March 31, 2010
March 30, 2010
Comment on Moscow Bombing: State Terrorism and the Terrorist Response
by Diane V. McLoughlin, Mar. 29, 2010
main website: http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
Re: NYT's 'Moscow Attack a Test for Putin and His Record Against Terror';
Clifford J. Levy, Mar. 29, 2010
Scanning several pages of comments, along with the comments chosen to be highlighted by the editor, I am completely dismayed. Not one writer has taken the time to even quickly consult an encyclopedia to familiarize themselves with the history of Chechnya to ascertain for themselves whether or not the people of Chechnya are, or have ever been oppressed.
And, of course, the answer is that the history of Chechnya is rife with oppression and wars waged against them to gain control of the region, the people and their - what? Three guesses, you know the answer - their natural resources.
These people have SUFFERED and they continue to suffer. In the Second World War the ENTIRE population - I mean it boggles the mind - was forced out of their homes and shipped to Siberia by Stalin. A quarter of the population of Chechnya was destroyed.
Chechnya has always been ethnically distinct and it has always wanted independent autonomy to what? To be left the hell alone. Russia says no.
Why does Russia say no? Why have there been two wars by the giant bear Russia against the nothing-sized Chechnya? Two main reasons: Other regions might get it in their heads that maybe they could gain their independence, too - remember celebrating a little something called Independence Day? What for?
The second reason is that Russia does not want to relinquish control over Chechnya because, according to Wikipedia, Chechnya is a 'major hub in the oil infrastructure of the Federation'.
From all of the major human rights organizations we find that life for Chechnyans under Russian control is abhorrent. It is brutal. It is pitiless.
Now, it is time for Americans to wake up. Particularly after 9/11, Americans somehow decreed to themselves that the tough task of parsing out the causes and the effects of conflict was off the table. Any and all attacks on established powers was thrown under the rubric of 'terrorism' - but not, importantly, including the causes and effects of state terrorism, because that would bring the discussion uncomfortably close to having to examine what we have been doing to others ourselves; thus, leaving yourselves foundering around in the darkness of ignorance, fear, and with absolutely no effective means of making anything more just or right in this messed up world.
Remember the 'w's + 1/h' of reporting?: Who, what, where, when, how and why.
Ask yourselves, when was the last time that you found any major news publication in the entire U.S. including in their journalist reports - answers to the question,'why?'
Comment No. 268 Recommend/thumbs up at NYT
(*A note: The overwhelming majority of the hundreds of comments following the NYT article regarding yesterday's bombing of the Moscow subway support Russia. Early reports suggest it was committed by two 'Black Widow' Chechnyan women who blew up themselves and tens of Moscow civilians. They negate any possible motive, however misguided, the women may have had. The term 'black widow' to describe such violent actors refers to the suggestion that they are widows whose husbands were killed by the Russians or their proxies.)
main website: http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
Re: NYT's 'Moscow Attack a Test for Putin and His Record Against Terror';
Clifford J. Levy, Mar. 29, 2010
Scanning several pages of comments, along with the comments chosen to be highlighted by the editor, I am completely dismayed. Not one writer has taken the time to even quickly consult an encyclopedia to familiarize themselves with the history of Chechnya to ascertain for themselves whether or not the people of Chechnya are, or have ever been oppressed.
And, of course, the answer is that the history of Chechnya is rife with oppression and wars waged against them to gain control of the region, the people and their - what? Three guesses, you know the answer - their natural resources.
These people have SUFFERED and they continue to suffer. In the Second World War the ENTIRE population - I mean it boggles the mind - was forced out of their homes and shipped to Siberia by Stalin. A quarter of the population of Chechnya was destroyed.
Chechnya has always been ethnically distinct and it has always wanted independent autonomy to what? To be left the hell alone. Russia says no.
Why does Russia say no? Why have there been two wars by the giant bear Russia against the nothing-sized Chechnya? Two main reasons: Other regions might get it in their heads that maybe they could gain their independence, too - remember celebrating a little something called Independence Day? What for?
The second reason is that Russia does not want to relinquish control over Chechnya because, according to Wikipedia, Chechnya is a 'major hub in the oil infrastructure of the Federation'.
