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May-July 2003
August 2003
This letter was edited by the Medford Mail Tribune. My original letter used the expression "Palestinian fathers" which was a direct quote from the Zionist rabbi David Zaslow. (And I footnoted the source.) The editor said that he would publish it if I changed "fathers" to "leaders" since "that was what he meant"!! I gave permission just to get it published. The Mail Tribune rejected one of my letters in January because it "covered essentially the same subject as a previous letter." So much for freedom of expression.
"Rights are for all"
An Oregon FBI agent claims there are Oregonians who�ve "taken oaths to kill Americans and engage in jihad." He goes on to admit there is no proof to substantiate his claims.
An Oregon rabbi asserts that Jews are blamed for the failures of Palestinian leaders.
Forty-four percent of Americans believe that the civil rights of Muslim Americans should be restricted in some way.
Yes, regrettably, we do not learn from our past. The lesson of Auschwitz is not the history of a few individual bigots filled with hate; no, it is the history of a mass population convinced of its individual racial/ethnic/religious superiority to fellow humans.
Prejudice without hate � prejudice of personal superiority � is a relentless blight on our national honor. Civil rights are for all Americans, all humans, equally. � Dane Coefer, Ashland
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/0218/edit/let.htm
December 24, 2004
It took two DAYS for the Medford Mail Tribune to print a letter in response to my letter which they took six WEEKS to publish!
December 22, 2004
This letter took over a month to get published. The editors insisted that I document my phrases "children are murdered in their sleep" and "executed at their school desks by Israeli sniper fire." I documented them and the letter was published, but the letter I was rebutting claimed "When Israelis kill Palestinian children by mistake, they mourn. When Palestinian bombers intentionally kill Israeli children, Palestinians pass out candy, celebrate wildly in the streets and the killers become heroes" [my emphasis] which is insupportable with documentation. Many of the anti-Palestinian letters in the Medford Mail Tribune make such untruthful claims, but it is only the pro-Palestinians that are required to provide documentation.
"Israelis disregard Oslo"
How sadly humorous it is to read all the hype about the passing of Arafat. The relevance of Arafat passed in 1996 when he was elected president of the Palestinian National Authority. Since then, there has been only one relevancy in Palestine/Israel � the relevancy of the Oslo Accords.
How unfortunate for the Palestinian nation that Israelis do not honor their commitments. How tragic for the Palestinian people that their children are murdered in their sleep by Israeli missiles and executed at their school desks by Israeli sniper fire because the government of Israel refuses to abide by the Oslo signatures of its leaders and withdraw to pre-1967 borders.
I invite Mail Tribune readers to examine the text of the Oslo Accords (1993 Declaration of Principles and 1994 Agreement on Transfer of Powers) and many of the other significant documents of the Palestinian "question" at Yale University�s Web site: www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/mideast.htm.
Justice is the right of the Palestinian nation. � Dane Coefer, Ashland
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2004/1222/edit/let.htm
November 11, 2004
My letter published today in the Tidings:
"Radical or conservative?"
Are Islamic fundamentalists now to be called "radical?" (Letters, Oct. 30) What neo-con think tank is pushing this spin to talk radio and conservative columnists?
"Radical" can be a synonym for extremist, but this political spinning has "liberal" connotations that are blatantly false. Radical Muslims are progressives leading peaceful pro-Democracy movements throughout the Islamic world (Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi--Iran). Radical Muslims are peaceful liberal activists working for women's rights (Ayesha Imam-Nigeria, Yannar Muhammed-Iraq). Radical Muslims are peaceful promoters of the secular state (Dr. Sari Nusseibeh and Dr. Mustafa Barghouti-Palestine).
Al-Qaeda represents an extremist, conservative fundamentalism. It is this conservative fundamentalism that is a threat to secular nations. It is an extremist fundamentalism that is not limited to Muslims. It is a philosophy of ethnocentrism and intolerance that also permeates conservative, fundamentalist Christianity and Judaism. It is a philosophy antithetical to free, pluralistic and democratic societies.
"Radical" Dane Coefer
http://www.dailytidings.com/2004/1111/111104letters.shtml
October 8, 2004
I had the following rebuttal letter published today in the Medford Mail Tribune:
Unanswered question?
"The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security." � Yasser Arafat, 1993. Palestinians subsequently elected Arafat president of what they thought was to be their state.
The Israeli Likud Party platform "Flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state West of the Jordan river." Israelis have now twice elected Likud candidate Ariel Sharon.
The "unanswered question" (Letters, Oct. 2) is, when will Israelis seek peace and recognize the right of Palestine to exist? � Dane Coefer, Ashland
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2004/1008/edit/let.htm
September 9, 2004
My letter on sovereignty and Iraq published today in my local paper. I originally researched the topic to apply to Palestine.
"In order to be legitimate, government must derive its just power from the consent of the governed." (Jefferson)
"Citizens possess individual rights independent of all social or political authority, and every authority which violates these rights becomes illegitimate." (B. Constant)
"Every act of sovereignty restricts or works to the advantage of all citizens equally." (Rousseau)
"There exist in the world but two types of power, one illegitimate - force; the other legitimate - the will of the people." (B. Constant)
"Usurper can never have Right on his side." (Locke)
The government of Iraq is not "sovereign." The use of coercive foreign military force to suppress the dissent of the Iraqi people to the foreign imposed form of government may succeed, in the short term, in creating a government recognized externally by the international community, but it will not succeed in engendering an internally legitimate government (as Lincoln termed it) "of the people, by the people, for the people."
The loss of American and Iraqi lives due to Bush's war is tragic; the loss of American and Iraqi lives maintaining security in the chaos created by Bush's war is regrettable; the continuing loss of American and Iraqi lives to determine the political form and composition of Bush's Iraq is criminal.
Dane Coefer
http://www.dailytidings.com/2004/0909/090904letters.shtml
July 12, 2004
I had the following letter published in the Ashland Daily Tidings today:
"Majority supports expunging Arabs"
This year's University of Haifa survey of the Israeli Jewish public finds that 63.7 percent support "encouraging" Israeli Arabs to leave Israel. Unreported this year was the percentage supporting the forcible expulsion of the Arab population - in 2002 it was 30 percent.
One million Israeli Arabs struggle to remain in the land of their birth. Twenty percent are "internally displaced" refugees - denied the right to return to their land and denied compensation for its confiscation by the state.
Fifteen percent of Israeli Arabs live in villages "unrecognized" by the government. This government designation of "unrecognized" means they are denied public services (no government schools = 31 percent illiteracy; no government hospitals = 60 percent of children are without inoculations), but they are subject to government sanctions. (Israeli Arab homes are frequently bulldozed.)
Israel has a poverty rate of less than 8 percent - poverty among Israeli Arabs is over 30 percent. Israeli Arabs represent over 20 percent of the population, but they may freely reside on only 7 percent of the land and are effectively limited to 3 percent.
Israeli Arabs can vote - although in 2003 three of the five Arabs serving in the Knesset needed a court order to appear on the ballot and the only Christian in the Knesset is fighting government charges of treason.
They can vote, that is, until the 45.3 percent of the respondents to the University of Haifa survey get their way and that right is revoked.
"A good life?"
Dane Coefer
http://www.dailytidings.com/2004/0712/071204letters.shtml
July 10, 2004
Thank you, International Court of JUSTICE. Not so much for your statements on the "Wall," but your clear statement "The Court concludes that all these territories (including East Jerusalem) remain occupied territories" and your reiteration "No territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal.� More welcome than the statements on the "Wall" are those pertaining to the "settlements." "The Court concludes that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law." -- Thank you.
http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idocket/imwp/imwpframe.htm
July 1, 2004
My emailed response to the good Rabbi sent today:
Tsk! Tsk!
