tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7537558612336087442024-03-19T22:50:33.072-07:00Palestine's AriseThe present situation of Gaza what is left of Palestine being military attacked by Israel under the excuse of "defending from terrorists". Most of the casualties/dead are children. This blog is just record keeping. Photo Courtesy: Harry Fear, Journalist 2012Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.comBlogger161125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-24214626017168718992013-01-12T18:24:00.001-08:002013-01-12T18:25:45.574-08:00Bab Al Shams in the State of PalestineThis post shows clearly how interested is the Israel government in 'establishing' peace with its neighbour the State of Palestine.<br />
<br />
Israel is only interested in one thing and that is, to expand its dominions and complete its occupation of the State of Palestine.<br />
<br />
It is time to note that: ALL the wars with Palestines for the past 65years have been on USA Taxpayers' account. . The eviction from Bab Al Shams occurred in the early mornings of today 13 Jan'13. Over 1000 Israeli soldiers to evict about 200 owners and activists.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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<script src="//storify.com/PalestineArise/babalshams-palestine.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/PalestineArise/babalshams-palestine" target="_blank">View the story "#BabAlShams #Palestine" on Storify</a>]<h1>
#BabAlShams #Palestine</h1>
<h2>
To give you an idea of what happened at Bab Al Shams in the early hours of this morning (13 Jan'13). Freedom has a price and it is very high. Worth my admiration.</h2>
<p>
Storified by <a href="http://storify.com/PalestineArise">Palestine Arise</a>· Sat, Jan 12 2013 18:14:10</p>
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Much respect to the ppl of #BabAlShams 4 raising awareness consolidating support for #Palestine a major PR victory was won today #failisraelGryGhst</div>
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So this should give you an idea of how many IOF soldiers were therr, for every resident there were 5 IOF soldiers. #BabAlShamsFarah Filasteen</div>
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Israeli raid on #BabAlShams which will leave many people arrested still continues. It looks like there are at least 1000 soldiers.Richard Dufek</div>
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There were approximately 1250 IOF soldiers at #BabAlShamsFarah Filasteen</div>
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More than 120 people have been arrested and approximately 25 injuries, including one person who lost his eye completely. #BabAlShamsFarah Filasteen</div>
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Most of the residents of #BabAlShams have been beaten and then arrested.Farah Filasteen</div>
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No one arrests Israel when they occupy others' lands but when Palestinians reclaim theirs, everyone is in jail #BabAlShamsLeila ليلى </div>
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“@Palestinianism: Activists may be put through a military trial. According to IOF official. #BabAlShams”ARTIST TAXI DRIVER</div>
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Israeli soldiers still continue with arresting people under pretext of 'urgent security' #BabAlShamsRichard Dufek</div>
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Abdallah Abu Rhameh from #Bilin has also been arrested in #BabAlShams. It also looks like they took @AbirKopty who stopped tweeting.Leehee Rothschild</div>
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@antloewenstein Do u follow @Palestinianism ? She writes:Most of the residents of #BabAlShams have been beaten and then arrested.viv wolsk</div>
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@Palestinianism A military trial for a peaceful protest against a planned colonisation and theft of privately owned Palestinian land.Abd al Rahman X</div>
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We will get back our #BabAlShams what Israel did tonight will not stop it. Our only way of existence is through our resistance.Farah Filasteen</div>
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One more time, #Israel ethnically cleanses a Palestinian village for their illegal settlements.Just like they did ever since1948 #BabAlShamsFarah Filasteen</div>
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So far approximately 100 or so have been arrested, arrests are still taking place to this moment. #BabAlShamsFarah Filasteen</div>
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We're ALL detained #BabAlShamsIrene Nasser</div>
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Israeli Soldiers are now kicking the Journalists out of #BabAlShams saying its a closed military zone that has to be clearedTweet_Palestine</div>
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Israeli police spokes Miki Rosenfeld now pushing Palestine TV crew out of the area after they refused to interview him #BabALShamsTweet_Palestine</div>
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Israeli security forces complete evacuation of Palestinian tent outpostHundreds of police and IDF soldiers physically remove protesters after state tells High Court evacuation is a matter of 'urgent security;...</div>
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Israelis announced that the village is a closed military zone and it is a Palestinian landFree ✌Palestine✌</div>
</noscript>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-31185545873483330532013-01-07T00:13:00.002-08:002013-01-07T00:13:30.728-08:00Harry Fear Reporting Aggression – World Talking Tour<h2>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.harryfear.co.uk/blog/gaza-report/reporting-aggression-tour" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Check Harry Fear's main Page</a></span></h2>
<br />
<div style="background: #FFFFE0; border-bottom: 1px solid #E6DB55; border-top: 1px solid #E6DB55; margin: 0px -14px; padding: 5px 14px 10px;">
<h1 style="border-top: 0; margin-top: 0px;">
Upcoming talks</h1>
<b>CANADA</b><br />
<br />
Guelph – Monday, Jan 7th, 2013 (7pm) at 40 Baker Street – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/492203314155724/">http://on.fb.me/TIMRrF</a><br />
Toronto – Tuesday, Jan 8th, 2013 (2pm) at Toronto University in Mississauga – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/319098561538977/">http://on.fb.me/UkmuGP</a><br />
Hamilton – Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 (7pm) at McMaster University – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/445562568830383/">http://on.fb.me/ZUkFZ0</a><br />
London – Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 at University of Western Ontario – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/238809452917684/">http://on.fb.me/UmjoDL</a><br />
Windsor – Friday, Jan 11, 2013 (7pm) at University of Windsor – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/356915977738948/">http://on.fb.me/ZVNm7U</a><br />
Calgary – Saturday, Jan 12, 2013 at University of Calgary – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/147240015427230/">http://on.fb.me/10QRBRz</a><br />
<br />
<b>USA, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Qatar, UK, Ireland, Egypt</b><br />
More event details to follow</div>
<br />
<h1 id="request">
Request Harry</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="mailto:mail@harryfear.co.uk?subject=Request%20Harry%20Fear%20for%20an%20interview">For an interview</a></li>
<li><a href="mailto:mail@harryfear.co.uk?subject=Request%20Harry%20Fear%20for%20a%20talk">For a talk</a></li>
<li><a href="mailto:mail@harryfear.co.uk?subject=Request%20Harry%20Fear%20for%20a%20Skype%20presence%20or%20video%20message">For a Skype presence or recorded video message</a></li>
<li><a href="mailto:mail@harryfear.co.uk?subject=Request%20Harry%20Fear%20for%20an%20event%20appearance">For an appearance in person at a pre-existing event</a></li>
</ul>
Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-23431149106637188452013-01-06T00:22:00.000-08:002013-01-07T00:23:13.814-08:00Jailed Fatah leader: Streets must demand reconciliationImprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said Sunday that mass popular
protests should be held to<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> force political leaders from his party and
Hamas to reconcile</span>.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />In an interview from his cell, distributed by
his political office, Barghouti called for a "Palestinian spring" to
end the five-year division into separate West Bank and Gaza governments.<br /><br />"Youth
of all persuasions in the West Bank, Gaza, and Diaspora should hold
sit-ins in front of party headquarters until the split is ended," he
said.<br /><br />Barghouti was a signatory of the 2006 "Prisoners Document"
-- in which jailed faction leaders set out a joint program for national
independence. <br /><br />The Fatah leader on Sunday said another such
initiative was not what is needed, but rather political will to
reconcile. However, he said there were ongoing talks among prisoners
over possible steps, including an open hunger strike for reconciliation.<br /><br /><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">"Neither
history, nor the people, nor martyrs, or prisoners of any party, will
forgive any leader who puts obstacles in the way of national
reconciliation,"</span> Barghouti said.<br /><br />He insisted that the Palestinian
Authority should not be folded in light of the absence of negotiations,
but rather <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">redefine its political program to ensure it is fully in the
national interest,</span> not to protect Israel and its settlement enterprise.<br /><br />Barghouthi,
convicted by an Israeli court for masterminding the second Palestinian
uprising in 2000, was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council
while serving five consecutive life terms, and was touted as a
presidential candidate in 2005.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=553721" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ma'an News</a> Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-29740694067395723102013-01-03T22:41:00.000-08:002013-01-03T22:41:23.624-08:00Conveniently Israel misuse of anti-Semitism<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's no longer Israel that needs to leave the Occupied Territories;<br />
it's the Arabs who need to free themselves of the anti-Semitism."</span></blockquote>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4gU88BQxddk/UOZ5G3MVA3I/AAAAAAAAC0E/audfEF8ZAHs/s1600/Misuse_of_anti_Semitism_4_by_Latuff2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4gU88BQxddk/UOZ5G3MVA3I/AAAAAAAAC0E/audfEF8ZAHs/s320/Misuse_of_anti_Semitism_4_by_Latuff2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
"Whenever Israel faces a public relations debacle such as the Intifada or international pressure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, American Jewish organizations orchestrate this extravaganza called the 'new anti-Semitism.'<br />
<br />
The purpose is several-fold.<br />
<br />
First, it is to discredit any charges by claiming the person is an anti-Semite. It's to turn Jews into the victims, so that the victims are not the Palestinians any longer. As people like Abraham Foxman of the ADL put it, the Jews are being threatened by a new holocaust.<br />
<br />
It's a role reversal – the Jews are now the victims, not the Palestinians.<br />
<br />
So it serves the function of discrediting the people leveling the charge.<br />
<br />
It's no longer Israel that needs to leave the Occupied Territories; it's the Arabs who need to free themselves of the anti-Semitism."<br />
<br />
(Norman G. Finkelstein)<br />
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<h2 class="subtitle" id="view_subtitle">
Beyond Chutzpah</h2>
[needs a bit of tidying up but time is my ruler today]<br />
<div class="content_authors">
By <a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/normanfinkelstein">Norman Finkelstein</a> </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Audacity. Cheekiness. Daring. Gutsiness. Any one of these words can define the Yiddish word, “chutzpah†with both positive and negative nuances. But as DePaul Professor Norm Finkelstein demonstrates in his new book, “Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of Historyâ€, there are those who take chutzpah too far in the negative direction.<br />
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One such person is prominent Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz whose book, “The Case for Israel†is debunked point by point by tireless and meticulous researcher Finkelstein. Ultimately, Dershowitz’s book is found to a work of fraud and plagiarism. Knowing that Finkelstein’s book would damage his credibility, Dershowitz took the unusual step of writing to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and suggested that he interfere and prevent the book from being published. The book’s publisher is the University of California Press.<br />
<br />
According to The Nation, the legal affairs secretary to Governor Schwarzenegger responded to the Dershowitz letter: “...he [the Governor] is not inclined to otherwise exert influence in this case because of the clear, academic freedom issue it presents.â€<br />
<br />
Finkelstein, whose parents are both survivors of the Holocaust, discusses the misuse of anti-Semitism in order to achieve political gains, but shines most in his book when showing that Dershowitz’s claim that Israel is a haven of human rights is wholly inaccurate. Reports by human rights organizations, like Amnesty International and Israel’s own B’tselem, are cited in surplus. One wonders if Dershowitz ever thought to do some of his own-fact-checking with prominent and respected human rights organizations when putting Israel up on a human rights pedestal. From the graphics to the torture of Palestinian minors to the complicity of Israeli medical personnel, there is nothing left to the imagination in terms of Israel’s horrendous human rights record. There is even a chronology in the back of the book that describes the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.<br />
<br />
If one can summarize “Beyond Chutzpah†in one sentence, it would be this: Finkelstein leaves no stone unturned when setting out to prove the misuse of anti-Semitism.<br />
<br />
Recently, I had an opportunity to talk with Finkelstein about his thoughts on a myriad of themes in his book. Passionate, colorful, and with a dry wit to boot, Finkelstein rejects the label that he is an intellectual but rather “someone who goes through the reports and credible history of what is going on and compares it to the nonsense ... somebody’s lying.â€<br />
<br />
<i>Sherri Muzher: What was your purpose in writing “Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.†</i><br />
<br />
Norman Finkelstein: It’s important for people to read the record of what is going on there.<br />
<br />
<i>What do you consider the most effective example of the “new anti-Semitism†on American public opinion? </i><br />
There are a large number of claims circulating about rampant anti-Semitism on college campuses. When you go actually go through the records, talk to the schools, speak to the deans and so forth, all of these claims turn out to be fraudulent. There’s just no record of this so-called rampant anti-Semitism on college campuses.<br />
<br />
The most striking example is Columbia University where there was huge hysteria, newspaper editorials, and local politicians all calling for professors at Columbia’s Middle East Center to be fired. The president eventually was forced to create an ad hoc committee to look into the charges and after all this hysteria and demands that these professors be fired, all that they could find was in one case in one instance in one day in one classroom after the invasion of Jenin in April 2002. A professor responded heatedly to a student who was defending Israeli tactics.<br />
<br />
That was it. On the other hand, they did find that pro-Israel outsiders were disrupting the classrooms of these professors, secretly video-taping their lectures and being turned, as the Columbia Report put it, into informers for the pro-Israel lobby. The real story was the harassment of professors who were critical of Israeli policy.<br />
<i>What will surprise people the most when reading “Beyond Chutzpah?†</i><br />
