America is Israel's Partner in the Palestine War
Whether we like it or not, we must begin to see America as a suburb of Israel, and impose on ourselves a comprehensive view of the Middle East which admits that American citizens are shareholders in the occupations and fates of both Iraq and Palestine. The double--or two-front--war we are fighting should, I believe, be called the Iraq-Palestine War because both are expressions of the same hegemony. As long as Americans believe that Israel is solely responsible for the tragedy of Palestine, and that their own country derives no material or political benefit from this annexation, we will never have peace in the Middle East.
I used to think that Palestine was the spoils, the payback, we gave to Israel for being our main proxy in the Middle East. I used to think this was a purely secular and commercial transaction--a land grab that we tacitly supported in return for numerous other favors like taking out Iran's nuclear reactor. I know better now. Israel bombed Iran not only with our tacit consent, but, it can be argued, at our BEHEST.
Look, friends, the London Times revealed Israeli plans for a nuclear assault on Iran's suspected nuclear reactor sites. Of course, Israel denied this. BUT THEY NEVER DENIED THAT THEY HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO CONDUCT THIS ATTACK--IRONICALLY ON A COUNTRY WHICH EVEN THE CIA SAYS POSES NO NUCLEAR THREAT. Add to this the recent American fleet buildup in the Gulf and you have a joint American-Israel military exercise in full-dominance brinkmanship. Israel and America risk every life in the Middle East and Central Asia with this insane neocon/Likkudist bullying. This bullying is a tandem operation.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL AS AN OBJECT OF RELIGIOUS ADORATION
As a result of recent spiraling events, I see Palestine differently. To me, what is occurring is much more psychotic and terrifying than mere plunder. Please hear me out:
There is an angry, addled axis of religious fervor at work and play in America: the Christian-controlled Right and the Jewish-controlled Left. Our democracy has been taken hostage by religious minorities. Not surprisingly, the Jewish-controlled Left has done a far better job of controlling the spin on Palestine than the Christian-controlled Right has on Iraq--without, as far as I know, tapping a single phone. Maybe that's because American lives are lost in Iraq and, except for Rachel Corrie, only Israeli lives are lost in Palestine.
Want proof of Jewish lobby spin control?
Just look at the unrelentingly deceptive and defamatory attacks on Jimmy Carter and his Palestine book. No book that is as, or even more, critical of Iraq has taken such a beating. Indeed, the book stores are crowded with well-reasoned celebrity excoriations of the Bush/Neocon/Likkudist Middle Eastern Strategy. But one celebrity critique of Palestine is regarded as as much of a threat by the Jewish Lobby as a movie on the Virgin Birth would be (and, in the case of Jean Luc Godard, was) by the Catholic Church. Once religious forces become involved, things get murderously murky. Therefore I conclude: Intervention is needed as much in Israel as America. If we can brandish sanctions on Iran for an imaginary threat and North Korea for a pipsqueak nuclear arsenal, then isn't it rank hypocrisy to let Israel menace the world with a manifestly real nuclear arsenal? The same public that has risen up against the occupation of Iraq must rise up against the occupation of Palestine. Otherwise our leaders, and Israel's, will not listen.
It is my conviction that the subject of Palestine must be bathed in as much hard light as Iraq if the Middle East crisis is to have a just solution. If you look at both war zones, you will see certain fixed similarities that make them templates for each other. Start with the occupying armies of America and Israel--the world's two most active, belligerent nulcear powers.
ISRAEL & AMERICA: THE GERMANY & ITALY OF THE NEW CENTURY
Has it dawned on anyone how much the American-Israel axis resembles the German-Italian axis of WWII? Sadly, or maybe blessedly, America is Italy's twin. Right now, and for some time, America's army has been pinned down and largely ineffective. Israel, on the other hand, is as methodically efficient and ruthlessly successful at civilian pacification as the Germans. Yeah, some suicide bombers occasionally blow themselves up and lots of innocent civilians (although I hardly think West Bank land squatters and Gaza interlopers are entirely innocent) get killed.
