All I want is for you to try to be a little self-critical. I'm not trying to get you to stop criticizing Israel. I just want you to understand that the way that you often go about making that criticism goes beyond acceptable outrage at specific actions and policies and crosses a line into bigotry. Maybe you're so caught up in your anger that you don't realize you've crossed a line, or don't want to accept that it is possible.
Just for once, try to stop being so angry, just for a minute, and take seriously what I'm saying to you. Just be slightly self-critical, just for once. Please.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
I'm done for now. Gonna take a break from posting for a while. I think it's pretty clear that this is going around in circles and has just completely devolved into name calling. It didn't start that way, but that's where it's gotten. Peace.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
All of those examples are drawn from the E.U. definition of the term. I didn't just make them up. And amazingly you don't even deny that you've engaged in them. Instead you try to justify yourself. So please, explain this to me. The European Union has a group responsible for monitoring racism. They develop a definition for antisemitism. You repeatedly make comments that clearly and repeatedly fall into the examples given by the monitoring group of the types of statements that are antisemitic. And yet, somehow, it's absurd for anyone to think that your comments are antisemitic. How does that work?
Like I already said, the wide-reaching net of so-called 'anti-Semitism' as employed by apologists of Israel like yourself, and as adopted by the E.U - no doubt as a result of pressure by supporters of Israel's crimes - has rendered the term utterly meaningless. And it's perfectly obvious that your objective here is to cast doubt on my integrity, and cast me as a racist, because you wish to deflect attention from Israels crimes against the Palestinians, who you regard as non-people.
I understand that due to your enormous arrogance, and your belief that any criticism of Israel amounts to racism, that you feel you can alter the meaning of the term 'racism' and apply it with a broad brush stroke to encompass anything and everything that casts your lunatic racist state in a negative light. But unfortunately for you, the English language is immune to your slippery self-serving bullshit, and despite your efforts, the definition of the term 'racism' (and anti-Semitism') remains intact.
As Michael Neumann pointed out: '..If antisemitism is going to be a term of condemnation, then, it must apply beyond explicitly racist acts or thoughts or feelings. But it cannot apply beyond clearly unjustified and serious hostility to Jews. The Nazis made up historical fantasies to justify their attacks; so do modern antisemites who trust in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. So do the closet racists who complain about Jewish dominance of the economy. This is antisemitism in a narrow, negative sense of the word. It is action or propaganda designed to hurt Jews, not because of anything they could avoid doing, but because they are what they are. It also applies to the attitudes that propaganda tries to instill. Though not always explicitly racist, it involves racist motives and the intention to do real damage. Reasonably well-founded opposition to Israeli policies, even if that opposition hurts all Jews, does not fit this description. Neither does simple, harmless dislike of things Jewish.'
Actually, I intend to harness and direct my anger towards people like you even more acutely, and my devotion to exposing such frauds, who will stoop to the bottom of the pit in order to try and defend ethnic cleansing and the murder of innocents in the name of a repugnant racist ideology, will continue unabated.
Though for now I do wish to offer you thanks for encouraging me to dig further into the documentary record and unearth some more useful material in my online fight against this ugly propaganda campaign by those who feel it their duty to try and defend ethnic cleansing and the murder of innocents. Every debate with people like yourself simply strengthens my position.
All of those examples are drawn from the E.U. definition of the term. I didn't just make them up. And amazingly you don't even deny that you've engaged in them. Instead you try to justify yourself. So please, explain this to me. The European Union has a group responsible for monitoring racism. They develop a definition for antisemitism. You repeatedly make comments that clearly and repeatedly fall into the examples given by the monitoring group of the types of statements that are antisemitic. And yet, somehow, it's absurd for anyone to think that your comments are antisemitic. How does that work?
Like I already said, the wide-reaching net of so-called 'anti-Semitism' as employed by apologists of Israel like yourself, and as adopted by the E.U - no doubt as a result of pressure by supporters of Israel's crimes - has rendered the term utterly meaningless. And it's perfectly obvious that your objective here is to cast doubt on my integrity, and cast me as a racist, because you wish to deflect attention from Israels crimes against the Palestinians, who you regard as non-people.
