How can a pro-Israel solution also be a pro-Palestine solution?

Islam and the West

02 Mar 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com

How can a pro-Israel solution also be a pro-Palestine solution?

The Israelis have long gone past the point of making a peace deal, or sharing a land with the Palestinians.  By their conduct they have forfeited all and any rights they might have had, even by their own warped codes… Their willingness to "settle" by giving back less than half of what they have stolen is a good tactic, which appears to give them the moral high ground of benevolence, but one is not being benevolent when they only return less than half of what they stole. -- Debbie Menon URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1219 ---------------------------------------------------    How can a pro-Israel solution also be a pro-Palestine solution?   By Debbie Menon    The Israelis have long gone past the point of making a peace deal, or sharing a land with the Palestinians.  By their conduct they have forfeited all and any rights they might have had, even by their own warped codes.   Leading Israeli Scholar Avi Shlaim says in his interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, that  Israel is committing "State Terror" in Gaza, preventing peace.   Avi Shlaim makes excellent points, but he neglects to mention that Israel and its US lobbies (through money and media) have an absolute lock on this, and all other Middle East, issues. Anything Obama did with Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iran that is not in accordance with the neo-Zionist interests, would be a political kiss of death for him. AIPAC & company would go all out to ruin him, and they would succeed.   That is why Obama and all other presidential contenders make pilgrimages to Jerusalem, to pledge their fealty to the State of Israel   To commence talks with Hamas is essential as former US President Jimmy Carter advocates, but:   The talks must be more than a monologue.  They must also involve listening to, hearing and understanding what Hamas has to say.  They should not be based on the premise that Hamas is a "Terrorist" organization which has stolen Gaza from the Fatah,  but that Hamas, like it or not, was elected to office in an election promoted and monitored by the United States, and has a legitimate claim to be the government of Palestine.   I doubt that Israel will accept the second condition under any terms, unless they abandon the strategy they have followed for sixty years ever since they were given the stolen goods called Palestine.    It is not consistent with total political Israeli dominance in the territory.  In other words, "negotiation" and "dialogue for peace" does not exist in the Israeli diplomatic lexicon.  "Dictation" is the only term they know and will settle for.   The US monologue with Hamas will open with "lay down your arms, desist of your terrorist activities, and stop rocketing Israel and we will tell Israel to stop bombing you."  Of course, Hamas, having been led, and having seen the PLO being led down that blind alley and after being mugged every evening for sixty years now, is not going to accept that, any more readily than Israel is going to accept Hamas as a legitimate negotiator.   Israel will insist that Hamas disarm, and will refuse to disarm themselves under the right of self-defense, to which they will claim Hamas and Palestine have no claim or need, since Israel will be their guarantor of Peace.   Like I said, Palestinians have been mugged on this alley before.   So, we may have another truce, which will be called a successful Obama/Clinton Peace victory, and it will last about as long as the others.   When you look at your chess board and see that you are the only one with the Royal pieces, and all the other guy has are pawns, you do not negotiate the game with him, except to offer him a chance to concede unconditionally!  You just take his pawns.    A Muslim reader writes to me, "I am Member of many progressive organizations in US; one of them is J Street which is a Jewish organization. There was a piece in 60 minutes about the Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestine and the following is the reaction to the reaction of fundamentalist Jews in the US to that broadcast:  Dear Member:   When 60 Minutes and Bob Simon came under attack for "anti-Israel bias" for their powerful and thoughtful report on the danger that Israeli settlements pose to the chances for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we leapt into action.   Together, we collected over 15,000 letters of support for 60 Minutes.   Last week, I went with two J Street supporters to bring your letters of support to the CBS offices in New York City and took a few pictures. Click here to view a slideshow of pictures from our letter delivery.   I've also pasted three moving letters to Bob Simon from J Street members at the bottom of this email. I hope you'll take a look.   Thanks again for participating in our action alert - and I'll be in touch soon with ways you can advocate for a pro-Israel, pro-peace direction for American foreign policy in the Middle East.   I hope you'll consider making a secure, online contribution to support our work here.   -Isaac   Isaac Luria Campaigns Director J Street   I could not help noticing that the bottom line for every one of the commentators in the Letters is a pro-Israel, pro-American peace, and for many, a two-state solution.   Their willingness to "settle" by giving back less than half of what they have stolen is a good tactic, which appears to give them the moral high ground of benevolence, but one is not being benevolent when they only return less than half of what they stole.   What exactly do any of them mean by a "pro-Israel, pro-American solution?"  How can a pro-Israel solution also be a pro-Palestine solution?  This is not equity!   This may or may not be what the neo-Zionists who are driving the Israeli bus are aiming for, but it is also not a very equitable solution for Palestinians, who deserve to have more than just bits and parts of what is left of their country, if not the entire country, and who deserve peace in their own land on their own terms, not a pro-Israeli peace, but a pro-Palestinian peace.   And who says a pro-Israel Peace is necessarily a pro-American Peace? Nor should a Pro-American peace necessarily include a Pro-Israeli peace.  I say cut them loose and let them fend for themselves. They would soon find enough inspiration to make a peace.   These are the kind of people who Karin Friedemann (The Emotional Violence of Jewish Advocacy) says she talks about, but never to, for it is impossible to reason with them reasonably.   Israel kills and smashes and the world appeals for funds to re-build?  This senseless charade has been going on for decades. It is a farce!   I hear none of them vociferously and totally repudiating Israel , Zionism, and world Jewry for what they have done.  Those who do, seldom receive visibility in Mainstream Media, as Judith Weisman has given some pretty powerful testimony here:   http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx1eRkBgzcA&NR=1   and some even more powerful poetry, built on some very hard truths about Zionism and Israel and as Michael Neumann has, totally condemning them said: "In the end, you will give the Palestinians some scrap of a state. You will never pay for your crimes and you will continue to preen yourself, to bask in your illusions of moral ascendancy.  But between now and the end, you will kill and kill and kill, gaining nothing by your spoilt-brat brutality?"   Mainstream writers and Middle Eastern brothers and sisters out there who think they are discovering and dealing with important and seminal issues, I suggest they stop wasting their time slapping plasters on all the cuts and bruises, and focus on identifying the disease and prescribing a treatment, i.e. Israel and the neutralization of Zionism, of which AIPAC and all of this fallout in the US and the world are just the incapacitating and debilitating symptoms.    Band-Aids do not cure cancer.  To expect otherwise is foolish idealism!  Only radical surgery can have any effect on the situation. The patient sometimes dies of the surgery!   Just a cursory review of the topics they offer looks like they are too busy treating the symptoms and debilities of the disease to identify, diagnose and prescribe for the disease itself.   To wit; They spend a lot of space describing economic, political, national and international issues, legislation, regulation, "Obama says...." and "he says," "she says," "they say...." things, and I see no mention at all of the what and why behind all of these ailments, which is the Israeli-Jewish-American lobby of 100,000 members and its influence, which runs America, and which directly and deliberately has created all of this hullabaloo.   Dr. Mahathir correctly invoked "look to the Jew for organization and unity," but people refuse to listen, and instead go for the distortion and misrepresentation of his words that the massive media present. I think his words were quite complimentary of the Jews and their Unity,  but, politics, spin politicians and their tame and house-broken media being what they are, I am not surprised to see them twist his words and turn them against him.   Here is an index of Israeli businesses being sold on Amazon. Obviously not to be used for the purpose of boycotts, which is illegal in America?   See the following government website.  But, it would be nice to have a list of Israeli businesses anyway, simply so you know where to buy so that you didn't inadvertently break any US Laws by not buying Israeli goods: (see here and here).   because A "Non-Violent" Protest, such as this, if observed even for a single day, would be more effective than Hamas lobbying rockets over the Wall protesting Israel's Apartheid treatment.   In the meanwhile, rather than waste my time like a novice rabbi fighting brush fires in the Sinai desert, I shall go off and seek God or try to find out the why instead of trying to change the what of life.   Better to find and shoot the arsonists than to spend the rest of the day fighting fires which they will only relight elsewhere and elsewhen. Debbie Menon is an independent writer based in Dubai. She can be reached at debbiemenon@gmail.com   URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1219