From all of the major human rights organizations we find that life for Chechnyans under Russian control is abhorrent. It is brutal. It is pitiless.
Now, it is time for Americans to wake up. Particularly after 9/11, Americans somehow decreed to themselves that the tough task of parsing out the causes and the effects of conflict was off the table. Any and all attacks on established powers was thrown under the rubric of 'terrorism' - but not, importantly, including the causes and effects of state terrorism, because that would bring the discussion uncomfortably close to having to examine what we have been doing to others ourselves; thus, leaving yourselves foundering around in the darkness of ignorance, fear, and with absolutely no effective means of making anything more just or right in this messed up world.
Remember the 'w's + 1/h' of reporting?: Who, what, where, when, how and why.
Ask yourselves, when was the last time that you found any major news publication in the entire U.S. including in their journalist reports - answers to the question,'why?'
Comment No. 268 Recommend/thumbs up at NYT
(*A note: The overwhelming majority of the hundreds of comments following the NYT article regarding yesterday's bombing of the Moscow subway support Russia. Early reports suggest it was committed by two 'Black Widow' Chechnyan women who blew up themselves and tens of Moscow civilians. They negate any possible motive, however misguided, the women may have had. The term 'black widow' to describe such violent actors refers to the suggestion that they are widows whose husbands were killed by the Russians or their proxies.)
Saints, Sinners and Boycott: Rachel Corrie and the State of Israel
by Diane V. McLoughlin, Mar. 30, 2010
main website: http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
Rachel Corrie was a 24 year-old American member of the International Solidarity Movement. She was killed March 16, 2003, trying to protect Samir Nasrallah's home by acting as a human shield.
Whether or not Rachel Corrie was deliberately murdered or not is almost beside the point. It wasn't an accident that Israeli Defense Force Caterpillar bulldozers were in a Palestinian neighborhood illegally destroying homes, causing protesters such as Rachel Corrie to peacefully object.
What happened to Rachel Corrie that day in 2003 as she stood on a pile of dirt in front of a Palestinian pharmacist's home, and Israel's vitriolic attacks against anyone who questions what's going on, is a microcosmic example of Israel's criminal behavior.
Gaza is the macrocosmic one: Hamas abided by the 2008 ceasefire with Israel; the deal was that this should have led to the lifting of the illegal military blockade of Gaza - a military siege that is strangling the life out of 1.5 million Palestinians - half of whom are children.
Instead of easing the blockade, behind their backs Israel girded to attack - destroying tens of thousands of homes, many factories, schools, mosques, farms and 17% of Gaza's farmland. 1,400 people were killed. Hundreds of them were children.
Israel lies about who broke the ceasefire. Israel lies about the war crimes they committed. Israel calls anyone who criticizes Israel anti-Semites. But Palestinians are Semites, not to mention people, too.
Sieges on Gaza have been on and off for ten years now. Most of the people are shattered. The children suffer PTSD. Most children have seen a loved one perish.
The rockets? The area of Sderot sits on lands that were ethnically cleansed of Palestinians. The Jewish village of Sderot is situated on stolen Palestinian lands. Gaza is largely populated by Palestinian refugees who were rounded up like cattle by the IDF and herded out on trucks. Now, in their open-air prison called Gaza Israel starves them.
Just as with Rachel Corrie, Israel is prepared to crush anybody that is in the way of Israel's scheme of Lebensraum - a political belief system which dictates that war is justified because of the 'biological necessity' for more living space - an argument used to great effect by the Nazis in their ruthless and limitless ambitions to overtake Eastern Europe for the expansion of the German population.
March 30th is Boycott Israel Day.
http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
main website: http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
Rachel Corrie was a 24 year-old American member of the International Solidarity Movement. She was killed March 16, 2003, trying to protect Samir Nasrallah's home by acting as a human shield.
Whether or not Rachel Corrie was deliberately murdered or not is almost beside the point. It wasn't an accident that Israeli Defense Force Caterpillar bulldozers were in a Palestinian neighborhood illegally destroying homes, causing protesters such as Rachel Corrie to peacefully object.