<br />
I think they’re going to be very surprised by the fact that this whole claim of the new anti-Semitism is a complete fraud and they are going to be very surprised that Israel’s human rights record is quite abysmal. It’s the cumulative effect of going through all of the reports in all aspects of Israel’s human rights policy.<br />
<br />
It’s not looking at one case of one person who was tortured or one child who was killed, or one house that was demolished. The record is really quite horrendous. Everybody who has read it has made the comment that it’s quite shocking to see the magnitude of Israel’s human rights crimes in the Occupied Territories.<br />
<i>How is the “new anti-Semitism†used to discredit legitimate criticism of Israel? </i><br />
<br />
Whenever Israel faces a public relations debacle such as the Intifada or international pressure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, American Jewish organizations orchestrate this extravaganza called the “new anti-Semitism.†The purpose is several-fold. First, it is to discredit any charges by claiming the person is an anti-Semite. It’s to turn Jews into the victims, so that the victims are not the Palestinians any longer. As people like Abraham Foxman of the ADL put it, the Jews are being threatened by a new holocaust. It’s a role reversal – the Jews are now the victims, not the Palestinians. So it serves the function of discrediting the people leveling the charge. It’s no longer Israel that needs to leave the Occupied Territories; it’s the Arabs who need to free themselves of the anti-Semitism.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>American Jewish organizations: Zionist or not Zionist? </i></span><br />
<br />
American Jewish organizations didn’t give a fig about Israel before the June 1967 War. After 1967, Israel became their cause because it was safe. Israel is now the strategic asset to the US in the Middle East and so people became pro-Israel, not because they are Zionist. It’s a politically useful position to have. The biggest mistake anyone can make about people in power is to ascribe to them ideological convictions. Ben-Gurion was a Zionist.<br />
<br />
Abba Eban was a Zionist. The early founders of the state of Israel were Zionist for sure because they were committed to ideas. Just like the Bolsheviks were clearly Communist. But once you get into power, people are interested in one thing – more power. And then they adjust their beliefs and their ideology to serve that goal. <br />
I don’t think Alan Dershowitz cares about Israel. He never wrote about Israel before June 67. The Holocaust – he’s said: Growing up, we never discussed the Holocaust. I don’t remember one single conversation with anyone about the Holocaust.<br />
<br />
They don’t care about the Holocaust or Israel, they care about their careers. So, I’ve always found it perplexing as to why these people are elevated by giving them an ideology and acting as if they are acting out of conviction.<br />
<br />
<i>Speaking of Alan Dershowitz, the two of you have had a very public spat. In “Beyond Chutzpah,†you debunk Dershowitz’s book “The Case for Israel†point by point. Harvard University’s response? </i><br />
<br />
There’s been no response except at some early date to exonerate him for all those charges. As far as Harvard is concerned, Alan Dershowitz has clean hands.<br />
<br />
<i>You have said that you believe there is a potent insurance out there against fraudulent material being published, except when it comes to the Palestine-Israel conflict. Is this what’s coming into play here? </i><br />
<br />
I think there a couple things. That’s part of it, but another part of it is that Harvard can’t acknowledge that its senior most professor of law is a hoaxer and a plagiarist. It says something about the institution – it’s so devastating that they just can’t do it. It shines a light on them that is quite shocking. There’s the element of Israel and there’s the element of institutional protection.<br />
<br />
<i>How do you respond to those who perceive “Beyond Chutzpah†as being opposed to any invocation of Holocaust memory? </i><br />
<br />
There are a lot of people who have suffered in the world. It’s time to give other people’s stories a public airing. I don’t think there’s any danger here of the Holocaust being forgotten, given the fact that the <i>New York Times</i> prepares a story on the Holocaust probably 5 out of every 7 days in the week. First, the only subject covered more thoroughly than the Holocaust is the weather. Second, most of what’s called the memory of the Nazi Holocaust is politically motivated. Its use and exploitation is used to immunize Israel from criticism, immunize American Jews from criticism, and for many years, it was used as a shakedown operation to extract monies from Europe. That kind of memory we can surely do without.<br />
<br />
But as far as remembering the Holocaust? I remember everyday. It’s my parents.<br />
<br />
<i>How do you hope “Beyond Chutzpah†will affect the American Jewish community, as well as your critics in American Jewish organizations?</i><br />
<br />
Well, some people -- you can’t change their minds. Once Leon Trotsky, the Russian Revolutionary, was asked: What do you do with Fascists? He said: Acquaint them with the pavement.<br />
<br />
Some people, you’re not going to change their minds. But there are a lot of people out there who are genuinely ill informed and have decent intentions but have gotten wrong information. And it’s those kinds of people you want to reach, not the hard-core fanatics and zealots of Zion. I’m not going to try and convince them of anything. I have better things to do with my time. I’d rather watch paint dry.<br />
<br />
<i>Regarding the Israeli proponents of a two-state solution like Ariel Sharon: Sincerity or lip service? </i><br />
<br />
They’re not proponents of the two-state solution, this is nonsense. There’s an international consensus on what the two-state settlement means. It’s a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Anything else is garbage. There are people like Sharon who don’t support a two-state settlement. They support a one state solution for Israel and a phone booth for the Palestinians.<br />
<br />
<i>Did you see the application of the “new anti-Semitism†before the Gaza withdrawal?</i><br />
<br />
Well, of course. The so-called “new anti-Semitism†charade began in 2001 right after the public relations debacle Israel suffered with the Second Intifada. It’s actually been effective. News organizations’ coverage of the Middle East began to change. Everyone got nervous about “targeting Israel.†It long preceded the Gaza withdrawal.<br />
<br />
<i>You discuss Israel’s Wall and the land confiscation in your book. How do you respond to those who say “land grab or not, Israel has the right to defend herself and her citizens�</i><br />
Every state has that right. You build a wall on your own property. When I was growing up, my parents didn’t get along with their neighbors, and so they decided to build a wrought-iron fence around their property. So the first thing you have to do, at least in New York, you have to hire a surveyor and the surveyor demarcates the border. If you’re one inch into your neighbor’s property, under the law, you have to tear down the fence. Very uncomplicated. <br />
The West Bank and Gaza, under international law, are occupied territories. Israel doesn’t have title to one half of one inch of the West Bank or Gaza or East Jerusalem. Want to build a fence? Build it on your border and protect your people. This has nothing to do with terrorism. This has nothing to do with protecting the settlements. If you want to protect the settlements, you do what Israel has done. You build electronic fences around the settlements. Kiryat Arba is very well-protected and there are no terrorist attacks. It has to do with creating a new border.<br />
<i>Do you feel there is US acquiescence to this border change?</i><br />
<br />
There’s nothing Israel can do without US support. It can’t breathe without US support. The US bankrolls everything, and it’s just silly to think that Israel can do anything without the support. There are issues about why the US supports Israel. Is it the lobby or strategic interest? Now you can quarrel about that. But what you can’t quarrel with is the notion that were it not for the US, Israel can’t do anything.<br />
<br />
<i>At what point do you think the general effectiveness of this “new anti-Semitism†will fade?</i><br />
<br />
Very simple – when Israel no longer comes under public attack or when people just get tired of it, just like the Holocaust Industry. People were Holocausted out. Like the Law of Diminishing Returns, if you keep bringing up the Holocaust, people are getting more and more bored. At some point, it becomes less omnipresent in American public life. And presumably at the point they start calling Mickey Mouse and Michael Jackson anti-Semites, people are going to begin to yawn and get turned off.<br />
<br />
<i>Tell me about the man you dedicated “Beyond Chutzpah†to -- Musa Abu Hashhash. </i><br />
<br />
Musa grew up in the Fawwar Refugee Camp. In his youth, he was Communist and now he’s with the Israel human rights group, B’tselem. I would have to say that he is the most decent human being that I’ve ever met in my life. And I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve got about 51 years on this planet.<br />
<br />
There’s a song that Paul Robeson used to sing called “The Purest Kind of a Guy.†The lyric went ‘I don’t know how I know but I know what I know. He’s the purest kind of a guy.’ That’s Musa. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Sherri Muzher is a political and media analyst from Mason, Michigan</blockquote>
<br />
Sourced: http://www.zcommunications.org/beyond-chutzpah-by-norman-finkelstein <br />
<br />
<br />Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-12325749435185972852013-01-02T23:01:00.000-08:002013-01-02T23:01:11.448-08:00Fatah: Mursi invites Abbas to meet over reconciliationPresident Mahmoud Abbas received a formal invitation to meet his
Egyptian counterpart Muhammad Mursi in Cairo next week, a Fatah official
said Wednesday.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />The meeting will focus on reconciliation between
Abbas' Fatah party and their Hamas rivals, Fatah official Faysel Abu
Shahla told Ma'an.<br /><br />Fatah welcomes the invitation to resume the reconciliation dialogue, he said.<br /><br />Despite
signing a number of agreements to reconcile, Fatah and Hamas still run
separate governments in the West Bank and Gaza. They split amid violent
fighting in 2007.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=552846" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ma'an News</a> Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-32960169442463522042013-01-02T22:57:00.000-08:002013-01-02T22:57:56.433-08:00 PA: 2013 must be year of independent PalestineThe Palestinian Authority cabinet on Wednesday called for 2013 to be the
year of an independent Palestinian state and the end of Israeli
occupation.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />At its weekly meeting, the government said it was
determined to "continue and accelerate the pace towards the realization
of national sovereignty on the land of the independent state of
Palestine." <br /><br />Slamming recent settlement expansion and tax seizure
by Israel, the cabinet called on the world to "assume its
responsibility without any hesitation or equivocation, to compel Israel
to the rules of international law and relevant international
resolutions."<br /><br />The government also urged the international
community to press Israel "to stop undermining the (government’s)
standing to undermine our people's ability to stay steadfast."<br /><br />The West Bank-headquartered authority also urged an end to the division with the Hamas-led government in Gaza.<br /><br />"The
continuing division remains the biggest and most dangerous failure that
continues to confront our nation," the cabinet statement said.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=552930" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ma'an News </a>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-19694841694234067792013-01-02T22:54:00.000-08:002013-01-02T22:54:07.730-08:00Israeli talk of West Bank collapse 'wishful thinking'The spokesman of the PA
security forces Adnan Dimeiri on Wednesday accused Israeli officials of
engaging in "wishful thinking" in their warnings that the West Bank
government and security situation is on the brink of collapse.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Israeli
premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday sounded a note of defiance after
President Shimon Peres urged haste in negotiating peace with the PLO.
"Every intelligent person knows that Hamas could take over the
Palestinian Authority," Netanyahu warned.<br /><br />Dimeri responded that
taken with Israeli raids on Palestinian Authority areas,
settlement-building and seizure of Palestinian tax funds, the comments
represent the Israeli government's wish that the government collapse.<br /><br />"I
think that Israelis are talking to the whole world about their hopes
for chaos to take over the West Bank, and that they’re telling the world
that the PA isn’t able to control the situations in the Palestinian
territory as if this is reality," Dimeiri said. <br /><br />Recent
demonstrations in the West Bank is just the practise freedom of speech,
which Israel sees as a threat, thus claiming it represents a return to
militant activity, he argued. The security services are in full control
of the West Bank, he assured.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=552918" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ma'an News</a> Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-36166095787418310272013-01-02T22:50:00.000-08:002013-01-02T22:50:01.177-08:00 Rights group: Israel detains Gaza patient at borderIsraeli forces detained a Palestinian at a border crossing from the Gaza
Strip who was seeking medical treatment in Jerusalem, a human rights
group said.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Rafiq Ayesh Abu Harbeed, 38, went to the Erez
crossing for an interview with Israeli intelligence on Tuesday morning,
in order to seek treatment outside Gaza for a herniated disk, the
al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said.<br /><br />Late Tuesday afternoon,
Harbeed's family in Beit Hanoun were informed that he had been detained
by Israeli authorities. Israeli officials could not be reached for
comment on Harbeed's detention.<br /><br />Harbeed was wounded by a live
bullet to the spine during the first intifada, causing back and leg
problems, and he was applying for permission to get treatment at the
Maqasid Hospital in East Jerusalem.<br /><br />Rights groups have condemned
Israel's detention of patients seeking treatment outside of Gaza,
stressing the right to medical treatment.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=552850" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ma'an News</a> Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-38366603908572442382013-01-02T22:47:00.000-08:002013-01-02T22:47:17.302-08:00 PA cancels electricity debts for every West Bank residentThe Palestinian Authority announced on Wednesday that it is cancelling
outstanding electricity debts for each West Bank resident, on the heels
of a deal that aims to help assuage the electricity companies' own
arrears.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />Government spokeswoman Nour Oudeh told Ma’an that all
residential bills owed until Dec. 31, 2012 will be canceled. <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Businesses
and people facing investigation for electricity theft</span> will not be
included in the deal. [<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">?? </span>]<br /><br />The decision aims to open a new chapter of 100 percent enforcement of payment of electricity bills, she said.<br /><br />On
Sunday, PA premier Salam Fayyad signed a deal with popular committees
in West Bank refugee camps ending refugees' exemption from electricity
costs, but also canceling all their outstanding debt.<br /><br />Palestinians
in Nablus gathered on Tuesday to protest the exclusion of non-refugees
from the debt amnesty, leading to violent clashes with Palestinian
security forces.<br /><br />Palestinian power companies said the gap in
payments from refugees was a main reason for their accumulating debts.
