the threat of war, this is one doomed ghetto.<br /><br />Things have reached such a devastating point, that for the first time in recent memory, even Ehud Barak is beginning to get it: "The simple truth is, if there is one state" including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, "it will have to be either binational or undemocratic," Barak told the Herzliya Conference Tuesday.<br /><br />"If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."<br /><br />The fear of peace has left Israel as a country which is prepared for nuclear warfare but not for non-violent protest on behalf of Palestinians. The fear of peace, and the blackmail of the right on behalf of settlement, has contorted Israel into a body which, unable to countenance the perils of treating the sickness of occupation, will eventually be killed by it.<br /><br />Israel's defense minister, for one, is <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145244.html"><span style="color:blue;"><u>convinced</u></span></a><a>: "The lack of a solution to the problem of border demarcation within the historic Land of Israel - and not an Iranian bomb - is the most serious threat to Israel's future." </a></span>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-58067470394299878062010-01-15T19:41:00.000+02:002010-01-15T19:41:07.127+02:00Les mots de la propagande.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2A-lMoXEyU7ibc1gZ44JXoqyaijI42Xv8FglKorrKJiyYZJeH8cDz3WuxIwkcOC-tvqy4VPHaAinC9Zwkzxc88vwvcgohD05e0fyPcmqaDT-1ZEq7fG_K3uP7NZ1evGDOAf6GXj0i9ROd/s1600-h/untitled.bmp"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 155px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2A-lMoXEyU7ibc1gZ44JXoqyaijI42Xv8FglKorrKJiyYZJeH8cDz3WuxIwkcOC-tvqy4VPHaAinC9Zwkzxc88vwvcgohD05e0fyPcmqaDT-1ZEq7fG_K3uP7NZ1evGDOAf6GXj0i9ROd/s200/untitled.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427015978506915778" border="0" /></a>Alain Gresh du Monde Diplomatique présente un résumé du manuel de communication pour les blogueurs et internautes recrutés par Israel pour avancer sa propagande. Blog très instructif <a href="http://blog.mondediplo.net/2010-01-13-Propagande-et-desinformation-a-l-israelienne-I">à lire ici</a>.<br /><br />C'est vraiment the B-A-Ba de la propagande. Mais ça marche.<br /><br />Le manuel "<a href="http://australiansforpalestine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/tip_report.pdf">The Israel's Project 2009. Global Language Dictionary</a>" peut être téléchargé également.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Elrig<br /><br />In English - <a href="http://livingbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2010/01/words-of-propaganda.html">click here</a>.<br /></span>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-9242506066511658442010-01-15T19:35:00.004+02:002010-01-15T19:42:08.830+02:00Words of Propaganda<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTO5uQK2GJBnD1GjkEHvYBCDEvTknRsgcdbOC9kIbzt9QYuR_SmZOG_50OfC_JLETR9mNnVTOji3j3B_SaS99XEQhISsTgrLDoa_Y7MHKZQaPOTkWQy4i57ScJizyGLDnnEQppym6TBY6/s1600-h/untitled.bmp"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 155px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTO5uQK2GJBnD1GjkEHvYBCDEvTknRsgcdbOC9kIbzt9QYuR_SmZOG_50OfC_JLETR9mNnVTOji3j3B_SaS99XEQhISsTgrLDoa_Y7MHKZQaPOTkWQy4i57ScJizyGLDnnEQppym6TBY6/s200/untitled.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427022659224049314" border="0" /></a>Read about the Propaganda 101 Manual for bloggers and Internet debaters put together by the "Israel Project'. Very educational.<br /><br />Dan Ephron writes a short analysis, which <a href="http://australiansforpalestine.com/the-israel-projects-2009-global-language-dictionary">you can access here</a>.<br /><br />The manual itself can be <a href="http://australiansforpalestine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/tip_report001-copy.jpg">downloaded here</a>. You will find in it such innate wisdom as:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">“The arguments about demolishing Palestinian homes because they are not within the Jerusalem building code tested SO badly that we are not even going to dignify them with a Word’s That Don’t Work box. Americans hate their own local planning boards for telling them where they can and can’t put swimming pools or build fences. You don’t need to import that animosity into your own credibility issues. Worse yet, talking about ‘violations of building codes’ when a TV station is showing the removal of a house that looks older than the modern state of Israel is simply catastrophic.”</blockquote>Guess we all have problems eh?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Elrig<br /><br />EN FRANCAIS - <a href="http://livingbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2010/01/les-mots-de-la-propagande.html">Cliquez ici</a>.<br /></span>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-13950144795294667332010-01-08T19:51:00.002+02:002010-01-08T20:00:29.882+02:00Israeli Army attack on Village of At-tuwaniSamuel Nichols writes a <a href="http://samuelnichols.blogspot.com/2010/01/israeli-soldiers-attack-and-injure.html">direct witness of the events here</a>.<br /><br />See US Campaign <a href="http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/israeli-army-attacks-palestinian.html">update and call to action here</a>.<br /><br />Remember, today the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not in the news.<br />"Nothing" is happening.<br />Tomorrow, we'll wonder again why people are so hungry and what's wrong with them.<br />We'll have to wonder because "nothing" happened today.<br /><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"There was an army invasion in the village last night, and today there was this. It was the ugliest thing I have ever seen, yet that's a superlative, but so be it. It was evil I tell you, evil. Pushing old women, throwing tear gas at kids, concussion grenades at pregnant women, throwing men to the ground, hitting them in the back with rifles, breaking cameras. It was like a mob of angry "professional"-soldier-thugs. The soldiers were holding each other back from doing worse things. Why did they do this? Because Palestinians were trying to feed their goddamn sheep. Unbelievable. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">This occupation has to end, it has to. People can't endure this forever."