NOVANEWS

Dear Friends,

Just 5 items tonight, not because there was nothing else to send, but because the initial 3 are relatively long and are important reading.

Item 1 is, to my knowledge, a new and novel way of viewing Israel—‘the oldest dictatorship’ in the Middle East.  I cannot affirm or deny that it is the oldest, not having researched the subject, but can of course affirm that in terms of Palestinians, especially in the West Bank and Gaza, though not only, Israel is clearly a dictatorship.

Item 2 tells us that the arms that the United States supplies Israel are a disincentive to peace.  Very strongly argued and contains important information for Americans, who especially in these difficult financial days should be made aware of what their tax dollars are being used for.

Item 3 is a link to an interview with Mirelle Fanon-Mendes Franz.  Her remarks on Palestinian political prisoners in Israel, on the court system, and on using the international law in our activism are worth reading and passing on further.

Item 4 reports that tens of thousands of Christian worshipers came today to Jerusalem to participate in for Easter Week’s holy fire ceremony.  The report does not mention the absence of Palestinian Christians, many of whom probably did not and could not receive permits to attend.  So much for freedom of religious worship in Israel.

Item 5 is a link to a new item (a video) on Mahsanmilim.  If  you have not yet familiarized yourself with this site, you should.  The word ‘mahsanmilim’ translates into English as ‘warehouse of words,’ and it is indeed a warehouse, in the best sense of the term, containing much information, stories, and videos on items that you are not likely to find, or not easily find elsewhere.  All this thanks to the hard work of 2 women: Aya and Tamar.

All the best,
Dorothy

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1.  Al Jazeera,

21 Apr 2011 16:13

The Middle East’s oldest dictatorship

Al Jazeera’s senior political analayst discusses Israel’s rule over the Palestinians beyond the peace rhetoric.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/201142114189933416.html

Marwan Bishara

Israel’s resolute occupation of Palestinians in not just historic Palestine, but in the West Bank and Gaza Strip specifically, can be considered the oldest quasi-dictatorship in the Middle East, Bishara argues [GALLO/GETTY]

As the conventional wisdom goes – especially in the West – Israel is the “only democracy” in the Middle East. And that is so, particularly for its Jewish citizens. However Israel has been anything but democratic for the indigenous people of the land, the Palestinian Arabs.

By nature and precedence, foreign military occupation is temporary. Colonialism on the other hand, and more precisely civilian colonisation, is a socio-political system of ruling over another people.

Since its inception at the end of the 19th century, Zionism preached self-determination for the Jewish people in “their” homeland. In reality, Israel has directly or indirectly driven Palestinians out of their homeland, confiscated their properties, rejected their right to return to their homeland despite UN resolutions, and occupied and colonised the rest of their homeland for the last four decades.

Throughout, Israeli military and security services ruled over another people against their will. They oppressed, tortured, exploited and robbed the Palestinians of their land, water and most importantly, their freedom. There has been more political prisoners in Israeli jails than any of its neighbours.

In denial over their predicament, Israeli leaders have taken shelter in the illusion of surplus morality.

This was best expressed by late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, who warned the Arabs: “We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.”

A wild illustration of Israeli chutzpah.

Occupation as colonial dictatorship

Unlike other colonial powers and dictatorships in recent memory, Israel took all, but gave nothing in return. The settlements, the bypass roads and the industrial zones it built, are exclusively for Jews.

Israel and its various Zionist organisations have built over 600 towns, villages and other form of settlements for the Jews, but none for the Palestinians – not even those it considers part of its own citizens, who make up almost one-fifth of its population.

And much like other dictatorships, it’s in denial over the damage it has caused to the people under its rule, and delusional over occupation it deems necessary, benevolent, or even divinely promised.

No other dictatorship in the region has been as indifferent and destructive for so long over those it ruled, as the Zionist regime has been in Palestine.

It didn’t hesitate to use lethal, excessive force time and again against those under its occupation. The most recent war crimes have been documented and detailed in various UN reports, including that of Judge Goldstone regarding the 2008/9 war on Gaza, which added or changed little in regards to the reality on the ground.

Like other dictatorships it boasts of sacrificing for peace,  demonises its detractors and oppositions, and justifies any wrong-doing on the basis of national security, order and stability.

Although it preached democracy, Israeli leaders long preferred to deal with autocrats, not only in the Arab world but also in the greater Middle East, as well as in Asia and Africa.

Israeli leadership has lobbied for the Mubarak regime in its last days and reportedly its leaders voiced support for assisting Gaddafi.