Other enforcement issues were all hampering bill collection, they said,
calling for stronger penalties for debtors.<br /><br />In the summer,
Palestinian officials said Israel was threatening to cut off power over
the unpaid debts, which total around $100 million after December's tax
seizure by Israel, which was transferred to the Israeli electricity
supplier.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=552986" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ma'an News</a> Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-27826284864815441122013-01-02T00:45:00.000-08:002013-01-02T00:45:49.519-08:00Abu Marzouq Calls PA President Abbas to Hand Over The West Bank to Hamas <div class="ja-thumbnailwrap thumb-right" style="width: 340px;">
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On Monday 21st December, Hamas' deputy political bureau chief, Moussa Abu Marzouk, called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud <span style="background-color: #d9ead3;">Abbas to hand the keys of the West Bank to Hamas</span>.<br />
<br />
Abu Marzouq statements came as a response to Abbas' threats to dissolve the PA and to hand over responsibility for the West Bank to Israel if the latter refused to return to the peace talks and to freeze settlement construction after Israel's elections that will take place in January 22, 2013.<br />
<br />
Abu Marzouq have wandered in a press release published on his Facebook page, "Why President Abbas want to hand over the West Bank to Israel? <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Why he don't hand it over to Hamas</span>."<br />
<br />
Abu Marzouq said that the best and <span style="background-color: yellow;">most effective threat for Israel is to hand the West Bank to Hamas</span>, as Hamas has proved its steadfastness in the face of the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza and their success in achieving the triumph in the wars with Israel and Hamas attempts in fighting the internal conflict and reaching a national reconciliation.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/politics/3489-abu-marzouq-calls-pa-president-abbas-to-hand-over-the-west-bank-to-hamas" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Palestine News Network</a>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-25839029260236310412012-12-31T01:37:00.000-08:002012-12-31T01:37:49.603-08:00ALERT | Israel To Displace 1000 Palestinians Next Wednesday 2Jan2013<span style="color: black;"><strong>“Settling” constitutes a warcrime according to international law and ICC statute. Even under US’ own military legislations’</strong></span><br />
<br />
Head of the Wadi Al-Maleh area, in the northern plains of the occupied West Bank, Aref Daraghma, stated that the Israeli army intends to displace around 10000 Palestinian Bedouins in the area in order to conduct military training.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<img alt="bedouins_tent[1]" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-119305" src="http://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/bedouins_tent1.jpg?w=588" /><br />
Image By PNN<br />
<br />
Daraghma said that the Israeli army handed written military orders to the residents stating that they should leave as the soldiers <span style="background-color: yellow;">will be using live ammunition in military drills</span> in the area, the Palestine News Network (PNN) reported.<br />
<br />
He added that the grazing area, inhabited by the shepherds, includes Wadi Al-Maleh, Ein Al-Hilwa, Al-Faw Valley, Al-Meeta, Al-Borj, and other villages.<br />
<br />
The army informed the residents that they have until the morning of this coming Wednesday before the army conducts its trainings in the northern plains.<br />
<br />
Israel performed similar military drills in the areas last summer forcing dozens of families to leave their homes seeking shelter in other areas until all drills were concluded.<br />
<br />
Thousands of Palestinians have been displaced and repeatedly removed from the area since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. Israel also demolished dozens of entire villages inhabited by Bedouins and shepherds.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/alert-israel-to-displace-1000-palestinians-next-wednesday/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sourced</a>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-4416192723187969142012-12-31T01:28:00.001-08:002012-12-31T01:28:35.182-08:00Israel kidnapping of Palestinians including children and hospital patients<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">December; Army Kidnapped 88, Including 12 Children, 18 Patients In Hebron</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) – Hebron branch, reported Sunday that the Israeli army kidnapped since the begging of this month 88 Palestinians in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, including 12 children, and 18 patients.</span><br />
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The PPS said that the Israeli army conducted numerous violations against the kidnapped Palestinians, including firing rounds of live ammunition in the course of their arrest, physically assaulted the residents, including beating them, kicking them, striking them with rifles and batons, an issue that led to serious injuries. <br />
<br />
The soldiers broke into and violently searched dozens of homes causing extensive damage, forced entire families into one room while searching their property, and in many cases forced them out of their homes, physically and verbally abused the families while searching their property and kidnapping their sons. <br />
<br />
The PPS said that the army kidnapped, in December,<br />
<ul>
<li>12 children in direct violation of article #40 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>kidnapped 18 patients and wounded Palestinians who were tortured and abused during interrogation. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The army also kidnapped 28 high school and college students, and moved 30 Palestinians from Hebron to a number of interrogation camps. </li>
</ul>
The PPS also reported that the Ofer Israeli military court imposed fines that mounted to 36.000 NIS against the Palestinian detainees in December, and said that Israeli military courts “are practicing theft by imposing very high fines against the detainees and their families”. </div>
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Monday December 31, 2012 03:18author by Saed Bannoura - <a href="http://imemc.org/article/64803" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IMEMC & Agencies</a>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-62869865836699559572012-12-29T19:21:00.001-08:002012-12-30T23:31:33.244-08:00Hamas Gains Allure in Gaza, but Money Is a Problem<div class="articleSpanImage">
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<span itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/12/14/world/gaza/gaza-articleLarge-v2.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject">Gaza residents returned to
survey the damage to their homes last month after a cease-fire ended the
eight-day clash between Israel and Hamas. </span></div>
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<a class="meta-org" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/hamas/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Hamas.">Hamas</a>
has been riding high of late, after its professed victory in the recent
conflict with Israel and the overthrow last year of Egypt’s president,
Hosni Mubarak, an avowed enemy. <br />
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Nevertheless, it is facing serious financial troubles stemming from the revolt in <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/syria/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Syria.">Syria</a> and its expanding military ambitions, and its increasing demands on the impoverished population of <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/gaza_strip/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about the Gaza Strip.">Gaza</a>
are stirring resentments. In response, and with an anxious eye to the
Arab Spring revolts, some Gaza residents say, it has eased up slightly
in its religious restrictions on people’s lives. </div>
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The government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria had been a stalwart
ally and a conduit for Iranian money, weapons and military expertise.
But the Assads are members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism,
and are fighting mostly Sunni rebels, forcing Hamas, which is Sunni, to
choose sides. It decided to shut its political bureau in Damascus in
March and send its political chairman, <a class="meta-per" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/khaled_meshal/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Khaled Meshal.">Khaled Meshal</a>, shuttling between <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/qatar/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Qatar.">Qatar</a> and Egypt. </div>
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The break with Syria has also meant a sharp cut in the financing Hamas received from <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iran/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Iran.">Iran</a>,
which is also facing economic problems because of Western sanctions
against its nuclear-enrichment program, sanctions that have cut the
value of the Iranian rial in half in a year. </div>
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In response to this gathering financial crisis, Hamas has sought new support from Sunni governments like Qatar and the <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/unitedarabemirates/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about United Arab Emirates.">United Arab Emirates</a>. But it has also raised taxes and fees considerably, prompting complaints from Gazans. </div>
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Mr. Meshal’s first, triumphal visit here last weekend displayed Hamas’s
power and organization. In the five years since it drove its <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/palestinians/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Palestinians.">Palestinian</a>
rival, Fatah, out of Gaza in a brief civil war, after winning elections
in 2006, Hamas has established a repressive ministate with a strong
Islamist cast that it clearly has no intention of abandoning. </div>
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Hamas now
requires “entry visas” from visitors, for a fee, and searches luggage to
ensure that no one imports any alcohol. Even more striking, Hamas has
set up its own lavish civil administration in Gaza that issues papers,
licenses, insurance and numerous other permissions — and always for a
tax or a fee. </div>
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Gazans recognize that there is more order here, more construction and
less garbage. But many resent the economic burden of financing Hamas
and, implicitly, its military. </div>
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Ziad Ashour, 43, a butcher, said that “since the first intifada,”
meaning the Palestinian uprising in 1987, “things have steadily declined
in Gaza.” But in the last year, he said, they have gotten considerably
worse economically. </div>
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Another merchant in the Beach Camp market said that Hamas, which tightly
controls tunnel traffic on the Egyptian border, had raised taxes on
basic items, including canned goods and building materials. There is a
tax of about 70 cents on every pack of cigarettes, and around $2.50 on
every gallon of gasoline or diesel, fixed even if the final price is
roughly half that of Israeli gasoline. People pay to apply for
identification cards, drivers’ licenses, building permits — “there are
fees for everything,” the merchant said. </div>
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Larger businesses are especially targeted for high taxes. “Now
businessmen know the difference between Fatah and Hamas,” another
merchant said. </div>
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Adham Badawi, 22, bought an Egyptian-assembled, three-wheel Chinese
motorcycle cart for his family textile shop for $1,500, “imported”
through the tunnels. He had to pay $395 in tax, plus registration,
insurance and a driver’s license. He says the contraption is better than
a donkey because it eats only when in use and does not need to be
looked after. But the fees are expensive, he said, and he is nervous
about renewing his license, registration and insurance. </div>
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Hamas needs money not only for salaries, government and its charitable
activities, but also for the Qassam Brigades, which some experts
estimate at 20,000 men — most of whom were on show for Mr. Meshal’s
visit, in uniforms with good boots and black balaclavas covering their
faces, and armed with automatic rifles and other equipment, some of it
smuggled from Libya. </div>
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The budget for the Qassam Brigades is not revealed, and its main task is
to protect Hamas. But it has also been at the forefront of military
relations with Iran and Syria, in rocket importation and development and
even drone development with Iranian aid, Israeli officials say. The
longer-range rocket and drone development was a particularly important
target for Israel in the eight-day conflict last month, they say. </div>
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But the brigade has also been active in the building of secret
underground fortifications, which require many men and large amounts of
building supplies, like steel and cement. In a speech on Saturday, Prime
Minister Ismail Haniya praised the brigade for its “underground work,”
saying for the first time that 40 to 50 men had died laboring
underground, which he said previously had been described simply as
killed in “jihadi missions.” During the fighting with Israel, there were
few Hamas fighters or leaders to be seen: they were all somewhere
underground or in hiding in what Israel considers to be an intricate
system of tunnels and bunkers modeled on those built with Iranian
guidance by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. </div>
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Hamas nonetheless sees itself as close to the people and sensitive to
public attitudes. The revolts of the Arab Spring were a kind of warning,
said one analyst close to Hamas who agreed to speak on the condition
that his name not be used. The Islamization of Gaza is “a process,” the
analyst said, “and it can move step by step in tune with events.” </div>
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In response, Hamas has eased up on its interference in personal life in
the name of religious purity. It is still building massive and lavish
mosques everywhere (with fortified basements for Hamas members to hide
during airstrikes, residents say), but the Hamas police have mostly
stopped harassing women for not wearing head scarves, stopped insisting
that all high-school girls wear head scarves (though a vast majority do)
and stopped preventing women from smoking water pipes in public, and
they are more tolerant on the beaches. Fewer young men are arrested for
contact with young women not their fiancées. Hamas members have stopped
setting fire to Internet cafes in the name of pornography prevention. </div>
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But the press is still heavily monitored and controlled, Fatah members
are watched, and the sheer visibility of armed Hamas police and militia
forces is intimidating. After having confronted and disarmed significant
Fatah-supporting hamullas, or clans, Hamas has a near monopoly on arms
inside Gaza. </div>
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For now, Hamas has the upper hand in dealings with Fatah, and no
immediate worries about losing the allegiance of Palestinians in Gaza.
But popularity can be fleeting in a period of economic despair, when
non-government jobs are scarce and even construction workers, who 20
years ago earned $65 to $80 a day in Israel, now earn around $13 a day. </div>
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Yusra Jabar, 50, is a childless widow who helps her sister feed her four
children with aid from the United Nations. She was buying radishes
recently to pickle because they are cheap — about 18 pounds for $2.65.
They rarely eat meat. “It is a life of depression and deprivation,” she
said. </div>
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In a common plaint, she said: “We wish to live like other people in the
world outside. We want to have the taste of life.” </div>
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Ms. Jabar is nonetheless proud of Hamas and its ability to hit Israel,
and her opinion for now is widespread. “Hamas feels definitely in the
lead over Fatah,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al
Azhar University in Gaza City. “Meshal now says that he’s not afraid of
new Palestinian elections because Hamas is now much more popular because
of the war. But how long will it last?” </div>
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He remembered a similar burst of Hamas popularity in October 2011, after
the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas held for
five years and exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. “But
a month later the Palestinians woke up to the same problems: poverty,
mismanagement, siege, unemployment, little freedom of movement,” Mr.