</span><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://samuelnichols.blogspot.com/2010/01/israeli-soldiers-attack-and-injure.html">Sam Nichols</a>--</div></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Elrig - voice in the desert? Cassandra?</span><br /><br />Watch a little recent history about At-tuwani.<br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qknYiNTKZ-c&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qknYiNTKZ-c&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-30531282200975979842009-12-31T16:46:00.002+02:002009-12-31T16:50:24.139+02:00End of 2009 - Message from Other Voice in SderotConcluding the year with a voice of sanity from good friends in Sderot.<br />Shalom - Salam<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Elrig</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">*** Their Lives = Our Lives ***</span><br /></span></div><br /><div dir="ltr"><b><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#800080;">We, residents of the Sderot/surrounding <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);">Gaza</span> region, wish to live with peace and quiet.</span></b></div> <div dir="ltr"><b><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#800080;">Our n<b><span dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial;">eighbors</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial;" lang="HE"></span></b> in Gaza, wish to live with peace in quiet.</span></b></div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr"><b><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#800080;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Life for them = Life for us!</span> </span></b></div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr"><b><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#800080;">We, members of Other Voice, call for an end to the siege, an end to the <span>collective punishment</span>, that is harming innocent people. We call for the co-creation of good neighborly relations, that are built on mutual respect and non violence.</span></b></div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr"><b><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:#800080;">Life for us = Life for them!</span></b></div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr"><b><span style="color:#800080;">Visit our website - <a href="http://www.othervoice.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.othervoice.org</a> - and share your support for ending the siege on Gaza.</span></b></div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <b><span style="color:#800080;">Please forward this message to your email contacts</span></b><br /><br /><div dir="rtl" align="right"><span style="font-family:David;font-size:100%;color:#000080;"><b>אנו, תושבי האזור, רוצים לחיות בשלום ובשקט.</b></span></div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"><span style="font-family:David;font-size:100%;color:#000080;"><b>שכנינו בעזה רוצים לחיות בשלום ובשקט.</b></span></div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> </div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"><span style="font-family:David;font-size:130%;color:#000080;"><b>חיים להם = חיים לנו!</b></span></div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> </div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"><span style="font-family:David;font-size:100%;color:#000080;"><b>אנו, חברי 'קול אחר', קוראים להסרת המצור על עזה ולהפסקת הענישה הקולקטיבית הפוגעת באזרחים חפים מפשע. אנו קוראים לבנייה משותפת של יחסי שכנות תקינים, המבוססים על כבוד הדדי ואי אלימות.</b></span></div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> </div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"><span style="font-family:David;font-size:130%;color:#000080;"><b>חיים לנו = חיים להם!!</b></span></div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> </div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"><b><span style="font-family:David;color:#000080;"><span style="font-size:130%;">תבקרו באתר שלנו - </span><a href="http://www.othervoice.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span>www.othervoice.org</span></span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> - והביעו תמיכה בהסרת המצור.</span></span></b></div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> </div> <div dir="rtl" align="right"><b><span style="font-family:David;font-size:130%;color:#000080;">אנא - תשלחו מייל זה הלאה לרשימות התפוצות שלכם!</span></b></div>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-44356380742737631232009-12-21T22:58:00.003+02:002009-12-21T23:11:55.690+02:00The Gaza I know (Reposting Nancy Murray)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTQBZ9qnJkNOKjWWHbYE30b8abYhA5kM5hk_Yq019W8tb5EZR-TAtmIwxHOzQjXHhWnuM2KeRTqjNzU4NFOP9dE14fOzuniPQdyvt-A0d9yUmKxMrtyx9i5b1J-zqbAOosSPafwP6jT7o/s1600-h/Freedom+March.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 309px; height: 73px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTQBZ9qnJkNOKjWWHbYE30b8abYhA5kM5hk_Yq019W8tb5EZR-TAtmIwxHOzQjXHhWnuM2KeRTqjNzU4NFOP9dE14fOzuniPQdyvt-A0d9yUmKxMrtyx9i5b1J-zqbAOosSPafwP6jT7o/s200/Freedom+March.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417800156128173266" border="0" /></a>I have nothing to add - just pain and sorrow.<br />O yes, and shame.<br />Our church has this ongoing Christmas tree decoration throughout Advent. I went and placed Gaza on the tree. We, the noble "we" of the intelligent and powerful human beings, regularly decide that some people are a little less than people, a little less deserving of rights than others. Once the Blacks. Another time, another place, the Jews. Many times the "Natives." Today - Gazans, by all means.<br />Salam, ya salam!<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Elrig</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;">***<br /></div><p> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;">For most Americans, the Gaza Strip is, at best, unknown territory. At worst, it is a hostile land whose "terrorist infrastructure" must be dismantled, no matter what the cost to its million and a half residents. </span></p> <!