When will peace finally come to that battlefield of religion they call the Holy Land? When will that day finally come? When the last Muslim and the last Jew have killed each other in the ruins of Jerusalem? Would Likud finally be satisfied? Would Hamas finally be satisfied?
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict has multiple causes, there are legitimate grievances on both sides, but there are also demagogues on both sides, fanatics on both sides, cynical exploiters of religion on both sides, killers of children on both sides. That vicious cycle of violence has to be stopped, the crisis has to be resolved. Blockading Gaza won't resolve it, blockading Gaza is making it worse.
Politicians will never bring peace to this world, they're all Netanyahus, they're all Palins, they're all Obamas dancing on the puppet strings of their corporate masters. Not one of them is worth a damn. People like you and me will have to be the peacemakers. We can be, and we'll have to be. Believing we can end the killing isn't an illusion. Believing we can't is the illusion.
Roger Waters knows who the peacemakers will be, he knows what must be overcome and who will overcome it . . .
Let them in the parade and let people along the parade route judge for themselves. I've booed and shouted opinions at a few organizations in gay pride parades.
Do we have to act as if everyone with a sign in a gay pride parade has to follow a certain script?
It's strange that the phrase 'Israeli apartheid' is now banned at a major political event in Toronto. This involves a pro-Palestinian group that has marched in Toronto's gay pride parade for many years, as have groups supporting Israeli government policies. That 'both sides' approach seems so civilized and democratic, but times are a-changing and not for the better.
This year's Toronto Gay Pride Parade Grand Marshal has resigned and 23 former Pride Toronto activists announced on Monday they have pulled out of Pride festivities after organizers banned the term "Israeli apartheid" from its 10-day event.
"Pride's recent decision to ban the term 'Israeli apartheid' and thus prohibit the participation of the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in Pride celebrations this year is a slap in the face to our history of diverse voices," said Alan Li, a co-founder of Gay Asians Toronto who rejected his appointment as grand marshal.
"Pride's choice to take a pre-emptive step to censor our own communities' voices and concerns in response to political and corporate pressure shows a lack of backbone to stand up for principles of inclusiveness and anti-oppression." . . .
... and as promised, I have sent the following to Buhdy re their Israel/Palestine policy:
Buhdy,
I greatly appreciate that you allowed me to post on the flotilla massacre. I hope that I didn't disappoint you. You may recall at the time that I had asked for a 7-10 day temporary lift of the ban, with the hope that the policy could be re-evaluated. You gave me a one-shot, but I hope we can still consider re-evaluation.
U.S. Senator Barney Frank equates Israel's brutal embargo against the Gaza Strip with the 1980s U.S. sanctions against the South Africa apartheid regime. Can a member of Congress get any more down on his hands and knees toward a foreign power, one that seems to have just engaged in murder and piracy on the high seas, and this from a supposed liberal beacon in the U.S. Senate?
Israel's blockade against Gaza is comparable to the sanctions levied by the U.S. Congress against the apartheid regime of South Africa in 1986, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank told the Forward in an interview June 3.
Rebuffing critics who decry the effects of the Israeli blockade on the health and welfare of Gaza's Palestinian residents, Frank said, "I remember that argument being used against our tough sanctions against the South African regime during apartheid. People said, 'You're hurting the South African black people,' and Ronald Reagan vetoed the bill and we overrode his veto.
"A few years later," Frank recalled, proudly, "I listened to Nelson Mandela in the Capitol thank us for helping maintain the sanctions because they were so effective." . . .
And now Frank listens to Benjamin Netanyahu deny medicine and infant formula to the Gaza Strip and he hears Nelson Mandela in that? Here's more obsequiosity from the leading 'progressive' in the U.S. Senate:
The Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla was an overt political act aimed at breaking the siege of Gaza. Bringing food, medicine, and supplies to humans suffering extreme privation in defiance of "the authorities" is an act far less theatrical or playful but conceptually tantamount to hippies stuffing flowers into rifle barrels as a form of protest so good-natured and free of overt threat as to be disarming and impossible for the world audience to find the least bit menacing, much less provoking a violent response. Indeed, military responses to expressions of "flower power" are unthinkable, and would instantly discredit and delegitimize those bearing actual weapons in support of establishmentarian power. While the analogy may be imperfect, it generally seems that Israel has done the unthinkable by shooting the flower children dead, including an American and some Turks, citizens of their most critical allies.