What happened to Rachel Corrie that day in 2003 as she stood on a pile of dirt in front of a Palestinian pharmacist's home, and Israel's vitriolic attacks against anyone who questions what's going on, is a microcosmic example of Israel's criminal behavior.
Gaza is the macrocosmic one: Hamas abided by the 2008 ceasefire with Israel; the deal was that this should have led to the lifting of the illegal military blockade of Gaza - a military siege that is strangling the life out of 1.5 million Palestinians - half of whom are children.
Instead of easing the blockade, behind their backs Israel girded to attack - destroying tens of thousands of homes, many factories, schools, mosques, farms and 17% of Gaza's farmland. 1,400 people were killed. Hundreds of them were children.
Israel lies about who broke the ceasefire. Israel lies about the war crimes they committed. Israel calls anyone who criticizes Israel anti-Semites. But Palestinians are Semites, not to mention people, too.
Sieges on Gaza have been on and off for ten years now. Most of the people are shattered. The children suffer PTSD. Most children have seen a loved one perish.
The rockets? The area of Sderot sits on lands that were ethnically cleansed of Palestinians. The Jewish village of Sderot is situated on stolen Palestinian lands. Gaza is largely populated by Palestinian refugees who were rounded up like cattle by the IDF and herded out on trucks. Now, in their open-air prison called Gaza Israel starves them.
Just as with Rachel Corrie, Israel is prepared to crush anybody that is in the way of Israel's scheme of Lebensraum - a political belief system which dictates that war is justified because of the 'biological necessity' for more living space - an argument used to great effect by the Nazis in their ruthless and limitless ambitions to overtake Eastern Europe for the expansion of the German population.
March 30th is Boycott Israel Day.
http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
March 29, 2010
March 28, 2010
March 27, 2010
A brief comment on the importance of exposing government black propaganda
by Diane V. McLoughlin
main website: The McLoughlin Post
My thoughts on government black propaganda: The purpose in telling people that a government is up to no good is to shine a light on it so people may recognize manipulation for evil when they see it; hopefully they will be stronger to resist it when subjected to it; and will be inspired by the condemnation of it by others to resist and condemn it themselves.
Personally I would have thought this was obvious. As I have been asked in a comment thread what's the point, apparently, and disturbingly, I was quite wrong.
The conversation arose from my posting an Yvonne Ridley link to her article: Be Sure the Truth Will Find You Out. (March 25 2010; Information Clearing House.) Ridley discloses that the U.K. government deliberately used subterfuge to smear the Palestinian people so as to discourage objection or protest from the citizenry regarding Israel's assault on Gaza.
main website: The McLoughlin Post
My thoughts on government black propaganda: The purpose in telling people that a government is up to no good is to shine a light on it so people may recognize manipulation for evil when they see it; hopefully they will be stronger to resist it when subjected to it; and will be inspired by the condemnation of it by others to resist and condemn it themselves.
Personally I would have thought this was obvious. As I have been asked in a comment thread what's the point, apparently, and disturbingly, I was quite wrong.
The conversation arose from my posting an Yvonne Ridley link to her article: Be Sure the Truth Will Find You Out. (March 25 2010; Information Clearing House.) Ridley discloses that the U.K. government deliberately used subterfuge to smear the Palestinian people so as to discourage objection or protest from the citizenry regarding Israel's assault on Gaza.
March 26, 2010
Divesting from Israel encourages terrorism. Really.
by Diane V. McLoughlin, Mar. 26, 2010
main website The McLoughlin Post
JewishJournal.com is a large-circulation Los Angeles paper. I just read the article, 'U.C. Berkeley student president vetoes divest-from-Israel resolution'. (Amanda Pazornik, Jweekly, Mar. 25, 2010.) The article was twittered to me (McLoughlinPost) from a fellow twitterer.
As a writer and peace activist, I am taken up with the Israel-Palestine conflict. It was disappointing to find that the article seemed to weigh heavy with supporters of Israel right-or-wrong. Facts seemed to be somewhat distorted with the personal bias of those sources used for insight.
There are a large number of American Jews who do not agree with Israel's behavior. Nobody reading the above-noted article would have a clue that that is so. Nor would anyone learn anything about what Israel does that could be objectionable to anyone. Not really.