-- /end .inset --><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> The Gaza I have been visiting for the past twenty-one years bears little relation to the dehumanizing imagery to which it has been reduced by the mainstream media. The Gaza I know is home to friends and strangers who are as welcoming and humane as they are resilient and determined to achieve their freedom. They have maintained their humanity despite enduring a brutal forty-two-year-old Israeli occupation that has cost them the destruction of their homes, land, economy and future and the loss of more than 4,000 lives since the dawn of the twenty-first century. </span><p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> For the past two and a half years, this spit of sand--just twenty-five miles long and a few miles wide--has been virtually a closed prison. Since June 2007 Israel's blockade has prevented the entry of all but a handful of basic items, and the exit of patients who urgently need medical treatment and students with scholarships to study abroad. Then, a year ago, came the "shock and awe" of Israel's "Operation Cast Lead," intended as a knockout blow not just to the crude rockets fired from Gaza but to its life-sustaining infrastructure and the will of its people to resist. </p> <p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> A month ago, I finally obtained permission from the Israeli military to cross into Gaza to visit therapy programs for traumatized children. Half of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million inhabitants are children, and many have not emotionally recovered from Israel's military attacks. </p> <p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> And how could they? They are still living in the ruins of war. Blasted buildings tilt dangerously over streets. Unexploded ordnance lurks beneath concrete rubble. Israel, with the blessing of the United States, has prevented reconstruction materials and heavy machinery from entering the Gaza Strip - and just about everything else. </p> <p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> Aid agencies have at the ready the equipment needed to fix the destroyed sewage and waste water systems - but it is not permitted to enter. And so each day up to 80 million liters of untreated sewage spill into the Mediterranean and leach into the aquifer. Thousands of babies have "blue baby syndrome" and risk dying of nitrate poisoning; fish are dead; and the long sandy beaches--which had been the sole place of recreation in one of the most densely crowded places on earth --are now off limits. </p> <p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> The hundreds of dangerous, hand-hewn tunnels into Egypt through which Gazans haul bottled water, food and other supplies are at present a lifeline. So it is with a sinking heart that I read that Egypt, at the urging of Israel and the United States, is installing metal sheets under the ground to "curb smuggling." </p> <p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> I wonder how the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, John Ging, is digesting this latest calamitous news. When I met with him in November he told me that hope for tomorrow is just about gone. "We have run out of words to describe how bad it is here. Things are moving rapidly in the wrong direction. The best help we can get is to lift the siege and to begin to deal with human beings on a humane and legal basis." </p> <p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> In late December, to mark the first anniversary of Israel's war, some 1,200 internationals from forty-two countries will be doing what they can to get things moving in the right direction. They intend to enter Gaza from Egypt to participate in the Gaza Freedom March. Marchers include an 85-year-old American Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, the acclaimed writer Alice Walker, civil rights movement veterans, Ronnie Kasrils, a leader of the South African liberation struggle and a substantial delegation from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). </p> <p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> Invoking the spirit of Gandhi's Salt March and the Civil Rights Movement, these internationals of conscience will encounter the Gaza I know - the vibrant civil society of children, students and teachers, refugee groups and women's organizations, doctors and therapists, farmers and fishermen, musicians and dancers who are planning a tremendous welcome. </p> <p style="font-family: lucida grande;"> Together they will take part in cultural and solidarity activities. Then, on New Year's Eve, they will call for an end to the blockade in a massive march toward the Erez Crossing with Israel, as Israeli solidarity marchers converge on the other side. </p> <p><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> Simultaneously, around the globe there will be "end the siege" actions demanding that the prison doors be opened. The lives of Gaza's babies hang in the balance. </span><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100104/murray">Nancy Murray - The Nation 12/21/2009</a><br /></p><br /><p> To find out more, go to <a href="http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?list=type&type=416">Gaza Freedom March</a><a href="http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?list=type&type=416">.<br />Later this month thousands of international solidarity activists will take part in the Gaza Freedom March to end Israel's blockade. They deserve your support.<br /></a> </p>Nancy Murray is president of the Gaza Mental Health Foundation and a member of the international steering committee of the Gaza Freedom March.Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-35475040801635064882009-12-17T02:26:00.004+02:002009-12-17T02:36:53.189+02:00Understanding East Jerusalem Policies of IsraelI wrote about a year ago (<a href="http://livingbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2008/12/so-you-think-you-love-israel-open.html">see here</a>) that security was not the #1 concern of Israel. To understand Israel's policies, you need to first consider its demographic and then its geographic ambitions, which trump everything. Everything.<br /><br />The video embedded below is well worth watching - it's a 20 minute documentary explaining the "Green Rule" of the municipality of Jerusalem--a totally out-of-thin air law, which allows to keep the pressure on Palestinians and force them out of their land. Sometimes indirectly, sometimes directly by way of home demolition.