Haneen Zuabi (right), who represents the Arab nationalist party Balad in the Israeli Knesset, is heckled by Anastassia Michaeli, of the ultra-nationalistic Yisrael Beteinu party (centre). Photograph: David Vaaknin/AP
Read the details in the Guardian of Israel parliament member Haneen Zuabi's experience aboard the ship attacked by Israel for why she seems very much to be a hero. But the issue for me is, how far right is normal political life now in Israel? What has become of an Israel where "the ultra-nationalistic Yisraeli Beteinu party" can be part of the government and represents near-majority (majority?) political sentiment toward Arabs? ("There've been no public-opinion polls yet, but clearly many Israelis support a hard-line approach to Gaza and the Palestinian situation in general; experts note the population has grown increasingly conservative since the second Palestinian intifada, or "uprising," in 2000, exacerbated by hard-line new arrivals to Israel from Russia and elsewhere.") And then there's the ultra-orthodox religious party Shas, which provides Israel its Interior Minister. He's seriously seeking to revoke Zuabi's citizenship! (Emphasis added):
Gaza flotilla activist faces death threats Haneen Zuabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, has been sworn at by parliamentary colleagues and received death threats since disembarking on Monday Rachel Shabi in Jerusalem guardian.co.uk
Thursday 3 June 2010 17.21 BST
While other activists from the Gaza aid flotilla have returned home, one is left facing death threats and abuse in Israel. Haneen Zuabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset who was aboard the Mavi Marmara, is now under armed protection after nearly 500 people signed up to a Facebook page calling for her execution.
During a heated parliamentary session yesterday Zuabi was sworn at and then shoved out of the chamber amid shouts of "Go to Gaza, traitor".
The 41-year-old member of the Arab nationalist party Balad has also received death threats by phone and mail. "I am not scared," she said, speaking from her home town of Nazareth in northern Israel. "This is inherent here, it is not something that started yesterday. It is just harder and harsher now."
And then there's Israel's loony Interior Minister. Note the fantastical perspective (but I guess it is majority opinion (?) in Israel) on what was plainly a deadly attack by armed Israeli soldiers on unarmed civilians on a boat in international waters:
Here's a video of Israelis celebrating the murders of Turkish nationals outside the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv.
The ostentatious cruelty and brazen bloodlust leave me speechless. This display is about the most offensive and provocative public response conceivable, beyond comprehension, an indefensible invitation to war. The mind reels.
It's easy to be outraged at Israel's outlandish, criminal and immoral behavior. Israel murdered a bunch of peace activists on the high seas with total disregard for international and maritime law. Israel runs the biggest prison camp in the world. Israel is an apartheid state. The current government of Israel is a global pariah.
What's not to be outraged about?
But what I want to know is where is the outrage against the United States of America who makes Israel look like Utopia?
Does Human Rights Watch take orders directly from the U.S. Department of State, or is it that the two bodies' shared excess of empathy for Israel makes them just seem to be in lock step? Specifically, why does HRW not call for an independent international investigation of Israeli piracy in international waters and its massacre of civilians on the Mavi Marmara? Why call for Israel to investigate itself when they know an Israeli investigation will be bullshit? HRW admits the last in the final sentence blockquoted below:
(New York) - Israel should promptly conduct a credible and impartial investigation into the deaths of at least 10 activists after Israeli security forces boarded ships that were part of an "aid flotilla" to Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today. . . .
"A prompt, credible, and impartial investigation is absolutely essential to determine whether the lethal force used by Israeli commandos was necessary to protect lives and whether it could have been avoided," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Given Israel's poor track record of investigating unlawful killings by its armed forces, the international community should closely monitor any inquiry to ensure it meets basic international standards and that any wrongdoers are brought to justice."
And yet HRW doesn't ask for an independent international investigation, exactly in line with the U.S. government's position:
2 more names can be added to the ranks of those who have died attempting to stand up to Israeli injustice against the Palestinians. I don't know their names, yet. Dozens are injured, more deaths may be occurring now, as the attack against ships loaded with humanitarian aid continues. I'm not angry, yet. I can feel it, see the shadow as it descends upon me, as I choke back the tears of frustration that precede it. I want to see you respond, Mr. President, I want you to go on TV and tell me why these people are dead and why we are continuing to fund the military that killed them. I want you to explain to me, in your rational way, why this is in our national interest. Tell me why it is acceptable behavior on the part of our ally to use lethal force against a humanitarian ship. This is not about demonizing Israel; I would question our support of any nation that conducted itself in this manner, that used overwhelming and violent force against peaceful dissent.
How is this going to end, Mr. President? How many more innocent will die? How many more? What do you think is going do for our long-term security? Or Israel's? In the time it has taken me to write the above paragraph, the death toll has been estimated to be 10 people. These were unarmed, peaceful activists seeking to bring medical and educational and construction supplies. Please, Mr. President, explain why the education, health and safety of Gazans is so dangerous that it must be prevented with lethal force? I do not want to be a part of this occupation, any longer. I do not want to pay for the weapons being used to murder humanitarian workers. I do not want this to be conducted in my name. If America's policies in this area cannot be changed, I, and the millions of others outraged by this, deserve an explanation.
The death toll is now being reported at 16. How many more will be dead by the time you receive this letter, I cannot say. Will you know their names, Mr. President?