Resistance is to be expected. If there were no Fatah or Hamas, Israel would invent them. In fact, there is evidence that Israel did finance Hamas as an anti-PLO force in its early days. Now I know my Jewish friends will be enraged by this suggestion. But that's what colonialists and imperialist do. Just think of Iran-Contra. Do you think Israel is above playing the same counter-insurgency games? I don't.
Rule of thumb: The Right Always Needs The Left. You always need Communists to blame for Reichstag fires. Israel's government provokes and then uses the resistance to justify more land confiscation, arrests and assassinations. Nazi Germany taught Israel well. Too well.
ISRAEL, ISRAEL, UBER ALLES
And now we come to the karmic part of this sequel, the part that makes it so excruciatingly personal for me.
I'm a Jew who has come to the sad conclusion that ethnic identity and nationalist garrison states are perpetuations of the hatred and oppression that beget them. Consequently, I no longer subscribe to a two-state solution, since Palestine is now 10% of the size it was supposed to be. I BELIEVE IN A ONE-STATE SOLUTION--WITH ALL LANDS AND RESOURCES SHARED, EVEN IF IT MUST BE IN A SERIES OF ETHNIC CANTONS.
A one-state solution offers Palestinians the only way to get their fair share of sovereignty and opportunity. It is the only way Israel (and America) will be forced to make reparations: they will be rebuilding the state of, for want of a better name, Palesrael. And the big bonus of unification will be that an Arab-Israeli joint democracy will serve as role model for the rest of the Middle East and, who knows, the world. Think of the positive implications of Jewish-Christian-Muslim power sharing in the new state of Palesrael. I see no other way. Nationalism and democracy are incompatible, if not inimical.
So now, in preparation for the discussion of Jimmy Carter's book on Palestine tomorrow night at St. Asaph's Church, I'll let you hear from Jimmy Carter himself. This is a letter he sent to the Boston Globe which was published December 20th. Let it serve as a Cliff Notes to his book for all those of you who plan to attend but will not be able to read it in time. Let it also serve as rebuttal to the scandalous attacks of Alan Dershowitz and what Pat Bucahana calls "the AIPAC poodles."
Reiterating the keys to peace
By Jimmy Carter December 20, 2006
MY BOOK "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" was published last month, expressing my assessment of circumstances in the occupied territories and prescribing a course of action that offers a path to permanent peace for Israel and its neighbors. My knowledge of the subject is based on visits to the area during the past 33 years, my detailed study and personal involvement in peace talks as president, and my leadership role in monitoring the Palestinian elections of 1996, 2005, and 2006.
Some major points in the book are:
Multiple deaths of innocent civilians have occurred on both sides, and this violence and all terrorism must cease.
For 39 years, Israel has occupied Palestinian land, and has confiscated and colonized hundreds of choice sites.
Often excluded from their former homes, land, and places of worship, protesting Palestinians have been severely dominated and oppressed. There is forced segregation between Israeli settlers and Palestine's citizens, with a complex pass system required for Arabs to traverse Israel's multiple checkpoints.
An enormous wall snakes through populated areas of what is left of the West Bank, constructed on wide swaths of bulldozed trees and property of Arab families, obviously designed to acquire more territory and to protect the Israeli colonies already built. (Hamas declared a unilateral cease-fire in August 2004 as its candidates sought local and then national offices, which they claim is the reason for reductions in casualties to Israeli citizens.)
Combined with this wall, Israeli control of the Jordan River Valley will completely enclose Palestinians in their shrunken and divided territory. Gaza is surrounded by a similar barrier with only two openings, still controlled by Israel. The crowded citizens have no free access to the outside world by air, sea, or land.
The Palestinian people are now being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42 percent voted for Hamas candidates in this year's election. Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees cannot be paid, and the UN has reported food supplies in Gaza equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa, with half the families surviving on one meal a day.