Abusada said. “If it can’t deal with these same issues, Hamas will find
itself in the same position as it was before the war.” </div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/world/middleeast/money-woes-could-erode-high-hamas-standing-in-gaza.html?ref=hamas&_r=1&&pagewanted=all" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NYT</a> </div>
Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-58011569151188143162012-12-29T19:16:00.000-08:002012-12-29T19:16:01.280-08:00How The New York Times burys Israel’s crimes<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How The New York Times erases Israel’s crimes</span></span><br />
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<div class="legend">
<i>The New York Times </i>keeps the American public in the dark about the true nature of Israel’s occupation.<br />
<span class="credit">(<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/nedal-eshtayah">Nedal Eshtayah</a> / <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/apa-images">APA images</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">According to <i><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/new-york-times">The New York Times</a></i></span>, <span style="background-color: #ea9999;">there is no siege </span>of Gaza, <span style="background-color: #ea9999;">no occupation of the West Bank</span>, and <span style="background-color: #ea9999;">never was there a <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba">Nakba</a></span> (the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine). Three recent articles erase these key Israeli crimes from the historical record.<br />
<br />
In a 13 December 2012 article entitled “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/world/middleeast/money-woes-could-erode-high-hamas-standing-in-gaza.html?ref=hamas&_r=0&gwh=46889845952F3B1A664EE52E98936ECB">Hamas Gains Allure in Gaza, but Money is a Problem</a>,” Steven Erlanger explores the reasons for Gaza’s increasingly debilitating poverty. Never once in this 1,300-word piece does Erlanger even mention the Israeli <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-siege">siege on Gaza</a> or the 2008 and 2012 Israeli bombardments as factors (much less the principal causes).<br />
<br />
Instead, Erlanger goes through a long list of regional developments (the weakening of the Assad regime in <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/syria">Syria</a>, sanctions on <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/iran">Iran</a>) and, most emphatically, decisions by <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/hamas">Hamas</a> (new taxes and fees), which have supposedly left Palestinians in Gaza not only increasingly impoverished but also more resentful than ever of Hamas. “Gazans recognize that there is more order here,” Erlanger explains, “more construction and less garbage. But many resent the economic burden of financing Hamas and, implicitly, its military.”<br />
<h2>
No siege</h2>
So to the extent that the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack">most recent Israeli onslaught</a> is considered at all, it is Hamas’ <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/rockets">rockets</a>, once again, that are blamed for Gaza’s misfortune. As if to prove his point, a 43-year-old butcher says to Erlanger, “things have steadily declined in Gaza.” Another Gaza resident adds, “it is a life of depression and deprivation.”<br />
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Erlanger does include the word “siege” in his analysis, but only amidst a quoted laundry list of problems Palestinians in Gaza now endure: “poverty, mismanagement, siege, <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/unemployment">unemployment</a>, little freedom of movement,” Mkhaimar Abusada is quoted as saying.<br />
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And the siege, among these other conditions, is implicitly attributed not to Israel, but to Hamas: “If it can’t deal with these same issues,” Abusada concludes, “Hamas will find itself in the same position as it was before the war.” While Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University, certainly knows the origins of these conditions, Erlanger’s placement of his quotation makes it seem that even Abusada blames the siege on Hamas.<br />
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Either way, Erlanger does not provide any sense of how totalizing and devastating a ground, air and naval blockade (much less the two recent military assaults) of the densely populated territory actually is. An uninformed reader could easily conclude that the siege is something for which Hamas is responsible, not an imperially-imposed form of collective punishment foisted upon Palestinians by Israel, and not something that is directly responsible for Gaza’s poverty and “little freedom of movement.”<br />
<br />
Thus, according to <i>The New York Times</i>, Hamas is responsible for Gaza’s problems; Israel has nothing to do with it.<br />
<h2>
No Nakba</h2>
A <i>Times</i> article about <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-refugees">Palestinian refugees</a> in Syria published three days after Erlanger’s Gaza story obscures the reason that Palestinians are refugees in the first place (“<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/world/middleeast/syrian-airstrike-kills-palestinian-refugees.html">A Syrian airstrike kills Palestinian refugees and costs Assad support</a>,” 16 December 2012).<br />
<br />
With just eight words, the <i>Times</i> absolves Israel of any responsibility for the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ethnic-cleansing">ethnic cleansing</a> of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to make way for a Jewish state.<br />
<br />
Reporting on the Syrian regime’s recent attack on <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/yarmouk">Yarmouk</a> camp in <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/damascus">Damascus</a>, home to thousands of Palestinian refugees, the <i>Times</i> explains that the Palestinians there were “refugees from conflict with Israel and their descendants.” The Nakba, the original sin of <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/zionism">Zionism</a> and the State of Israel, is thus smeared into obscurity. It is transformed into something it is not, changed from the wholesale removal of one group of people by another to a conflict between two presumably equal sides, from which a bunch of Palestinians evidently fled.<br />
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The newspaper of record does not, of course, go on to explain that while UN Resolution 194 specifically grants the Palestinians in Syria (as well as those in Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere) the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/right-return">right to return</a> to their homes in what is now Israel, the Israeli government has always — and, at times, violently — denied this right.<br />
<h2>
No occupation</h2>
An article published the following day, on the so-called E1 land east of <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/jerusalem">Jerusalem</a> in the occupied West Bank, fails to mention that this land and the broader territory of which it is part, is considered by international law to be a Palestinian territory currently under Israeli occupation (Steven Erlanger, “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/world/middleeast/e1-on-west-bank-is-empty-but-full-of-meaning.html">West Bank land, empty but full of meaning</a>,” 17 December).<br />
<br />
Reporting on Israel’s recent declaration to build <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/settlements">settlements</a> on E1, Erlanger reproduces the oldest Zionist myth in the book: that this is an “empty” land, over which now the “two sides” are struggling: “E1 [is] a largely empty patch of the West Bank,” Erlanger writes. And the “fight” over E1 “speaks to the seemingly insurmountable differences, hostility, and distrust between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Erlanger informs us.<br />
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Thus, the occupied Palestinian West Bank, with all its illegal Israeli settlements, Jewish-only roads, Israeli <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/checkpoints">checkpoints</a>, Israeli military incursions and Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes, is reduced to a territory to which two different groups are laying equally legitimate claim. The closest Erlanger gets to even hinting at the occupation is where he writes toward the end of the article that E1 is “largely state land.”<br />
<br />
But this, like the unidentified and unexplained “siege” in Gaza, is far too vague for an uninformed reader to understand which “state” controls this land, under which conditions, and against whose rights, livelihood and sovereignty.<br />
<br />
So there you have it: no siege, no Nakba, and no occupation. Such reporting is, at best, delusional. At worst, it is intentionally misleading. In any case, <i>The New York Times</i> serves Israel’s interests by keeping the American public in the dark about the true nature of Israel’s occupation.<br />
<br />
It is easy to understand why so many Americans find the situation so apparently confusing when the people who report on it are themselves confused about the very basic historical, geographic and political realities.<br />
<br />
<i>Robert Ross is an Assistant Professor of Global Cultural Studies at Point Park University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His research and teaching focus upon the political-economic geographies of Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and the United States. He is also a member of the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Israel-Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA).</i><br />
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<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/how-new-york-times-erases-israels-crimes/12042" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Electronic Intifada</a>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-59966384091077016382012-12-29T17:50:00.000-08:002012-12-29T17:50:12.593-08:00Neocons, wearing jackboots, are suddenly on the defensive over HagelThe Chuck Hagel debate has moved into a new phase: the neoconservatives are completely on the defensive. NYT op-eds by Tom Friedman <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/opinion/friedman-give-chuck-a-chance.html">("Give Chuck a Chance</a>") and James Besser <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/opinion/dont-let-pro-israel-extremists-sink-chuck-hagel.html?hp&_r=1&">("Don't Let Pro-Israel Extremists Sink Chuck Hagel")</a> have now successfully positioned Hagel as a centrist being attacked by extremists. And the neoconservatives have got their back up, as you will see below.<br />
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This is what MJ Rosenberg-- who framed this mainstream debate as much as anyone by sticking to his guns on Israel-firster, thereby calling out the Iran-war neocons for dual loyalty, a strategy that played out in the presidential election-- always said: the minute that politicians begin to get sharp questions at press conferences (from mainstream reporters) about their reflexive support for Israel, the debate will change. This new phase suggests that even if Obama, subject to his usual "invertebracy" (as <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/2012122782835458431.html">Idrees Ahmad puts it</a>), doesn't put Hagel's name forward, the neoconservatives have become a punching bag in the discourse. Though of course many of those delivering the blows supported the Iraq war, as Hagel himself did.<br />
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The American Jewish Committee <a href="http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=2818295&ct=12697541&notoc=1">has responded angrily</a> to James Besser's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/opinion/dont-let-pro-israel-extremists-sink-chuck-hagel.html?hp&_r=1&">"Pro-Israel Extremists" article in the New York Times</a>. Note ahead of time that Besser was the Washington correspondent for The Jewish Week from 1987 to 2011 and was a syndicated columnist for several Jewish newspapers. AJC's David Harris wants to portray him as a nutjob. But Harris is himself shrill:<br />
<blockquote>
Essentially, the author argues that a group of wealthy right-wing zealots now call the shots in American Jewry. They have either taken over or, at the very least, intimidated mainstream groups like AJC into supporting, openly or quietly, their extremist agenda. This includes settlement expansion and seeking to silence anyone who doesn't yield to their political orthodoxies. To be blunt, this is absolute and total rubbish. ........<br />
Decision-making and direction are determined by AJC's Board of Governors through discussion and debate, involving close cooperation between lay leadership and staff. We welcome different points of view among our leaders and outside speakers who inform our thinking, a long-standing hallmark of AJC.</blockquote>
David Harris, please show me any meaningful statements the AJC has made against settlement expansion.<br />
Here are some more defensive misleading statements, which culminate in Harris's real concern, Hagel won't support a war on Iran:<br />
<blockquote>
Third, our stance on Israel-related issues is staunchly centrist and non-ideological. An incredibly long paper and voice trail underscores that point, as do the daily examples of our diplomatic and political advocacy...... </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Project Interchange, AJC’s educational initiative bringing leaders from different sectors in the U.S. and other countries to Israel, visits Ramallah regularly to meet with the Palestinian Authority. AJC’s Board of Governors, during its upcoming visit to Israel, also will meet with PA leaders, as it has consistently done on previous trips.... </blockquote>
<blockquote>
There are good reasons to be concerned about Hagel in the Pentagon, and one need not be a "zealot" or "extremist" to hold such views..... Hagel's voting record and statements on Iran-related issues alone should give pause to anyone who wonders what message his appointment could send to Tehran.</blockquote>
At the neoconservative Weekly Standard, <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/no-case-hagel_692112.html">Daniel Halpern</a> is also on the defensive. The attacks are hitting a nerve:<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead, these articles (and many more like them) just attack those concerned that Hagel is not the right man for the job.</div>
No one, I believe, is actually making the argument that Hagel is well qualified to be secretary of defense</blockquote>
Let's move on to the Hagel supporters. Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trita-parsi/chuck-hagel-defense-secretary_b_2371332.html">has a prominent op-ed at Huffington Post</a> that begins by stating that the right is now on the run over the Hagel possibility:<br />
<blockquote>
The right wing pro-Israel forces -- described by the <i>New York Times</i> today as "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/opinion/dont-let-pro-israel-extremists-sink-chuck-hagel.html?ref=opinion&_r=1&" target="_blank">extremists</a>" -- seem to be falling on their swords. They are learning that Senator Chuck Hagel is the wrong guy to pick a fight with.. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Hagel's detractors appear to be motivated by two factors. First, vengeance over Hagel's push to have the U.S. leave Iraq and end the neoconservatives' pet project. Second, fear that Hagel's independence and insistence on asking tough questions and ensuring that force is only used as a measure of last resort will complicate the neoconservatives' other pet project: preventive war with Iran. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Hagel is no pacifist. There is nothing in his record that suggests that he would categorically oppose using force. After all, he did vote in favor of the Iraq war. But on Iran, his presence in the Obama administration would inject a much-needed dose of clear-sighted realism and strategic thinking. He would provide Obama's national security team with the patience needed to ensure that America doesn't commit another strategic mistake such as Iraq. Precisely because of his own military background, he knows full well the cost of impatience and ill-conceived wars.</blockquote>
I'm glad that Parsi brought up Hagel's Iraq war vote. Hagel tries to rationalize it in his 2008 book, but it's completely inconsistent with the antiwar mindset he supposedly brought, wounded, out of Vietnam.<br />
At <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/2012122782835458431.html">Al Jazeera, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad marvels</a> that the Israel lobby, "an interest group lobbying on behalf of a foreign state," has been able to impose a rigid litmus test on White House appointments. First he surveys the anti-Hagel forces:<br />
<blockquote>
The ECI [Emergency Committee for Israel], a relatively new actor, has not been alone in targeting Hagel. It has been ably assisted by the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the National Jewish Democratic Council, The Israel Project, and the Zionist Organisation of America. Affiliates from both within and outside the government have gone on the offensive. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
The op-ed pages of the <i>Washington Post</i>, the <i>Weekly Standard </i>and the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> have all helped amplify the smears. The chorus has been joined by the familiar cast of Israel apologists in Congress, led by Chuck Schumer, Joseph Lieberman and Eliot Engel. Besides <a class="internallink" href="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/12/21/top_house_democrat_hagel_has_an_endemic_hostility_towards_israel" target="_blank">accusing Hagel</a> of "endemic hostility towards Israel", one of them, Engel, has also detected a "prejudice".</blockquote>
Then he laments the influence of the lobby.<br />
<blockquote>
"Every appointee to the American government", [Natasha Mozgovaya of Haaretz] wrote, "must endure a thorough background check by the American Jewish community."<br />