Now Rabbi,
That was a rather harsh letter to the editor. It is also rather foolish in its false assumptions. Perhaps you did not read the May 1st Forum that My Forum rebutted? Here is the link:
http://www.dailytidings.com/2004/0501/050104forum.shtml
You will note that my rape metaphor is used in rebuttal to a divorce analogy. Nothing "medieval" about its usage. The expression "European stranger" is used to to counter the implication that the divorce was between native "Palestinian Jews and Arabs." You, of course, know that is blatantly false.
I do really wonder if you bothered to read past the first sentence of my Forum as you regurgitate an absurd list of dates when the "two-state solution was rejected by the Palestinians." 1948? Read my Forum. 1967? How did Israel's invasion of Palestinian land become a rejection by Palestinians of the two-state solution? 1973? Egypt-Syria-Israel--no Palestinians involved. 2000? This "generous offer" was an Israeli rejection of Palestinian acceptance of the two-state solution at Oslo in 1993. Perhaps you are referring to the Intifada? Oslo was a FIVE year plan for Israeli withdrawal.
I do thank you for your letter. I'm considering whether or not to print it on the front of a T-shirt. On the back would be the following additional quotes from the Rabbi **** (Dec. 2001):
"In Palestine and Israel it's the Jews who are being blamed for the failure of the Palestinian fathers."
"Jews are hated in Israel not for anything Israel has done. This foolish Israeli policy or that foolish policy are up for critique. But these policies are not the cause of the current intafada [sic]. Arab anti-Semitism today is based on a filtered and flawed view of reality. The Jews have come to the Middle East with the seeds of pluralism and democracy."
Sincerely,
Dane Coefer
June 30, 2004
My Forum article, "As always the victim blamed," was published on May 22nd in the Ashland Daily Tidings.
http://www.dailytidings.com/2004/0522/052204forum.shtml
The Forum piece it rebutted, "Historical understanding of a messy divorce," was published May 1st:
http://www.dailytidings.com/2004/0501/050104forum.shtml
And today, June 30th, my Forum was protested by a local Rabbi ("Jewish depiction wrong, insulting") who found my metaphor "a European stranger raped Palestine" (which I used to counter the divorce analogy of the original writer) as a "medieval caricature" and "bigoted." He goes on to profess being insulted by my "inflammatory language." He says I would do well to study history, but then says Palestinians rejected the two-state solution in 1948 (it was 1947), 1967 (when Israel occupied them?), 1973 (I don't remember any proposal and the PLO did not take part in the war), and 2000 (when Barak slashed the size of the Palestinian State agreed to by both parties in 1993).
http://www.dailytidings.com/2004/0630/063004letters.shtml
May 15, 2004 (Al-Nakba 56)
It has been some time since I've posted my thoughts on Palestine. I've been distracted by events in Iraq and the ongoing Presidential campaign. Some "letters to the editor" in the local newspapers of Southern Oregon (where I reside) have brought me back to my blog. The pro-Israel letters have been so appalling bad with regurgitation of propaganda, myths and lies that I've made the commitment to blog at least once or twice a month. I've also written a Forum article for one paper rebutting a particularly absurd opinion piece equating the Palestinian issue with a messy divorce. (As if a rapist would have the right to a divorce settlement granting possesion of the property of the victim, full custody of offspring and continuing conjugal rights.)
Well, I've mailed in my ballot with my vote for Kucinich. Unfortunately, Kerry has not indicated an stance on Palestine that could be considered as any better than Bush. He will receive my vote in November based more on the evil that Bush is unleashing on the world rather than anything of his own merit.
October 1, 2003
The number one obstacle to peace in Palestine is not terrorists but settlers. They are recognized universally as criminals under international law, but there is not a single national law anywhere under which they can be brought to justice.
One of the most beneficial acts that a Pro-Palestinian nation could do would be to enact such a law.
September 29, 2003
Reading over my archives, I see I haven't mentioned Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader on trial in Israel. He has been on trial for about a year now and just made his closing statement. Marwan makes some very excellent statements about the legitimacy of resistence.
September 27, 2003
There are two items from the Associated Press today that are tainted by bias. Neither item lists author or source.
The first is a recurring list of highlights about the Intifada. The list includes six references to Palestinian suicide attacks, but only one Israeli attack on a Palestinian (that of a Hamas leader in Aug. of this year). Israeli invasions of Palestinian towns are referred to as reoccupations after Palestinian attacks killed 136 Israelis in a month. There is no reference to Palestinian deaths. The list describes Sharon's Jan. election as a landslide, although he received well under 50% of the vote and only was able to assume the postion of Prime Minister after forming a coalition government with three other parties.
The other AP item is an article purporting to tally Palestinians and Israelis killed in the last 3 years. The listed number of 2,477 deaths of Palestinians is immediately qualified with the statement that the number includes at least 101 suicide bombers. The Israeli number of 860 is not similarily qualified with a breakdown of armed forces fatalities resulting from combat in Occupied Palestine, nor is the number of deaths of criminal settlers pulled out. Both numbers are readily available from the website of the Israeli Human Rights organization B'Tselem. AP does not state the source for its figures. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society's website tracks Palestinian deaths and has a number that is quite close to the AP figure, but the PRCS figure does NOT include any suicide bombers and is limited to deaths in Occupied Palestine. The number of deaths from the Palestinan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza lists 2,134 (through June 3, 2003) . Their statistics do not include "Palestinians killed while participating in armed offensive attacks against Israeli targets" or deaths in Israel.
September 25, 2003
Edward Said died. Who was Edward Said? The obituaries begin "Palestinian Scholar..." High compliment, "Scholar."
Links to many of Edward Said's articles can be found at http://www.edwardsaid.org/
Some articles worth reading include "The Meaning of Rachel Corrie: Of Dignity and Solidarity," "The other America," "Arafat the Hunted" (Oct. 2002), "What Israel Has Done," "The End of Oslo" (Oct. 2000) and many others published over the past thirty years.
September 24, 2003
Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. Geneva, 22 August 1864
"Article 1. Ambulances and military hospitals shall be recognized as neutral, and as such, protected and respected by the belligerents as long as they accommodate wounded and sick..."
Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 August 1949
"Art. 18. Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict."
So today, according to the UN News Centre, Israel assaulted a UN-operated hospital in Qalqilya. The story was not picked up by the Western Press.
This, however, is not an isolated instance of Israeli abuse of hospitals and medical personnel.
Over the past 3 years, Israel has attacked the HQ of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society twice. Statistics by the PRCS also show 259 attacks on Ambulances resulting in 118 being damaged and 28 totally destroyed. As the result of the attacks, 192 ambulance and medical workers were injured and 3 killed.
Just last week, Israel invaded another hospital just north of Qalqilya while last month it was a hospital in Nablus.
September 23, 2003
133 to 4. Another election won by Arafat and another lost by Bush. Democracy in action at the world level. Yes--Democracy.
Jefferson, Wilson, and Carter are my idols of American Democracy. They stand in sharp contrast to the Corporate Fascism of Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush.
Today's Washington Post has a commentary by my idol--America's last honest President--Jimmy Carter. It deals with that great issue of the 20th and 21st Centuries--Palestine. (Reprint from the Palestine Chronicle)
September 21, 2003
I've mentioned the issue of demography in a previous blog. Today's St. Petersburg Times has an excellent article on the subject titled "Weapon of Mass Population."
September 19, 2003
"A Jewish settler was charged Friday with stealing weapons from the Israeli military, and prosecutors said he was procuring arms for Jewish vigilantes suspected of killing eight Palestinians." --Thus begins an AP article today.
VIGILANTES!
"Israeli authorities say the group was behind shootings that killed eight Palestinians, including a baby, and four failed bombing attempts, including a plan last year to detonate a bomb at a Palestinian girls' school in Jerusalem." Arms seized included "M-16 assault rifles, machine-guns, three anti-tank rockets, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and dozens of grenades."