I understand that due to your enormous arrogance, and your belief that any criticism of Israel amounts to racism, that you feel you can alter the meaning of the term 'racism' and apply it with a broad brush stroke to encompass anything and everything that casts your lunatic racist state in a negative light. But unfortunately for you, the English language is immune to your slippery self-serving bullshit, and despite your efforts, the definition of the term 'racism' (and anti-Semitism') remains intact.
As Michael Neumann pointed out: '..If antisemitism is going to be a term of condemnation, then, it must apply beyond explicitly racist acts or thoughts or feelings. But it cannot apply beyond clearly unjustified and serious hostility to Jews. The Nazis made up historical fantasies to justify their attacks; so do modern antisemites who trust in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. So do the closet racists who complain about Jewish dominance of the economy. This is antisemitism in a narrow, negative sense of the word. It is action or propaganda designed to hurt Jews, not because of anything they could avoid doing, but because they are what they are. It also applies to the attitudes that propaganda tries to instill. Though not always explicitly racist, it involves racist motives and the intention to do real damage. Reasonably well-founded opposition to Israeli policies, even if that opposition hurts all Jews, does not fit this description. Neither does simple, harmless dislike of things Jewish.'
You make me feel even more sorry for the Palestinians than usual. Your hatefulness does a disservice to their cause.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
Rejectionism is embedded in Israel’s most primal beliefs. There, at the deepest level, lies the concept that this land is destined for the Jews alone.
By Gideon Levy - July 4, 2014
Israel does not want peace. There is nothing I have ever written that I would be happier to be proved wrong about. But the evidence is piling up. In fact, it can be said that Israel has never wanted peace – a just peace, that is, one based on a just compromise for both sides. It’s true that the routine greeting in Hebrew is Shalom (peace) – shalom when one leaves and shalom when one arrives. And, at the drop of a hat, almost every Israeli will say he wants peace, of course he does. But he’s not referring to the kind of peace that will bring about the justice without which there is no peace and there will be no peace. Israelis want peace, not justice, certainly not anything based on universal values. Thus, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Not only is there no peace: In recent years, Israel has moved away from even the aspiration to make peace. It has despaired utterly of it. Peace has disappeared from the Israeli agenda, its place taken by the collective anxieties that are systematically implanted, and by personal, private matters that now take precedence over all else.
The Israeli longing for peace seemingly died about a decade ago, after the failure of the Camp David summit in 2000, the dissemination of the lie that there is no Palestinian partner for peace, and, of course, the horrific blood-soaked period of the second intifada. But the truth is that even before that, Israel never really wanted peace. Israel has never, not for a minute, treated the Palestinians as human beings with equal rights. It has never viewed their distress as understandable human and national distress.
...The single most overwhelming item of evidence of Israel’s rejection of peace is, of course, the settlements project. From the dawn of its existence, there has never been a more reliable or more precise litmus test for Israel’s true intentions than this particular enterprise. In plain words: The builders of settlements want to consolidate the occupation, and those who want to consolidate the occupation do not want peace. That’s the whole story in a nutshell.
On the assumption that Israel’s decisions are rational, it is impossible to accept construction in the territories and the aspiration to peace as mutually coexisting. Every act of building in the settlements, every mobile home and every balcony, conveys rejection. If Israel had wanted to achieve peace through the Oslo Accords, it would at least have stopped the construction in the settlements at its own initiative. That this did not happen proves that Oslo was fraudulent, or at best the chronicle of a failure foretold. If Israel had wanted to achieve peace at Taba, at Camp David, at Sharm el-Sheikh, in Washington or in Jerusalem, its first move should have been to end all construction in the territories. Unconditionally. Without a quid pro quo. The fact that Israel did not is proof that it did not want a just peace.
...There is no way to reach a just peace when the name of the game is the dehumanization of the Palestinians. No way to achieve peace when the demonization of the Palestinians is hammered into people’s heads day after day. Those who are convinced that every Palestinian is a suspicious person and that every Palestinian wants “to throw the Jews into the sea” will never make peace with the Palestinians. Most Israelis are convinced of the truth of both those statements.
...They have been trained to believe that there is no partner for peace – a Palestinian partner, that is – but that there is an Israeli partner.