Lawyer and influential author Alan Dershowitz is quoted as saying that, “divesting from Israel is immoral, bigoted and if done by a state university, illegal. It encourages terrorism and discourages peace,” Dershowitz wrote. “We will fight back against this selective bigotry that hurts the good name of the University of California.” (Emphasis added.)
Dershowitz is referring to the fact that a University of California (Berkley) students' association had voted in favor of asking the university to divest itself of $135 million it currently has invested in two companies, General Electric and United Technologies. These companies supply war materials and electronics to Israel.
The students cite Israel as a perpetrator of war crimes in their resolution. Reporter Amanda Pazornik further shares that the president of the student association, Will Smelko, vetoed the successful resolution, even though it passed by a wide margin of 16-4.
In turn, the veto could be overturned at the next association meeting scheduled for March 31st.
But one has to ask, who does Alan Dershowitz think he's kidding? This is still a democracy (what's left of it.) You don't want to invest your money somewhere anymore? You pull it out.
Peaceful divestment encourages terrorism, Mr. Dershowitz - not occupation or oppression? Really.
But on second thought, I find Mr. Dershowitz's choice of words to be helpful. Occupation and colonization of the Palestinian West Bank is immoral, bigoted, and illegal under international law. The citizens of this world are peacefully coming together, just as they did for the oppressed under the boot of South Africa's Apartheid regime, to fight back against Israel's selective bigotry, by the most peaceful and effective of means: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - BDS.
And actually, that coming together to bring about the dissolution of South African Apartheid did not include Israel. Israel continued to do business with Apartheid South Africa even as the world boycott took hold.
History will judge forever all who choose to do business with Israel during this dark time. Their good names will be tarnished accordingly.
While Stephen Kuperberg (executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition in Washington, D.C.) reportedly claims that no university has ever actually divested from Israel, the reality of the situation is somewhat different. A wave of change may be coming:
'In November of last year, student organizers representing over 40 campuses nation-wide came together for a BDS Conference held on Hampshire's campus to continue to carry the momentum of divestment' - Students for Justice in Palestine, a Hampshire student group.
Another person quoted by Pazornik, Naftalin-Kelman, argues that, "In no way are the interests of Israeli and Palestinian people served by a resolution that single-handedly and inaccurately identifies Israel as a committer of war crimes.”
I challenge that claim. Rather than resolutions in favor of peaceful divestment, is violent resistance the better choice? Or does he propose a Masada solution for the occupied Palestinian people as the only road to their salvation that would be acceptable to him? (A riveting event in history, Masada was a hilltop where a Jewish community was besieged by the Romans. Rather than face slavery or execution they chose death. Every last man, woman and child was killed, the killers chosen in lots, down to the last man who in turn committed suicide.)
I am repulsed by the loathsome argument that we are to somehow balance equally our opprobrium between the oppressor and the oppressed. This is called moral equivalence - it is an abomination.
It is clear from the tone, the substance and the style of the above-noted piece, and the actors who are introduced within it, that a community has been playing a telephone tag game of nonsense while the Palestinian people are being destroyed. The totality of this nonsense puts Israeli Jews at risk - they know not what they do, and few have the nerve to tell them.
Those brave enough to speak out are labeled anti-Semites; if they are Jewish they are called 'self-hating' Jews -whatever that means. Frankly, the latter is Orwellian double-speak. Rather, I would argue that Jews that condemn Israel's policies of ethnic cleansing are self-respecting, instead.
Those brave enough to speak out are labeled anti-Semites; if they are Jewish they are called 'self-hating' Jews -whatever that means. Frankly, the latter is Orwellian double-speak. Rather, I would argue that Jews that condemn Israel's policies of ethnic cleansing are self-respecting, instead.
In any event, while this self-delusion otherwise goes on, Palestinian children of East Jerusalem take their favorite toys and clothes with them when they go to school each day because they fear their homes will not be there when they return. Palestinians who plan peaceful protests are rounded up by the IDF to be beaten, arrested, or both. Children suffer. Children die. Gaza is becoming more and more like the Warsaw Ghetto with each passing day.
If you are going to support any enterprise, it is morally incumbent upon you to investigate to ensure that what you are being asked to endorse, to support, to finance - is RIGHT.