VIGILANTES!
A vigilante is "someone who takes the law into their own hands, who acts outside the law in the interest of justice." A vigilante is an unauthorized enforcer of law--NOT a creator of law. The expression "judge, jury and executioner" does not include legislator.
Al-Aqsa is a vigilante group; Hamas is a vigilante group. Settlers are the criminals against whom Palestinian vigilantes act. Settlers can never become vigilantes. Organized criminals committing terror for personal gain are TERRORISTS.
September 17, 2003
The Intifada is NOT "terrorism and violence" on the part of Arafat and the PLO. The PLO is NOT sending suicide bombers into Israel; Arafat is NOT throwing stones at Israelis (and he has a lot of rocks close at hand surrounding his Presidential Office).
The Intifada is, rather, a demonstration that for seven years following OSLO the PLO and Arafat DID prevent terrorism and violence against Israel. The Intifada is a police department on strike--chaos and, yes, violence. For seven years (two years past the five of the Oslo contract) the PLO and Arafat upheld their obligations and Israel did not even evacuate their puny settlements in the Gaza Strip. Seven years and Israel merely redeployed their occupation troops outside of the urban centers.
How absurd to declare Arafat "irrelevant," "an obstacle to peace" and "compromised by violence." Is there any greater evidence of the relevance of Arafat than the result of his inaction?
Pundits speak of the non-violence of Gandhi and Mandela as examples that the Palestinians should emulate. Arafat IS Gandhi; Arafat IS Mandela. He is engaged in non-violence, non-action. The Indian and South African Independence movements were NOT non-violent--thousands died. Mandela's African National Congress engaged in terrorist acts. In the end, though, it was the non-violent faction of Gandhi to whom the British handed control in India, while Mandela, compromised by terror but non-violent by imprisonment, was democratically elected in South Africa.
The denial of the "relevance" of Arafat today is the denial of the legitimacy, necessity and inevitability of independent Palestine. Just as the British originally sought to marginalized Gandhi and the South African government imprisoned Mandela, the issue is not the individual but the acceptance of the cause the individual represents. The relevance of Arafat is the relevance of Independent Palestine. It is a relevance the leadership of Israel (compromised by religion, war crimes and settlers' votes) is unwilling to accept. It is a relevance the leadership of the US (compromised by politics, PACs and racism) is unable to accept.
September 13, 2003
Today is the 10th anniversary of the Oslo Accords--signed by Yasser Arafat and denounced by Ariel Sharon.
Palestinian and Israeli Minors Killed (B'Tselem)
1993--P-41/I-0 (all but 4 killed in the 9 months BEFORE Oslo)
1994--P-4/I-2
1995--P-5/I-0
1996--P-11/I-8
1997--P-5/I-3
1998--P-3/I-0 (The Oslo (Art. V) five year time-table for Israeli withdrawal expired and still they were there)
1999--P-0/I-0
2000--P-84/I-0 (all but 2 in the 3 months following the beginning of the Intifada)
During the entire year of 2000, Palestinians only killed 4 Israelis in Israel--none of them children. In 2000, Israelis killed 84 Palestinian children and 292 adults. Israelis also killed a dozen of their own Israeli Arabs that year.
Arafat brought Peace, but Sharon continued pushing the building of Israeli colonies on Palestinian land.
By 2000, the Israeli population based in Palestine was double what it had been before Oslo. While free travel between Palestinian cities was in theory possible, in reality, Israeli control of territory surrounding the cities made them subject to roadblocks and travel bans. Israelis constituted a full fourth of the population of the West Bank and 10% of the electorate of Israel. It is no surprise that when Barak proposed reneging on the Oslo Accords at Camp David by keeping 20% of the West Bank, Arafat rejected his proposal. Final status issues that were supposed to deal with minor border changes (mostly in Jerusalem) and the return of 1948 refugees became an ultimatum to surrender huge tracts of Palestinian West Bank territory.
Surrender of Palestinian territory for settlements is contrary to Article I of the Oslo Accords which clearly states:
"It is understood that the interim arrangements are an integral part of the whole peace process and that the negotiations on the permanent status will lead to implementation of Security Council Resolution 242 and 338."
and Security Council 242 clearly calls for:
"Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" [1967 War].
242 also emphasizes "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war."
So why is it that Busharon continues to demonize Arafat? Israel failed to withdraw--per UN demand and per signed agreement with the Palestinians. Sharon is the one that rejected Oslo when it was signed and worked relentlessly against it until he was finally elected Prime Minister and could announce it was dead. It is Sharon who failed to endorse the "roadmap." (Endorsed were "steps of the roadmap"). It is Sharon who failed to implement the "roadmap"--he staged removal of outposts for the press while erecting new ones elsewhere and he certainly failed to end "incitement" against Palestinians. (Palestinians painted over anti-Israeli grafitti, moderated TV and radio programs and arranged a truce among militants--Israel announced bids for new settlement construction, Sharon told settlers "Just build" and the Israeli armed forces just kept on killing Palestinians).
September 9, 2003
"There's a huge difference here," said Danny Seaman, an Israeli government spokesman who came to the site of the cafe bombing. "We're targeting militants, they're targeting civilians. If it's not a child on a bus, it's people having coffee at 11:30 at night." (From The Washington Post)
As I blogged before: The individuals Hamas kills are predominately NOT civilians. In the past three years there have been No Palestinian attacks on School Buses, No Palestinian attacks on Schools, No Palestinian attacks on Hospitals/Ambulances. (There have been Israeli attacks on School Buses, Schools, Hospitals, Ambulances...)
No children were killed in either Palestinian attack on Israel today. The first target was a bus stop outside a military base--eight fatalities, all soldiers. A legal attack under the Geneva Conventions. The second target was "people having coffee at 11:30 at night." 11:30 AT NIGHT. A criminal act under International Law, but NO children killed.
The only child murdered today was 12 year old Palestinian Thaer Sayuri--killed by Israel tank fire in downtown Hebron. A criminal act under International Law.
http://www.whowillsavethechildren.org/children_remembered.html
has side by side listings of Israeli and Palestinian children killed in the last 3 years. Their totals:
Israeli children killed = 101
Palestinian children killed = 463
and remember the population of Israel is double that of Palestine.
September 8, 2003
Newsweek "Web Exclusive" with Israeli historian Benny Morris:
"And you said you believe Israel should kill Arafat?
--There is no solution except killing him. All this talk about exiling him is nonsense. He would be much more trouble wandering the world. I think the choice is between killing him and keeping him in his Ramallah compound."
Israelis do not want Peace. They elected Sharon--twice. They call for the murder of Yasser Arafat.
Palestinians want Peace. They elected Yasser Arafat President. They elected Arafat President after he signed the Oslo Accords recognizing Israel and renouncing Palestinian rights to historic Palestine.
Israelis do not want Peace. They claim they want "security," but in reality they want to be the Masters of a land they find currently infested with a native goyim, sub-humans to be erased from the "stage of history."
Never again, huh? Benny Morris is well aware of the Evils of Israel; he a historian who has written extensively on the massacres of Palestinians (er, Arabs) by Israelis in the 1940s. He was heavily criticized by fellow Israelis for exposing their "dirty laundry." Any means justify the ends of Eretz Israel for such racists. Dear Stalinists, Maoists, Nazis, Fascists, Phalangists, Zionists and Hamas--the ends is always a fiction to justify your evil.