The illusion of separation

In spite of the six-decade record of Israel’s joint history with the Palestinians, its leadership and supporters still maintain that Israel is nothing like its neighbours; that it’s a democratic oasis in a sea of totalitarianism; that when it fought its neighbours and ruled over them, it did so against its will.

But regardless of the motivation and justification for the post-1948 or post-1967 wars, the resulting reality can’t be ignored. Indeed, it is politically and academically dishonest and counterproductive to speak of Palestinians and Israelis as two separate social and political landscapes.

Any attempt to understand the nature and the political, economic and social – even religious – evolution of the Israeli state in separation from its colonial dictatorship over another people would be futile at best. In reality, misleading and destructive.

The same goes for the Palestinians. Their national and political evolution over the last century, and to a greater extent of the last six decades, is intertwined with that of Zionism and Israeli dictatorship.

Today, the maximum distance between any Israeli and Palestinian is less than nine miles.

Where is the Palestinian revolution?

It was no coincidence then, that the “Palestinian revolution” emerged following Israel’s 1967 war and occupation, when it defeated its neighbours’ post colonial leaders and their national projects, be it pan-Arab nationalism, Baathism, etc.

As Israel allied itself with the colonial and imperial powers of the time – France, Britain and the United States – the Palestinian revolution – as the Palestinian liberation movement was depicted at the time – was inspired by similar anti-colonial struggles, such as the Algerian FLN against the French colonial dictatorship of their country.

But Cold War polarisation, Arab divisions and its own mistakes and blunders led to the disintegration of the ‘Palestinian revolution’. With the advent of the post-Cold War Peace Process in 1991, the Palestinian liberation movement was finally reduced to spearheading accommodation with Israel’s colonialism.

The domestication of the Palestinian liberation movement by the Peace Process soon led to national divisions leading to armed conflict between the Islamist and secular currents under Hamas and Fatah.

Separated by hundreds of checkpoints, ‘security’ walls and fences, and policed by British/American trained Palestinian forces under the supervision of Israel military and security services, Palestinians today live under multiple levels of military dictatorship and police state.

Alas, the Hamas-controlled, Israeli-choked mini entity in the Gaza Strip doesn’t look much different in reality.

Instead of pursuing their struggle for liberation from dictatorship, ‘Palestine Liberation movement’ and PLO leadership in the West Bank are suppressing Palestinian eagerness to join the Arab revolution’s struggle to bring down the – in this case, colonial – regime.

For two decades, the PLO leadership has looked for salvation in Washington, and when that has proved a pipe-dream, it has decided to go to the UN for a recognition of a Palestinian state.

Come September, the PLO leadership will realise that the end result will, at best, be a state on paper, and its true realisation requiring more of the same diplomacy with Israel. All that assuming Washington wouldn’t veto such a draft resolution.

But regardless of the diplomatic acrobatics, at the end of the day, peace is possible between Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of one state, or two independent states divided by the 1967 borders.

It’s however not tenable nor moral, let alone revolutionary, for the Palestinians to be forced into accommodation or peace with Israel’s occupation or its colonial dictatorship.

Source: Al Jazeera
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2.  Antiwar Forum,

April 23, 2011

US Weapons to Israel Are Disincentives to Peace

http://original.antiwar.com/josh-ruebner/2011/04/22/us-weapons-to-israel-are-disincentives-to-peace/

by Josh Ruebner,

Israel may be forgiven for failing to realize the current fiscal woes of the United States.  After all, U.S. military aid to Israel not only sailed unscathed through last week’s passage of the 2011 budget, but reached the record level of $3 billion.

The United States additionally provided Israel $415 million for procurement, research and development of joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense projects, including $205 million to fund Israel’s newly-deployed Iron Dome system.

This anti-missile battery already has altered significantly the strategic balance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when Israel successfully shot down incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip earlier this month.  With the assured diplomatic backing of the United States to prevent Israel from being held accountable by the international community for its illegal blockade, Iron Dome will embolden Israel to tighten its siege and escalate its attacks on the occupied Gaza Strip by providing its citizens with additional protection against retaliatory fire.

U.S. funding of Iron Dome is but one example of many of how U.S. weapons transfers to Israel privilege Israeli military dominance over Palestinian freedom and create perverse economic disincentives for Israel to defy U.S. policy goals such as halting Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land, ending its collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and negotiating in good faith a lasting peace agreement.

As long as U.S. weapons continue to flow, Israel will feel free to disregard the Obama Administration’s mild blandishments and half-hearted attempts to bring Israel to the negotiating table. Unfortunately this disincentive structure is set to be reinforced over the coming years.

