“However, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Andy David called the protest ‘a provocative joke that isn’t funny’”.
“’It is unfortunate that there are all kinds of organizations involved in provocations that contribute nothing and certainly don’t contribute to any kind of agreement,’ he said.” [Jewish activists sail to Gaza, item 4]
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Hi Everyone,
4 items in this message, none very long or taxing.
The one that opens the list is a commentary which argues that Israel can be either a Jewish state or an Israeli democracy, but can’t be both.
Item 2 touches a subject that I have mostly avoided: the present so-called peace talks. I have not commented on them not only because I feel that they will lead to nothing (would be glad to be proven wrong), but also because I hope to inform, not to speculate. If the talks should lead to peace, I’ll be only too delighted to admit that my doubts were out of place.
But . ..
Nevertheless, the 2nd piece is by Sam Bahour, a Palestinian who was born in the US and raised there, but returned with big hopes to Palestine after the Oslo Agreements got under way. I respect Sam’s opinion, which is not in this case different from mine, but he is Palestinian, and I think that his analysis is worth listening to.
The 2 final items are reports—item 3 about another shooting in the West Bank. This time though 2 cars were apparently aimed at, only one person was lightly injured, a pregnant woman. I don’t think that the Palestinians can win by using violence. But then even when they oppose the theft of their lands and of their country by non-violent means the land theft continues. Nonetheless, non-violent means combined with Israel’s attack on Gaza and the attack on the Mavi Marmara have gained more sympathy for the Palestinians, and non-violent opposition to the Occupation might in time bear fruit. I just don’t think that violence will bring the Palestinians anything except Israeli violence in return. I hope that we can avoid that circle of violence by making progress towards a one democratic state solution.
The final brief report is BBC’s on the small boat containing Jews on its way to Gaza. I scanned the major British and American newspapers to see which were carrying the news, only to find that apart from BBC the news was remarkable by its absence. The comments at the head of this page are from item 4, and express the same government attitude as was evidenced with the Mavi Marmara.
I guess that the news was absent from the newspapers because the end of the building moratorium was bigger news. That was in all the papers. Israeli TV news published the big party at Revava to celebrate the end of the moratorium and the resumption of building. Actually, Revava had nothing to celebrate: it had continued building all along. I have watched this colony over the years develop from a bunch of caravans into a town not only of single family homes but also of multiple family homes. I have seen how it stole the land from the people of Hares. I remember when one family was told (about 5 years ago) that it should sell its land to the colonist, because if the family refused to sell (as it did), the colony would eventually take the land (which it did). This, my friends, is Israel! If others cared enough to end the theft of Palestinian land, it would not happen.
Would you like to lose your home and property to thieves?
Dorothy
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Haaretz,
September 26, 2010
A Jewish state or an Israeli democracy?
Benjamin Netanyahu is unsure of his identity: His insecurity is behind his pointless demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as uniquely Jewish.
A Jewish state or an Israeli democracy? In the talks that appear to be taking place between Israel and the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked his negotiating partner to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. One can understand the prime minister: A man so little observant of the Jewish religious tradition is unsure of his Jewish identity, hence his insecurity about the identity of his state – and the need to seek validation from our neighbors.
There’s far too little criticism in Israel of this latest whim, which until recently was absent from Israeli diplomacy. For years, Israel struggled to be recognized by the Arab world. But in March 2002, when the Arab League and the Muslim world took up the Saudi initiative to recognize Israel within its 1967 borders, a new threat appeared: peace, which can fragment the Jewish character of the state from within, and rightfully so.
There’s a wall-to-wall consensus, from Yisrael Beiteinu to Meretz, from enlightened journalists to learned professors, on Israel’s definition as a Jewish state. But this definition strikingly resembles the definition of Iran as an Islamic republic or the United States as a Christian country. True, some American evangelists believe that the United States’ Christian character is at risk and seek to cement it in legislation. But the United States, like the rest of the enlightened world, still sees itself as belonging to all its citizens, regardless of religion and creed.
Most Israelis would respond to this by saying Judaism and Jewishness represent not a religion but a people, so Israel must belong not to all its citizens but to the Jews of the world, who, as we know, prefer not to live here.
Strange, I didn’t know you could only join a people via religious conversion and not by taking part in its day-to-day culture. But perhaps there’s a secular Jewish people-culture I’m not aware of? Maybe Woody Allen, Philip Roth and others are secretly well-versed in the Hebrew language, cinema, literature and theater? For me, the best definition of belonging to a people is the ability to recognize the name of at least one soccer team competing in the local leagues.
The trouble is that the Zionist enterprise, which created a new people here, is far from satisfied with its creation and prefers to see it as a bastard. It prefers to cling to the idea of a Jewish people-race, profiting for now from its imaginary existence. We should remember that the strong solidarity among evangelical Christians and the partnership in faith among members of the Bahai faith still doesn’t make them peoples or nations.
Rahm Emanuel, as we know, belongs to the American people, and Bernard Kouchner belongs to the French people. But if tomorrow the United States decides to define itself as an Anglo-Saxon rather than an American state, or France seeks recognition not as a French but as a Gallic-Catholic republic, both men will have to immigrate to Israel.
I’m sure many of us wish for that. This is yet another reason for the insistence Israel is the state of the Jewish people and not an Israeli democracy.
Since not all the non-Jews among us can identify with their state, what they have left is identifying with the Palestinian Authority, Hamas or the movie “Avatar,” and perhaps demand tomorrow that the Galilee, which as we know does not have a Jewish majority, will be the Kosovo of the Middle East.
The writer is a history professor at Tel Aviv University.