Unfortunately, the truth is almost the reverse. The Palestinian non-partners no longer have any chance to prove that they are partners; the Israeli non-partners are convinced that they are interlocutors. So began the process in which Israeli conditions, obstacles and difficulties were heaped up, one more milestone in Israeli rejectionism. First came the demand for a cessation of terrorism; then the demand for a change of leadership (Yasser Arafat as a stumbling block); and after that Hamas became the hurdle. Now it’s the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Israel considers every step it takes – from mass political arrests to building in the territories – to be legitimate, whereas every Palestinian move is “unilateral.”
The only country on the planet with no borders is so far unwilling to delineate even the compromise borders it is ready to be satisfied with. Israel has not internalized the fact that, for the Palestinians, the borders of 1967 are the mother of all compromises, the red line of justice (or relative justice). For the Israelis, they are “suicide borders.”
...Disconnected from reality, the majority of Israelis pursue their regular way of life. In their mind’s eye the world is always against them, and the areas of occupation on their doorstep are beyond their realm of interest. Anyone who dares criticize the occupation policy is branded an anti-Semite, every act of resistance is perceived as an existential threat. All international opposition to the occupation is read as the “delegitimizing” of Israel and as a provocation to the country’s very existence. The world’s seven billion people – most of whom are against the occupation – are wrong, and six million Israeli Jews – most of whom support the occupation – are right. That’s the reality in the eyes of the average Israeli.
Add to this the repression, the concealment and the obfuscation, and you have another explanation for the rejectionism: Why should anyone strive for peace as long as life in Israel is good, calm prevails and the reality is concealed? The only way the besieged Gaza Strip can remind people of its existence is by firing rockets, and the West Bank only gets onto the agenda these days when blood is shed there. Similarly, the viewpoint of the international community is only taken into account when it tries to impose boycotts and sanctions, which in their turn immediately generate a campaign of self-victimization studded with blunt – and at times also impertinent – historical accusations.
This, then, is the gloomy picture. It contains not a ray of hope. The change will not happen on its own, from within Israeli society, as long as that society continues to behave as it does. The Palestinians have made more than one mistake, but their mistakes are marginal. Basic justice is on their side, and basic rejectionism is the Israelis’ purview. The Israelis want occupation, not peace.
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Video footage emerged Thursday of Israeli border police brutally beating a [15 year old] Palestinian unconscious in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shufat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDENWwEDGr4#t=71
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=710148 A Palestinian-American teen who was beaten, badly injured, and detained by undercover Israeli police officers in Jerusalem on Thursday is set to be tried Sunday, a rights group said.
Tarek Abu Khdeir, 15, was beaten in the Shufat neighborhood at around 8 p.m. by Israeli police in the yard of his uncle's home and arrested without charges, Addameer said on its website Friday.
The boy was taken to a police station following the beating, and police delayed treatment of his wounds until 1:20 a.m., when he was taken to Hadassa Hospital.
His family was not permitted to see Tarek until he was hospitalized, the rights group said.
His detention has been extended until Sunday morning, when a hearing will be held at the Court of First Instances in Jerusalem.
The teen is a student at Universal Academy of Florida high school in Tampa, local news website 10 News reported.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the US State Department to secure Tarek's release, the report said.
Tarek is one of 11 Palestinians who were beaten and arrested in the neighborhood on Thursday, Addameer said.
Interesting video. She gets a bit whacky towards the end when she starts bringing religion into it (I'm an atheist, so I'm uncomfortable whenever people talk about divine plans), but it's certainly a unique perspective from a pretty brave woman.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
Here's the best quote from the piece. Stunning really....
Palestinians have long complained of rough treatment by the Israeli police and double standards when it comes to justice, said Bill van Esveld of Human Rights Watch.
"The concern is that we've got plenty of evidence that this child of 15 was brutally beaten by Israeli law enforcement," van Esveld told CNN. "And instead of the law enforcement officials responsible for the beating being questioned and detained, the child who is the victim is being questioned and detained."
Amazing, truly in 2014 this is STILL happening in Palestine.
Here's the best quote from the piece. Stunning really....
Palestinians have long complained of rough treatment by the Israeli police and double standards when it comes to justice, said Bill van Esveld of Human Rights Watch.