Under a Bush-era agreement, U.S. weapons transfers to Israel are scheduled to total $30 billion from 2009-2018, an annual average increase of 25 percent above previous levels.  With this 2007 Memorandum of Understanding, the United States solidified Israel’s position as the largest recipient of U.S. military aid this decade. In line with increases proposed under this arrangement, President Obama asked for a record-breaking $3.075 billion of weapons for Israel in his 2012 budget request.

A new online database — “How Many Weapons to Israel?” — casts doubt on whether the United States can afford, either morally, financially or politically, to continue transferring weapons to Israel at taxpayer expense without examining the ramifications of this policy.

From 2000-2009, the United States licensed, paid for, and delivered to Israel more than 670 million weapons and related equipment, valued at nearly $19 billion, through three main weapons transfer programs (Foreign Military Sales, Direct Commercial Sales, and Excess Defense Articles).  These weapons transfer programs accounted for nearly 80 percent of the more than $24 billion in military aid appropriated to Israel during these years. The bulk of the remaining money was spent by Israel on its own domestic arms industry, a unique exemption written into law for Israel.  All other countries receiving U.S. military aid are required to spend the whole sum within the United States.

Military aid to Israel ran the gamut from the patently absurd — one used food steamer valued at $2,100 — to the lethal — 93 F-16D fighter jets valued at a total of nearly $2.5 billion.  With nearly 500 categories of weapons transferred to Israel, the United States is pervasively, intricately, and comprehensively involved in arming its military.

These weapons transfers also make the United States deeply complicit in almost every action the Israeli military takes to entrench its illegal 43-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip and the apartheid policies that undergird its government’s stance toward Palestinians.

From September 2000-December 2009, roughly the same period during which the United States transferred these 670 million weapons to Israel, the Israeli military killed at least 2,969 Palestinians, of whom 1,128 were children, who took no part in hostilities, according to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem.

For example, Israel killed 446 unarmed Palestinians, including 149 children, with missiles fired from helicopters.  The Pentagon classifies the number, types, and value of missiles transferred to Israel; however, the United States gave Israel nearly 200 AH-64D Apache, Sikorsky CH-53, and Cobra helicopters from which at least some of these lethal missiles were fired.   It was likely one such U.S.-supplied missile from a U.S.-supplied helicopter that Israel fired in the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on December 29, 2008, which killed five sisters, Jawaher (age 4), Dina (age 7), Samar (age 12), Ikram (age 14), and Tahrir Baulusha (age 17) during an attack on a nearby mosque.

Israel’s misuse of U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses like these against Palestinian civilians should trigger sanctions against, rather than increasing amounts of military aid to, Israel.  The Arms Export Control Act limits the use of U.S. weapons to “internal security” and “legitimate self-defense.”  Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip is defined by the U.S. government as a foreign military occupation, and the killing of thousands of unarmed civilians in support of a military occupation cannot be justified as legitimate without distorting the meaning of self-defense.

In addition, the Foreign Assistance Act strictly prohibits U.S. foreign assistance to any country that “engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”  The State Department’s recently released 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices documents amply, if not comprehensively, Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinians.

As Washington now considers raising the debt ceiling and making even more substantial cuts to the 2012 budget, the moral, financial, and political costs of arming Israel can no longer be ignored.

If the Obama Administration is serious in its efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and genuine in its stated commitment to the universality of human rights, then it must utilize the significant leverage the United States wields over Israel through its military aid program.  By terminating weapons transfers to Israel at least until Israel upholds its obligations under U.S. and international law, ends its illegal military occupation of Palestinian land, and negotiates in good faith a just and lasting peace with Palestinians, the United States can create an incentive structure to achieve its frustrated policy goals.

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3.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/interview-daughter-frantz-fanon-palestine-solidarity/9865

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4. The Washington Post,

April 23, 2011

Israeli police: Tens of thousands of Orthodox Christian pilgrims gather for holy fire ritual

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israeli-police-tens-of-thousands-of-orthodox-christian-pilgrims-gather-for-holy-fire-ritual/2011/04/23/AFlWszTE_story.html

By Associated Press,

JERUSALEM — Israeli police says tens of thousands of Orthodox Christian worshippers are crowding into Christianity’s most sacred shrine for Easter Week’s holy fire ceremony.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is revered as the site where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

Pilgrims from around the world are gathering Saturday for the ritual, when clergy present candles said to be lit from a divine flame. The flame is passed from pilgrim to pilgrim who clutch their own candles.

Police spokesman Shmulik Ben Rubi says around a thousand police officers are deployed to direct foot traffic and prevent stampedes.

A firefighting spokesman says about 10 firefighters are surrounding the church in case of emergency. There is no fire exit in the medieval church.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2011 The Washington Post Company
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5. From Aya and Tamar

New in Mahsanmilim