September 7, 2003
What an interesting weekend it has been. Topics I want to blog about, but doubt I'll have the time to address--
Consequences of the deportation ("transfer" the symbol) or assassination ("ethnically cleanse" the symbol) of Arafat; how is Arafat "tainted by terrorism" and what is America's real reason for refusing to deal with him; Israeli law does not have capital punishment for terrorism, thus Sharon's murders of Palestinian "terrorists" are not "extra-judicial" but "anti-judicial"; trying to kill a blind, paralysed Sheik by missile fire (but Israel can do stupid things as long as the US elects stupid Presidents); the concept of "guilt by association" and its current abuse by Bush and Sharon; why cutting off the funds to Hamas charities was a long over due good thing that has nothing to do with terrorism; Qureia (AP)-Korei (Reuters)-Qurei (BBC)-Qorei (various online Australian papers)...
September 6, 2003
The internet versions of most US papers are saying that Abbas has resigned as Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. Reuters and several east Asian papers, however, are more precise and cautious in pointing out that a letter of resignation was submitted to President Arafat, but that it has not been confirmed that he formally accepted it.
Abbas has submitted letters of resignation many times. It is a bargaining tactic. It is posited as a move to seek concessions from Yasser Arafat, but this is fiction. The real target is George Bush. Abbas can't submit a resignation to Bush saying "you haven't given me anything so I give up." Abbas is not stupid. He is a survivor just like Arafat. He knows he is played as a pawn in the great American chess game. He also knows that he is in reality more than that. He is a bishop in disguise, feinting a sacrifice and then sliding diagonally across the board to a position of safety. Palestinian chess is a game of survival, a marathon game of generations that outlasts the blitz chess of American diplomacy (where the game is over when time expires every 4 years). You see, Palestinian chess has no King, checkmate is not possible.
Arafat? He is the Queen, a mighty piece that can move in all directions for any distance. The power of the queen, however, makes it a prime target for attack in the blitz game.
Sharon? The bulldozer of Israeli chess, the castle plodding straight ahead and running over everything in its path. End of the file? Move to the side and start plodding down the next file. (Here's an article on Sharon by Knesset member Dr. Azmi Bishara.)
Let's watch the Abbas story for a while. I think that next week he will still be Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, here are links to two photos of the latest home demolition by Israel. The AP photo shows the rubble that typically makes the US press (on the few occasions when they actually publish the photos). The Reuters photo, however, shows the "home" as it is collapsing--all eight floors of the apartment building that was home to 28 families.
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September 2, 2003
Not counting this August's missle attacks, a review of B'Tselem statistics uncovers 105 murders by Israeli rocket fire. Also, thus far into the third year of the Intifada, Israel has murdered 74 children in the Gaza internment camp.
August 28, 2003
Hamas has launched over 2,000 rockets out of the Gaza internment camp since the the Intifada began--Israeli fatalities = 0.
I suspect the list of Palestinian fatalities to be over 100 from Israeli rocket attacks. It is hard to miss when aiming at the most densely populated residential area in the world.
The Palestinians of Gaza have not killed a single Israeli civilian over the entire course of the Intifada. Yes, Hamas is active in Gaza. Yes, Hamas has a military leadership in Gaza. Hamas of Gaza, however, has never successfully killed anyone other than an Israeli "border" guard or an invading soldier. It has even been over a year since the last successful "extra-judicial assassination" of Israelis in the paramilitary occupation compounds that sever the Strip in two.
In the first year of the Intifada, Israelis killed 90 Palestinian children in the Gaza strip; in the 2nd year Israelis murdered an additional 75 children. (Link)
Gaza is a walled internment camp (slaughterhouse) within which Israel plays with its F-16s, Apache helicopters, air-to-surface missiles, sniper rifles, flechette-launching tanks, exploding cell phones, bulldozers...
It is a clear case of genocide. (Read: The 1949 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide)
"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
.....(a) Killing members of the group;
.....(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
.....(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
.....(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
.....(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
"Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:
.....(a) Genocide;
.....(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
.....(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
.....(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
.....(e) Complicity in genocide."
Seems Sharon and his government have commited all five punishable acts in at least the first three defined catagories.
"I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger." --Ariel Sharon, 1956.
August 26, 2003
Well, it looks as though the 3rd North American Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement will not be happening at Rutgers after all. The Rutgers administration has announced its intent to move the event from the Douglass Student Center, conveniently located in New Brunswick, to its athletic complex in more remote Piscataway. "Security" was the key euphemism used.
Meanwhile the national organizing committee of the Conference is looking into relocating the event to Ohio State University due to "concerns about the capability of New Jersey Solidarity to host this year's conference successfully ."
All this because of the "abominable" views of Rutgers NJ Solidarity. What are the views?
"We are opposed to the existence of the apartheid colonial settler state of Israel, as it is based on the racist ideology of Zionism and is an expression of colonialism and imperialism, and we stand for the total liberation of all of historic Palestine....We unconditionally support Palestinians' human right to resist occupation and oppression by any means necessary." http://www.njsolidarity.org/
While this "from the river to the sea" is currently a fringe view, it a position that can be supported with some legitimate interpretations of international law.
Unfortunately for the credibility of NJ Solidarity, this is not the position of the Palestine Liberation Organization--which chose over a decade ago to recognize the right of Israel to exist on a portion of historic Palestine. The Declarations of Principles of the Oslo Accords were signed by the excessively maligned Yasser Arafat in 1993--"The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security." The Covenant of the the PLO was formally amended by the Palestinian National Council meeting in Gaza in 1996 "canceling the articles that are contrary to the letters exchanged between the P.L.O. and the Government of Israel 9-10 September 1993."
The views of NJ Solidarity are more in tune with those of Hamas (practically the only Palestinian resistence organization that is not a member of the PLO). The Hamas Covenant also calls for the total liberation of historic Palestine.
It is rather unfair, however, to label NJ Solidarity's position "abominable."
"Abominable" are the positions of the Israeli Political Parties that make up Sharon's coalition Cabinet. They are, after all, the Government that Bush claims supports peace.
Sharon's Likud Party (15 Cabinet members):
�Flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.�
The National Union Party (2 Cabinet members):
�Absolutely rejects the idea of a Palestinian state between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.�
The National Religious Party (2 Cabinet members):
"The State of Israel alone shall exist between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. No Palestinian state or any other foreign sovereign entity shall be established in this area.�
The so-called moderate Shinui Party (5 Cabinet members):
"Israel will not evacuate settlement blocs, and these will be integrated within Israel's borders."
Note in 1993 when the PLO recognized Israel's right to exist, Israel did not reciprocate. All Israel did was recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. Israel still has not recognized the right of a State of Palestine to exist. Israel still has not accepted Bush's "roadmap" which calls for a Palestinian State by 2005.
Or view my Complete Blog Archives -- May-July 2003 and August-October 2003
May 27, 2003 - 1st entry
Your odds of being killed by ordinary murder in the US are about one in 16,500. The odds of an Israeli civilian in Israel being killed by a Palestinian are about one in 18,900. The odds of a Palestinian civilian in Occupied Palestine being killed by an Israeli are one in 3,800!
In other words, it is safer to walk down a street in Israel than in the US, while it is not even safe to sleep in Palestine.
"But Palestinians are terrorists..." A word "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." One out of every five Palestinians killed by Israelis is a child; one out of every eight Israelis killed by Palestinians is a child. No Israeli school has been attacked but at least three bombs have been planted by Israeli civilians in Palestinian schools. Seems clear that the greater "terrorists" are the Israelis. But then they've had over 60 years of practice.
The base data I use in my extrapolations are derived from Israeli sources. If I had used Palestinian sources, the figure for Palestinians killed by Israelis annually could have been as high as one in in 2,668 rather than one in 3,800. If I use Palestinian sources in this blog they will be attributed as such. Other data may be considered as originating with Israeli and "Western" sources. (Primarily, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, Amnesty International, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Watch.)
May 29, 2003
Why was the hit TV series "Dark Angel" cancelled after only two seasons on Fox? Could it be someone at the network belatedly realized that the show was a metaphor for the struggle of the Palestinian people?