<br /><br />In the meantime, the <a href="http://www.ochaopt.org/?module=displaysection&section_id=118&format=html&edition_id=">Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports today</a> that:<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); text-align: left;font-family:Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10px;" ></span></span><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); text-align: left;font-family:Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" >House demolitions and displacement affecting East Jerusalem<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); text-align: left;font-family:Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" >continue to be of concern. Israeli settler organizations intensify their efforts to take control of land and property in East Jerusalem and establish a sustained presence in Palestinian neighbourhoods. The Jerusalem municipality approve the construction of 900 new housing units in Gilo settlement. In Gaza, as winter approaches there is increasing concern for the families whose homes were destroyed or damaged as a result of the ?Cast Lead? military offensive. The continuing blockade has resulted in negligible reconstruction and repair, as essential materials continue to be denied entry: thousands of families continue to live in homes without window panes or solar panels due to the ban on the import of glass.</span></span><br /></blockquote>Watch the video and pass it forward.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Elrig</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">ps: thanks to David and Nassim for pointing out the material in this entry.</span><br /><object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8155662&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8155662&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/8155662">Green Zone</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user584406">Nimrod Zin</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-91036742059931974742009-11-23T19:44:00.000+02:002009-11-23T19:52:01.228+02:00Israeli and Arab Youths - Common Ground. Common Sense! Peace!<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-SFMogSFcus&border=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-SFMogSFcus&border=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="349"></embed></object><br /><br />From<a href="http://www.commongroundnews.org/video.php?sid=0&lan=en"> Common Grounds</a>.<br /><object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/t3Ic5KAAu9A&border=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/t3Ic5KAAu9A&border=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="349"></embed></object>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-2968145731799069762009-11-21T16:06:00.005+02:002009-11-21T16:14:33.556+02:00Jeff Halper - a great Israeli and great man - on Palestinian Statehood<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip0rj6cVksqrWNUD7_XOfEx6DJPhVKmAVkcVJmdKkE7Sg5mT2x9rDAPWQuzYJLF6iFB4vEZKhbIQ33TByomT7UfvXkjKMCH0uG9I-x1svNnolupZYLddiyIgjqE850xMgkuMWZIxqIokU7/s1600/jeffhalper2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 183px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip0rj6cVksqrWNUD7_XOfEx6DJPhVKmAVkcVJmdKkE7Sg5mT2x9rDAPWQuzYJLF6iFB4vEZKhbIQ33TByomT7UfvXkjKMCH0uG9I-x1svNnolupZYLddiyIgjqE850xMgkuMWZIxqIokU7/s200/jeffhalper2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406559245323472338" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">This article by Jeff Halper, from the Network of Spiritual Progressives. <a href="http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php/2009111909341340">Go to this link</a>, or read below.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">And check out the Palestinian-Israeli youth on the <a href="http://livingbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2009/11/israeli-and-arab-youths-common-sense.html">music video I posted yesterday</a>.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Elrig</span><br />*************************<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why Palestinians Might Declare Statehood</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:78%;" ><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />by Jeff Halper</span></span><br />OK, so the Palestinian Authority will not unilaterally declare an independent Palestinian state. In fact, the whole issue seems a misunderstanding. Concerned that the US has backtracked on a two state solution based on the 1967 borders and that Israel was getting the world used to the “fact” that the settlements and the Wall, rather than ’67 borders, now defined the parameters of a future Palestinian state (on only 15% of historic Palestine), the PA simply wanted the Security Council to reaffirm that principle. “What should we do while the Israeli government is busy with fait accompli actions,” asked Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, “but to turn to the Security Council to preserve the option of two states? We want the Security Council to declare that the two-state solution is the only option and that it would recognize the state of Palestine on the '67 borders and to live side by side with the State of Israel.” The PA hoped, perhaps even expected, that the US would go along. Through an escalation of rhetoric this simple clarification became the basis of speculation, against the background of President Mahmoud Abbas’s threatened resignation, that the Palestinians would attempt to force the hand of the international community and announce the establishment of their state.<br /><br />But what if it did happen? What if Abbas would actually announce the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, ask the nations of the world to recognize it and then apply for admission to the UN?