Where to begin? I personally recommend the rockets from Gaza that Israel cites to justify the overwhelming destruction Israel wrought upon them all.
- Gaza did not break the ceasefire. Israel did. So from there the question one has to ask themselves, is why?
(Pg. 6: Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center - IICC - Summary of Rocket Fire and Mortar Shelling 2008.)
- Here is a sampling of Israel's war crimes in Gaza, referred to in one article of my own:
- For your interest, Ynet News reports that the Knesset is the most racist since the founding of Israel, having had an increase of 75% in racist laws submitted for deliberation in the last year.
The door may be closing, but Israel clearly still has more open discourse about itself than it does amongst Americans. Some Americans still insist that their government finance by the annual billions Israel's apartheid regime.
That has to change. It must, for the long-term peace and security of every single human being in the region. How long it takes, how many lives are destroyed in the meantime, really, is in large part up to you.
Jewish Voice for Peace is one group working to bring about change. But they are far from the only ones.
My own personal view? Settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories have the vote in Israel. The Palestinians in the occupied territories, as well as the Palestinians in Gaza, do not. If the settlers stay then the Palestinians must get the vote, too. In other words, Israel should then declare itself to be one bi-national state with equal rights for all its citizens.
On the other hand, if Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza don't get the vote, and they don't have it now, then Israel continues to be referred to, rightly, as an Apartheid regime.
My own personal view? Settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories have the vote in Israel. The Palestinians in the occupied territories, as well as the Palestinians in Gaza, do not. If the settlers stay then the Palestinians must get the vote, too. In other words, Israel should then declare itself to be one bi-national state with equal rights for all its citizens.
On the other hand, if Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza don't get the vote, and they don't have it now, then Israel continues to be referred to, rightly, as an Apartheid regime.
Diane V. McLoughlin -
Publisher, editor, writer, peace activist
March 24, 2010
On Robert Wright's breakthrough NYT article, Against 'Pro-Israel' (and why I think he's right)
by Diane V. McLoughlin, March 24, 2010
main website http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
Recommend
Commenting on Against 'Pro-Israel' - NYTimes.com
main website http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
Recommend
Commenting on Against 'Pro-Israel' - NYTimes.com
March 22, 2010
A Dire Warning Regarding Protecting American Civil Liberties and McCain-Lieberman bill S.3081
Former Presidential candidate and Senator, John McCain , and Senator Joseph Lieberman et al., have a proposed set of laws in Senate bill, S.3081. This bill would give the government the power to lock up anyone, even Americans, at home or abroad, without charge or trial, indefinitely. To me this is ominous. ( See: Sec. 5: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3081: )
The reason why tyrants, dictators and fascists manage to take power, is in part because they ensure that laws they need to get away with what they want to do are put in place first.
The reason why tyrants, dictators and fascists manage to take power, is in part because they ensure that laws they need to get away with what they want to do are put in place first.
And good people will insist on believing that no one will abuse bad laws against good people. They are wrong.
The trick is to protect the country diligently against bad law so that bad law will not in turn be used by bad people. S.3081 is bad law. Is the McCain, Lieberman cabal using America's distraction with the health care debate to try to ram S.3081 through? I don't know.
But I think it is a damn good question.
March 21, 2010
Maan News Agency: Mauritania FM: All ties with Israel severed
Mar. 21, 2010. Short news release: All ties with Israel severed - Mauritania FM
Maan News Agency: Mauritania FM: All ties with Israel severed
Maan News Agency: Mauritania FM: All ties with Israel severed
March 20, 2010
March 19, 2010
2007–2010 blockade of the Gaza Strip - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Recommended reading. Excerpt:
Over the period between 2000 and 2006 as a consequence of the Gaza conflict and Israel's ensuing military operations in the Strip, it is estimated that there was a loss of $42,846,895 in Gazan agricultural productivity, due to the destruction of land, trees, vegetables and greenhouses.[11]
The Israel Defence Forces left the Gaza Strip on Sept 1, 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. An 'Agreement on Movement and Access' between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was brokered by Condaleeza Rice in November 2005 to improve Palestinian freedom of movement and economic activity in the Gaza Strip. Under its terms, the Rafah crossing with Egypt was to be reopened, with transits monitored by the Palestinian National Authority and the European Union. However, only people with Palestinian ID, or foreign nationals, by exception, in certain categories, subject to Israeli oversight, were permitted to cross in and out. All goods, vehicles and trucks to and from Egypt had to pass through the Israeli crossing at Kerem Shalom, under full Israeli supervision[12]. Goods were also permitted transit at the Karni crossing in the north.