This is a curious position for a democracy to find itself in where an interest group lobbying on behalf of a foreign state can exercise veto power over government appointments based on ideological litmus tests. The distortion it engenders has been obvious in the disastrous course of recent US foreign policy. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
For the majority of Americans who are tired of perpetual war, the battle over Hagel's appointment presents an opportunity to check this decline. They can finally confront the forces of militarism and restore much-needed sanity. It is not a coincident that the line-up of Hagel's detractors looks remarkably similar to the line-up that promoted the Iraq war and is eager to bomb Iran. Hagel is far from a perfect candidate but he has many qualities that make his candidacy worth defending.</blockquote>
(P.S. If Haaretz reports that the "Jewish community" is vetting appointments, then isn't Hagel excused for speaking of the Israel lobby as the "Jewish lobby"?)<br />
<br />
It's interesting that J Street, the kinder gentler Israel lobby, <a href="http://jstreet.org/blog/post/extremism-in-our-community_1">is now fundraising using the Hagel possibility</a> as a benchmark battle against the neocons-- "Extremism in our community":<br />
<blockquote>
We’re pushing back hard against fierce, personal attacks against Senator Chuck Hagel’s possible nomination to be Secretary of Defense – the kind that intimidate politicians and policy makers into silence. Now, Washington knows that a serious pro-Israel lobby will have their back if they're attacked for refusing to take only the most hawkish positions on Israel.</blockquote>
Though the statement is also aimed at the likes of me, for being too critical of the blessed Jewish state in the face of sensible moderate liberal Zionists, the impact of the statement lands almost entirely on neocons, who are "in our community." I.e., inside the Jewish establishment.<br />
In that vein, Robert Naiman, another two-stater, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/crisis-proobama-jews-must_b_2360751.html">has a list of all those supporting Hagel</a> against the "jackboot of the neocons."<br />
<blockquote>
What do we want the next four years to be like? Do we want to spend the next four years under the jackboot of the neocons, even though we beat them in the last three presidential elections, starting with the 2008 Democratic primary? </blockquote>
<blockquote>
If we don't want to spend the next four years under the jackboot of the neocons, then we have to stop the neocons from blocking the nomination of diplomacy advocate, war skeptic and decorated Vietnam combat veteran Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense.</blockquote>
Oh and here's a CNN panel trashing Hagel, mostly over his "aggressively gay" slur (14 years old, for which he's apologized) and featuring <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cnn-hagel-nomination-could-be-doa_692206.html">Republican pundit Ana Navarro saying </a>that a Hagel appointment would be "obtuse," offending critical constituencies, including the pro-Israel crowd, and is therefore "DOA." She also says that Israel advocates are not a "special interest." Huh.<br />
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Thanks to Annie, and J<a href="http://wallwritings.me/2012/12/26/hagel-defenders-battle-neocon-opposition/">ames Wall</a>.<br />
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by <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/author/philweiss" rel="author" title="Posts by Philip Weiss">Philip Weiss</a> on December 28, 2012<br />
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Sourced: <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/jackboots-suddenly-defensive.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mondoweiss </a>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-38093142464735554782012-12-29T17:15:00.001-08:002012-12-29T17:18:46.215-08:00American Jewish Committee Demonstrates That Lobby Effort To Sink Hagel Has Backfired<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">their dreams of never-ending occupation will be dashed.</span></blockquote>
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by: MJ Rosenberg on December 29th, 2012<br />
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At this point, it is still not clear who will be appointed Secretary of Defense. I continue to believe that former Senator Chuck Hagel will not get the job because President Obama has never said “no” to the lobby about anything. And the lobby (whether you call it the Israel Lobby or the Jewish Lobby) has never been as united about any internal U.S. matter as it is about stopping Hagel. My guess is that Obama will choose former Pentagon official, Michele Flournoy, in the hope that the excitement about a woman as Defense secretary will make observers forget that she only got the appointment because Obama was afraid to take on AIPAC.<br />
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Nonetheless, presidential rejection of Hagel will not represent victory for the lobby because, as never before, its behind-the-scenes machinations have been exposed by virtually ever major news outlet.<br />
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The lobby hates that kind of exposure more than almost anything. As former (and indicted, although not tried, under the Espionage Act) AIPAC official Steve Rosen wrote me in 1982: “A lobby is a nightflower. It thrives in the dark and shrivels and dies in the daylight.”<br />
<br />
The Hagel controversy has certainly provided plenty of that deadly light.<br />
<br />
The best sign that the lobby is frightened by it came from a hysterical statement(1) issued by David Harris, president of the American Jewish Committee in response to an op-ed in the New York Times(2) by long-time and highly-respected New York Jewish Week writer, Jim Besser. Besser criticized mainstream “pro-Israel” organizations for being hijacked by extremist groups, using the wall-to-wall anti-Hagel opposition as proof:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Today mainstream Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, are either silent about the mounting controversy or offering cautious support for those who want to kill Mr. Hagel’s nomination. They have been driven into silence and submission by a radical fringe that in no way represents the American Jewish mainstream.<br />
<br />
Groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee were created to foster strong American-Israeli ties and to promote the idea that… Israel is a critical American ally in an undemocratic region<br />
<br />
But as the debate over the best route to peace for the Jewish state has become more bitterly polarized, groups like Aipac, the A.D.L. and the A.J.C. have undercut and obscured that message by refusing to distance themselves from extremists.<br />
<br />
Intimidated by pro-settler zealots, right-wing donors and those who liken the slightest criticism of Israeli policy to Israel-bashing (or even anti-Semitism), <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">pro-Israel leaders are increasingly allowing the fringes of their movement <span style="background-color: yellow;">to set the pro-Israel agenda in Washington</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;">.</span></blockquote>
The response from David Harris was not unexpected as the A.J.C. under his leadership has been transformed from a moderate and rather starchy institution into one of the most stridently paranoid Jewish organizations.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, the language was over-the-top even for Harris. Read Phil Weiss on the Harris statement although here is my favorite part of Harris’ jeremiad:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Decision-making and direction are determined by AJC’s Board of Governors through discussion and debate, involving close cooperation between lay leadership and staff. We welcome different points of view among our leaders and outside speakers who inform our thinking, a long-standing hallmark of AJC.<br />
<br />
Third, our stance on Israel-related issues is staunchly centrist and non-ideological. An incredibly long paper and voice trail underscores that point, as do the daily examples of our diplomatic and political advocacy.<br />
<br />
We fully support Israel’s right to exist free of boycotts, divestment and sanctions, and the moral and political hypocrisy of double standards.<br />
<br />
We steadfastly defend Israel’s right to protect itself and its citizens.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">We speak up for the special U.S.-Israel link, <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">as serving the highest interests of both nations.</span></span><br />
<br />
And we belabor under no illusions about the immense dangers Israel faces in a hostile, arms-laden region — from Syrian chemical weapons to Iran’s nuclear ambitions; from the deadly arsenals of Hamas and Hezbollah to the growing strength of political Islam.<br />
<br />
At the same time, we have consistently, and over a long time, advocated for a two-state Israeli-Palestinian agreement.</blockquote>
Precisely none of the points Harris makes are true. Decision-making at the American Jewish Committee is now entirely the province of David Harris. The organization is not right-wing or in love with Netanyahu, Harris is. In fact, it is well-known that there is growing discontent within the organization because Harris has essentially turned it into a one-man show, reflecting <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Harris’ paranoia and ethnic chauvinism rather than the nuanced</span> (and often progressive) stands of the organization’s lay leadership and donors.<br />
<br />
Even more ridiculous is Harris’ assertion that the A.J.C. supports peace, specifically the two-state solution. It doesn’t. Yes,<span style="background-color: yellow;"> it proclaims its support on its website but has opposed every effort to implement it,</span> most recently opposing the Palestinian effort to achieve limited recognition by the United Nations. It supported both Gaza wars and has NEVER opposed any Israeli policy. It has supported Netanyahu over Obama every time the American president tentatively applied even the most feather-like pressure. Unless one assumes that Binyamin Netanyahu is always right about everything, one has to conclude that David Harris is simply a spokesman for his government.<br />
<br />
But beyond all that is the larger question. What do any of the points Harris raises have to do with Chuck Hagel?<br />
<br />
Why is he foaming at the mouth about a Jewish journalist questioning of the propriety of the Israel lobby seeking to deny a president the Secretary of Defense he wants? <span style="background-color: yellow;">Why doesn’t Harris explain why it is appropriate to block this appointment because a foreign government objects to it?</span><br />
<br />
No, Harris doesn’t address any of this. Instead, he rails at Besser who is, luckily, retired. If he wasn’t Harris would no doubt be on the phone with his publishers seeking (probably successfully) to have him fired.<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> For Harris and his ilk, First Amendment rights apply to everything except discussions of Israe</span>l.<br />
<br />
So what else is new? That is how the lobby has operated for decades. But now they are exposed. Caught in the headlights. And Harris, and the others, are frightened that this exposure could lead to their replacement by a leadership cadre that is less obviously of the Israel First orientation.<br />
<br />
Nothing Harris is doing can remotely be considered pro-Israel. Israel is in trouble. It is utterly isolated worldwide.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Its support in the U.S. government is purchased with campaign donations.</span> Its young people are leaving in ever larger numbers and young Jews abroad have abandoned the cause in droves.<br />
<br />
The only way this situation can be changed is through peace. It’s not that hard. Polls in 1993 showed that worldwide Yitzhak Rabin was chosen as the most popular foreign leader. Netanyahu is the least popular. And what did<span style="background-color: yellow;"> Rabin</span> do that was different? He simply began talking to Palestinians and held out the hope of peace with them.<br />
<br />
And he <span style="background-color: yellow;">dealt with the Palestinian leadership as if it too consisted of human beings worthy of respect</span>. (Netanyahu deals with Palestinians in the style of the Belgians in the Congo in 1958).<br />
<br />
The hope for peace died with Rabin, largely because of his successors: most notably, Barak and Netanyahu. And David Harris and the others have helped them pound every nail into the coffin. And now they are trying to prevent a presidential appointment here in the United States out of fear that negotiations might be restarted and that <span style="background-color: yellow;">their dreams of never-ending occupation will be dashed.</span> These people are not pro-Israel. They are just avaricious (their salaries are astronomical) and paranoid.<br />
<br />
The good news is that they finally have something to be paranoid about. They are being exposed.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2012/12/29/american-jewish-committee-demonstrates-that-lobby-effort-to-sink-hagel-has-backfired/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MJ Rosenberg</a><br />
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(1) AJC Responds to New York Times Op-ed on U.S. Jews and Hagel:<br />
http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=2818295&ct=12697541&notoc=1<br />
<br />
(2) Don’t Let Pro-Israel Extremists Sink Chuck Hagel: <br />
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/opinion/dont-let-pro-israel-extremists-sink-chuck-hagel.html?_r=0Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-30015602825472013992012-12-29T16:52:00.001-08:002012-12-29T16:52:44.695-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“I hope one day this hall will be full of children from Gaza <br />playing their music to us all.”</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></blockquote>
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<img alt="" height="141" src="http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/large/public/121229-muiz-palestine.jpg" title="" width="200" /><br />
<i>“Palestine” by Muiz (image courtesy of the artist)</i><br />
<br />
“The creative Palestinian must create his flexible margin between the patriotic, the political, the daily, the cultural and the literary. But what am I to do? … Will I be able to write a book of love when color falls on the ground in autumn?”<br />
<br />
The Palestinian poet <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-darwish">Mahmoud Darwish</a> asked this question in his 1988 essay “Before I Write My Resignation.” It is a question which has struck artists the world over, but one which came especially to the fore in London’s recent Nour Festival, a celebration of North African and Middle Eastern culture. The theme was played out by its selection of Palestinian artists, performing across a rich literary, artistic and musical program.<br />
<br />
The festival’s writer-in-resident, the British-Palestinian <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/debut-novel-unflinchingly-portrays-palestinian-divisions/10918">Selma Dabbagh</a>, tackled the issue head-on in her series of lectures and workshops entitled “Who Are You To Write That?” which focused on the relationship between politics and literary aesthetics. She explored the expectations placed upon writers to work within certain fields, challenging notions of the writer’s “role” and literature’s function in a political context.<br />
<h2>
Recurring doubt</h2>
Using her own work as a blueprint for analysis, she raised issues of place, identity and the role of perspective in writing, in which doubt was a recurring motif. “The voices told me that I would not be able to communicate a complex political situation in a fictional work, that it was impossible to … create a sense of pace and speed when the atmosphere and history were extraordinarily dense” she said of her most recent novel <i><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/debut-novel-unflinchingly-portrays-palestinian-divisions/10918">Out of It</a></i>, a narrative which connects <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza">Gaza</a>, London and the Gulf. Yet this persistent questioning is surely what allowed her to carve out such a raw and honest novel.<br />
<br />
Palestinian poet <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ghassan-zaqtan">Ghassan Zaqtan</a>, who gave a reading from his new collection <i>Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me</i>, reiterated the necessity of questioning through <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/literature">literature</a>. His work, haunting and compelling, is testimony to the power of literary abstraction.<br />
<br />
Speaking about the series of metamorphosing figures which slip silently in and out of his poems, he said: “These ghostly hesitations stem from the idea that it is not the duty of the poet to provide answers; it’s his role to produce questions. And I think that the question, on one level, is an answer, but absolute answers are not the duty of the poet.”<br />
<br />
If the role of an artist is to produce questions, then the very representation of Palestine across time and place should itself be questioned and is crucial to understanding the political realities which it in turn shapes. The Nour Festival brought this to light with artistic representations swaying from the “objective reality” discussed in <i>William Holman-Hunt: A Pre-Raphaelite in Jerusalem</i> (a talk focused on a nineteenth century painter); to the contemporary, explored in <i>The Original Arab Spring – Palestine Rising</i>, an exhibition showcasing works inspired by the current political landscape.<br />
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”Al-Siaaj al-Amani” (The Security Fence) by Muiz (image courtesy of the artist)</div>
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<h2>
“All art is political”</h2>
The group Febrik’s innovative exhibition <i>The Watchtower of Happiness and Other Landscapes of Occupation</i> transformed the gallery in London’s Mosaic Rooms into a reconstruction of the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/west-bank">West Bank</a>, exploring issues of the right to public space in the highly polarized context of the Israeli occupation, enabling London’s public to bear witness to the methods of occupation through its interactive installations.<br />
