Nail Down the Goal Posts to Israel-Palestine Peace

By Diane V. McLoughlin, November 22, 2010

main website:  mcloughlinpost.com

The problem, in politics as in life itself, is that, infuriatingly, the goal posts move while we're busy digging-in at what we thought was something approximating a finish line. If Clinton can be the historic fundamental force that hammers out a two-state agreement that Right and Left in Israel will abide by, and that Hamas and Fatah believe is just - great.

Equally historic will be the hangover - mine - from celebrating the anticipated rippling outward of peace in the world. 

But many are coming around to the view that the goal posts have in fact moved way beyond the possibilities of a two-state solution now, and it's not just the 500,000 Jewish colonizers occupying Palestinian space that makes this so.

One bi-national state with citizenship, equal rights and the vote for all - this is where the goal posts are being moved to and we need to catch up to the reality of the situation.

An article published just yesterday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz states flatly that South African apartheid 'is already here'. (1)

There is a less-than-subtle discriminatory tone in this NYT piece that does nothing to elevate the discussion:
'...self-pitying, self-dramatizing Palestinian psyche, with all the cloying accoutrements of victimhood' - zounds! If there's one thing we find intolerable it is the expression of pain from victims of occupation and ethnic cleansing - puts us off our tea, eh what? To say this as a generalization of Jews would be considered beyond the pale...rightly so; a double standard by any measure.

Helpful hints on Israeli apartheid laws: the proposed 'Loyalty Oath' (2); giving Israeli neighborhood community groups the power to vet and reject prospective residents (3); the land laws that the state utilizes to ensure to this day that only Jews reside on land that was wrenched from the indigenous Palestinians (4); the marriage laws (5); Jews-only roads (6); military order 1650 empowering the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank (and making them actually pay a fee to cover their expulsion's expense) (7); etc.


With the exception of Gaza, the truth of the matter is that Jews and Palestinians do not live apart. One group is the preferred group with full rights of citizenship; the other does not have equal rights. In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians have no rights at all, including the right, it seems, to be represented by those they would democratically choose if given the opportunity. Fayyad and Abbas have no mandate and it behooves Clinton to acknowledge that Palestinian elections are long-overdue.

Anyway, the U.S. shot the Palestinians in the foot when it made this latest deal: to block any Palestinian proposal with the U.N. security council to unilaterally declare its statehood, in exchange for an Israeli promise to halt - for all of three months?! - expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. This is a complete non-starter guaranteed to deliver a still-birth of a peace deal. No one could blame the Muslim world for thinking that was the aim all along. (8)

Speaking of feet, there are quiet efforts afoot to move the goal posts of what meets the definition of anti-Semitism; some would like it to be categorized as hate speech to suggest that Israel is not a 'Jewish collectivity' when over 20% of Israel's citizens are Arab-Israeli. Include Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the refugees and the numbers are closer to a 50-50 even split. That's right. I said it. (9)

I read today that USAID helps fund with our tax dollars settler roads in the West Bank. (10) And of course that hardly tells the whole tale of the annual billions in U.S. tax dollars that enable Israel.

All gold carrot and no stick is a poor policy when applied solely to one side of a two-sided dispute.

________________

Notes:


(1) Article, 'South Africa is already here'; Zvi Bar'el; Haaretz; Oct. 31, 2010;
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/south-africa-is-already-here-1.322052 ;

(2) 'Israeli Arab MK: Loyalty oath relegates Israel's Palestinian citizens to inferior status
In a New York Times op-ed, Ahmed Tibi says the loyalty oath is a 'punch in the
gut to Palestinians who for more than 60 years have struggled to achieve equal
rights in Israel'; Haaretz; Oct. 22, 2010;
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-arab-mk-loyalty-oath-relegates-israel-s-palestinian-citizens-to-inferior-status-1.320624 ;

(3) 'Knesset panel approves controversial bill allowing towns to reject residents
Israeli Arab MKs al-Sana and Tibi walk out on committee discussion, calling it a
'criminal law' aiming to prevent Arabs from joining Israeli towns'; By Jonathan Lis
and Jack Khoury; Oct. 27, 2010; Haaretz; [*FTA: 'The committee's chairman,
David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu), responded to claims the bill was meant to reject
Arabs from joining Israeli towns. "In my opinion, every Jewish town needs at least
one Arab. What would happen if my refrigerator stopped working on a Saturday?"]
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/knesset-panel-approves-controversial-bill-allowing-towns-to-reject-residents-1.321433 ;

(4) 'Who needs the JNF?'; Haaretz editorial; Sept. 23, 2007;
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/who-needs-the-jnf-1.229832 ;

(5) 'The existing laws suffice'; Haaretz; July 31, 2003;
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-existing-laws-suffice-1.95824 ;

(6) 'Peace Now slams gov't W. Bank Investments'; by tovah lazaroff and rebecca anna stoil; JPost;
08/26/2007; http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=73272 ;

(7) Israeli military order 1650; Wikipedia;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_military_order_1650 ;

(8) 'The endgame for the peace process - Indepth
Future historians will argue over the precise moment when the Arab-Israeli peace process died;
Robert Grenier; Al-Jazeera; Nov. 21, 2010;
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2010/11/20101120114435124111.html ;

(9) 'Hate Speech Laws to Shield Israel From Accountability?'; Diane V. McLoughlin; Nov. 8, 2010;
http://www.mcloughlinpost.com/Hate-Speech-Laws-to-Shield-Israel-from-Accountability.html ;

(10) 'US Funds Israel's Apartheid Roads Plan'; Jonathan Cook; ANTI-WAR.COM; May 16, 2010;
http://original.antiwar.com/cook/2010/05/15/us-funds-israels-apartheid-roads-plan/ ;

copyright 2010, Diane V. McLoughlin
All Rights Reserved.