"The concern is that we've got plenty of evidence that this child of 15 was brutally beaten by Israeli law enforcement," van Esveld told CNN. "And instead of the law enforcement officials responsible for the beating being questioned and detained, the child who is the victim is being questioned and detained."
Amazing, truly in 2014 this is STILL happening in Palestine.
surprised the police involved were not given a promotion...
let's see how obama handles this one.
he traded 5 people for a soldier who apparently went awol. here we have an american teenager who was savagely beaten for no reason by israeli police. this is a chance for obama to show where his loyalties lie, with his own citizens, or with the barbaric government of israel.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
The evidence has more than toppled over and the case has been made in my mind. From my perspective... we could post multiple new links every day showing something absolutely horrific. Short of lamenting such behaviours, adding more to the incessant stream of shocking events is piling on at this point. The heart of this thread begs- among others- the following questions: (1) What are the steps that need to be taken by the international community to thwart the cleansing tactics of Israel? And (2)... who leads such a change effort?
I was a teen when apartheid was placed on the world stage. I remember Artists Against Apartheid , consumer boycotts (I still don't purchase gas from Shell) and prominent heroes such as Mandela and Steven Biko. At what point does the world demand Israel reform? And short of simply recognizing the problem for what it is... what steps can people take from their corner of the world to help?
I also remember the Rwanda crisis. It would have been very easy for the international community to stop the genocide that saw a million Tutsi people killed in one month, yet we were indifferent as we twiddled our thumbs without any real motivation to intercede. Does the world care enough for the Palestinian people to come to their defence?
The evidence has more than toppled over and the case has been made in my mind. From my perspective... we could post multiple new links every day showing something absolutely horrific. Short of lamenting such behaviours, adding more to the incessant stream of shocking events is piling on at this point. The heart of this thread begs- among others- the following questions: (1) What are the steps that need to be taken by the international community to thwart the cleansing tactics of Israel? And (2)... who leads such a change effort?
I was a teen when apartheid was placed on the world stage. I remember Artists Against Apartheid , consumer boycotts (I still don't purchase gas from Shell) and prominent heroes such as Mandela and Steven Biko. At what point does the world demand Israel reform? And short of simply recognizing the problem for what it is... what steps can people take from their corner of the world to help?
I also remember the Rwanda crisis. It would have been very easy for the international community to stop the genocide that saw a million Tutsi people killed in one month, yet we were indifferent as we twiddled our thumbs without any real motivation to intercede. Does the world care enough for the Palestinian people to come to their defence?
Thirty, well written post. Great examples given too. It's so amazing the shit they get away with (Israeli government) , with no one to answer to. I just think that they're to powerful for anyone to challenge (aipac) and people are starting to realize that no matter what they do (Israeli government) nothing ever happens to them. Basically untouchable. How and why, I just dnt understand.
if the united states would stop blindly propping them up at the un, that would be the first step in making some major changes.
marriages end sometimes. why can our alliance with israel never end? is it because we need a place in the region to store our rockets? it is because we need someone to buy our planes? do we really need a place in the region where we might have to put boots on the ground?? i thought that is why we are still cool with saudi arabia. it is clear that the only reason the israeli government can continue to act with impunity is because the united states will back them at every turn. anybody who wants to make an enemy of israel automatically makes an enemy of the united states.
the united states is the Tommy to israel's Sam "Ace' Rothstein. the only reason israel can do what it does is because of us.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
The video above was shot last night by Ronnie Barkan in Jerusalem. He tells me the locations are as follows:
PM residence, Hatulot square (downtown), en route to East Jerusalem (they didn’t enter East Jerusalem both coz they’re not SUCH idiots and secondly because the police used a stun grenade against then which made them step back)
In perhaps the most frightening scene they start flagging down taxis presumably looking for Palestinian drivers (they let cars pass once they see a driver is Jewish).
The evidence has more than toppled over and the case has been made in my mind. From my perspective... we could post multiple new links every day showing something absolutely horrific. Short of lamenting such behaviours, adding more to the incessant stream of shocking events is piling on at this point. The heart of this thread begs- among others- the following questions: (1) What are the steps that need to be taken by the international community to thwart the cleansing tactics of Israel? And (2)... who leads such a change effort?