<br />
For this writer, the most aesthetically compelling contribution to the festival was visual communicator Muiz’s photo-textual-graphic exhibition, <i>Nuclear Nuqta</i>. His work explores the structuring of our reality through visual language, at the semantic and semiotic level. Building on the principles of Arabic calligraphy, and Islamic geometry and philosophy, the pieces reflect the geo-political structuring of the modern Middle East.<br />
<br />
“Palestine,” an arrangement of geometric shapes which individually correspond to the letters of the Arabic and English words, reflects Palestine’s disjointed identity and fractured landscape. The patterns simultaneously spell out poignant motifs in Palestine’s narrative, with symbols reminiscent of traditional Palestinian embroidery and images of mountains, olives and cypress trees identifiable throughout the text.<br />
<br />
In “Al-Siaaj al-Amani” (The Security Fence) Muiz spells out the Arabic words with black and grey blocks compressed and stretched across the page, the lettering of the definite article suggesting a stretch of barbed wire and the letter <i>alif</i> dominating the page in the guise of a watch-tower. The piece highlights the abuse of language by the Israeli occupation.<br />
<br />
“Nakba” (Catastrophe) commemorates the 64th anniversary of the expulsion of Palestinians from their land. A single line of white tally marks — perhaps a fence, a field of graves, or the stumps of vandalized olive trees — stretches across a plain black background, exposing the devastation of the natural landscape. The unfinished tally marks of the last four years leave a stark ellipses-like reminder of the ongoing nature of this brutal narrative.<br />
<br />
Perhaps it is such nuanced abstractions which provide this “flexible margin” Darwish spoke of, “between the patriotic, the political and the cultural.” After all, as Muiz puts it in the festival program, “all art is political – because those that create art are governed by it.”<br />
<h2>
Brutal influences</h2>
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<img alt="" height="258" src="http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/resize/styles/large/public/121229-ahmad-al-khatib-320x258.jpg" style="float: right; height: 258px; width: 320px;" title="" width="320" /><br />
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Alhmad al-Khatib (image courtesy of Nour Festival)<br />
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The Nour Festival’s musical program further illuminated this link between art and politics.<br />
<br />
Oud player Ahmad al-Khatib and percussionist Youssef Hbeisch performed material from their acclaimed album <i>Sabil</i>, before being joined by world famous classical guitarist John Williams. Their repertoire included “‘Urs” (Wedding), an exhilarating adaption of a traditional Palestinian folk melody; “Flotilla” in commemoration of the symbolic attempt to break the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-siege">siege of Gaza</a> in 2009; and “Maqam for Gaza,” a reworking of the classical melodic form inspired by the effects of <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/operation-cast-lead">Operation Cast Lead</a>, Israel’s attack on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009.<br />
<br />
“Sada’” (Echo) has equally brutal influences. Written in 2002 during Israel’s <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/operation-defenisve-shield">Operation Defensive Shield</a>, it was described by al-Khatib as the “grey spring” when West Bank “Palestinians were kept under curfew for thirty-three days,” turning it into a “ghost city.”<br />
<br />
The duo composed this haunting piece while holed up in a flat throughout the siege: the swirl of Hbeisch’s <i>bendir</i> (traditional wide drum) imitating the helicopter’s wail, and the dense knocks on its skin echoing like endless bomb blasts. At times mournfully, at others with stoic rejuvenation, a melody emerges from al-Khatib’s oud, overwhelming the beat of the blasting drum. It is a composition of humanity’s creative triumph over such harrowing hardship.<br />
<br />
Music and culture do not simply transport such narratives, they also help nurture a vital sense of hope. As al-Khatib said, “I hope one day this hall will be full of children from Gaza playing their music to us all.”<br />
<i>Lauren Pyott is a freelance writer and translator of Arabic, specializing in Arabic literary translation. She has spent a number of years living in Palestine and is now based in Edinburgh. </i><br />
<i>Her website is <a href="http://laurenpyott.wordpress.com/">laurenpyott.wordpress.com</a>.</i>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-38349163109428007972012-12-29T16:47:00.000-08:002012-12-29T16:47:08.975-08:00Gaza Government affirms the Palestinians’ right to repel any aggressionThe Palestinian government in Gaza stressed on the right of the
Palestinian people to use all resistance methods in order to repel any
Israeli aggression and to defend themselves from the Israeli continued
crimes.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
The Information Office of the government in Gaza said in a statement
on the fourth anniversary of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip that the
Palestinian people have shown a great steadfastness and great power
before the enemy where the Israeli occupation failed to overthrow the
Islamic resistance movement “Hamas” or to release the Israeli soldier
“Gilad Shalit” at that time.<br />
<br />
The statement stressed the steadfastness of the Palestinian
government in Gaza in the face of all the intrigues and plots, and that
these plots did not deter the movement from continuing on its path,
until the liberation of the Palestinian people and land.<br />
<br />
It also stressed that “the Palestinian national unity is a desired
goal,” noting at the same time to the unity of the Palestinian blood in
the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the unity of the Palestinian
constants and determination.<br />
<br />
The government has called on the Arab, regional and international
community to stop the double standards policy and called for supporting
the Palestinian people’s rights who still live in Diaspora as a result
of the Israeli continued occupation since 1948.<br />
<br />
The government thanked the Arab and the Islamic nation who declared
their solidarity with the Gaza Strip, and rejected the Israeli assault
on Gaza and the killing of children and women in Gaza.<br />
<br />
The government has renewed its call to break the siege on the Gaza
Strip, which lasted for more than six years in a row, demanding
“immediate and rapid action to alleviate the suffering of our people
trapped in the Gaza Strip.”<br />
<br />
Sourced: http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/gaza-government-affirms-the-palestinians-right-to-repel-any-aggression/Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-70489182224329073722012-12-29T16:34:00.001-08:002012-12-29T16:34:44.354-08:00 Issawi: PA did not take prisoners’ issue to the UNShireen Al-Issawi, the sister of hunger striker Samer Al-Issawi, has
called for greater support for the issue of hunger striking Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli jails.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
She told the PIC in an interview that the Israeli occupation
authorities (IOA) refused to allow medical checkups on her brother,
whose health condition is deteriorating.<br />
<br />
Shireen, a lawyer, criticized the Palestinian Authority for not
heading to the UN, human rights groups and the international criminal
court and filing complaints against Israel’s practices and crimes and to
demand freedom for the Palestinian prisoners.<br />
<br />
The PA should exploit the hunger strike by a number of prisoners and
expose the Israeli practices against them, she said, adding that the PA
should also ask Cairo to intervene in the issue in its capacity as the
patron of the prisoners’ exchange agreement that stipulated among other
things that those freed in the agreement would not be re-arrested and
also limited the use of the administrative detention policy.<br />
<br />
Shireen said that the Israeli court decision banning her from
attending her brother’s court hearings was part of the psychological
pressures on him.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/palhunger-issawi-pa-did-not-take-prisoners-issue-to-the-un/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Occupied Palestine</a> <br />
<a href="http://twitpic.com/bqgphx" title="Thanks to Rabbi Marvin Hier and @simonwiesenthal for the awar... on Twitpic"></a>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-44303283350845028522012-12-29T16:07:00.000-08:002012-12-29T16:07:35.766-08:00US and Israel illegal self-defence doctrineHow Obama and Netanyahu Disregarded Law and Facts<br />
Why the Self-Defense Doctrine Doesn’t Legitimize Israel’s Assault on Gaza<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
by JAMES MARC LEAS<br />
<br />
Supporting all aspects of the Israeli assault on Gaza in November,
President Obama gave Israeli forces a green light, saying “We are fully
supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself.” Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu defended Israel’s targeting of civilian areas in Gaza saying
“it’s our right to defend our people.”<br />
<br />
Obama and Netenyahu disregarded law and facts:<br />
<br />
* In 2004, the International Court of Justice rejected Israeli
Government arguments and found that as an occupying power, Israel’s
right to defend itself under a UN Charter provision does not apply
against those living under its rule.<br />
<br />
* The Court found that the right, and indeed the obligation, to
protect citizens does not trump Israeli obligation to conform to
international law when doing so.<br />
<br />
* Israeli military assaults on Gaza, including “Operation Pillar of
Defense,” caused a vast increase in rocket fire from Gaza, so the
assaults endangered rather than defended Israeli citizens.<br />
<br />
* Israeli political and military leaders have long known how to
quickly halt or substantially dial down rocket fire that involves no
bombs, no killing, and no destruction: ceasefire agreements. However,
Israeli forces have repeatedly ended effective ceasefire agreements with
aerial extrajudicial executions of Palestinians in Gaza that dialed up
rocket fire.<br />
<br />
Israeli Government argues self-defense<br />
<br />
In its 2004 written advisory opinion regarding the wall that Israeli
forces built across Palestinian occupied territory, the International
Court of Justice included the Israeli government’s self-defense
arguments:<br />
<br />
* According to Israel “the construction of the Barrier is consistent
with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, its inherent
right to self-defense and Security Council resolutions 1368 (2001) and
1373 (2001).”<br />
<br />
* More specifically, Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United
Nations asserted in the General Assembly on 20 October 2003 that “the
fence is a measure wholly consistent with the right of States to
self-defense enshrined in Article 51 of the Charter”; the Security
Council resolutions referred to, he continued, “have clearly recognized
the right of States to use force in self-defense against terrorist
attacks,” and therefore surely recognize the right to use nonforcible
measures to that end (A/ES10/PV.21, p. 6).<br />
<br />
The Israeli government thus argued that self-defense under Article 51 of
the UN Charter applies and that the wall should be considered as
legitimate under this Charter self-defense provision– especially because
the wall is a passive means of self-defense rather than a forcible
measure. The Israeli government further implied that the two Security
Council resolutions allow Israel’s right of self-defense against
terrorism to trump the provision of international humanitarian law
prohibiting Israel, as occupying power, to encroach on Palestinian
territory.<br />
<br />
International Court of Justice rejects Israeli self-defense<br />
<br />
Rejecting the Israeli government arguments, the Court first found that
the Article 51 right to self-defense “has no relevance” when the attacks
on Israel, the occupying power, are from people living under Israeli
rule rather than coming from a foreign state. The Court found:<br />
<br />
Article 51 of the Charter thus recognizes the existence of an inherent
right of self-defense in the case of armed attack by one State against
another State. However, Israel does not claim that the attacks against
it are imputable to a foreign State. The Court also notes that Israel
exercises control in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that, as
Israel itself states, the threat which it regards as justifying the
construction of the wall originates within, and not outside, that
territory. . . Consequently, the Court concludes that Article 51 of the
Charter has no relevance in this case.<br />
<br />
The Court thus concluded that self-defense under Article 51 does not
apply to an occupying power with respect to those living under
occupation. Although Israel withdrew its illegal settlers from Gaza in
2005, Israel still controls all aspects of life in Gaza, including air,
land and sea borders, and therefore Israel continues to be regarded as
an occupying power over Gaza.<br />
<br />
The decision that an occupying power cannot invoke Article 51
self-defense is complementary to provisions of the UN Charter, UN
General Assembly Resolution 2625, and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights under which self-determination is a principle
of international law.<br />
<br />
More specifically, the decision is complementary to UN General Assembly
Resolution 2649, adopted November 30, 1970, that “affirms the legitimacy
of the struggle of peoples under colonial and alien domination
recognized as being entitled to the right of self-determination to
restore to themselves that right by any means at their disposal.”
Resolution 2649 also “considers that the acquisition and retention of
territory in contravention of the right of the people of that territory
to self-determination is inadmissible and a gross violation of the
Charter;” and “condemns those Governments that deny the right to
self-determination of peoples recognized as being entitled to it,
especially of the peoples of southern Africa and Palestine.”<br />
<br />
The rejection of Israel’s Article 51 argument leaves Israeli forces and
their US sponsors at risk of prosecution for the crime of aggression,
the subject of another article.<br />
<br />
Court Rejects Israeli argument that self-defense trumps international law<br />
<br />
The Court also concluded that construction of the wall on occupied
Palestinian land was not in conformance with applicable international
law because the route of the wall across Palestinian territory was
illegal. “The Court considers that Israel cannot rely on a right of
self-defense or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the
wrongfulness of the construction of the wall.” Thus, the Court
established that defending its citizens does not relieve Israeli
government officials of their responsibility to observe international
law.<br />
<br />
International law for an occupying power includes the responsibility to
protect civilians living under occupation and their property and to
provide for the humanitarian needs of the population living under the
occupation. International humanitarian law requires all combatants to
protect civilians and civilian property during any armed conflict.<br />
<br />
Court recognizes Israeli right to protect citizens if method conforms to international law<br />
<br />
The Court recognized that “Israel has to face numerous indiscriminate
and deadly acts of violence against its civilian population. It has the
right, and indeed the duty, to respond in order to protect the life of
its citizens. The measures taken are bound nonetheless to remain in
conformity with applicable international law.”<br />
<br />
Israeli argument before the court can be applied in reverse<br />
<br />
The argument the Israeli permanent representative introduced is
remarkable in that it can be applied in reverse in view of the Court’s
decision: the Court rejected an occupying power’s right to use a
non-forcible measure–the fence–in self-defense because the fence
illegally encroached on occupied territory. Therefore, the Court would
surely reject forcible measures that violate the law.<br />
<br />
The Israeli assaults on Gaza <br />
<br />
During Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” from December 27, 2008 to January
18, 2009, Israeli military and political leaders failed to take heed of
the decision of the International Court, as described in a report issued
by a delegation from the National Lawyers Guild, and reports issued by
Human Rights Watch, the Palestine Center for Human rights, Amnesty
International, the UN Human Rights Council–“the Goldstone Report,”
Defence for Children International (Palestine Section), Al Mezan Centre
for Human Rights, and the League of Arab States, all available at
Universal Jurisdiction. Instead, Israeli political and military
leaders–and their US sponsors–wrongfully continued to rely on Israel’s
supposed right to protect its own citizens as justifying measures, such
as intentionally attacking civilians and civilian property, that violate
international law.<br />
<br />
Israel’s “Pillar of Defense” November 14-21 failed to heed both the
decision of the Court and the law as described in those reports, as
described in articles on Counterpunch, “Wrecking Gaza: Civilian
Infrastructure Targeted by Israeli Military” and “Shattered Lives in
Gaza: How the IDF Targeted Civilians.”<br />
<br />
Reports by Human Rights Watch also describe Israeli violations during
Operation Pillar of Defense, including “Gaza: Unlawful Israeli Attacks
on Palestinian Media” and “Gaza: Israeli Airstrike on Home Unlawful.” An
HRW report on November 15 warned both sides, “Gaza: Avoid Harm to
Civilians.”<br />
<br />
A December 24 report by Human Rights Watch, “Gaza: Palestinian Rockets
Unlawfully Targeted Israeli Civilians” sharply criticizes Palestinian
resistance groups that fired rockets at Israeli population centers:<br />
<br />
Under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, civilians
and civilian structures may not be subject to deliberate attacks or
attacks that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets.
