To observers of the Middle East and Palestine, the inept 'warfare' is matched by poor words. Year after year, a constant barrage of rhetoric is as misguided as the bullets, mortars, and rockets.
A recent exchange of civilian casualties illustrates insanity. To begin, or respond, or continue things (you choose depending on your religion) Hamas showcased ability to blindly fire a mortar, striking a paint factory and killing a 52 year worker. In turn, Israeli helicopters targeted Hamas militants, but the missile missed and killed an 8 year old girl.
Rather than apologize, spokesmen aped the other side and appeased their own thugs. Hamas said the operation was response to "nonstop agression against our people." Not to be outdone, an Israeli spokesman said Hamas "would be held accountable". Despite the lack of logic suggesting that paint is a tool of "aggression", or that the 8 year old was "accountable" for the mortar attack, neither side blinked at the contradictions.
In an election with the Middle East dominating foreign policy debate, how can Obama confront the 'apologist' and 'appeasement' tags in a region that has no concept of owning up and each side appeases only their own thugs? Could withdrawing aid make them both sorry?
Sure, you can teach or write about it, but to have a civil discussion about the P-I situation with people who've more or less made up their mind is out of the question unless you want a shouting match.
The other day a Kos diarist voiced suspicions that AIPAC might have had something to do with a fire that destroyed the home Blue Dem congressional candidate Darcy Burner. The fire appears to have in fact been electrical in origin.
What struck me was the bitterness of many of the comments on the diary, which I believe reflect deep tensions within the Kos community, and in the larger progressive world, about how we ought to feel about Israel, and Israeli influence in the US.
Today a resident of East Jerusalem plowed a bulldozer into the crowed streets of Jerusalem. This incident caused 3 deaths and over 30 injuries to bystanders.
Five months after the incidents in Beit Ummar subsequent to the death of the Sabarna cousins (diaried here and here), once again a teenager has been killed by the IDF and the IDF's presence at the funeral has led to the injury of more Palestinians. Bekah Wolf of the Palestine Solidarity Project, located in Beit Ummar, gives background for the incident:
The Committee to Protect Journalists has a fine-sounding name, but, like the even more scurrilous CIA-linked Reporters Without Borders (who trade on the respected name of Doctors Without Borders to ply their anti-communist agenda), their priorities have rather strong biases. On June 26, Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer, a frequent guest reporter on KPFA's Flashpoints and Pacifica's Democracy Now!, was returning from receiving a prestigious journalism prize in Britain, when he was attacked, abused, and tortured by Israeli border agents as he attempted to re-enter Gaza. The attack received limited press coverage (Reuters), but has been largely ignored in the West.
A recent opinion poll conducted by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government found that 77 percent of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world.
The survey of 1,721 Israelis, both Arab and Jewish, also showed that 73 percent of the Jews and 94 percent of the Arabs want Israel to "be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities."
The Kennedy School said in a statement that the poll produced a number of results it termed surprising, pointing to a higher level of co-existence than might have been anticipated
Professor Todd Pittinsky, research director of the Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership and lead researcher for the poll, said that the results pointed to a contrary phenomenon. Much media coverage focuses on the divisions between Jewish and Arab citizens in Israel, and not enough on the sincere and concerted efforts to coexist peacefully, Pittinsky said in a statement.
In addition, a whopping 68 percent of Jewish citizens support teaching conversational Arabic in Jewish schools to engender co-existance.
Obama came to change politics, but politics changed him. The chance of change we can believe in in Middle East policy is about as likely as finding WMDs in Iraq.
Obama rode a wave of progressive left enthusiasm to the nomination. Many supporters, after years of destructive pro-Israeli policy from the Bush regime, were looking for even handed approach to the Israeli/Palesetinian impasse. But as soon as Obama got the nomination, in fact, the very next day, he turned his back on that hope and indiscriminantly embraced right wing Israeli lobby policies.
Professed partisans of the Palestinian cause have assured us that "What Hamas won't do . . . is start physically arresting or fighting IJ [Islamic Jihad] members who do decide to violate the truce," and that Hamas has no commitment to enforce the truce in the Gaza Strip, an that "It is dishonest to pretend otherwise." Indeed, we've been told that "it seems remarkable to assume that Hamas has both the will and ability to do so [control violence] with factions in its own territory.
But does Hamas really believe it has no stake in the survival and success of the cease fire? While there is evidence going both ways, recent developments are cause for hope on the part of those who, in the interest of both Israelis and Palestinians, hope, pray, and work for a comprehensive peace settlement based on the principle of "two states for two peoples" and, at least in the short run, full implementation of the calm and an improvement in the daily lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Israelis in the Sderot-Ashkelon area.