9 ships are on their way from international waters to the Gaza shore. Israel has vowed to turn them back or reroute them, and is already constructing a makeshift camp for detaining those onboard. These ships are being called, by Israeli officials, absolute provocation. One even commented on the mission to break the blockade, as a violation of international law. I found this to be especially interesting phrasing for a country so often acting as though it is unaware of, or even above, international law. Might now be the time to discuss illegal settlement expansion, or collective punishment, or the 1977 protocols of the Geneva convention, or, perhaps, Nuclear nonproliferation? While I'm glad to know that the Israeli government has enough of a passing familiarity with international law to acknowledge its existence, I think it would have more credibility citing these laws if it even pretended to obey them in times of war or in "peacetime" occupation of Palestine. But, I suppose the dire threat posed by 9 boats full of construction, education and medical equipment must be weighed against the risk of looking a touch hypocritical, and if there is one thing the Israeli government has never shown itself to be averse to, it's hypocrisy.
They made a desert and called it peace. Srifa - or what was once the village of Srifa - is a place of pancaked homes, blasted walls, rubble, starving cats and trapped corpses. . . .
New Miss USARima Fakih moved to the U.S. when she was 6 or 7 from the village of Srifa, in southern Lebanon. Media guyland wants 'her controversy' to be some sexy photos (see P.S.) but in fact there's only one scandal connected to the new Miss USA: what Israel did to her hometown.
Following a nearly nine-hour discussion that began at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday evening and lasted into Thursday morning, ASUC senators have yet to reach a decision on whether or not they would uphold or override President Will Smelko's March 24 veto of a controversial bill urging the student government and the UC to divest from two companies that have supplied Israel with materials for alleged war crimes.
After an initial 12-7-1 vote to uphold Smelko's veto, the senate tabled the bill and will reconsider it next week. Several senators said they would work to alter the bill.
The student who abstained said she just did not feel qualified to vote on the measure, which I think we all can sympathize with. On the other hand, as I've written before, the illegality and stark immorality of Israel's occupation and colonization of occupied Palestine doesn't take a Middle East expert to 'get', in my opinion. Richard Falk (Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law & Practice Emeritus and Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestinian Territories, UN Human Rights Council), in a letter to the UC Berkeley student senate, states the case for divestment extremely well. It's not that complicated:
So, given that Israel is just one among many nations grossly violating the human rights of people under its control, why is it smart for activists to concentrate some of their activism on making Israel - rather than, for example, Iran, Sudan, Sri Lanka, or North Korea - stop its unjust, inhumane policies towards occupied Palestine? . . .
. . . The protest is being sponsored by a broad coalition of about 25 left-wing groups, including American Jews for a Just Peace, Codepink, Gaza Freedom March and Jewish Voice for Peace. Organized by Jews Say No!, the protest was endorsed by the Israeli groups Coalition of Women for Peace and BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS From Within.
"We think it's inappropriate for an American organization to be feting the Israeli army, when the Israeli army is implicated in violations of international law," said Rebecca Vilkomerson, director of Jewish Voice for Peace. She said Operation Cast Lead opened up people's eyes to the role that the Israeli army plays. The Goldstone Report also made people consider the notion that the IDF is fallible, she added.
"Definitely, it has opened up a big conversation in the Jewish community," she said, observing that in the past year more Jews have begun "questioning the idea that Israel is always right."
Okay, I admit, the actual Jerusalem Post headline was "Hundreds set to turn out for anti-Israel demo in NY." I.e., equating support for Israel with support for its the criminal actions of its military, like labeling an anti-Iraq war protest an anti-U.S. protest. But, okay, par for the Jerusualem Post course, and we move on. . . . to more important positive news out of Israel/Palestine from a basic humanitarian perspective. Note btw the efforts by Israel to avoid a fair verdict:
(Quality over fluff. Sorry I posted at the same time! - promoted by Diane G)
"Goldstone is a codeword for an attempt to delegitimize Israel's right to self-defense,"
-Bibi Netanyahu
The only thing that has seen a greater uptick in recent months than trumped up phony terrorist scares (the latest is the ludicrous story that Osama bin Laden himself has returned from the dead to claim responsbility for the undie bomber plot) is positive spin regarding our very special friends in Israel. Due to an onslaught of human rights abuses, outright war atrocities and the subsequent bullying and interference in U.S. media and politics that has finally resulted in some serious pushback as well as a loss of power of the now pathetic "anti-Semite" talisman used against critics the State of Israel and it's accomplices in Der Heimat have undertaken a high stakes, high dollar mission to polish the turd of Israel's reputation back to a fine sheen. Now I realize that I am going to catch holy hell for writing this, I always do when I utter the ultimate American blasphemy of trashing Jesus's birthplace but that's just the way it works with some people. The miserable little trolls, Megaphone monitors and knee jerk Zionist hard liners will of course dump a load in their knickers, squeal like kosher piggies and slap me with the dreaded "Jew Hater" pejorative but mercifully there will be no blogswarming - at least I don't believe that there will be. So let's get it on ok?
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