(No--I do not subscribe to the belief that the media is controlled by a Jewish conspiracy.)
Islam is not a religion of Peace. Islam is a religion of Justice.
In 1918, Palestinians asked Woodrow Wilson for Independence. They subsequently asked the British for Independence; they asked the League of Nations for Independence; they again asked the British for Independence, they asked the UN for Independence; they asked FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, (Ford?), Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II for Independence. For nearly a century Palestinians have been asking for Justice. How naive! They asked for deeds to match words. How un-Western!
Please, Mr. Wilson, but Point Five of your famous Fourteen states:
"V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined."
And your Point Twelve states:
"XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development."
Please, Mr. Prime Minister George, Law, Baldwin, MacDonald, Chamberlain, but the Balfour Declaration states:
"[I]t being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."
Please, Mr. Truman and Mr. Churchill, but the Anglo-American Committee of 1946 stated:
"I. That Jew shall not dominate Arab and Arab shall not dominate Jew in Palestine. II. That Palestine shall be neither a Jewish state nor an Arab state. III. That the form of government ultimately to be established, shall, under international guarantees, fully protect and preserve the interests in the Holy Land of Christendom and of the Moslem and Jewish faiths."
Please, Mr. Secretary General, but remember Res. 181, 194, 242, 338...and Article 6 of the UN Charter states:
"A Member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council."
Please, Mr. Bush, but your "Roadmap" calls for "Peace and Security" for Israel. It calls for Injustice. Peace and Security must be preceded by Justice. Islam is not a religion of Peace. Islam is a religion of Justice. Your roadmap is doomed to failure.
Oh, by the way, I am not a Muslim. I was raised a Methodist. I was President of my church youth group. I even worked for two years as church custodian.
May 30, 2003
What are the legal borders of Israel? They are the borders of the UN Partition Plan of 1947--GA Resolution 181. (MAP)
Being a General Assembly resolution, however, 181 is merely a recommendation and not an enforceable act of International Law. The borders described in 181 became the legal borders of Israel by
1) Britain's turning over of its mandatory rights (including the right to partition) and obligations to Palestine to the UN;
2) Being claimed as such in Israel's Declaration of Independence; and
3) The formal admittance of Israel to UN membership with explicit reference to Israel's statements respecting 181 (and 194).
The UN Security Council in the historic 1967 SC Resolution 242 stated:
"Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war..."
"By war" not "this war." Israel's "acquisition of territory" in 1948-49 is as inadmissible as Germany's "acquisition" of Poland and France in WWII or Iraq's "acquisition" of Kuwait in 1991.
The borders of Palestine are the same today as in 1947. Eventually, we may expect to see the peaceful reunification of 1946 Palestine. Until that day, however, the borders of 1947 will remain unchangeable by war or any treaty or roadmap coerced under the terror of occupation.
May 31, 2003
Are the "legal borders" of Palestine/Israel borders of Peace and Security? Definitely not.
Would the "Green Line" borders of the 1949 cease-fire be borders of Peace and Security? Certainly not.
In reality, no borders with the artificial construct of Israel will ever be borders of Peace and Security. This is because the government and institutions of Israel are not the government and institutions of the people who reside (or resided) on the land claimed by the State.
Israel claims to be a democracy. It is not. Jews were a minority in the land they occupied in 1948 when they held their first elections. Native Palestinian non-Jews were not allowed to vote (A violation of the provisions of the Partition Plan). Indeed, only Jews were allowed to vote until the native Muslim-Christian-Druse majority was purged to a level of less than 15% of the population. Until 1966, "Israeli Arabs" were held under martial law. In 1967, Israel once again illegally expanded its borders through war. It formally annexed East Jerusalem, but did not extend the right-to-vote to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Nearly, 500,000 Jews live in 1967 Occupied Palestine and are allowed to vote in Israeli elections, but the 250,000 Palestinians of annexed Jerusalem are only permitted to vote in limited municipal elections.
{You will typically see the number of Israelis listed in the press as living in settlements in the occupied territories as 250,000. This is an Israeli propaganda number. Since Israel annexed East Jerusalem and expanded its municipal borders, it does not consider the quarter-million settlers it introduced on those lands to be in occupied (disputed) territory. Israel does count the native Palestinian population of East Jerusalem as part of the occupied territories in its statistical reports. Neither the UN nor the US recognize Israel's annexation of Jerusalem (East or West).}
June 5, 2003
Today's San Francisco Chronicle has an opinion piece by an Arab immigrant of Jewish extraction that regurgitates several old arguments designed to delegitimize the Palestinian Right of Return.
"A Fork in the Road Map"
The argument runs that "nearly a million Jews" were "forced to flee" from Arab States in the past 60 years. (Ergo, they are just like the Palestinian refugees who fled Israel in 1948.) The Arab Jews were absorbed into Israel and Western nations, BUT the "Arab leadership sinned" by refusing to "integrate Palestinian refugees into their own societies."
Highlighted in the piece is the query "Why is it that the Palestinians continue to live in squalid refugee camps--a people homeless and on welfare for 54 years, even under their own Palestinian Authority?"
It is sad that the Chronicle chose to publish this diatribe of anti-Palestinian/Arab hate.
"Nearly a million Jews" EMIGRATED from Arab States over the past 60 years. Some, certainly, were "forced to flee" by Arab government programs against Jews. The vast majority, however, voluntarily chose to emigrate. In Iraq, the post-1948 government refused to allow Jews to emigrate to Israel. (They were at war, by the way). Israel created an underground to smuggle Jews out. The underground also conducted a bombing campaign of synagogues and Jewish businesses to encourage emigration.
Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran has a Jewish population of over 50,000. There are Jews in Al-Queda sympathizing Yemen. The Al-Queda targets in the 2002 Tunisian and 2003 Moroccan attacks were native Jewish synagogues and cultural centers. Hundreds of thousands of Jews today live Arab Nations. There are Jews in Palestine that are recognized as Palestinian citizens by the Palestinian Authority. (Unlike Israel, Palestine permits interfaith marriages between Jews, Muslims and Christians; in the mid-1990s Israel even began to ban same faith marriages between Israeli and Palestinian Muslims).
Palestinian refugees who insist on their Right of Return did not voluntarily leave their homes to escape hate and prejudice, but involuntarily to escape warfare and government-sponsored genocide. Their Right of Return is the same right internationally recognized for all civilian refugees of war. Palestinians are merely unique in the length of their wait for repatriation.
The author relates her own instance of "fleeing" Libya in 1967 and how she would not be allowed back now to visit her grandfather's grave. Well, an American Muslim wouldn't be permitted to travel to Libya either--we don't have diplomatic relations. Many Arab States restrict visits by Jews, but most only ban Israelis. Extremists like the author continuely try to portray Arab States as anti-Jew, rather than anti-Israeli. Note the date of the author's emigration.
There are over 4 million UN registered Palestinian refugees. Less than one-third live in refugee camps (abt. 1.3 million). 1.7 million live in Jordan, where they have the right to vote and hold legislative and cabinet positions. 1.6 million live in the West Bank and Gaza.
The "squalid" camps were made such by Israeli military destruction of infrastucture. Under the Palestinian Authority, all had running water, sewage, and electricity. Most consist of multi-story apartment buildings. All are provided with medical services and schools. (The Palestinian is the most educated and literate Arab population in the world). The camps are poor and densely populated, but hardly squalid.
Nor are the refugees "homeless and on welfare for 54 years." The 3 million Palestinian refugees outside the camps are Stateless but hardly "homeless." And while the refugees in the camps may be on welfare, the budget of the UNRWA for the camps is about $200/refugee with over half going directly to education programs and "[w]hile the Agency's services are funded directly from its budget, where appropriate and possible, refugees contribute to the cost of the services through co-payments, self-help schemes, voluntary efforts, participation fees and voluntary contributions." In other words, TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch).