A deal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza strip came into effect last week. It is becoming apparent that the party most committed to its success is, surprisingly, Hamas. The party led by the President recognized by the West as the government, despite losing the election, Fatah has stated that the deal violates Palestinian interests.
Militant groups allied to Fatah have claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on Israel since the truce started. Meanwhile Israel stands accused by the UN of repeated violations of the ceasefire. It is also failing to abide by the agreement to open the borders for essential goods, using those rocket attacks as the excuse.
Al-Jazeera is reporting on its English language station that there is increased discontent in Gaza that the truce is not improving life on the streets.
Of course the news is out that multilateral diplomacy works with North Korea. A country that actually has the freakin' bomb.
Now is the time to do so with Iran (no surprise) and by extension the Israel/Palestine issue since it all involves multiple nations.
Joe Biden, your time is now. I believe you will be Secretary of State. But you are also the leading Senate Democrat on foreign affairs. Speak now, congratulate the Bushies on North Korea and stick their feet to the fire. If Rudy was "noun, verb, and 9/11", BushCo should be labelled as needing to be "noun/verb/"but remember North Korea" in their run-up to hostilities with Iran.
For the past several weeks, the Israeli government has been heavily engaged in indirect negotiations with its two arch enemies in contradiction to the policy of its greatest benefactor, the U.S., and its champion of champions, President George W. Bush.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are on the U.S. State Department's list of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
How much more do we need? Do you see the stakes being raised as this goes on? It is going to be harder and harder to explain to future generations why we let them get away with it. I was born in 1936. I saw the news reels of the American forces entering the concentration camps at the end of the war. I'll never forget seeing the human skeletons expressing joy as they realized it was over. But was it? Their children and grandchildren had to go through some pretty rough times living with them. The damage was huge and lasting. Things like that do not just go away. The Effects of the Holocaust on the Children of Survivors
According to studies, the long-term effects of the Holocaust on the children of survivors suggest a "psychological profile." Their parents’ suffering may have [led to]a second generation 'complex' characterized by processes that affect identity, self-esteem, interpersonal interactions and worldview.
Why is it necessary to point this out in the context of the present day attrocities? Look below the break to find out.
Even when a new "shaky" ceasefire is in place, it helps to consider the plight of Gaza again.
When this came out last May 30
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has denounced the international community for its "silence and complicity" on what he called Israel's "abominable" 11-month blockade of Gaza.
and
The Archbishop, mainly here on a UN mission to investigate what he called the Beit Hanoun massacre of 21 civilians by Israeli tank shelling 18 months ago, said: "All we had heard about conditions in Gaza – deprivation, a sense of despair, the lack of economic activity – had not prepared us for the stark reality which we saw."
Of course, this gets little response, thanks to "fear of AIPAC." But AIPAC may ultimately be working against Israel's long-term interests, and so are others who support the blockade, which has radicalized more moderates and villainized Israel to more people than any "Islamist" propaganda ever could.
This diary discusses American Jewish Attachment to Israel (pdf), a recent study from social scientists at Brandeis University. One interesting discovery is that, "[t]o the extent that American Jews participate in the broader political culture, the increasingly pro-Israel orientation of the American public likely provided support for specifically Jewish feelings of attachment."
The study also undermines the claim that younger American Jews are becoming less attached to Israel.
In April, a new pro-Israel pro-peace organization called JStreet was launched, to give a voice to the vast majority of American Jews who want to see a peaceful two-state solution in Israel and Palestine, but who were almost always shouted down by a small but far more organized minority on the right.
Unlike other pro-Israel organizations, JStreet has a political action committee (JStreetPac), which can endorse and raise money for candidates. This morning, they released their first round of seven Congressional endorsements, with several netroots candidates making up the list including Steve Cohen, Darcy Burner, and Donna Edwards!
News is breaking that Israel and Hamas have agreed a truce starting this Thursday. The talks took place in Cairo. Egypt is also brokering talks between the two main Palestinian parties, Hamas and Fatah. (Update:Al Jazeerareport that senior Fatah officials have travelled to Gaza to discuss the reconcilliation process with Fatah groups although there are no plans to meet with Hamas as yet.)
The first stage of the deal reportedly reached between Hamas and Israel envisages a halt to hostilities and a partial reopening Gaza's borders.
A second stage of the plan would focus on the return of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and on a deal to reopen the main Rafah crossing into Egypt.