<br /><br />The Palestinians are caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the steadily tightening noose that is the Israeli occupation. Israel’s concentration of settlers in strategic blocs in East Jerusalem and the West Bank destroy any Palestinian territorial contiguity, and do so even if Israel removes the dozens of tiny settlements within the densely populated Palestinian “cantons.” Those settlement blocs have already been incorporated into Israel proper through the construction of some twenty-nine major Israeli highways, meaning that Israel has expanded organically from the 1967 Green Line to the border with Jordan. Even if the Separation Barrier is dismantled, the entire country has been fundamentally reconfigured; there is simply no more room for a coherent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state. And the suffering grows progressively worse. Hostile, callous Israeli soldiers continue to man hundreds of checkpoints throughout the Occupied Territories – checkpoints that, when incorporated into the Wall, take the form of massive terminals in which tens of thousands of men, women and children are subjected to long hours of waiting and humiliating treatment. The pace of house demolitions increases daily; 24,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel in the Occupied Territories since 1967, while Israeli courts have forced at least another 10,000 homeowners to demolish their own homes under threats of unbearable fines. The Palestinian presence in Jerusalem, the heart of Palestinian religious, cultural, political and economic life, is rapidly disappearing under a concentrated policy of settlement, expulsion of Palestinian residents from their homes and land expropriation intended, as Israel declares explicitly, to “judaize” the city. Without a meaningful Palestinian presence in Jerusalem there is no possibility of peace; indeed, no possibility to reconciliation between the West, which is seen as enabling Israeli expansion, and the entire Muslim world.<br /><br />The hard place is the unlikelihood that negotiations with Israel, supported by the US and a compliant Europe, will go anywhere. The Oslo Process, which lasted seven years (1993-2000), saw Israel’s settlement population double to 400,000, while Palestinians found themselves imprisoned in Areas A and B – some 70 islands on but 40% of the West Bank – and that largest prison of all, Gaza. Oslo was followed by the Road Map which was followed by the Annapolis Process,” all leading to the present impasse in which the Obama Administration has announced it has no plan. “Peace process” or not, negotiations or not, stalemate or not, Israel has never been prohibited from continuing to establish “facts on the ground” intended to foreclose a truly sovereign Palestinian state.<br /><br />For the most part the Palestinian people have resisted. Two intifadas (four if you include the 1936-39 revolt against British immigration policies and the inability of the Palestinian majority to make its voice heard, and the 1948 war), plus ongoing armed struggle and thousands of non-violent actions from rebuilding demolished homes to the Beit Sahour tax strike. Occasionally the Palestinian leadership took a bold initiative, as when it succeeded in bringing Israel’s construction of the Separation Barrier before the International Court of Justice and, subsequently, the UN General Assembly, where it was condemned by both bodies. The current campaign of boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) against key Israeli pillars of the Occupation and companies profiting from it represents yet another pro-active initiative of Palestinian civil society.<br /><br />And then there’s the idea of unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, which the Palestinian Authority has floated, intentionally or not, over the past few weeks. It’s not a new idea. The PLO declared Palestinian independence back in 1988, but without reference to borders such a move had little effect. During Oslo, a frustrated Arafat again threatened to unilaterally declare Palestinian sovereignty, but was dissuaded by Israel and the US. What would make another attempt more significant? Several things:<br /><br />· Rather than a general declaration of independence, the Palestinian Authority would declare a Palestinian state within specified borders, those of 1967 (the 1949 armistice line), which have already been recognized de facto over the years, from UN resolution 242 to the Road Map. Specifying the borders is what would differentiate this initiative from previous declarations based on principle of independence but without territorial claims, the latter supported even by Israel since it relieves it of pressures to end the Occupation by giving the Palestinians symbolic sovereignty.<br /><br />The reasoning behind such an initiative is clear: to reverse both the balance of power and the dynamics of the negotiations. Because it occupies Palestinian territory, Israel is able to negotiate from a position of strength, while the Palestinians, with no leverage whatsoever, have no way to pressure Israel to meaningfully withdraw. Appeals to international law, which would have leveled the playing field, were nullified after the US, de facto supporting Israel’s claim that there is no occupation, classified the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza as disputed territories. Instead of requiring Israel to relinquish its illegal settlements and other forms of control, this policy forces the Palestinians to negotiate every settlement, road and centimeter of land, unable in the end to compel Israel to make any concessions it does not want to make. By seeking international recognition of the Palestinian state within recognized borders, including membership in the UN, the Palestinians seek, finally, to end the Occupation while transforming Israel’s presence from that of an occupying power to one of an invader whose unilateral military and settlement activities, as well as its extension of its legal and planning systems into Palestine, constitute nothing less than an intolerable violation of Palestinian national sovereignty.<br /><br />· If the Palestinians’ declared their state within the boundaries accepted by the international community since 1967, it would be doing so not unilaterally but by agreement with the member states of the UN. The hope would be to secure American agreement, despite frantic Israeli attempts to head off such an initiative, after which the European countries would fall into place. The vast majority of countries in the rest of the world would at any rate recognize the Palestinian state.