(If Israeli citizens do not rise up and overthrow their government, then they are fair game due to their complicity. Just like we are in the US...Both nations deserve a daily 9/11 until Palestine is free. - promoted by Elián Maricón)
THIS ESSAY IS A DIRECT RESPONSE WRITTEN IN ANGER TO KARMAFISH'S ESSAY SAYING THAT EVERY MEMBER OF THE MAVI MARMARA WERE JIHADIS DESERVING DEATH... EVEN THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR WHO HE SAID MUST HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED. I REGRET WRITING IT IN ANGER, AND KNEW BOTH THE US WOULD NEVER CHALLENGE ISRAEL, AND IF THEY DID, ISRAEL WOULD BACK DOWN.... IT WAS NOT CALLING FOR A NUCLEAR WAR ANY MORE THAN THE THOUSAND TIMES I LOST MY SHIT AND WISHED TO RIP OFF CHENEY'S HEAD AND SHIT DOWN HIS THROAT - ITS RHETORICAL PEOPLE.
KARMA DELETED HIS WHOLE BLOG - BUT I BELIEVE THAT I CANNOT HIDE MY MISTAKES - I LEARN FROM THEM. NEVER BLOG IN ANGER. NEVER REACT TO A REACTIONARY.
IN THE MEANTIME - WAS HOUSEBOUND WITH A DYING HUSBAND AND VERY EMOTIONAL AT THE TIME.
EXPLAINED AND APOLOGIZED A THOUSAND TIMES - NOW LETS SEE KARMA TAKE BACK WHAT HE SAID ABOUT THE PEACE ACTIVISTS ON THE MAVI.
Israel Adds Piracy to List of War Crimes; attacks 50 Nation's Civilians in Undeclared War on Humanitarianism in International Waters
The breaking news shows that up to unarmed 20 humanitarian activists were gunned down, scores more injured as Israel commits PIRACY in INTERNATIONAL waters.
Israel did not just block the ships, they had commandos lowered off helicopters and took these people out with extreme force. They used live rounds against them, and beat the hell out of many more, the numbers keep rising, but over 50 of them at last count.
When they perpetrated the WAR CRIME that was the Gaza attack "Cast Lead" and used children and schools as target practice, breaking International Laws and raining White Phosphorus on CIVILIANS, they could at least hide behind some twisted logic that these starving, trapped in a concentration camp people were "enemies" or a threat.
This act? This PIRACY?
Proves beyond a doubt that even peoples of ANY nation, unarmed people with medicine and food; with rebuilding supplies have no worth as human lives to Israel. NONE. They have no respect for anyone but themselves, value no one. The true face of Israel shows in its ability to do the unimaginable. Attack foreign vessels in International Waters, killing citizens of countries who have been their allies to prevent alleviating the suffering of those they don't even consider human: Palestinians.
You could watch the lies change through the hours: "They were attacked with sticks, then knives, then guns, and when footage disproved the gun claim, they claimed a humanitarian dared to grab the barrel of a machine gun no doubt pointed at his head....
Tonight I baked bread topped with olive oil and za'atar. I bought the spices from a shop in Pike Place market, along with some dates. The old man who runs this shop was born in Jerusalem, and when I go there, we discuss the things I have seen and the things he remembers. We don't talk politics; the tragedy of me, a white American with no ancestral ties to that land, being allowed to move more freely through it than he who was born to a family that had lived there for generations would be too much for either of us to acknowledge. Instead, we stick to the small things; the smell of bread baking on the street corners by Damascus gate, the shapes of the rolls and the sesame seeds on the outside. The beauty of the sun on the dome of the rock, the superior quality of the olive oil or hummus or tomatoes. The conversation is short, and I, at least, leave his shop feeling closer to a land that I love as though it were my own.
The taste of tonight's meal, each round of flat bread sizzling in the oven with an egg on top, smothered in the fragrant blend of thyme and other spices that make za'atar so addicting, reminds me of the first time I ate this. It was our morning meal, the bread carried along in insulated bags to keep it warm, eaten about 2 miles in to our hike. We rested near a cave, marveling at the scenery and the heat; just beginning to emerge from the shyness that still made us strangers to one another. It is amazing to me, the way a scent and a flavor can bring back these small moments, make them so real I can almost feel same sun, hear the same voices.
Joe Lieberman's bill aiming to revoke the citizenship of anyone who associates with foreign terror groups who attack the the US or its allies makes me more fearful of my government than I have ever been before. To begin with, Senator Lieberman has made it clear that his bill targets those joining Islamic groups above all others; Timothy McVeigh, were he alive today, would have nothing to fear from this bill. Neither would the Hutaree militia. Why should plotting to overthrow our government be more of a crime, or some one suspected of it be eligible for less legal protection, if it involves foreign terrorist organizations and not domestic ones? This bill doesn't even require proof that the citizen is planning an act of violence; affiliation is grounds enough to revoke a person's citizenship.
We have trailblazers like Sheikha Hanadi of Qatar, along with Waed al Taweel, who I met earlier -- a 20-year-old student from the West Bank who wants to build recreation centers for Palestinian youth. So together, they represent the incredible talents of women entrepreneurs and remind us that countries that educate and empower women are countries that are far more likely to prosper. I believe that.
-President Barack Obama, Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship 4/26/2010
Dear Mr. President,
In your remarks on Entrepreneurship, you said "countries that educate and empower women are countries that are far more likely to prosper." I appreciate these sentiments, sir. It brought to mind the women I met in Palestine, from the Women in Hebron co-operative, who sold crafts and embroidery and invested in their community, or from the Women in Culture co-operative in Jenin, or even the bright students in our group, who studied science or medicine or business at schools in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. These women were inspiring, many of them pulling themselves out of tragedy, the loss of sons or husbands, to earn their own way in the world. Their society values and respects women, and they are living testaments to this. We met with young women in Bir Zeit, student organizers and community leaders. It seemed hopeful, in a society whose young men are often targeted and imprisoned by the occupation forces, that women were taking on roles as leaders in their community. Unfortunately, politically active young women are, increasingly, becoming targets themselves.
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? . . .
Preguntaréis: Y dónde están las lilas?
Y la metafísica cubierta de amapolas?
Y la lluvia que a menudo golpeaba
sus palabras llenándolas
de agujeros y pájaros?
. . . 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:
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