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As a Palestinian-American father of two daughters living in Al-Bireh, the twin city of Ramallah, no one on this earth more than I wish for Palestinians and Israelis to reach a lasting peace agreement. I suspect that the overwhelming majority of Israeli parents feel the same; I know my Israeli friends do. I would even expect that many of those Israeli settler parents who live on those military garrisons of confiscated lands that pepper West Bank hilltops feel the same too. But wishing in a vacuum artificially raises expectations that hurt even harder every time they come crashing to the ground to meet reality.
The facts on the ground are bitter, very bitter. To extract the region from never-ending turmoil to that of permanent stability and normalcy much more self-reflection will need to be made by all the parties involved.
I’ll start with my own side, the Palestinians. In 1948 Palestinians were dispossessed from 78 percent of our homeland, 60 percent of Palestinians are internally displaced or dwell in refugee camps just hours from their homes and properties, 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza survive under siege conditions, hundreds of thousands have been illegally detained or assassinated by Israel, and the economy is micro-managed by a foreign military that is underwritten by donor countries. The Palestinian negotiating team claims to be a legitimate leadership but there is not one functioning institutional body that can genuinely claim to be the source of their self-defined legitimacy.
For its part, Israel is not in much better of a position. Its government is comprised of a toxic coalition that mixes neo-conservatism with Jewish fundamentalism and lives on the verge of daily collapse. The Israeli society is using the word fascism more and more to depict the direction of Israeli politics. During the last few years, past Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and current Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak both spoke of “Apartheid” as being the direction in which Israel is heading. Israel’s four decade military occupation has corrupted Israeli society to the bone; the military itself was one of the first victims but the society at large has not been spared. The settler enterprise has Israel in a bear hug that has the power to bring serious chaos to all walks of Israeli life. The ultra-orthodox community is hugging Israel from the other side with the same vengeance. To save Israel from itself Israel needs a lasting agreement more than any time since its founding.
Finally, and most damaging to the prospects of peace is the United States. Never being a neutral mediator and always using Israel for its own geostrategic plans the U.S. refuses to release its monopoly on the Palestinian-Israel issue. While it arms, funds and diplomatically covers for one side, it murmurs words of peace out of half of its mouth to the other.
The U.S. has tremendous leverage that could be used if it was truly serious about bringing the region closer to peace, but ultimately, it will be the Palestinians and Israelis that must come to bear the consequences of an end to the conflict. That quest for an end of conflict will be served up on a platter of international law or on a battlefield of the law of the jungle.
Illusionary peace negotiations can only lead to a hallucinated peace.
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Haaretz ,
September 26, 2010
Pregnant Israeli woman lightly wounded in West Bank shooting
Palestinian gunmen open fire on two cars near Hebron, in third shooting attack in less than a month; no militant group claims responsibility.
Palestinian gunmen opened fire on two Israeli cars near the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday evening, lightly wounding a pregnant woman.
The woman drove herself to the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva with a gunshot wound to her leg. The second car targeted by the gunmen evaded fire altogether.
No militant group has claimed responsibility yet for the shooting and police were still searching for the gunmen’s car. The attack occurred just hours before Israel’s temporary construction freeze in West Bank settlements was set to expire.
On August 31, four Israelis were killed after Hamas terrorists opened fire on their cars on Route 60 in the West Bank. The four victims were residents of the Beit Hagai settlement.
In a separate attack a day leader, two Israelis were wounded – one of them seriously – when Palestinian gunman ambushed their car near the settlement of Kochav Hashachar, east of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
That spate of shootings coincided with the launch of U.S.-backed direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in Washington. The Islamist Palestinian faction Hamas have come out vocally against the talks, claiming responsibility for the shooting attacks and warning of further attack.
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BBC News Sunday, September 26, 2010
Last updated at 15:54 GMT
Jewish activists sail to Gaza in defiance of blockade
Aid supplies on board the boat include nets for Gaza’s fishing community A boat carrying a group of Jewish activists has set sail from northern Cyprus aiming to breach Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The 10m (32-foot) catamaran is carrying supplies including medical equipment, textbooks, nets and children’s toys.
The activists – from Israel, the US, Germany and the UK – say they will not resist if Israel tries to stop them.
Earlier this year, Israeli commandos killed nine people in clashes on board a Turkish ship trying to reach Gaza.
The boat, named Irene, set sail on Sunday under a British flag with 10 passengers and crew. It could take up to 36 hours to reach the Gazan coast.
Richard Kuper, a member of the UK-based organising group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said the boat was a symbolic act of protest and also a message of solidarity to “Palestinians and Israelis who seek peace and justice”.
“This is a non-violent action,” he said.
“We aim to reach Gaza, but our activists will not engage in any physical confrontation and will therefore not present the Israelis with any reason or excuse to use physical force or assault them.”
Among the activists is 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Reuven Moskovitz.
“It is a sacred duty for me, as a [Holocaust] survivor, to protest against the persecution, the oppression and the imprisonment of so many people in Gaza, including more than 800,000 children,” he said.
Another passenger is Rami Elhanan, 60, an Israeli whose daughter Smadar died in a suicide bombing at a shopping centre in Jerusalem in 1997.
He said reconciliation with the Palestinians was the surest path to peace.
“Those 1.5 million people in Gaza are victims exactly as I am,” he said.
However, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Andy David called the protest “a provocative joke that isn’t funny”.
“It is unfortunate that there are all kinds of organisations involved in provocations that contribute nothing and certainly don’t contribute to any kind of agreement,” he said.
“If they were serious about wanting to transfer aid to Gaza, they could easily do so after undergoing a screening for smuggled weaponry.”