Anyone who commits serious laws-of-war violations intentionally or
recklessly is responsible for war crimes. . .<br />
<br />
The November 14 to 21 hostilities between Israel and Hamas and armed
groups in Gaza involved unlawful attacks on civilians by both sides.<br />
<br />
As will be further described in a forthcoming article, data on the
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs web site, on the allied Intelligence
and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) web site, and on the Palestine
Center for Human Rights web site shows that Israeli forces have levers
of control over rocket fire from Gaza. Data on the web sites shows that
Israeli extra-judicial executions in Gaza dialed up rocket attacks on
Israel to extremely high levels. The data also shows that Israeli
government and military leaders dialed down rocket attacks to zero, or
very close to zero, by using a readily available non-violent technique: a
cease fire agreement.<br />
<br />
Israeli political and military leaders who set the policy, those
carrying out the attacks, and US government and corporate sponsors who
provided the weapons and political backing are all liable for
prosecution for war crimes because of their unlawful attacks on
civilians and civilian property. The decision of the International Court
of Justice on the wall indicates that liability for war crimes would
not be precluded even if Israeli forces could prove they were acting to
defend Israeli citizens. Similarly for the crime of aggression:
particularly when Israeli forces violated effective ceasefires and
initiated the military conflicts with their extra-judicial executions in
Gaza. Claims that Israeli forces acted to protect their own citizens
will have “no relevance” under Article 51.<br />
<br />
Investigation and prosecution<br />
<br />
With its upgrade in status to non-member state at the UN on November 29,
Palestine can now bring its case against Israeli and US political and
military leaders to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague.
The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to investigate and
prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, war
crimes, and the crime of aggression. If the prosecutor of the ICC
refuses the request to investigate, the Palestinian Authority can bring a
proposal to the UN General Assembly to establish an International
Criminal Tribunal for Israel as a ‘subsidiary organ,’ as provided under
U.N. Charter Article 22 to conduct the investigation and prosecution.<br />
<br />
The Palestinian Authority has been under intense pressure not to bring
the case. Or to use the possibility of bringing a case at the ICC as a
bargaining chip for other objectives, such as an agreement to halt
illegal Israeli settlement building. However, pressure on Palestine not
to bring a case and Palestine holding the possibility of criminal
prosecution as a bargaining chip both threaten foundational principles
of justice: respect for the rule of law, equal justice under law, and
judicial independence. Rather pressure and bargaining are consistent
with corruption and a culture of impunity for wrongdoers with powerful
friends.<br />
<br />
A worldwide campaign for justice is needed. The system of immunity and
impunity enjoyed by Israeli political and military leaders and by their
US government sponsors must end now. Without accountability for
violations of international law, the law will become mere
recommendation, the violations will be repeated, hundreds more
Palestinians will be killed and wounded, more of their homes will be
destroyed, rocket fire will be dialed up, and we will hear again about
“Israel’s right to defend itself” while Israeli forces cynically take
actions that put Israeli citizens more at risk for political goals. Only
if those responsible are brought to justice can we expect that military
and political leaders in Israel and the US would be inclined to think
seriously before again initiating aggression while pleading
self-defense. Public pressure is needed to ensure that the criminal
cases are brought at the ICC–or, if the ICC refuses, to an Article 22
Tribunal–and to counter the vast US political influence to undermine an
independent, impartial, and unbiased investigation and prosecution.<br />
<br />
James Marc Leas is a co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild Free
Palestine Subcommittee. He collected evidence in the Gaza strip from
November 27 to December 3 as part of a 20 member delegation from the US
and Europe. He also participated in the National Lawyers Guild
delegation to Gaza after Operation Cast Lead.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.twitlonger.com/show/khl6kv" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Counterpunch</a>
Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-81772641352769495772012-12-26T21:39:00.000-08:002012-12-26T21:39:42.671-08:00Stepping over the line by accident: Still possible, ever more disturbingA stroll west of West Jerusalem can lead to a surprising discovery, confronting the casual walker with various layers of the Palestinian tragedy.<br />
<br />
<div dir="LTR">
I just finished an ordeal at the Knesset. The next thing on the agenda was a long phone call, one that would last for at least an hour. Instead of walking about West Jerusalem for an hour, I decided to begin heading west on foot.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
The brisk winter day was gorgeous. Beneath me, past the last row of city blocks, lay the gulley separating West Jerusalem from a ridge of lofty hills to the west. The slopes were made green by the season’s blessed rains. If I climbed down, then up again, I would arrive at the suburb of Mevaseret Zion, where busses stop on their way to Tel Aviv.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
I found a street that turns into a trail and headed down, soon arriving at the abandoned Palestinian village of Lifta.<br />
<br />
Unlike many other villages that were emptied in 1948 and later destroyed, this one remains nearly intact. Lately, it narrowly <a href="http://972mag.com/court-cancels-construction-project-saves-unique-palestinian-nakba-village/34886/" target="_blank">escaped being replaced with a posh residential complex</a> for Jewish Israelis. Walking among the crumbling stone buildings is a sad experience, but I could at least comfort myself in that Lifta remains as a monument.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
While speaking leisurely on the phone, I crossed to the other ridge and began climbing a slope that I thought would lead me to Mevaseret Zion and to the bus. It did not.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
The houses atop the hill were not lined along neatly planned streets, as they would be in Mevaseret. Instead, homes were freely scattered along badly paved roads, some of them were new, others – as old as those of Lifta. This was a Palestinian village, and various signs told me that it was not Palestinian-Israeli, such as nearby Abu Ghosh. The roads really were in a very poor shape, and the roofs bore black water tanks, rather than the white ones typical in Israel.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
How could this be? I have been walking west from West Jerusalem. I am supposed to be in Israel proper, in the “Jerusalem corridor” – sandwiched between the north and south West Bank. This village is located only a half a mile from the Jerusalem – Tel Aviv freeway, which trails the adjacent slope, it is visible from its lanes and from many building in the city, looking like a mosque –topped suburb of Mevaseret Zion or of nearby suburb of Ramot, which, it now occured to me, is built partially over the Green Line. Israeli urbanization in this area is designed to blur this line’s existence.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="LTR">
Walking a bit further in, I began to see cars. Their license plates were white and green – Palestinian. Such cars are not allowed on Israeli roads. The mystery thickened. I haven’t crossed a fence nor a wall, and yet I entered the West Bank on foot. Less than an hour ago I was inside Israel’s parliament. Now here I was, at what must be a southwestern offshoot of the territory of another sovereign state, recognized by the UN and occupied by my own.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
I knew that the separation barrier was not complete, but was amazed to find it nonexistent at such proximity to West Jerusalem. The barrier is meant to impact our brains, and it does. What made the situation so strange in my eyes was indeed how normal it was. The very fact that I could wander into this village as a peaceful visitor seemed bizarre. This isn’t real life! In real life there are walls separating people and military vehicles threatening the life of anyone who tries to sneak over. I have gotten used to this. I didn’t know how to deal with something so different.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
Then I turned back, looked over at Jerusalem and felt a great sadness take over me. The people who live in the house shown in the above photo are not allowed to walk down the trail I took. It is unlikely that they possess a rare “Jerusalem pass” issued by the Israeli authorities. Most likely, they risk arrest and interrogation if they dare to visit the city. It is a city that appears every morning through their windows, a city that is sacred to them, a city that is the birthplace of their culture. A city that is off bounds.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
Off bounds – just like Mevaseret, into which I now walked without hassle, climbing over the Green Line at some point I could not even identify. I took the bus and headed for the coast – the coast reserved for me. On the way I looked for the village on my Google Maps iphone application. Like most Palestinian villages and towns, it did not exist there. I can only assume that Google uses Israeli sources for its maps.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
With the help of activist friends I learned that the village is named Beit Iksa. Israel plans to complete the fence separating it from Jerusalem next year. Meanwhile, a temporary fence stretches northeast of the village, and its residents must go through a checkpoint in order to visit the rest of the West Bank. While the village is trapped between a real barrier and an invisible one, Israel is confiscating its lands for the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem high speed rail.<br />
<br />
I’ll stop here. That’s enough absurdity for one post. Next time I’ll make sure to take the bus directly from Jerusalem, like most Israelis do, in order to avoid reality’s burden.<br />
</div>
<div dir="LTR">
P.S. I feel compelled to add that Beit Iksa is by no means unique. Israel built the separation barrier unilaterally, often several kilometers inside the West Bank, confiscating nearly 9% of its territory. In most cases, the barrier was not placed temporarily, trapping Palestinians inside land-locked islands for good. Or at least until something changes.</div>
<h3 class="post_author_h3">
By <a class="bluetext" href="http://972mag.com/author/yuvalb/" rel="author">Yuval Ben-Ami</a> -
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Published December 26, 2012</span> </span></span></h3>
<time datetime="2012-12-26T05:42:13+00:00" pubdate="pubdate"></time><a href="http://972mag.com/stepping-over-the-line-on-accident-still-possible-ever-more-disturbing/62624/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sourced</a>Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-18758131834192478052012-12-26T21:23:00.000-08:002012-12-26T21:23:23.333-08:00E1 Not Israeli Territory <br />
The controversy surrounding the government's decision to promote the construction of thousands of housing units in the E1 zone, which will connect Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem and cut through the West Bank, is<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> viewed by pundits and politicians alike as a serious diplomatic problem,</span> <span style="background-color: yellow;">but not a legal one</span>.<br />
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It is assumed that most of the area has been declared as state-owned land, meaning it belongs to the government, which can do whatever it wants with it. This assumption is completely false. Over the years Israel's governments have allotted "state-owned" lands in the West Bank almost exclusively for the use of settlements, in direct violation of international law.<br />
<br />
As of today, 1.4 million dunams (346,000 acres) in the West Bank (some 26% of the entire territory) are defined as state-owned land. Some 527,000 of the dunams (130,000 acres), mainly in the Jordan Valley, were considered state-owned land when Jordan ruled over the region. Since the High Court of Justice ruled in 1979 that it is illegal to build settlements on private Palestinian land, the settlement enterprise has been based on the use of state-owned lands. To this end, between 1979 and 2002 Israel has declared more than 900,000 dunams (about 222,000 acres) as state-owned land, an addition of some 170%. Most of these lands were defined as being within the limits of the settlements' local or regional councils.<br />
<br />
According to international law, publicly-owned areas in the West Bank also belong to the Palestinian population that resides within them. The West Bank was never annexed to Israel's sovereign territory (such a unilateral annexation would be illegal); it is under Israeli military rule. Military rule means that the state holds the territory only as a trustee.<br />
<br />
International law clearly determines that Israel can use the territory only to provide for the needs of the local population or to serve its military and security-related needs. Building permanent communities that are populated by Israeli civilians, the advancement of Israeli industrial and tourism projects, exploiting the area's resources (including water) – all of these are forbidden. These resources must be used to serve the needs of the Palestinian population alone.<br />
<br />
Despite the legal restrictions, since taking over the West Bank Israel has classified hundreds of thousands of dunams as state-owned land. These areas were robbed from the Palestinian population and are used almost exclusively by the settlements, which were established illegally. Classifying these areas as "state-owned" and transferring them to the settlements has had severe effects on the local Palestinian population: The livelihood of the shepherds and farmers has been taken away; Palestinian communities cannot expand and develop; and lands that were supposed to be designated for the development of Palestinian industry, tourism and agriculture have been robbed.<br />
<br />
It is not just settlement building that is wrong. As strange as this may sound to Israelis, who consider natural resources to be Israeli property, we are not allowed to open beaches and factories in the northern Dead Sea; we are not allowed to develop tourism projects in areas we do not own and we are forbidden from exploiting the resources of the conquered land. These resources can only be used for the benefit of the local Palestinian population.<br />
<br />
The government's policy is not new, but the fact that we have been acting this way for decades does not make it right. "State-owned" lands are meant for the use of the Palestinians.<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> The only exception that allows Israel to use conquered lands is when these lands are needed in order to meet a military need</span>.<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> <span style="background-color: yellow;">The plan to build thousands of settler homes in E1 has nothing to do with Israel's military needs</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;">.</span><br />
<br />
This Op-Ed was Previously Published at <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4323027,00.html">Ynet</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/opinion/3438-e1-not-israeli-territory" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">by Miriam Leedor</a><br />
Miriam Leedor is director of public outreach at B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-6024384724514653142012-12-26T21:11:00.001-08:002012-12-26T21:11:58.055-08:00The Settlement That Broke the Two-State Solution<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ma'aleh Adumim symbolizes why Middle East peace may no longer be possible. </span><br />
<br />
MA'ALEH ADUMIM, West Bank — When you
drive out on the highway to the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim from
Jerusalem, you're driving through big sky country. After passing Jerusalem's
new Jewish neighborhoods and old Arab villages, all you've got on either side
of you are the soft hills of the Judean desert.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Emptiness, except for the unseen
Bedouins. But very soon, you see a long, long line of beige houses and
apartment buildings on the ridge of a steep hill, stretching nearly from one
end of your field of vision to the other. Welcome to Ma'aleh Adumim.<br />
<br />
The population is 40,000 -- but if
someone told me it was 400,000, I'd believe it. It is huge, monumental: Long,
sweeping roads lead up the hill to its entrances, and wide avenues course up
and down beautifully landscaped neighborhoods built from Jerusalem stone.
Ma'aleh Adumim, founded in 1975, does not look like anybody's idea of a
settlement. It is truly an Israeli city, and it looks invulnerable to U.N.
resolutions.<br />
<br />
Ma'aleh Adumim is a stick in the eye of
Palestinian attempts to build a state in the West Bank. And its very presence
is spurring further Israeli construction: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's recent threat to build a sprawling, 3,500-unit housing project linking
the settlement with Jerusalem has provoked expressions of outrage and distrust
from Brussels and, in much more restrained tones, from Washington. The latest
diplomatic skirmish was set off after European foreign ministers, in no uncertain
terms, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/03/world/la-fg-israeli-settlement-plan-draws-european-backlash-20121203" target="_blank">warned</a>
of the disastrous effects of the so-called "E-1 plan" on the prospects for a
two-state solution.<br />
<br />
Western diplomats fret that E-1
construction will drive a stone wedge through the heart of the would-be
Palestinian state -- cutting off Palestinians' access to East Jerusalem, their
hoped-for capital. But this misses the point: The presence of Ma'aleh Adumim makes
E-1, or something like it, inevitable. Israel has no intention of letting this
city go in any sort of peace agreement, and it's not going to let it remain as
an isolated Jewish enclave linked to the capital by a thin, three-mile stretch
of highway with nothing but Palestine on either side. The world has remained on
the sidelines these last 37 years during the construction of Ma'aleh Adumim.