<br /><br />Predictably, the US has rejected the rumored (or floated) initiative. The State Department lost no time issuing a statement that “It is our strong belief and conviction that the best means to achieve the common goal of a contiguous and viable Palestine is through negotiations between the parties.” Two senators who happened to be in Israel, Kaufman and Lieberman, let it be known that the US would veto any such resolution in the Security Council. The EU immediately fell into lock-step, with the Swedish Foreign Minister, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, declaring that “conditions are not yet ripe” for such a move. Still, the Palestinians could decide to abandon – or at least balance – their long-standing American-centric approach to achieving self-determination by turning to the broader international community. Abbas is exploring such an option among the Arab, Muslim, Latin American, African and Asian blocs of nations. If the Security Council is unwilling to entertain such an initiative, the Palestinians, with broad-based international support, could turn to the UN General Assembly, which is empowered by a two-thirds majority to call a special emergency session and pass a resolution of approving the move, thus by-passing the US veto.<br /><br />The Security Council cannot be by-passed completely; its approval is necessary before a state can become a member of the UN. But even a symbolic call from the majority of members in the General Assembly to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and its urging the members of the Security Council to admit such a state into the UN would send a strong message to the Americans and their European clients. Unfortunately, the Palestinians’ declaration of statehood, in conformity to international agreements though it may be, conflicts with the concerns of other Security Council members regarding restive peoples in their own countries. Russia, which opposed the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, faces similar actions in Chechnya, South Ossetia and elsewhere. China has a similar problem with the Uigars; France with Corsica; Britain (perhaps) with Wales and Scotland; Turkey with the Kurds; and so on. The US, which did support the Kosovars unilateral action and thus has no grounds to deny the Palestinians, nevertheless faces the perpetual challenge of Puerto Rican independence, not to mention the struggles of insurgents throughout the world. And yet, having the issue of Palestinian statehood come up before the Security Council – potential sponsors from among the rotating members might be Libya, Burkina Faso or Uganda – would spur a useful debate and help focus on the responsibility of Israel, the US and Europe for disappearing Palestinian rights. And, again and again, the Palestinians have to drive home forcibly and repeatedly that their declaration of statehood stands in complete conformity to the internationally agreed upon end-game of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. It is defiant only in the sense of their asserting their right to self-determination after years of being let down by the international community and having nowhere else to go.<br /><br />· Most important, such a Palestinian initiative would force a solution to their conflict with the Israelis. If it were to be accepted, years of drawn-out pseudo-negotiations and the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis could be avoided. It would also go a long way towards redeeming Obama’s Cairo address and, as is likely, would facilitate better relations with the Muslim world which would open new possibilities in regards to withdrawing militarily and achieving accommodation and stability. If the US agreed, of course, Europe, and perhaps Russia and China, would fall into place.<br /><br />It should be remembered that in a two-state solution represented by the Palestinian declaration, Israel would remain on 78% of historic Palestine, despite the Jews becoming a minority population with the return of even some of the refugees – a pretty generous Palestinian compromise. Hamas rejected Abbas’s initiative by stating: If you want to declare a state, do so from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Yet, if a Palestinian state would actually emerge on all the Occupied Territories, it is likely that Hamas could not stand in the way of popular support for it – including in the refugee camps. The state that then arises would have sovereignty over its borders with Egypt and Jordan and the ability to enter into foreign alliances. It would possess a coherent territory, control of its natural resources (including water, its airspace and the communications sphere), a viable economy (especially given the inclusion of the Old City of Jerusalem and Bethlehem as tourist venues) and East Jerusalem as its political, religious and cultural capital and the ability to repatriate refugees. None of these things will the Palestinians get in negotiations with Israel. Given an agreed upon quid pro quo such as a shared Jerusalem, an extra-territorial passage between the West Bank and Gaza and a qualitative exchange of territory, the Palestinians may cede to Israel certain symbolic sites: a special status in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the historic core of the Etzion Bloc, making such a settlement more palatable to them. While the remaining settlements would become part of Palestine, though the Palestinians would earn points if they invited the settlers to stay and live in integrated communities.<br /><br />A unilateral declaration, if refused by the US with no prospect of genuine negotiations aimed at a Palestinian state in all the occupied territory within a strict time-line, would signal the definitive end of the two-state solution. At that point the Palestinians could unite on a program of a one-state solution, be it a democratic state of equal citizens or, more workable, a bi-national state. Crucial to this shift would be a vigorous Palestinian campaign showing that it was Israel that created a bi-national situation through its settlement project and Israel that eliminated the two-state solution, which the PLO had accepted way back in 1988. If Israel implements the steps it has threatened in response to a Palestinian declaration of independence – in particular the annexation of Area C, some 60% of the West Bank containing the settlements – the apartheid situation that emerges is clear and unacceptable even to the US and Europe. Israel has thereby torn the veil from the de facto apartheid that already exists and which Israel seeks to perpetuate. By its own hand Israel has reconfirmed the bi-national reality of Palestine/Israel and driven the stake into the heart of the two-state solution.