Mahmoud Abbas, first as prime minister and now as president of the Palestinian National Authority and leader of the PLO, has sought to negotiate with Israel for almost six years, without success. Hamas leaders support such negotiations, promising to accept the results if approved by a Palestinian referendum.
UN Resolutions, the Camp David Accords of 1978, the Oslo Agreement of 1993, official US Policy, and the International Roadmap for Peace are all based on the premise that Israel withdraw from occupied territories. Also, Palestinians must accept the same commitment made by the 23 Arab nations in 2002: to recognize Israel's right to live in peace within its legal borders. These are the two keys to peace.
Not surprisingly, an examination of the book reviews and published comments reveals that these points have rarely if ever been mentioned by detractors of the book, much less denied or refuted. Instead, there has been a pattern of ad hominem statements, alleging that I am a liar, plagiarist, anti-Semite, racist, bigot, ignorant, etc. There are frequent denunciations of fabricated "straw man" accusations: that I have claimed that apartheid exists within Israel; that the system of apartheid in Palestine is based on racism; and that Jews control and manipulate the news media of America.
As recommended by the Hamilton-Baker report, renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are a prime factor in promoting peace in the region. Although my book concentrates on the Palestinian territories, I noted that the report also recommended peace talks with Syria concerning the Golan Heights. Both recommendations have been rejected by Israel's prime minister.
It is practically impossible for bitter antagonists to arrange a time, place, agenda, and procedures that are mutually acceptable, so an outside instigator/promoter is necessary. Successful peace talks were orchestrated by the United States in 1978-79 and by Norway in 1993. If the American government is reluctant to assume such a unilateral responsibility, then an alternative is the International Quartet (United States, Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union) -- still with American leadership.
An overwhelming majority of citizens of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine want peace, with justice for all who live in the Holy Land. It will be a shame if the world community fails to help them reach this goal.
Former US president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
I used to think that Palestine was the spoils, the payback, we gave to Israel for being our main proxy in the Middle East. I used to think this was a purely secular and commercial transaction--a land grab that we tacitly supported in return for numerous other favors like taking out Iran's nuclear reactor. I know better now. Israel bombed Iran not only with our tacit consent, but, it can be argued, at our BEHEST.
Look, friends, the London Times revealed Israeli plans for a nuclear assault on Iran's suspected nuclear reactor sites. Of course, Israel denied this. BUT THEY NEVER DENIED THAT THEY HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO CONDUCT THIS ATTACK--IRONICALLY ON A COUNTRY WHICH EVEN THE CIA SAYS POSES NO NUCLEAR THREAT. Add to this the recent American fleet buildup in the Gulf and you have a joint American-Israel military exercise in full-dominance brinkmanship. Israel and America risk every life in the Middle East and Central Asia with this insane neocon/Likkudist bullying. This bullying is a tandem operation.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL AS AN OBJECT OF RELIGIOUS ADORATION
As a result of recent spiraling events, I see Palestine differently. To me, what is occurring is much more psychotic and terrifying than mere plunder. Please hear me out:
There is an angry, addled axis of religious fervor at work and play in America: the Christian-controlled Right and the Jewish-controlled Left. Our democracy has been taken hostage by religious minorities. Not surprisingly, the Jewish-controlled Left has done a far better job of controlling the spin on Palestine than the Christian-controlled Right has on Iraq--without, as far as I know, tapping a single phone. Maybe that's because American lives are lost in Iraq and, except for Rachel Corrie, only Israeli lives are lost in Palestine.
Want proof of Jewish lobby spin control?
Just look at the unrelentingly deceptive and defamatory attacks on Jimmy Carter and his Palestine book. No book that is as, or even more, critical of Iraq has taken such a beating. Indeed, the book stores are crowded with well-reasoned celebrity excoriations of the Bush/Neocon/Likkudist Middle Eastern Strategy. But one celebrity critique of Palestine is regarded as as much of a threat by the Jewish Lobby as a movie on the Virgin Birth would be (and, in the case of Jean Luc Godard, was) by the Catholic Church. Once religious forces become involved, things get murderously murky. Therefore I conclude: Intervention is needed as much in Israel as America. If we can brandish sanctions on Iran for an imaginary threat and North Korea for a pipsqueak nuclear arsenal, then isn't it rank hypocrisy to let Israel menace the world with a manifestly real nuclear arsenal? The same public that has risen up against the occupation of Iraq must rise up against the occupation of Palestine. Otherwise our leaders, and Israel's, will not listen.