However, throughout 2006, the latter terminal remained only partially operational, costing Palestinians losses of $500,000 a day, as less than 10% of the Gaza Strip's minimal daily export targets were achieved. Basic food commodities were severely depleted, bakeries closed and food rationing was introduced.[13]
2007–2010 blockade of the Gaza Strip - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Over the period between 2000 and 2006 as a consequence of the Gaza conflict and Israel's ensuing military operations in the Strip, it is estimated that there was a loss of $42,846,895 in Gazan agricultural productivity, due to the destruction of land, trees, vegetables and greenhouses.[11]
The Israel Defence Forces left the Gaza Strip on Sept 1, 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. An 'Agreement on Movement and Access' between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was brokered by Condaleeza Rice in November 2005 to improve Palestinian freedom of movement and economic activity in the Gaza Strip. Under its terms, the Rafah crossing with Egypt was to be reopened, with transits monitored by the Palestinian National Authority and the European Union. However, only people with Palestinian ID, or foreign nationals, by exception, in certain categories, subject to Israeli oversight, were permitted to cross in and out. All goods, vehicles and trucks to and from Egypt had to pass through the Israeli crossing at Kerem Shalom, under full Israeli supervision[12]. Goods were also permitted transit at the Karni crossing in the north.
However, throughout 2006, the latter terminal remained only partially operational, costing Palestinians losses of $500,000 a day, as less than 10% of the Gaza Strip's minimal daily export targets were achieved. Basic food commodities were severely depleted, bakeries closed and food rationing was introduced.[13]
2007–2010 blockade of the Gaza Strip - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
March 18, 2010
Is Fayyad Mad?
My comment to Thomas Friedman's: Let’s Fight Over a Big Plan'; NYT
by Diane V. McLoughlin, Mar. 17, 2010
McLoughlin Post
For Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to even think of announcing the West Bank an independent state while over 400,000 violently racist settlers live scattered throughout the depth and breadth of the West Bank on stolen Palestinian lands, and while 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza continue to starve nder Israel's three year and counting military blockade, suggests he is either completely delusional or a stooge for the Israeli regime.
As A, B follows. There is no possibility of a two-state solution. Palestinians and Jews live together all mixed in already if we look at a demographic map, but with a difference in rules based on race.
The two-state solution is a deliberately distracting illusion. What is real is that Israel is an Apartheid regime where one preferred race holds all the power and all the votes and wants to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians out of their homeland. The discarded race, the Palestinians, are denied the vote, are oppressed, and have their human rights violated at every turn.
You cannot be a democratic state and be a state dedicated to one race. 20% of Israel's citizenry is Palestinian, in addition to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. And yes, because this is so there are those in Israel who espouse uprooting 20% of the populace and casting them out.
And American taxpayers are forced to give billions to Israel, that's billions with a 'b', each and every year in support of it. We give Israel the bucks, bullets and the bombs that pay for settlements, kill Palestinians, even burn them with white phosphorus bombs as we all witnessed on our television screens during Israel's betrayal of the peace process when Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas. That's what the white streaky trails were falling out of the sky. Chemical weapons. Only these weren't Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons. Oh, no. Those were our chemical weapons being fired on a defenseless civilian population.
There is only one way to bring peace to this region. It is up to the people of the world, just as with South Africa's own Apartheid regime, to peacefully boycott, divest and sanction Israel ourselves until both the Jews and the Palestinians have equal rights to live free.
by Diane V. McLoughlin, Mar. 17, 2010
McLoughlin Post
For Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to even think of announcing the West Bank an independent state while over 400,000 violently racist settlers live scattered throughout the depth and breadth of the West Bank on stolen Palestinian lands, and while 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza continue to starve nder Israel's three year and counting military blockade, suggests he is either completely delusional or a stooge for the Israeli regime.