<br /><br />For all the risks it involves, a declaration of Palestinian statehood within the 1967 borders – which would garner recognition from the vast majority of states in the world – would seem a win-win proposition. At least it would break the vessels of an impotent, ineffective and less than honest American-led “peace process” that is going nowhere – indeed, can’t go anywhere because it requires a level of assertiveness on Israel, perhaps even the imposition of a solution, that is completely lacking in either the American or European governments. It would also galvanize the civil society forces abroad, initiating a kind of ultimate BDS (boycotts, divestment, sanctions) campaign. Given the failure of the Palestinian Authority to effectively communicate its case, a unilateral declaration would thrust the underlying issues of the conflict – and Israel’s responsibility in particular – into the limelight, generating the sort of discussion in the media and elsewhere that is sorely needed.<br /><br />All this, of course, is a highly unlikely scenario, though given Abbas’s anger and frustration at the American’s failure to stop Israeli settlement building (as I write this the Israeli government has just announced the construction of 900 housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo), it is not altogether inconceivable. Although indicative of mounting Palestinian desperation, not all Palestinians support such a move. Hamas has rejected it, saying the Occupation must end before a state is declared. Palestinian policy-makers fear that the declaration, if it is seen as merely symbolic, could lock the Palestinians into a position where Israel could claim they now have self-determination but without the ability to actually claim their borders – a limbo reminiscent of the “state without borders” formulation of stage 2 of the Road Map, seen as a mortal danger by Palestinians. And supporters of the one-state solution, primarily in the Palestinian Diaspora but increasingly in the camps and the Occupied Territories themselves, have already moved on. But something must be done, and given the failure of the international community to either protect the Palestinians or reign in Israel, I, for one, am at a loss to suggest alternatives that address the urgency of a way out of Israel’s growingly genocidal occupation.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >(Jeff Halper is the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He can be reached at <jeff@icahd.org>.)<br />Jeff Halper (born 1946 in Minnesota[1]) is a professor of anthropology,[2] author, lecturer, political activist, and co-founder and Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). In 1997, Halper co-founded ICAHD to challenge and resist the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied territories, and to organize Israelis, Palestinians and international volunteers to jointly rebuild demolished Palestinian homes. He has created a new mode of Israeli peace activity based on nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to the Occupied Territories.[1] Dr. Halper was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee for his work "to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence" and "to build equality between their people by recognizing and celebrating their common humanity."<br /><br />Halper is the author of several books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is a frequent writer and speaker about Israeli politics, focusing mainly on nonviolent strategies to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflic.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Picture source: http://www.thecornerreport.com/media/blogs/links/jeffhalper2.jpg</span><br /></jeff@icahd.org></span>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4111004296953388534.post-92198037855911563532009-11-13T23:32:00.003+02:002009-11-14T00:02:07.290+02:00Meanwhile Back at the [Darfur] Ranch, it's Rape and Death as Usual<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs5sw0m8yEwDzGeZNqAeLzOMAOfYTFU5hULk-rkKEHbxll64qebiuxRE2bOBNuJBFnLGpsmdYp5tAujjH1osSOrY-bnq7Nw4X8vddw11DlLu_QQfP1fdkn2aVWVuFc171VtwcMV45SOGeC/s1600-h/nn_curry_darfur_061114.300w.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs5sw0m8yEwDzGeZNqAeLzOMAOfYTFU5hULk-rkKEHbxll64qebiuxRE2bOBNuJBFnLGpsmdYp5tAujjH1osSOrY-bnq7Nw4X8vddw11DlLu_QQfP1fdkn2aVWVuFc171VtwcMV45SOGeC/s320/nn_curry_darfur_061114.300w.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403711067764635154" border="0" /></a>I'm talking about Darfur today. By the time I have my evening drink, I assume dozens of women will have been raped, mutilated or killed. And a few more before my morning coffee. And we will do nothing, not Obama, not Sarkozy, not Gordon Brown, not Putin, and not Jintao Hu. Why?<br /><br />Absence of choice is a choice. And the choices we made yesterday constrain those we can make today.<br /><br />Yesterday, the US chose to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Its troops are wearing thin and tired.<br />Perhaps understandably, the EU continues to fail to choose a coherent foreign policy and corresponding allocation of resources. It remains a fairly impotent giant.<br /><br />That was yesterday.<br />What about today?<br /><br />China has decided to carry its weight on the international scene and be present in Africa. It has decided there is good business to be made with Sudan. And it has decided not to get into the moralizing business with other nations--a very welcome move by despots, dictators and skunks everywhere.<br />I don't blame the UN--it's like blaming the puppet instead of the puppet master.<br />I'm not sure I want to talk about Egypt, but if my neighbor was raping women and banging their heads on my wall, I might want to call 911 - what about you Mr Moubarak? Guess there's no money to be made there. It's not like letting Palestinians bribe you for a chance to get out of Gaza.<br /><br />So, women will be raped, men will be killed and children will become soldiers in Darfur.<br /><br />Let's face it--it's not that the US is in charge of everything, it's that it has this little thing it is so proud of: leadership. That's a fact. An evolving fact, but still a reality.<br /><br />And today the US is even less well placed to push action against Darfur (some in the Obamesque administration have raised that flag high at some point), because its credibility as a source of Rule of Law Principles, Human Rights, and basic morality is in the dumps. Particularly when it comes to the Muslim world.