POSTED RESPONSES TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL
This is rather a question-begging editorial.
What “peace process”?
There never has been a “peace process” except on the pages of newspapers.
Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was basically a declaration of war against President Obama.
Israel hasn’t the slightest intention of seeking peace, and it never has.
It wants land, other people’s land, and it wants that land minus the people.
The only people waging war in Israel/Palestine are Israelis.
The only people who conduct an illegal and immoral blockade, keeping a million and a half people at near-starvation level nourishment are Israelis.
The only people who keep another couple of million people in virtual bondage are Israelis.
The only people showing utter contempt for numerous United Nations Resolutions are Israelis.
The only people who carry out piracy on the high seas are Israelis.
So wouldn’t you think it the logical thing to do to pressure Israel?
Blubbery stuff, always talking about two fighting sides, is rather like the school teacher who refuses to deal with the obvious bully in class, instead going on about how everyone is responsible, an ineffective and dishonest approach.
Of course, now that we have a 39.6% majority government led by Harper, Canada will not for a long time demonstrate its dedication to even-handedness and genuine concern for a solution.
Harper’s attitude is like the American Congressmen applauding a dishonest and bloody man who shouldn’t even have been addressing them, each of them applauding to keep the special-interest campaign funds flowing.
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‘A case can be made that the attack on Gaza was “justified”‘
George Orwell must smile bitter smiles when he looks down to observe such claims.
There was no more justification for Israel’s savage act than the Serbian leaders – one, Mladic, just arrested – had in their savage acts against Muslims.
Four hundred children and another thousand people slaughtered in what is essentially a big fenced-in refugee camp.
For what?
Because Israel does like the government the people elected.
Israel used its muscle-bound friend, the United States, to get a fairly elected government – a number of them are in fact middle-class professionals – declared as terrorists. It’s called demonizing your enemy.
Show me the hundreds of Israelis Hamas slaughtered. Show me the leaders of Israel Hamas has assassinated. Show me the hundreds of buildings in Israel Hamas has destroyed or damaged.
You can’t, but we repeat this garbage claim about a government Israel doesn’t like.
Readers should know that Hamas in its early days was husbanded by Israel’s secret service in order to grow an opponent against Arafat’s Fatah.
Well, they succeeded, but then Israel turned around and claimed the people they nurtured are horrible terrorists.
What Israel wants, as a first choice, is for the people of Gaza to leave their homes en masse and emigrate somewhere, anywhere, they don’t care where. As a second choice, Israel wants a Palestinian government that does exactly what it is told in every respect, a kind of Step-n-Fetch-It bureaucracy to do their dirty work and never raise any issues, a government like the ones apartheid South Africa set up in the Bantustans.
There will never be what most people call peace in Israel/Palestine until Israel is pressured to be reasonable.
Obama is the first American president to understand this, but he has been rather weak in implementing the required policies. He knows the power of The Lobby. He saw it in action with the bloody Netanyahu speaking to Congress, a place he no more reason to be than Mladic would.
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“Why should any Palestinian recognize Israel’s “right to exist” without even knowing where Israel’s borders are – and while Palestinians are under occupation?”
Exactly.
What is Israel? Where is Israel?
Besides, it is a normal diplomatic procedure to withhold recognition for negotiations.
The United States has done it many times.
In 1948 Truman was not inclined to recognize the self-declared state of Israel.
A monumental lobbying effort by American Jews, plus Truman’s weakness in the coming election, convinced him otherwise.
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“The Arabs and the Jews have been engaged in old fashioned tribal warfare for anywhere from 1,500 to 5,000 years”
That’s simply a fable.
Someone with a reasonable knowledge of history would never make this statement.
As a matter of fact, it is very likely that much of the Palestinian people are the actual descendants of the Jews resident when Rome conquered the area.
Rome typically did not remove populations in its conquests.
Only if people were difficult and refused to accept Rome’s authority did they come to a bad end, and that did not happen in Palestine.
Also, it is well known that Jews and Arabs are closely linked genetically, both falling under the heading “Semitic.”
No one knows exactly how the Jewish people arose, but the best thinking puts them as a group of religious dissidents in ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq) who, owing to the unpopularity of their views and harsh religious rules (they would likely all have been ultra-orthodox originally) were much disliked and left.
The pattern resembles that of the original cantankerous English Puritans of the early 17th century. They were extremely unpopular, and many migrated.
This further note on ancient Jews and Arabs, Muhammad always respected the Jews and called them the “People of the Book.” In his earliest religious instructions, the rule was to pray facing towards Jerusalem. He changed it later to Mecca for various reasons. But Moses is still regarded as a prophet.
There’s a lot of loose-lipped talk and propaganda out there on these matters, and it is a reflection of how one-sided the information is that we receive in the press.
