Jimmy Carter dared write a book tagging Israeli intransigence on settlements as a key detriment to a land settlement in Palestine. Moreover, he likened a rump Palestinian state -- rife with road blocks, checkpoints, roads forbidden to Palestinians, and bounded by a fence -- to apartheid. Both of these positions are common enough in the rough-and-tumble world of Israeli politics. Either would be hard to refute.
Here in the U.S., though, they're beyond the pale and tantamount to anti-semitism. That's insane -- and it doesn't serve the long-term interests of Israel one whit.
Israel's friends are managing to cause it more damage than its foes, I fear -- a tendency I witnessed here when Paul Hue insensibly praised Ariel Sharon's visit to Temple Mount with a a bunch of armed thugs as an act of tolerance. Sharon is a war criminal; Israel's friends do themselves and their cause no credit by throwing their lot with him. Americans would likely react with rage if Osama bin Laden showed up at Ground Zero with a crew of armed henchmen, would they not?
The way of Sharon is the way of the assassins; His activities only pleased and energized the hardline enemies of Israel who want to push it into the sea, and demoralized and marginalized those who want peaceful coexistence. This sad pattern is now playing out in Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands are massed in the streets in support of Hezbolla, enraged by Israel's ham-fisted attempt to demolish Hezbolla by force. (Urged on, we now know, by that great statesperson Condoleeza Rice.)
"Now is the time of the assassins." --Rimbaud
But it doesn't have to be that way. Everyone who supports Israel should support Carter.
4 comments:
Polls in Israel have shown that the majority of Israelis share Carter's views about their nation's policies toward settlements in Palestine.
Why does US policy side most often with right-wing thugs and hardliners instead of with the people? This is true in Israel, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Cuba, the Congo, Haiti and any number of nations around the globe.
Most humans just want peace, and we don't mind if others have peace as well. Live and let live. It is those who believe they have a right to more than their fair share who cause most of the problems in our world.
The political system in the United States is infested with these people. They are vermin. Rats, cockroaches, parasites...
It's a shame that so many otherwise thoughtful people fall victim to their rhetoric and join the rat race.
Tom: All of your assertions would enjoy validity if but for one fact: all of what you charge Israel's government and its leaders for constitute reactions to attempts to annihilate them. That is quite different than Apartheid South Africa, for example, or Bin Laden and 911.
The Afrikaners had never sought to include blacks as full participating citizens in South Africa. Thus Apartied was not a reaction to blacks seeking to eradicate a state which would have otherwise included them. The Israeli govt has road blocks and walls in order to protect themselves from people working tirelessly to eliminate a govt that would otherwise include non-Jews as full citizens.
Also with Sharon's hideous actions: unlike Bin Laden, who attacked a US which was not trying to eliminate freedom in Arabia, Sharon was responding to those same forces of wanton destruction.
Now that you have reminded me of Sharon's action in Lebanon, I suppose you could convince me that that *he* in particular should not go to that one mythical temple which supposedly the Jews founded, then the Roman Catholic invaders built upon, and then Islamic invaders in turn built upon.
"All of your assertions would enjoy validity if but for one fact: all of what you charge Israel's government and its leaders for constitute reactions to attempts to annihilate them."
How is building settlements on occupied territory a reaction to attempts to annihilate Israel? That single act is an attempt to make permanent the ill-gotten gains of aggressive, imperial warfare.
"Also with Sharon's hideous actions: unlike Bin Laden, who attacked a US which was not trying to eliminate freedom in Arabia..."
Those who oppose US support of totalitarian regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Pakistan would disagree with you on this.
"Now that you have reminded me of Sharon's action in Lebanon, I suppose you could convince me that that *he* in particular should not go to that one mythical temple which supposedly the Jews founded, then the Roman Catholic invaders built upon, and then Islamic invaders in turn built upon."
None of these historical factoids excuse the unethical treatment of Palestinians.
Nadir writes: ================
How is building settlements on occupied territory a reaction to attempts to annihilate Israel?
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They are building a buffer between hostile surroundings and their nation. I am sure that some very retarded and very small minority of Isreali Jews believe that god "gave" them much more land than the current borders of Isreal, and they are trying to take all that land. But the majority of Isreali Jews I believe only want a modest sliver of Arabia as a functioning civilization that affords guaranteed immigration and citizenship to Jews, and grants full democratic rights to everybody else.
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