It is my conviction that the subject of Palestine must be bathed in as much hard light as Iraq if the Middle East crisis is to have a just solution. If you look at both war zones, you will see certain fixed similarities that make them templates for each other. Start with the occupying armies of America and Israel--the world's two most active, belligerent nulcear powers.
ISRAEL & AMERICA: THE GERMANY & ITALY OF THE NEW CENTURY
Has it dawned on anyone how much the American-Israel axis resembles the German-Italian axis of WWII? Sadly, or maybe blessedly, America is Italy's twin. Right now, and for some time, America's army has been pinned down and largely ineffective. Israel, on the other hand, is as methodically efficient and ruthlessly successful at civilian pacification as the Germans. Yeah, some suicide bombers occasionally blow themselves up and lots of innocent civilians (although I hardly think West Bank land squatters and Gaza interlopers are entirely innocent) get killed.
Resistance is to be expected. If there were no Fatah or Hamas, Israel would invent them. In fact, there is evidence that Israel did finance Hamas as an anti-PLO force in its early days. Now I know my Jewish friends will be enraged by this suggestion. But that's what colonialists and imperialist do. Just think of Iran-Contra. Do you think Israel is above playing the same counter-insurgency games? I don't.
Rule of thumb: The Right Always Needs The Left. You always need Communists to blame for Reichstag fires. Israel's government provokes and then uses the resistance to justify more land confiscation, arrests and assassinations. Nazi Germany taught Israel well. Too well.
ISRAEL, ISRAEL, UBER ALLES
And now we come to the karmic part of this sequel, the part that makes it so excruciatingly personal for me.
I'm a Jew who has come to the sad conclusion that ethnic identity and nationalist garrison states are perpetuations of the hatred and oppression that beget them. Consequently, I no longer subscribe to a two-state solution, since Palestine is now 10% of the size it was supposed to be. I BELIEVE IN A ONE-STATE SOLUTION--WITH ALL LANDS AND RESOURCES SHARED, EVEN IF IT MUST BE IN A SERIES OF ETHNIC CANTONS.
A one-state solution offers Palestinians the only way to get their fair share of sovereignty and opportunity. It is the only way Israel (and America) will be forced to make reparations: they will be rebuilding the state of, for want of a better name, Palesrael. And the big bonus of unification will be that an Arab-Israeli joint democracy will serve as role model for the rest of the Middle East and, who knows, the world. Think of the positive implications of Jewish-Christian-Muslim power sharing in the new state of Palesrael. I see no other way. Nationalism and democracy are incompatible, if not inimical.
So now, in preparation for the discussion of Jimmy Carter's book on Palestine tomorrow night at St. Asaph's Church, I'll let you hear from Jimmy Carter himself. This is a letter he sent to the Boston Globe which was published December 20th. Let it serve as a Cliff Notes to his book for all those of you who plan to attend but will not be able to read it in time. Let it also serve as rebuttal to the scandalous attacks of Alan Dershowitz and what Pat Bucahana calls "the AIPAC poodles."
Reiterating the keys to peace
By Jimmy Carter December 20, 2006
MY BOOK "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" was published last month, expressing my assessment of circumstances in the occupied territories and prescribing a course of action that offers a path to permanent peace for Israel and its neighbors. My knowledge of the subject is based on visits to the area during the past 33 years, my detailed study and personal involvement in peace talks as president, and my leadership role in monitoring the Palestinian elections of 1996, 2005, and 2006.
Some major points in the book are:
Multiple deaths of innocent civilians have occurred on both sides, and this violence and all terrorism must cease.