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is a registered refugee. Like most Palestinian refugees he doesn't receive welfare from the UN.
The "Right of Return" for 1948 refugees is UN Resolution 194. It was passed BEFORE Israel's admittance to the UN. It has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the UN. It is International Law.
"But the return of the refugees will destroy the Jewish nature of Israel." Tough. The Jewish State of Israel is an abomination to the Nation-State system. Even the US has only recognized it as the "State of Israel." Every Treaty and "White Paper" and "Joint Report" from the Balfour Declaration to the League of Nations Mandate to the UN Partition Plan (Sec. C, Ch. 3) has insisted on the protection of the native minorities. Through genocide, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and violations of human rights and international law, Israel has sought to maintain a rogue State in oppostition to Justice.
The Right of Return as stated in Article 11 of UN Resolution 194:
"Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid or the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."
Still they wait for "the earliest practicable date."
June 6, 2003
So, the truth is now out. Bush is not sincere about resolving the Palestinian Question. The Aqaba summit was just a photo op (A desert backdrop with air-conditioners built into the podiums to prevent visible sweat). Israel still has not accepted the "Roadmap" and Bush let Sharon get away with numerous non-commital word games.
After meeting with Bush, Sharon's statement did not pledge Israel�s support to the �road map� but to the �steps of the road map �as adopted by the Israeli government.��
According to the Roadmap/roadmap/road map:
"At the outset of Phase I:
"Israeli leadership issues unequivocal statement affirming its commitments to the two-state vision of an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel, as expressed by President Bush, and calling for an immediate end to violence against Palestinians everywhere. All official Israeli institutions end incitement against Palestinians." {My underline}
Hasn't happened. Won't happen.
June 7, 2003
The Greek goddess Themis is the mother of Irene, Eunomia and Dike (the Horai).
Themis is the goddess of Assemblies (Summits) and Custom (Law); Irene--the goddess of Peace; Eunomia of Order (lawfulness); Dike of Justice.
June 8, 2003
Justice. I will make frequent reference to the word in my blogs.
There is no Justice in the road map. Irene and Eunomia for Israel, but no Dike for Palestine. Themis stood before Zeus in all his wrath and made him heed her counsel of wisdom. Bush smiled and kowtowed to evil calling Israel a "Jewish state."
There can be no Peace without Justice.
The "road map" calls for Palestinians to draft a Constitution. Israel has no Constitution. The "road map" does not call on Israel to draft one.
Twenty percent of the population of Israel consists of non-Jewish Palestinians of Israeli citizenship. In a 2002 survey, 30% of Israelis supported the forcible transfer (deportation) of Israeli Palestinians; 60% supported less drastic measures to "encourage" the voluntary transfer of their native non-Jewish citizens.
Eunomia in Israel is discrimination and oppression of non-Jews. Forty years ago, how outraged we Americans were with State laws that banned interracial marriages and "whites only" exclusionary clauses in housing deeds. Today such laws are the National laws of Israel.
On the news we see the Israeli bulldozers demolishing Palestinian homes in Gaza. On many instances, on the very same days, Israeli bulldozers were active in Israel destroying the homes of their native Palestinians. Billions of dollars have been spent building and subsdizing "Jews Only" cities in the West Bank AND Israel proper, while Israeli non-Jews live in tents and shacks in the Negev because building an "un-authorized" permanent structure by a non-Jew is a crime that will bring the bulldozers.
Adalah = Justice in Arabic. It is also the name of an Israeli advocacy group that acts to protect "Arab Israeli" rights in Israel. Their webpage: http://www.adalah.org/
Other Israel groups working for Civil Rights Justice in Israel include:
The Arab Association for Human Rights
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
The Association of Forty
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
The can be no Peace without Justice.
The "road map" calls for Palestinians to give up the guns with which they defend their homes. There is no provision calling for Israel to confiscate weapons from the settlers illegally occupying Palestinian land. Palestinian police are expected to protect Israel from "terrorists." Palestinian police, however, are not permitted to protect Palestine from Israeli terrorists. Even common criminals, if they are Israeli citizens, may not be held in Palestinian jails, may not be tried by Palestinian courts. Once every three weeks an Israeli "settler" murders a Palestinian civilian in Palestine with impunity--and immunity. No, the "road map" is not a map to Peace.
June 12, 2003
"...an immediate end to violence against Palestinians everywhere."
"Extrajudicial assassination" is a violation of International Law and it is certainly an Israeli violation of Stage 1 of the Bush road map. Quid pro quo, "an eye for an eye," compensatory retaliation--Hamas was attacked; they responded in kind.
There were no Hamas attacks for several days before the Aqaba Summit, but immediately upon Sharon's return to Israel, he assassinates two members of Hamas. Hamas retaliates, as expected, and kills five Israeli OCCUPATION SOLDIERS. Sharon then launches missiles into Gaza City--the most densely populated city in the world--killing civilians in a failed assassination attack against a Hamas activist. Hamas retaliates, as expected, killing civilians (like for like) in an attack on occupied Jerusalem. Sharon again launches multiple missiles into Gaza killing civilians and what are described in Israel's own press releases as LOW-LEVEL members of Hamas.
Bush was "deeply concerned" that Sharon's actions did not "contribute to the security of Israel," but then "angrily condemns" Hamas as "an enemy of peace." Hypocrite.
The US calls Hamas a "terrorist" organization. Perhaps it is. But Palestine is OCCUPIED by a nation that rejects ALL international law--a nation that violates the Civil Rights of its own minority citizens as well as the Human Rights of occupied Palestinians.
Israel is a terrorist nation. It should be listed as such by the US. Groups like Hamas have killed 307 civilians in Israel during the current Intifada; Israeli Government forces have killed over 2,000 Palestinian civilians, including at least 377 children. Israel has KILLED MORE CHILDREN in Palestine than Palestinians have killed civilians in Israel. (B'Tselem statistics as of May 31, 2003).
Nearly one in three Israelis (31.39%) killed by Palestinians is an armed member of the Israeli Occupation Forces. Compare that to civilian "collateral damage" by the US in Afghanistan or Iraq. The so-called terrorist groups of Palestine kill a smaller percentage of civilians than the US with its established policies of minimizing civilian casualties.
If it is OK to kill unarmed, hors de combat, Hamas criminals without trial, then certainly it must also be permitted that Palestinian vigilantes kill Israeli criminals in Occupied Palestine. The paramilitary and religious fanatics who are called "settlers" by the press are criminals under international law. Executions of these criminals in Occupied Palestine account for more than one-third (37.6%) of the so-called civilian terrorism of Palestinian vigilantes. Indeed, the percentage is likely well over 50% when "settlers" killed hors de combat in Israel proper are included.
So, at least 69% of all Israelis killed by Palestinians are either legitimate military targets or criminals. Where's the terrorism?
Why doesn't the US State Department list Israeli "settler" organizations on its terrorist list? Why doesn't the US impose sanctions on the nation illegally occupying the land of another?
June 14, 2003
I've said before that I don't subscribe to a Jewish conspiracy controlling the media. That does not mean that I don't consider the media biased towards Israel (and not just American media).
Note that the first attack after the Aqaba Summit was by Israel against Hamas in Tulkarm. Note how, with hardly a single exception, the Western press now says that the first attack was by Hamas (with Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade) against the Israeli soldiers at the Erez checkpoint. Note that the video released by Hamas pointedly described the attack as retaliation for the assassination of their two activists in Tulkarm.
Editorials say that it is a "chicken and egg" thing and that the conflict has gone on so long that it no longer matters who the aggressor was. Perhaps it doesn't in most situations, but when you are talking about ceasefires and breaches of the "road map," it most certainly does matter.