I was a teen when apartheid was placed on the world stage. I remember Artists Against Apartheid , consumer boycotts (I still don't purchase gas from Shell) and prominent heroes such as Mandela and Steven Biko. At what point does the world demand Israel reform? And short of simply recognizing the problem for what it is... what steps can people take from their corner of the world to help?
I also remember the Rwanda crisis. It would have been very easy for the international community to stop the genocide that saw a million Tutsi people killed in one month, yet we were indifferent as we twiddled our thumbs without any real motivation to intercede. Does the world care enough for the Palestinian people to come to their defence?
Nice post. I guess it goes without saying at this point that I disagree (and think factually inaccurate) with your invocation of genocide and to a slightly lesser extent with the comparison to Apartheid. Those disagreements aside, I agree that a discussion of practical solutions would be a much more productive discussion to have at this point.
I think first of all that the actions taken by the E.U. to identify settlement exports and exclude them from European trade deals with Israel is a great step and should be more widely adopted. It isolates and punishes the settlements as a problem and sends the message that they won't be tolerated while simultaneously reassuring the broader Israeli public that the legitimacy of Israel as such is not at issue.
Another step that Americans especially should take is to put pressure on their representatives to tie American aid to Israel to certain changes in Israeli policy with respect to the settlements. Specifically, there are a whole range of economic incentives in place that draw more people to the settlements. These include tax incentives, free public education beginning at a younger age, higher pay for teachers in settlement schools, etc. I would want to see all of these incentives reversed so that people are incentivized to move from the settlements back into Israel proper rather than the other way around. I also think that it would be constructive for the US to earmark a portion of its aid towards expanding housing within Israel proper for the specific purpose of absorbing settlers who move (or who may eventually be moved) back into Israel. Insisting on a building freeze in the settlements would also be good.
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
The evidence has more than toppled over and the case has been made in my mind. From my perspective... we could post multiple new links every day showing something absolutely horrific. Short of lamenting such behaviours, adding more to the incessant stream of shocking events is piling on at this point. The heart of this thread begs- among others- the following questions: (1) What are the steps that need to be taken by the international community to thwart the cleansing tactics of Israel? And (2)... who leads such a change effort?
I was a teen when apartheid was placed on the world stage. I remember Artists Against Apartheid , consumer boycotts (I still don't purchase gas from Shell) and prominent heroes such as Mandela and Steven Biko. At what point does the world demand Israel reform? And short of simply recognizing the problem for what it is... what steps can people take from their corner of the world to help?
I also remember the Rwanda crisis. It would have been very easy for the international community to stop the genocide that saw a million Tutsi people killed in one month, yet we were indifferent as we twiddled our thumbs without any real motivation to intercede. Does the world care enough for the Palestinian people to come to their defence?
Nice post. I guess it goes without saying at this point that I disagree (and think factually inaccurate) with your invocation of genocide and to a slightly lesser extent with the comparison to Apartheid. Those disagreements aside, I agree that a discussion of practical solutions would be a much more productive discussion to have at this point.
I think first of all that the actions taken by the E.U. to identify settlement exports and exclude them from European trade deals with Israel is a great step and should be more widely adopted. It isolates and punishes the settlements as a problem and sends the message that they won't be tolerated while simultaneously reassuring the broader Israeli public that the legitimacy of Israel as such is not at issue.
Another step that Americans especially should take is to put pressure on their representatives to tie American aid to Israel to certain changes in Israeli policy with respect to the settlements. Specifically, there are a whole range of economic incentives in place that draw more people to the settlements. These include tax incentives, free public education beginning at a younger age, higher pay for teachers in settlement schools, etc. I would want to see all of these incentives reversed so that people are incentivized to move from the settlements back into Israel proper rather than the other way around. I also think that it would be constructive for the US to earmark a portion of its aid towards expanding housing within Israel proper for the specific purpose of absorbing settlers who move (or who may eventually be moved) back into Israel. Insisting on a building freeze in the settlements would also be good.
Yosi,
I illustrated those two international events as examples for action and inaction. It was not my attempt to do anything other than that.
I'm not making any judgements here as much as I think we need to move towards a solution. I think you have said as much in your response.