<br /><br />Of course there's been Abu Ghraib and there is still Guantanamo. But the main thing is the obvious (to anyone watching) hypocrisy of the US policy toward Palestine. As long as the US chooses to remain blind and complicit to ethnic cleansing -- I'm calling a spade a spade, as I'm in a bad mood -- it has a credibility of zilch with the Muslim world. Consequently, we're not about to send the 82nd airborne and deliver President Bashir to the International Court of Justice (which the US does not recognize anyway).<br /><br />We--all of us--live with the choices made yesterday. And we will live with those made today. I think it will affect us, even if it's not our daughter, sister, mother, or wife being raped out there.<br /><br />Read the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111209826_pf.html">column from Michael Gerson in the Post</a> today.<br />Don't let it ruin tonight's drink.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Elrig</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Photo source and story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15718844/ns/nightly_news_with_brian_williams/</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;">------- <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Losing the Fight in Darfur </span></span>---------<br /></div><p> The genocide in Darfur is no longer a trendy, breathless global cause. But the women of Darfur haven't gotten the message. </p> <p> On May 15, a woman near the Al Hamadiya camp in Zalingei was collecting firewood. Three armed men in khaki uniforms raped her, stabbed her in the leg, inflicted genital injuries and left her bleeding. She spent 45 days in the hospital. In 2003, the same woman was raped and shot while fleeing her village. </p> <p> Her story is in a recent, exhaustive, chilling <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/panelofexpertsreport.pdf" target="">report on Sudan</a> written by a panel of experts at the United Nations. A U.N. official told me, "We have not talked to a single woman [in Darfur] who has not stated that sexual violence is their first concern." The panel documented sexual assaults against pregnant women and 12-year-old girls. Prosecutions are nonexistent. Local officials are indifferent. </p> <p>The Darfur revealed in the report is a heavily armed state of nature. Uniformed troops, Janjaweed militias and rebel groups all abuse civilians. The Sudanese government routinely violates the Darfur arms embargo imposed by the U.N. Security Council in 2004, unloading weapons, according to the U.N. official, "openly, in front of you." Arms and ammunition manufactured by Chinese companies can be found everywhere. Child soldiers are recruited. Political dissent is repressed. </p> <p>This is not, at present, the active phase of Darfur's genocide, involving mass attacks on civilians. Instead, it is the evidence of a genocide that has succeeded. The Sudanese regime achieved its policy aims -- targeting disfavored ethnic groups, destroying their way of life and forcing millions into camps. And now it is threatening to forcibly relocate these victims in 2010 -- a plan of Stalinist scale and brutality. </p> <p>Global attention has been diverted by the complexity of the conflict, the unsympathetic nature of Darfur's fractious rebels and the threat of renewed war between Sudan's north and south -- a war that would overwhelm the region. </p> <p>But the suffering in Darfur is also being actively hidden from view. In March, the Sudanese regime expelled several international relief organizations, including those dealing with sexual violence. This cut an important pipeline of humanitarian information to the outside world -- which was precisely the goal. Sudan's regime is pulling a curtain across Darfur that may also be a shroud. </p> <p>The Obama administration's lengthy review of U.S. Sudan policy culminated in October with more of a whimper than a bang. The administration <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/16/AR2009101603309.html" target="">presented Sudan</a> with a choice between two roads: one path of cooperation, engagement and incentives; the other of defiance, isolation and disincentives. But neither carrots nor sticks were specified. And the administration seems divided on how the engagement of Sudan -- lifting sanctions, moving toward more normal relations -- should proceed. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice wants such benefits to follow major concessions by Sudan's government. Scott Gration, the special envoy to Sudan, would distribute carrots liberally and preemptively. </p> <p>But all this has been tried before. The Sudanese regime receives small threats with insolence. It views minor American concessions as signs of weakness. </p> <p>The administration's Sudan policy was produced by an exhaustive, interdepartmental process in which no one won or lost completely. As a part of the previous administration, I saw this kind of process at work -- and it is incapable of producing boldness. </p> <p>Yet boldness -- much larger carrots and much larger sticks -- is needed. The ultimate carrot would be to offer Sudan's leader, Omar al-Bashir -- currently under international indictment for war crimes -- the legitimacy he seeks, in exchange for the peaceful independence of south Sudan and unconditional cooperation in Darfur. This would be distasteful. But it might be worth repressing our gag reflex to gain permanent, irreversible limitations on the power of Sudan's regime to do harm. </p> <p>This approach, however, could not succeed without serious consequences for its rejection -- economic, political and military pressure, by a coalition of willing nations. No bureaucratic process would produce such ambitious options. Only a president and his secretary of state can insist on boldness. </p> <p>Absent that insistence, America's Sudan policy is in a holding pattern, waiting for the next crisis to refocus global attention. Meanwhile, women are raped, with impunity. Weapons are illegally imported, with impunity. Civilians are attacked, with impunity. And at some point, impunity becomes permission. </p> <p> The world looks at Darfur and responds, in effect: We can live with that. There are many in Darfur, however, who will not live. </p>Elrig Cileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10606678711514242707noreply@blogger.com0