The European Union is looking at banning funding of Hamas (currently the EU only lists the military branch of the organization as a prohibited entity). Pressure by the US? No. At the request of the Palestinian Authority envoy to France.
Hamas is a power threat to the PA. It does not toe the line. It acts counter to the principles of the PLO. One of the most repeated demands from Bush since Aqaba has been for Arab States to cease funding Hamas and non-PA groups. (OK, he says "terrorist.") Think that was his own idea? It is not in the "road map."
In its Charter, Hamas recognizes that Israel exists. It does not recognize its "right to exist." Less publicized is that Hamas also doesn't recognize Jordan's right to exist. Hamas does not recognize the colonial division of Palestine.
Israel does not recognize the existence of Palestine; it does not recognize its "right to exist." As Sharon-speak puts it, it is not the land that is under occupation, but the people.
The main Hebrew word used for post-1967 settlements is hitnakhlut. Loosely it means "settling down on one's patrimony." The press chooses to translate hitnakhlut as the religiously neutral euphemism "settlement." (See: Settlements: a user guide)
So why doesn't the press likewise sanitize the religiously charged word "martyr" to "dead hero" or "victim of Israeli murder?" Why not translate Intifada as "Uprising?" Jihad as "Struggle?" Hamas as the "Islamic Resistence Movement" (or at least IRM)?
Why does the press have consistent standardized spellings for words translated from Hebrew, but not Arabic? (Intifada, Intefada, Intefadah; Yassir, Yasser, Yasir).
Why does the press fail to use the word "alleged" when referring to alleged terrorists, militants, fugitives, gunmen...?
Why does the press repeatedly drop honorifics when they relate to Palestinians? Dr. Rantisi (He is an MD, a pediatrician!), President Arafat (He was elected by a majority of popular votes--not so for Bush; not so for Sharon).
June 15, 2003
"Los hombres mueren, m�s no los ideales." -- Ernesto 'Che' Guevara.
"Men die, but not their ideals."
Or as the UNESCO Charter has it:
"That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed..."
Killing the men of Hamas will not kill the ideal of Hamas. There is a very good reason why Hamas exists--the evil that is Israel. Hamas is a reaction to evil; as long as that evil continues to exist, Hamas, the ideal, will continue to exist.
That does not mean that the absolute destruction of Israel is the only way to eliminate Hamas. It is not the achievement of the goal of the organization that will end the ideal that the organization represents, but rather the end of the impetus, the cause, that created the ideal in the first place.
It is the evil, the racism, the injustice of Israel that must be eliminated in order to end the ideal that is manifested in Hamas. While I believe that it is inevitable that Israel will cease to exist, I believe that will occur as the non-violent dominance of justice and demography supplant the current institutions of evil.
The absolutism of Hamas can only be eliminated by a just solution. International Law must be applied. That means a 100% unconditional pullout of Israeli troops and "settlers" from 1967 occupied Palestine (including East Jerusalem). Unconditional. There is nothing to negotiate. No rewards for occupation, but no penalties either. Israel doesn't have to recognize the "State" of Palestine. Just stay the hell out of their territory.
Let's call that Phase I of Dane's Road Map to Justice.
Phase II is more complicated. Phase II requires resolution of the 1948 injustices against the Palestinian people. Justice requires balance, compromise, sacrifice. Absolute Justice for the Palestinians would require the destruction of Israel. That, however, would be one-sided Justice. The Sword of Justice is not wielded by the Greek goddess Themis to smite one side to the benefit of the other, but to separate the two sides.
Violence will result from the implementation of Phase II. Extremists will continue to grasp at the straws of an impossible ideal. Phase I will reduce the power of Hamas, but not eliminate it. It will, on the other hand, increase the power of the Eretz Israel extremists on the other side. The key to the success of Phase II is the support of the governments to keep the extremists on the fringe and out of the mainstream. International sanctions, consistently enforced, can impose Phase I on Israel, but nothing can force the involuntary acceptance of Phase II upon Israel.
In Phase II, Israel must cease to be a Jewish State and become a State for the Inhabitants enclosed by its borders. It must except the repatriation of those former Inhabitants that fled or were forced from its territory due to the 1948 War and the expulsion policies of the government. It must allow future Inhabitants to attain citizenship on equal terms without discrimination based on Race, Creed, or Origin.
Phase II must define the borders between Israel and Palestine. While the 1947 Partition Plan borders are the Legal borders of the States, they were artificial borders crudely demarking a demographic rather geographic reality. Nor are the 1949 "Green Line" borders a valid representation of "just borders." The Green Line demarks Israeli military conquest of Palestinian territory granted to Palestinians by the Partition Plan. ("Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war...") No, new borders must be negotiated without the threat of war or the violence of occupation.
June 24, 2003
If Gandhi or Mandela were a Palestinian they would have been killed, not imprisoned.
June 25, 2003
No, Israel does not have a right to self-defense. Criminals do not have the right to resist arrest. Israel is the occupying power. Israel is the villain.
June 29, 2003
Cease-fire?
They have been done before. Always they have been broken by Israel (1948,-49,-50...). This one will be no different.
Oslo was a cease-fire. Israel doubled the size of its occupation force in Palestine under the protection of the Palestinian truce.
The cease-fire text demands:
"The total cessation of all forms of Zionist aggression against our people, of incursions, demolitions, closures, sieges on cities, villages and refugee camps, including the siege imposed on President Yasser Arafat, the bulldozing of agricultural land, attacks on land and property...the total cessation of all assassination operations, massacres and of all arrest and deportation campaigns against our people, their leaders and their fighters."
Where else in the world have you ever seen a demand to cease "the bulldozing of agricultural land, attacks on land and property...?" Nowhere. Why not? Because no where else in the world has the international community failed to protect the civilian population from the aggression of an external military force more completely than in Palestine.
A story last week that didn't make the US press was the burning of Palestinian wheat fields by Israeli terrorists. Israeli troops prevented Palestinian firefighters from putting them out.
A story that didn't make the US mainstream press was a report a couple years ago from the Palestinian Authority that Israel's attacks on agricultural land had reached the point where more than half of the olive trees in existence in the West Bank in 1967 had since been destroyed by Israel.
Tomorrow's (got to love the internet) Christian Science Monitor reports that 12% of Gaza's agricultural land has been destroyed by Israel in the last 33 months. The main crop in Gaza is the potato. Not much for a sniper to hide behind.
The Syrian Government newspaper Tishrin said in a front-page editorial that efforts to restart the peace process "are not moving in the right direction as the majority of demands are directed at the weak (Palestinian) side ... while the practices of the strong side, Israel, are deliberately disregarded." (As quoted in www.theage.com.au) I agree.
Apparently Bush decided to ignore Sharon's statement that settlement construction can continue "quietly." I'm still amazed that the planes of 9/11 weren't piloted by Palestinians. No people in the world have a greater right to retaliate against the injustice of American foreign policy than the Palestinians. I admire their restraint.
The San Francisco Chronicle has the texts of the Fatah and Hamas/Islamic Jihad truce statements.
July 4, 2003
PA or PNA?
The official name of the quasi-governmental "Authority" created under the Oslo Accords is the Palestinian National Authority (*1). The Israeli government, however, universally refers to the entity as the Palestinian Authority and the US press has adopted that designation. In my earlier blogs, I also made use of this false designation. My apologies to the Palestinian people.
The rather successful campaign (*2) of Israel to delete the word "National" from the name of the representative body of the Palestinian "Nation" is just one more example of Israel's relentless campaign to deny the legitimate existence of a Palestinian People, Nation and eventual State.
Best Wishes to the National Authority of the Palestinian people in the continuing struggle for Justice and Independence this anniversary of the Independence of my own nation.