In that case my mistake. I absolutely agree that working toward a viable solution should be the preeminent concern. Far too often I find people on both sides of this issue are more concerned with insisting on abstract principles of justice (as they see it) than working towards practical solutions. That's not to say that justice isn't important, but the perfect should not be allowed to be the enemy of the good (as the saying goes).
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
In that case my mistake. I absolutely agree that working toward a viable solution should be the preeminent concern. Far too often I find people on both sides of this issue are more concerned with insisting on abstract principles of justice (as they see it) than working towards practical solutions. That's not to say that justice isn't important, but the perfect should not be allowed to be the enemy of the good (as the saying goes).
No problems. I can see how you might have felt I had attempted to align the three distinct events.
By the way... you listed several ideas in your previous post that I am digesting at the moment. I don't wish to comment on them without more thought. I mention this to let you know you are not being ignored.
Comments
Just for once, try to stop being so angry, just for a minute, and take seriously what I'm saying to you. Just be slightly self-critical, just for once. Please.
Peace.
I understand that due to your enormous arrogance, and your belief that any criticism of Israel amounts to racism, that you feel you can alter the meaning of the term 'racism' and apply it with a broad brush stroke to encompass anything and everything that casts your lunatic racist state in a negative light.
But unfortunately for you, the English language is immune to your slippery self-serving bullshit, and despite your efforts, the definition of the term 'racism' (and anti-Semitism') remains intact.
As Michael Neumann pointed out:
'..If antisemitism is going to be a term of condemnation, then, it must apply beyond explicitly racist acts or thoughts or feelings. But it cannot apply beyond clearly unjustified and serious hostility to Jews. The Nazis made up historical fantasies to justify their attacks; so do modern antisemites who trust in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. So do the closet racists who complain about Jewish dominance of the economy. This is antisemitism in a narrow, negative sense of the word. It is action or propaganda designed to hurt Jews, not because of anything they could avoid doing, but because they are what they are. It also applies to the attitudes that propaganda tries to instill. Though not always explicitly racist, it involves racist motives and the intention to do real damage. Reasonably well-founded opposition to Israeli policies, even if that opposition hurts all Jews, does not fit this description. Neither does simple, harmless dislike of things Jewish.'
Though for now I do wish to offer you thanks for encouraging me to dig further into the documentary record and unearth some more useful material in my online fight against this ugly propaganda campaign by those who feel it their duty to try and defend ethnic cleansing and the murder of innocents. Every debate with people like yourself simply strengthens my position.
Israel does not want peace
Rejectionism is embedded in Israel’s most primal beliefs. There, at the deepest level, lies the concept that this land is destined for the Jews alone.
By Gideon Levy - July 4, 2014
Israel does not want peace. There is nothing I have ever written that I would be happier to be proved wrong about. But the evidence is piling up. In fact, it can be said that Israel has never wanted peace – a just peace, that is, one based on a just compromise for both sides. It’s true that the routine greeting in Hebrew is Shalom (peace) – shalom when one leaves and shalom when one arrives. And, at the drop of a hat, almost every Israeli will say he wants peace, of course he does. But he’s not referring to the kind of peace that will bring about the justice without which there is no peace and there will be no peace. Israelis want peace, not justice, certainly not anything based on universal values. Thus, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Not only is there no peace: In recent years, Israel has moved away from even the aspiration to make peace. It has despaired utterly of it. Peace has disappeared from the Israeli agenda, its place taken by the collective anxieties that are systematically implanted, and by personal, private matters that now take precedence over all else.
The Israeli longing for peace seemingly died about a decade ago, after the failure of the Camp David summit in 2000, the dissemination of the lie that there is no Palestinian partner for peace, and, of course, the horrific blood-soaked period of the second intifada. But the truth is that even before that, Israel never really wanted peace. Israel has never, not for a minute, treated the Palestinians as human beings with equal rights. It has never viewed their distress as understandable human and national distress.
...The single most overwhelming item of evidence of Israel’s rejection of peace is, of course, the settlements project. From the dawn of its existence, there has never been a more reliable or more precise litmus test for Israel’s true intentions than this particular enterprise. In plain words: The builders of settlements want to consolidate the occupation, and those who want to consolidate the occupation do not want peace. That’s the whole story in a nutshell.