For 39 years, Israel has occupied Palestinian land, and has confiscated and colonized hundreds of choice sites.
Often excluded from their former homes, land, and places of worship, protesting Palestinians have been severely dominated and oppressed. There is forced segregation between Israeli settlers and Palestine's citizens, with a complex pass system required for Arabs to traverse Israel's multiple checkpoints.
An enormous wall snakes through populated areas of what is left of the West Bank, constructed on wide swaths of bulldozed trees and property of Arab families, obviously designed to acquire more territory and to protect the Israeli colonies already built. (Hamas declared a unilateral cease-fire in August 2004 as its candidates sought local and then national offices, which they claim is the reason for reductions in casualties to Israeli citizens.)
Combined with this wall, Israeli control of the Jordan River Valley will completely enclose Palestinians in their shrunken and divided territory. Gaza is surrounded by a similar barrier with only two openings, still controlled by Israel. The crowded citizens have no free access to the outside world by air, sea, or land.
The Palestinian people are now being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42 percent voted for Hamas candidates in this year's election. Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees cannot be paid, and the UN has reported food supplies in Gaza equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa, with half the families surviving on one meal a day.
Mahmoud Abbas, first as prime minister and now as president of the Palestinian National Authority and leader of the PLO, has sought to negotiate with Israel for almost six years, without success. Hamas leaders support such negotiations, promising to accept the results if approved by a Palestinian referendum.
UN Resolutions, the Camp David Accords of 1978, the Oslo Agreement of 1993, official US Policy, and the International Roadmap for Peace are all based on the premise that Israel withdraw from occupied territories. Also, Palestinians must accept the same commitment made by the 23 Arab nations in 2002: to recognize Israel's right to live in peace within its legal borders. These are the two keys to peace.
Not surprisingly, an examination of the book reviews and published comments reveals that these points have rarely if ever been mentioned by detractors of the book, much less denied or refuted. Instead, there has been a pattern of ad hominem statements, alleging that I am a liar, plagiarist, anti-Semite, racist, bigot, ignorant, etc. There are frequent denunciations of fabricated "straw man" accusations: that I have claimed that apartheid exists within Israel; that the system of apartheid in Palestine is based on racism; and that Jews control and manipulate the news media of America.
As recommended by the Hamilton-Baker report, renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are a prime factor in promoting peace in the region. Although my book concentrates on the Palestinian territories, I noted that the report also recommended peace talks with Syria concerning the Golan Heights. Both recommendations have been rejected by Israel's prime minister.
It is practically impossible for bitter antagonists to arrange a time, place, agenda, and procedures that are mutually acceptable, so an outside instigator/promoter is necessary. Successful peace talks were orchestrated by the United States in 1978-79 and by Norway in 1993. If the American government is reluctant to assume such a unilateral responsibility, then an alternative is the International Quartet (United States, Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union) -- still with American leadership.
An overwhelming majority of citizens of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine want peace, with justice for all who live in the Holy Land. It will be a shame if the world community fails to help them reach this goal.
Former US president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
posted by David Federman @ 12:19 PM
3 Comments:
At 9:58 AM,
A.E.S. said…
Please stop wallowing in self-hatred for a moment and think about the damage your cowardly Blog is doing to the Jewish community. You have embraced every single anti-semitic cliche here. You are encouraging the worst elements in the Middle East. You don't want peace, you want more death and destruction visited upon Israel.
Shame on you!
At 6:16 PM,
Canadianwithopinion said…
ritmo's right
At 3:25 AM,
Ade said…
Thanks for your blog, just discard any insulted comment here... Ask them to go to the war place or to the burned hospital in Palestine and then come back here and say that your blog is coward..
If this blog is coward so what title we should give to UNITED NATION?
What damage could brought by this blog rather than the BOM from Israeli?
Yes,this blog could bring hatred to someone that narrow minded but also could deliver key message to the other, is not worth compare to thousand of children which is dying over there?
If you could not doing something to help them, just a little sympathy would very pleasure for them.
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