As A, B follows. There is no possibility of a two-state solution. Palestinians and Jews live together all mixed in already if we look at a demographic map, but with a difference in rules based on race.
The two-state solution is a deliberately distracting illusion. What is real is that Israel is an Apartheid regime where one preferred race holds all the power and all the votes and wants to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians out of their homeland. The discarded race, the Palestinians, are denied the vote, are oppressed, and have their human rights violated at every turn.
You cannot be a democratic state and be a state dedicated to one race. 20% of Israel's citizenry is Palestinian, in addition to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. And yes, because this is so there are those in Israel who espouse uprooting 20% of the populace and casting them out.
And American taxpayers are forced to give billions to Israel, that's billions with a 'b', each and every year in support of it. We give Israel the bucks, bullets and the bombs that pay for settlements, kill Palestinians, even burn them with white phosphorus bombs as we all witnessed on our television screens during Israel's betrayal of the peace process when Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas. That's what the white streaky trails were falling out of the sky. Chemical weapons. Only these weren't Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons. Oh, no. Those were our chemical weapons being fired on a defenseless civilian population.
There is only one way to bring peace to this region. It is up to the people of the world, just as with South Africa's own Apartheid regime, to peacefully boycott, divest and sanction Israel ourselves until both the Jews and the Palestinians have equal rights to live free.
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It seems to me that one of the biggest elements of the picture with the Israel-Palestine conflict is that Israel clings to the racist notion that it exists to the exclusive benefit of Jews.
Over 20% of Israel's citizens are Palestinian. No solution is going to be able to account for this sad reality for almost two million people who languish under constant oppressive and demeaning treatment as second-class citizens unless it is faced head-on.
This is one of the most important aspects of the problem that must be illuminated. Ynet News, the largest daily on-line Israel news site, and as far as I know a conservative publication, ran an article about the Mossawa Center's annual report on racism that shares that the Knesset is the most racist 'since the establishment of
Jonathan Cook writes in The National about a Jewish family who wanted to rent a home to their Bedouin friends. Three of their dogs were poisoned,
IPS reports from East Jerusalem of nightly IDF raids into family homes for the arrests of children: '...accelerated attacks by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers inside Silwan in particular, directed towards the community's youngest and most vulnerable population. Since January, at least 33 children from the area have been arrested, detained and interrogated by Israeli forces as home demolitions and settler takeovers continue apace. Muslem Odeh, [aged] 10, tells IPS that he was taken by Israeli forces on Mar. 11 at 3 am, after police broke into the family's home in Silwan's Bustan neighbourhood and pepper-sprayed his father who attempted to protect him...'; in the area of Bustan particularly we are told, the Arab children take their favorite toys and clothes with them to school every day because they worry they will have no home to return to at the end of the day.
A brief scan at uruknet.info finds that 90% of Gaza's water is polluted; the Israeli Education
The apologists will tell you that Palestinian Israeli citizens have 'equal rights'; that Gaza had to be attacked because of rocket fire - Gaza was in the middle of abiding by a mutually agreed upon cease-fire (see CNN YouTube here) when Israel, rather than seizing the opportunity to work at normalizing relations with Gaza and lifting the military siege, girded for total destruction of Gaza instead.
In Canada, an unappointed group of Parliamentarians led by Irwin Cotler (the CPCCA) is busily spinning quietly in back rooms to come up with ways to create legal chill against public criticism of Israel - what they refer to as 'the new anti-Semitism'. Glen Greenwald is so right to refer to Canada's so-called 'hate speech' laws as 'creepy'. I'd go further: it's a fundamental threat to democracy and liberty. So's the McCain-Lieberman bill, S.3081 - but that's a story for another day.
Jewish Voice For Peace is asking everyone who abhors the current unmovable stasis of the situation to sign their PETITION: Tell President Obama: No more unconditional aid to Israel;
support his demand for an end to settlement construction. It reads, in part: 'Please withhold US aid to Israel until it agrees to abide by international law including ending settlement construction and lifting the blockade on Gaza.'
Petition link: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org...
And editorials of mine can be found at http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
For now.