On the assumption that Israel’s decisions are rational, it is impossible to accept construction in the territories and the aspiration to peace as mutually coexisting. Every act of building in the settlements, every mobile home and every balcony, conveys rejection. If Israel had wanted to achieve peace through the Oslo Accords, it would at least have stopped the construction in the settlements at its own initiative. That this did not happen proves that Oslo was fraudulent, or at best the chronicle of a failure foretold. If Israel had wanted to achieve peace at Taba, at Camp David, at Sharm el-Sheikh, in Washington or in Jerusalem, its first move should have been to end all construction in the territories. Unconditionally. Without a quid pro quo. The fact that Israel did not is proof that it did not want a just peace.
...There is no way to reach a just peace when the name of the game is the dehumanization of the Palestinians. No way to achieve peace when the demonization of the Palestinians is hammered into people’s heads day after day. Those who are convinced that every Palestinian is a suspicious person and that every Palestinian wants “to throw the Jews into the sea” will never make peace with the Palestinians. Most Israelis are convinced of the truth of both those statements.
...They have been trained to believe that there is no partner for peace – a Palestinian partner, that is – but that there is an Israeli partner.
Unfortunately, the truth is almost the reverse. The Palestinian non-partners no longer have any chance to prove that they are partners; the Israeli non-partners are convinced that they are interlocutors. So began the process in which Israeli conditions, obstacles and difficulties were heaped up, one more milestone in Israeli rejectionism. First came the demand for a cessation of terrorism; then the demand for a change of leadership (Yasser Arafat as a stumbling block); and after that Hamas became the hurdle. Now it’s the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Israel considers every step it takes – from mass political arrests to building in the territories – to be legitimate, whereas every Palestinian move is “unilateral.”
The only country on the planet with no borders is so far unwilling to delineate even the compromise borders it is ready to be satisfied with. Israel has not internalized the fact that, for the Palestinians, the borders of 1967 are the mother of all compromises, the red line of justice (or relative justice). For the Israelis, they are “suicide borders.”
...Disconnected from reality, the majority of Israelis pursue their regular way of life. In their mind’s eye the world is always against them, and the areas of occupation on their doorstep are beyond their realm of interest. Anyone who dares criticize the occupation policy is branded an anti-Semite, every act of resistance is perceived as an existential threat. All international opposition to the occupation is read as the “delegitimizing” of Israel and as a provocation to the country’s very existence. The world’s seven billion people – most of whom are against the occupation – are wrong, and six million Israeli Jews – most of whom support the occupation – are right. That’s the reality in the eyes of the average Israeli.
Add to this the repression, the concealment and the obfuscation, and you have another explanation for the rejectionism: Why should anyone strive for peace as long as life in Israel is good, calm prevails and the reality is concealed? The only way the besieged Gaza Strip can remind people of its existence is by firing rockets, and the West Bank only gets onto the agenda these days when blood is shed there. Similarly, the viewpoint of the international community is only taken into account when it tries to impose boycotts and sanctions, which in their turn immediately generate a campaign of self-victimization studded with blunt – and at times also impertinent – historical accusations.
This, then, is the gloomy picture. It contains not a ray of hope. The change will not happen on its own, from within Israeli society, as long as that society continues to behave as it does. The Palestinians have made more than one mistake, but their mistakes are marginal. Basic justice is on their side, and basic rejectionism is the Israelis’ purview. The Israelis want occupation, not peace.
I only hope I am wrong.
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=710148
A Palestinian-American teen who was beaten, badly injured, and detained by undercover Israeli police officers in Jerusalem on Thursday is set to be tried Sunday, a rights group said.
Tarek Abu Khdeir, 15, was beaten in the Shufat neighborhood at around 8 p.m. by Israeli police in the yard of his uncle's home and arrested without charges, Addameer said on its website Friday.
The boy was taken to a police station following the beating, and police delayed treatment of his wounds until 1:20 a.m., when he was taken to Hadassa Hospital.
His family was not permitted to see Tarek until he was hospitalized, the rights group said.
His detention has been extended until Sunday morning, when a hearing will be held at the Court of First Instances in Jerusalem.
The teen is a student at Universal Academy of Florida high school in Tampa, local news website 10 News reported.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the US State Department to secure Tarek's release, the report said.