It's a little late in the game to go complaining about E-1.<br />
<br />
Besides, who says this settlement, the
third most populous in the West Bank, isn't already a stake in the heart of a
prospective Palestinian state, even without E-1? "Ma'aleh Adumim was established to break
Palestinian contiguity," Benny Kashriel, the town's mayor since 1992, <a href="http://www.jr.co.il/ma/manews03.htm" target="_blank">told</a> the <i>Jerusalem Report</i> in 2004. "It is Jerusalem's connection to the Dead
Sea and the Jordan Valley [on the other side of the West Bank from Jerusalem];
if we weren't here, Palestinians could connect their villages and close off the
roads." (Kashriel declined to be interviewed for this article; the City Hall spokesman
said local officials had talked enough to the media about E-1.)<br />
<br />
This West Bank settlement functions as a
suburb, or satellite city of the capital, and that's how the residents -- as
well as Israelis at large -- see it. <br />
<br />
"It's too big to be a settlement," says Yael
Benayoun, a native-born 16-year old girl shopping in the gleaming mall in the
heart of town. She and her friend, Etti Lazar, also 16, say they can't imagine
Ma'aleh Adumim ever ceasing to exist, like the settlements of Gaza that were
destroyed in 2005, or those of Sinai that were bulldozed in 1982.<br />
<br />
"There's no
place to put everyone," Lazar says. Indeed, there are roughly five times more
Israeli settlers in Ma'aleh Adumim than there were in all of Gaza, and eight
times more than there were in Sinai.<br />
<br />
Nor is there a constituency in Israel
for relinquishing Ma'aleh Adumim in any peace deal.<b> </b>The city is considered by all Israeli Jews, except those on the
marginal non-Zionist left, to be<b> </b>a
"settlement bloc" --<b> </b>one close to
the pre-1967 border that must be retained in a final agreement through land
swaps with the Palestinians. With its large population and proximity to
Jerusalem, the settlement sits snugly within the revered national "consensus"
as permanently protected Israeli territory.<br />
<br />
The birth of Ma'aleh Adumim also speaks
to the support it enjoys across the Israeli political spectrum. Following the
conquest of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, Israel built an inner ring of
Jewish neighborhoods on the eastern part of the city to "strengthen" and
"protect," in nationalistic terminology, the holy city from ever being "divided"
again. The outer ring was made up of Givat Ze'ev lay to the north, Efrat to the
south, and Ma'aleh Adumim to the east.<br />
<br />
"This was the plan of the doves of the
Labor Party of that time," explains historian Meron Benvenisti, who was a
deputy mayor of Jerusalem in the 1970s. "To keep the land around Jerusalem and
give the rest back to Jordan. Nobody was talking about the Palestinians back
then."<br />
<br />
Indeed, none of this started with Netanyahu, or even with Likud -- it started with the Labor Party, the party of peace process devotees Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, the party that later midwifed the Oslo peace accords with Yasir Arafat. E-1 didn't start with Netanyahu, either --<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> it started with Rabin in 1994</span>, who, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=294327" target="_blank">according to</a> the <i>Jerusalem Post</i>, "provided then-mayor Benny Kashriel with annexation documents for the E1 area."<br />
<br />
In the marble-trimmed lobby of Ma'aleh Adumim's City Hall, the walls are lined with photos of Kashriel hosting prime ministers going back to Yitzhak Shamir. In one photo, Kashriel holds a pen over a map of the region, showing Rabin the lay of the land. The message is clear: This is consensus Israeli territory you're standing on -- left-to-right, decade after decade.<br />
<br />
The only problem people in Ma'aleh Adumim seem to have with E-1 is that it's only in the planning stages. "Bibi's bluffing. He's never going to build E-1 because of the international pressure," a real estate agent in the mall told me.<br />
<br />
"We only wish he would build it -- do you know what the construction of 3,500 more homes would do for our economy?"<br />
<br />
Netanyahu's unfreezing of plans for E-1 was his immediate punishment of the Palestinians and the "international community" for the Nov. 29 U.N. vote to grant Palestine non-member observer state status. He has followed that with <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/18/3147681/defying-west-israel-moves-ahead.html" target="_blank">high-profile plans</a> to build about 5,000 housing units in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and West Bank settlements (though not in Ma'aleh Adumim, to the locals' great disappointment). A typical reaction came from the European Union's foreign-policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who said the expansion plans "seriously undermine the prospects of a negotiated resolution ... by jeopardizing the possibility of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state and of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states."<br />
<br />
"It's nonsense," Benvenisti retorts. "People want to believe there's hope for the two-state solution, they believe it's the only game in town. Forget it."<br />
<br />
Benvenisti has traveled a long ideological road since his time as Jerusalem deputy mayor, moving from a proponent of the two-state solution to an advocate of a binational state encompassing Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, with full political equality for Jews and Arabs.<b> </b>In the early 1980s, he founded an organization that tracked the growth of West Bank settlements. "I started when there were 20,000 settlers and said that when they reached 100,000, the settlements will be irreversible," he says. The number passed 100,000 before Oslo, and today there are upwards of 350,000 -- not counting the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem, who number another 200,000. Benvenisti, once dismissed as a congenital pessimist, is now seen as a realist who was ahead of his time -- a prophet of doom whom history seems to have proven right.<br />
<br />
"You can't build a Palestinian state in the West Bank -- the settlements [and road infrastructure built for them] have permanently cantonized the territory," he avers. "Yes, E-1 will certainly cut Jerusalem off from Ramallah in the north and Hebron in the south -- but they're already cut off."<br />
<br />
He keeps going, ticking off the other fractures on the land where Palestinians hope to build their state: Jenin and Nablus are similarly cut off, he says. Netanyahu's plans to build a settlement in southern Jerusalem will sever the city's links to Bethlehem. "All this talk about a two-state solution, about a viable, contiguous Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem -- who's kidding whom?"<br />
<br />
I ask Benvenisti where he would rank Ma'aleh Adumim among settlements on a scale of strategic obstructionism. "There all the same," he replies. And despite half a century of international wailing, none of them looks vulnerable.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/12/26/the_settlement_that_broke_the_two_state_solution?page=0,1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sourced</a> Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-59811065717254535492012-12-26T17:20:00.000-08:002012-12-29T17:21:46.592-08:00Don’t Let Pro-Israel Extremists Sink Chuck Hagel<div itemprop="articleBody">
POLITICAL movements that depend on broad popular support but are driven by extremists can eventually become self-destructive — a lesson the Republican Party learned at great cost in November, and which the gun-rights lobby may be about to learn in the wake of the latest school shooting.<br />
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There is also a lesson here for American Jewish leaders, who increasingly tremble in the face of a small minority of zealots, whose vision of Israel’s future diverges from that of the majority of American Jews and clashes with core American values of freedom and democracy.<br />
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Such extremism is once again on display as the pro-Israel right, including groups like the <a href="http://www.committeeforisrael.com/">Emergency Committee for Israel,</a> mounts a furious campaign against the potential nomination of the former Republican senator Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense.<br />
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Fifteen years ago, Mr. Hagel — whose sins include advocating dialogue to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and suggesting that many on Capitol Hill are afraid of the “Jewish lobby” — would have been deemed someone Israel’s supporters in Washington could work with.<br />
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Today mainstream Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, are either silent about the mounting controversy or offering cautious support for those who want to kill Mr. Hagel’s nomination. They have been driven into silence and submission by a radical fringe that in no way represents the American Jewish mainstream.<br />
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Groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee were created to foster strong American-Israeli ties and to promote the idea that a vibrant, democratic Israel is a critical American ally in an undemocratic region — a job they have done remarkably well in recent years.<br />
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But as the debate over the best route to peace for the Jewish state has become more bitterly polarized, groups like Aipac, the A.D.L. and the A.J.C. have undercut and obscured that message by refusing to distance themselves from extremists.<br />
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Intimidated by pro-settler zealots, right-wing donors and those who liken the slightest criticism of Israeli policy to Israel-bashing (or even anti-Semitism), pro-Israel leaders are increasingly allowing the fringes of their movement to set the pro-Israel agenda in Washington.<br />
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With wealthy, far-right contributors calling the shots, Jewish groups are constantly lowering the bar for what is considered “Israel-bashing,” risking turning supporters of the Jewish state into adversaries simply because they do not support the ideology of the current Israeli government.<br />
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Ten years ago, mainstream pro-Israel groups carefully avoided the issue of West Bank settlements; today, politicians who argue that settlement expansion is an obstacle to peace — a longstanding American position — risk being tarred with the anti-Israel brush. Even though support for settlements reflects the perspective of a small minority of American Jews, it increasingly appears to be the policy stance of major pro-Israel groups.<br />
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It was precisely this sort of fringe-driven politics that accounted for the Republican Party’s dramatic electoral losses. Wild conspiracy theories about President Obama, extreme positions on popular entitlement programs and offensive remarks by candidates who spoke of things like “legitimate rape” turned voters off in droves. More moderate party leaders, fearing the wrath of the radicals in their ranks, were timid in repudiating those positions and comments, and fed the impression that they were in agreement.<br />
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Judging from the National Rifle Association’s clumsy news conference last week, the gun-rights lobby may be nearing a similar public relations cliff. By playing to zealots who reject any government restrictions on firearms, they are not lobbying for the right of hunters to keep their deer rifles, or homeowners to keep their revolvers; they are arguing for the right of anybody, including the most demented people, to own the most lethal firearms, and making the absurd claim that the more Americans who are armed, the safer we will be. As a result, the N.R.A. may soon see its support evaporate among those in the persuadable (and reasonable) middle.<br />
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<div itemprop="articleBody">
Playing to the extremist fringe could produce short-term gains for pro-Israel groups by rallying the faithful and encouraging big contributions. But — as this year’s election and rising anti-gun sentiment demonstrates — it brings with it the risk of a popular backlash.<br />
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<div itemprop="articleBody">
Support for the Jewish state remains strong among both parties on Capitol Hill and across the American electorate, and it won’t disappear anytime soon. But that support will wither if Aipac and other mainstream Jewish leaders don’t forcefully reject the zealots in their midst.<br />
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And, in the long run, that can only damage the interests of a vulnerable Israel.<br />
</div>
<div class="authorIdentification">
James Besser was the Washington correspondent for The Jewish Week from 1987 to 2011 and was a syndicated columnist for several Jewish newspapers.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/opinion/dont-let-pro-israel-extremists-sink-chuck-hagel.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">JAMES BESSER</a><br />
Published: December 26, 2012<br />
<br /></div>
Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-753755861233608744.post-10227360612468253262012-12-26T14:54:00.000-08:002012-12-28T14:55:31.994-08:00Israel wants concessions but to give any in returnIsrael sets offers to Palestine knowing they will be rejected but 'an offer is an offer' to the international eyes who do not recognise the Israeli strategies.<br />
<a name='more'></a> <br />
‘Delegitimization’ of Israel a graver threat than war, former intelligence chief says<br />
<br />
Amos Yadlin urges government to make an offer to the Palestinians, work closely with the US on Iran<br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">With the chances of a war breaking out in the coming year relatively low, Israel must face up to the graver strategic threat of “<span style="color: #333333; font-style: normal; line-height: 21px;">delegitimization” in the </span>international arena,</span> a former IDF military intelligence chief warned on Wednesday.<br />
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Amos Yadlin, who now heads the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, explained that Israel’s powerful military deterrence would cause Hezbollah, Syria, and even Iran, to think twice before attacking the country. The proof, he said, was that Hezbollah had not fired a shot since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War.<br />
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“If I had to stand before the cabinet and estimate the chances of a war in 2013, I would say that it seems a campaign against us will not be opened,” he said.<br />
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<div itemprop="articleBody">
However, Yadlin cautioned, the <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">country still faced a “strategic threat” just as pressing as that posed by “rockets and missiles: t<span style="color: #333333; font-style: normal; line-height: 21px;">he threat to our legitimacy in the world and the attempt to turn us into a pariah state.”</span></span><br />
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Still, the Iranian nuclear program, which had seemingly been put on a back burner, would return to the forefront of Israel’s security agenda, he predicted, stressing the importance of maintaining a close working relationship with the US over Tehran.<br />
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The statements, quoted on the website of the Hebrew-language daily Maariv, were made at a seminar organized by the National Security Studies Center at Haifa University.<br />
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When it came to negotiations with the Palestinians, Yadlin argued, both sides would have to make concessions: Israel, for one, would be required to relinquish areas of East Jerusalem.<br />
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However, the former intelligence chief said, the Palestinian leadership would be unable to follow through with what was required of it: <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">to declare an end to the conflict and to give up on the “right to return” for refugees and their descendants.</span><br />
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The Palestinians have “homed in on a smart strategy: to wrangle Israeli concessions from the international community<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> without making any concessions themselves,</span>” Yadlin said. Thus, instead of relying on the Palestinians, Israel must take its own fate in hand and shape its future unilaterally.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;">The first step, he claimed, should be to make the Palestinians an offer based on parameters set out by former US president Bill Clinton after the failure of the Ehud Barak-Yasser Arafat peace talks he brokered at Camp David in 2000.</span><br />
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“<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">I imagine the Palestinians would reject [the offer]</span>, though I would be happy if they accepted it,” he said.</div>
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http://www.timesofisrael.com/delegitimization-of-israel-a-graver-strategic-threat-than-war-former-intelligence-chief-says/</div>
Jeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01946750462851083330noreply@blogger.com0