The McLoughlin Post proudly supports Israeli Apartheid Week, and you should too

Private Members' Motion 93 Reads:

'That, in the opinion of this House, the term Israel Apartheid Week is condemned
as it serves to incite hatred against Israel, a democratic state that respects
the rule of law and human rights, and the use of the word 'apartheid' in this
context diminishes the suffering of those who were victims of a true apartheid
regime in South Africa.'

To: Every member of the Ontario Legislature,

I am writing to denounce in the strongest words possible the
legislative motion to condemn Israeli Apartheid Week.

Israel has illegally occupied and oppressed the Palestinians in the West Bank
for many decades, destroying homes, orchards, businesses, schools and countless lives,
as Palestinians are forced from their homes and replaced by violent, racist,
religious extremist 'settlers'.

Israel's ongoing illegal military siege of Gaza is destroying the innocent lives
of 1.5 million Palestinian people in the most densely packed and impoverished
place on the planet.

It is a lie when Israel says the siege is to stop
rocket attacks.  Hamas stopped the rocket attacks during the agreed upon
ceasefire last year.  Israel was supposed to lift the siege.  Instead, Israel girded
to destroy Gaza in a betrayal worthy of Nuremberg. 

I wonder, how are chickens, cows, goats, farm fields, hospitals, water wells or water treatment plants
a security threat to Israel?  Because during Israel's massive military attack
on the defenseless Gaza Strip last year, Israel's brave and 'moral' military
destroyed the means for the Palestinians to tend the injured, to drink clean water or to feed themselves.

After a full review of the facts, Judge Goldstone, highly respected (and a
South African Jew), rightly condemned
Israel's actions in Gaza as war crimes of the highest order. 

Gaza is the world's
largest open civilian prison camp in the entire world.  Their suffering is nothing
less than a crime against humanity.  All the children suffer PTSD.  They are
severely emotionally traumatized.  Many are the little children who have seen a beloved
family member murdered before their eyes.  Physically, many are stunted in their
growth because of Israel's deliberate blockade preventing food and medicine from getting in.
They have been preventing food and medicine from getting in for three years now.

What we ought to contemplate is the fact that this is Jews doing this to another
people at all.  After the Holocaust came the loud conviction - Never Again! 
The following political cartoon by Latuff says it all:

There are many righteous Jews
all over the world who stand opposed to Israel's racist violent agenda against
the Palestinian people.  They stand with them in solidarity.

Sir Gerald Kaufman, a highly respected British parliamentarian is but one.
In a public speech he gave in Parliament January 16, 2009 (which I quote briefly) he said:

"...A German soldier shot her dead in her bed.  Madame Deputy Speaker, my
grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering
Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.

"The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the
continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust
as justification for their murder of Palestinians."

(Full speech can be viewed, third video down, here.  This compelling speech has
been viewed over 330,000 times.)

Israeli Apartheid Week is a yearly endeavor by university students to
educate students and the pubic at large regarding the facts on Israel.
Discussion forums, guest lecturers, and the showing of educational films are
organized for this purpose.  The diaspora of violently displaced and uprooted Palestinians
encircles the globe.  They are trying to tell the world what is being done to them.
They are in desperate need of our help.

That the Ontario Legislature en mass would condemn such a vitally necessary endeavor
as Israeli Apartheid Week is an absolute disgrace.  It is a betrayal of Ontario's cherished legacy of respect
for human rights and the dignity of all persons everywhere.

Again, I urge each and every one of you to come together and pass a unanimous motion condemning
the siege of Gaza, the military occupation of the West Bank, and to declare
that all Ontarians hope for a day when Jews and Palestinians will live together in peace.


Diane V. McLoughlin, writer, peace activist
www.mcloughlinpost..com

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Update, February 26, 2010:

The following was e-mailed to me today:

OPEN LETTER from Andrea Horwath

Dear friend,

New Democrats are committed to working with partners for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine, within a framework of respect for UN resolutions and international law.

This means recognition of the right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peaceful co-existence in viable, independent states with negotiated, agreed-upon borders; no settlements remaining in the Palestinian state; an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian land; an end to loss of life of innocent civilians; and an international peacekeeping presence.

On Thursday, MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill) introduced a private member’s motion that was divisive by nature. Singling out activists or shutting down debate, on this or any other matter, is not constructive and is entirely unhelpful.

Ontario’s New Democrats believe in finding avenues towards a peaceful solution in the Middle East. MPP Peter Shurman’s motion did not contribute to that in any way.

Sincerely,

Andrea Horwath

Leader, Ontario’s New Democrats

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 Update, February 26, 2010 my reply to NDP leader Andrea Horwath:
Dear Ms. Horwath,

I wish to thank you for your thoughtful, informed and heartfelt reply.

You might be interested to know that of the five responses received thus far,
yours is the only one that does not hide behind the requirement that I be a
constituent first.

I would share that I personally am of the view that Israel would
have the best possibility of peace if it was one bi-national state.

However, I cannot agree more that in order to assist normalization of relations
a cooling off period utilizing international peacekeeping forces would be a good move
if both sides would let the world community help.

Thank you again for your heartening reply,

Diane V. McLoughlin