Tarek is one of 11 Palestinians who were beaten and arrested in the neighborhood on Thursday, Addameer said.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/06/world/meast/jerusalem-u-s--teen-beaten/index.html?c=&page=3
Here's the best quote from the piece. Stunning really....
Palestinians have long complained of rough treatment by the Israeli police and double standards when it comes to justice, said Bill van Esveld of Human Rights Watch.
"The concern is that we've got plenty of evidence that this child of 15 was brutally beaten by Israeli law enforcement," van Esveld told CNN. "And instead of the law enforcement officials responsible for the beating being questioned and detained, the child who is the victim is being questioned and detained."
Amazing, truly in 2014 this is STILL happening in Palestine.
They were harvesting his organs!!!
let's see how obama handles this one.
he traded 5 people for a soldier who apparently went awol. here we have an american teenager who was savagely beaten for no reason by israeli police. this is a chance for obama to show where his loyalties lie, with his own citizens, or with the barbaric government of israel.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
(1) What are the steps that need to be taken by the international community to thwart the cleansing tactics of Israel? And (2)... who leads such a change effort?
I was a teen when apartheid was placed on the world stage. I remember Artists Against Apartheid , consumer boycotts (I still don't purchase gas from Shell) and prominent heroes such as Mandela and Steven Biko. At what point does the world demand Israel reform? And short of simply recognizing the problem for what it is... what steps can people take from their corner of the world to help?
I also remember the Rwanda crisis. It would have been very easy for the international community to stop the genocide that saw a million Tutsi people killed in one month, yet we were indifferent as we twiddled our thumbs without any real motivation to intercede. Does the world care enough for the Palestinian people to come to their defence?
marriages end sometimes. why can our alliance with israel never end? is it because we need a place in the region to store our rockets? it is because we need someone to buy our planes? do we really need a place in the region where we might have to put boots on the ground?? i thought that is why we are still cool with saudi arabia. it is clear that the only reason the israeli government can continue to act with impunity is because the united states will back them at every turn. anybody who wants to make an enemy of israel automatically makes an enemy of the united states.
the united states is the Tommy to israel's Sam "Ace' Rothstein. the only reason israel can do what it does is because of us.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/06/1311721/-As-a-Jew-living-in-America-the-past-week-has-changed-me-forever
Video: Jewish mob chanting ‘Death to Arabs!’ stops cars in Jerusalem to check drivers’ ethnicity
The video above was shot last night by Ronnie Barkan in Jerusalem. He tells me the locations are as follows:
PM residence, Hatulot square (downtown), en route to East Jerusalem (they didn’t enter East Jerusalem both coz they’re not SUCH idiots and secondly because the police used a stun grenade against then which made them step back)
In perhaps the most frightening scene they start flagging down taxis presumably looking for Palestinian drivers (they let cars pass once they see a driver is Jewish).
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/chanting-jerusalem-ethnicity.html
I think first of all that the actions taken by the E.U. to identify settlement exports and exclude them from European trade deals with Israel is a great step and should be more widely adopted. It isolates and punishes the settlements as a problem and sends the message that they won't be tolerated while simultaneously reassuring the broader Israeli public that the legitimacy of Israel as such is not at issue.
Another step that Americans especially should take is to put pressure on their representatives to tie American aid to Israel to certain changes in Israeli policy with respect to the settlements. Specifically, there are a whole range of economic incentives in place that draw more people to the settlements. These include tax incentives, free public education beginning at a younger age, higher pay for teachers in settlement schools, etc. I would want to see all of these incentives reversed so that people are incentivized to move from the settlements back into Israel proper rather than the other way around. I also think that it would be constructive for the US to earmark a portion of its aid towards expanding housing within Israel proper for the specific purpose of absorbing settlers who move (or who may eventually be moved) back into Israel. Insisting on a building freeze in the settlements would also be good.
I illustrated those two international events as examples for action and inaction. It was not my attempt to do anything other than that.
I'm not making any judgements here as much as I think we need to move towards a solution. I think you have said as much in your response.
By the way... you listed several ideas in your previous post that I am digesting at the moment. I don't wish to comment on them without more thought. I mention this to let you know you are not being ignored.