(*1) www.pna.gov.ps and www.pna.org are the official websites of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
(*2) A "Google" search on "Palestinian National Authority" comes up with about 34,400 hits; one on "Palestinian Authority" generates about 296,000 hits.
July 14, 2003
Happy Bastille Day France! Two hundred and fourteen years ago your political prisoners were freed and the Bastille prison levelled. If only the same were true today for Palestine.
Clarity.
It is not a word you expect to use when writing about things in the Middle East. Over the past week I have been musing over the plethora of Israeli lies, half-truths and semantic games.--Do you know how to tell when an Israeli is lying? Fiction is not a lie, just an artificial construct that only the most ignorant believe--The word clarity came to mind when reviewing Palestinian statements on their positions. Clear, explicit demands for Justice based on International Law.
The Oslo Accords explicitly mention UN Security Council Resolution 242, which demanded Israel withdraw from territories occupied in their June 1967 Invasion of Palestinian Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai.
At Oslo the Palestinians were clear in their statements--We recognize the existence of Israel, but we insist on ALL 1967 occupied territories for our State as required by International Law.
So, Israel then spent the next decade doubling its civilian occupation forces on 1967 occupied Palestine and Barak made a "generous offer" of 80% of the 1967 lands which Palestinians refused as such was not the agreement signed at Oslo-Madrid-Camp David and such is not the International Legal Right of Palestine.
Clarity by the Palestinians. Clarity by the International Community. Fiction from Israel.
July 18, 2003 (Happy Birthday to Nelson Mandela, 85)
The charge of anti-Semitism is frequently brought up with any statement against Israel or in favor of Palestine..There is no difference between an individual or organization calling a pro-Palestinian anti-Semite and an individual or organization who calls an African-American a n****r. The Confederate, Nazi and Israeli Flags are all symbols of hate and intolerance.
Even Jews are not allowed to freely criticize the evil that is Israel without being labelled "self-loathing."
And many Jews criticize Israel, including some in Israel itself:
Not in My Name Coalition http://www.nimn.org
Jewish Voice for Peace http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Gush Shalom http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html
Jews Against Occupation http://www.jewsagainsttheoccupation.org/
Jewish Peace Fellowship http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org
Neturei Karta http://www.netureikarta.org/
Jews NOT Zionists http://www.jewsnotzionists.org
Yesh Gvul, The movement for IDF men refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/
Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions http://www.icahd.org/eng/
B'Tselem (Israeli Human Rights Group) http://www.btselem.org (My Favorite Source)
Bat Shalom, Israeli Women for Peace http://www.batshalom.org
"Occupied Territory" http://www.occupied.org
Rabbis for Human Rights http://www.rhr.israel.net
Oz v'Shalom - Netivot Shalom (religious Zionist anti-Occupation) http://www.netivot-shalom.org.il/
Association for Civil Rights in Israel http://www.acri.org.il/english-acri/engine/index.asp
Visions Of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine http://www.vopj.org
Middle East Crisis Committee http://www.thestruggle.org
Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel http://www.searchforjustice.org
Tikkun Magazine http://www.tikkun.org
July 27, 2003
Israeli propaganda games: "Two more cities to be turned over to Palestinians" and "100 Islamic militants to be released."
"More"--Well, yes, Israel pulled out of Bethlehem proper (the new bell-ringer at the Church of the Nativity need not worry about being assassinated as his predecessor was), but they keep the city encircled with troops, road barriers and a huge trench. The only change has been that the troops do not make incursions into the city and Palestinian police are not shot at when they appear on the streets.
"Two"--Jericho is named as one. Perhaps Sharon is counting on Bush being a total idiot. Jericho has not, at anytime during the current Intifada, been occupied by Israel. The Palestinian police have continued maintaining security in Jericho unmolested by Israeli invasion. As I pointed out in a previous blog, no suicide attacker has originated from Jericho--the only Palestinian city NOT OCCUPIED by Israel.
"Militants"--Not "prisoners" or "detainees." In the first batch of prisoners released after the Aqaba summit, only one had more than 10 days left to serve on his sentence and he was an old man with health problems. Many were detainees that had not even been charged. It is likely that this approved batch of "Islamic militants" will be the more of the same. A "militant" is a person who is "combative" or "aggressively active" in a cause. Few of the detainees in Israeli internment camps meet the dictionary definition of the term. Their only crimes are being Palestinians in Palestine.
August 6, 2003
Press reports state that the release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel is not part of the "road map." They are wrong. The "road map" explicitly requires Israeli implementation of the "Tenet Work Plan" as part of Phase 1. Section 2 of Tenet states "Israel will release all Palestinians arrested in security sweeps who have no association with terrorist activities."
The wording may be open to interpretation (What constitutes a "security sweep" or "association with terrorist activities"?), but Israel is ignoring this and not applying the Tenet standards.
Just today Israel made another "security sweep" that arrested 9 or 10 Palestinian police officers in Jericho. The officers were asleep in their police barracks when raided by Israel. Tenet also explicitly prohibits such attacks on police organizations. The assault was undoubtedly politically motivated as Jericho was one of the cities Israel announced it intended to "return" to Palestinian control, although at no time over the past three years of Intifada has it ceased to be under Palestinian National Authority control.
August 7, 2003
Prisoner update--Palestinians arrested in recent Israeli "security sweeps" have outnumbered the prisoners released yesterday. 239 have been arrested in Hebron alone as of Monday. The number of police officers grabbed in the Jericho raid now is listed as 18.
I've been wanting to write a blog on Arafat for a while. I found one by Israeli writer Uri Avnery that says it a lot better than I ever could.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-8-2003_pg3_5
August 22, 2003
Remember--Israel has not accepted the roadmap. Bush has not condemned Sharon for his refusal to endorse the roadmap.
On June 29th Hamas, al-Aqsa, and Islamic Jihad agreed to a unilateral ceasefire at the request of the Palestinian National Authority. Four days later Israel assassinated a leader of al-Aqsa in Israeli-occupied Qalqilya and five days after that it assassinated 2 Hamas activists (and bystanders) in Israeli-occupied Nablus. On August 12th, two attackers from Israeli-occupied Nablus detonated explosive belts in attacks in Israel and an Israeli settlement compound in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. On August 14th Israel assassinated an Islamic Jihad leader in Israeli-occupied Hebron. Four days later an attacker from Israeli-occupied Hebron denotated an explosive belt in an attack against illegal trespassers in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem. Two days later Israel assassinated a moderate Hamas leader (architect of the ceasefire) in Gaza.
Now--Who is an enemy to peace? Who was retaliating? Every single one of the Palestinian attacks came after an Israeli assassination and originated in the town where the assassination occurred. How is the PNA to blame when none of the attacks came from any territory under Palestinian control?
The criminal who planned the Jerusalem bus bombing is none other than Israel's own twice-elected war criminal and master terrorist Ariel Sharon.
August 23, 2003
The first Palestinian suicide bomber attacked in April 1994--27 (47) years after the beginning of Israeli occupation; 27 years after the UN Security Council told Israel to get out. The attack was 40 days after American-Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinian at prayer in a Hebron mosque. Goldstein was beaten to death--Does that make him a suicide attacker? The night before the attack Goldstein had a vigil with other Hebron settlers--Those settlers have never been charged with their complicity. No missiles attacked their cars; no bulldozers demolished their homes.
August 24, 2003
It may seem cold to refer to children as illegal trespassers rather than victims, but it must be stressed that Israel is engaged in an illegal, vicious and violent occupation of the land of another nation and is doing so with the criminal use of its entire population--including children--as prohibited combatants and human weapons of occupation.
As an individual, I morally oppose capital punishment. The taking of life by government or individual is unacceptable. The right to self-defense, however, is the instinct to survival. The right of Palestinians to resist extermination by the genocidal acts of Israel is absolute. No-one may order a people to lie down and die.