Category Archives: Palestine

I knew I had a reason why I didn’t read CNN opinions/news…

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… and these three pieces only served to remind me of why:

Power of Grief: Corrie’s fight for justice

Check this bit in the article out:

The IDF says the bulldozing was meant to stop the activities of militants in the area. It adds that the bulldozer driver could not see or hear Corrie and its own investigation found no Israeli soldier was to blame.

Nothing in the article about what other, mutiple, activists saw or observed that day… though there is plenty of published information with their statements. Either the nice reporter didn’t do her homework or she didn’t bother. The rest of the article portrays the human side of the brave activist and how difficult it has been for her parents (something which I’m obviously not disputing)… but I find it difficult to believe that a reporter from a land where all politicians and journalists attack channels like Al Jazeera and accuse them of portraying the story from one side, amongst many other things, could have missed something I noticed in as long as it took me to read the article.

Netanyahu must lead towards peace

A lackluster piece about the recent Israel/America schism (or not, according to the writer) which included these lines:

Only time will tell if what began with a slap in the face over an announcement over one housing development will be seen one day as the wake-up call that forced a moment of truth in the Middle East peace process — and whether Netanyahu had the courage to turn this crisis into an opportunity to achieve real peace and security for Israel.

What? Did you run out of interesting material and so decided to write such a ridiculously naive article where you actually say that any Israeli leader (particularly one who has been voted in a second time… with time in between to reflect on his first term) actually wants peace?!

Also, it’s not just ONE housing development. It was one housing development this time and hundreds more since 1967… but, of course, your readers will nod their heads and say: so what’s wrong with one development? Why is Obama annoyed? What’s wrong with these Arabs?!

Netanyahu, Obama meet at White House

What about these lines?

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met for more than three hours Tuesday evening amid a dispute over Israel’s decision to build new Jewish housing on disputed land in East Jerusalem.

and this

Netanyahu’s visit to Washington comes as Israel and the United States find themselves at odds over Israel’s plan to build new housing on disputed land in East Jerusalem — a plan he defended sharply Monday night. Israel’s announcement two weeks ago that it plans to build 1,600 apartments in an area claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians

and this

Palestinian leaders have refused to rejoin peace talks until Israel freezes the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But Netanyahu said “everyone knows” the neighborhoods where the new housing units will be built “will be part of Israel in any peace settlement,” and the new construction “in no way precludes the possibility of a two-state solution.”

FYI, my western readers, East Jerusalem is not disputed land. It was captured illegally during war. If you think it wasn’t captured illegally and think that Israel gets to pick and choose what statutes and decisions that are binding, by International Law that Israel has agreed to, then I think that all suicide bombers, the rocker launchers and militants are totally within their rights to do what they’ve been doing for years.

Mr. Ben-Ami, who wrote the second article mentioned here, should have probably read this last piece before his piece was posted on the CNN website. I think there’s your answer Jeremy. Netanyahu said pass on the peace. Why? Because apparently not “everyone knows” that East Jerusalem has been theoretically annexed to Israel (though on the ground, that is the de facto state of things).

Moving on to this piece.

The writers says that

Despite the toe-to-toe standoff with the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had dinner with Biden in Washington and met President Barack Obama, though he fiercely reiterated Israel’s right to build on land claimed by the Palestinians while he was in the United States.

Notice how Netanyahu’s quote is not preceded or followed by quotation marks? That means our writer was probably paraphrasing… was it Netanyahu that explicitly added the bit about the land being claimed by Palestinians? Or, was it the writer’s own little expenditure of effort and willingness to be daring and sound just like a lawyer when using the word “claimed”.

Let me just help the man out: it’s not claimed, fool. It’s the Palestinians’ right as per the law. The same law that allowed the people that call themselves Israeli now to “claim” that they had any right to this piece of land in the first place.

I think Egypt, Italy and Greece should claim Palestine too… after all, the Ancient Egyptians (preceding Judaism), the Romans and the Greeks once ruled this land as well… for hundreds of years. Hell, maybe we can have France and England claim it… remember the crusades?

CNN… ridiculous!

Netanyahu… are you kidding me?

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In full, utter and complete breach of international law (in the form of ICJ rulings, multiple Security Council resolutions and agreements the zionist entity itself made), the Israeli government has approved the building of another major settlement on undisputed Palestinian land.

According to the article linked to above, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States has said that the two countries’ relationship is at its lowest in 35 years. As if that’s what the whole issue is about… like that’s what really matters.

Israeli PM Netanyahu has also apparently said that

“Building these Jewish neighbourhoods in Jerusalem does not hurt the Arabs of East Jerusalem or come at their expense.”

But it’s in breach of International Law and you know it. You also know that it’s not your place to interpret the law and since the rightful owners of the land have not given you permission to use the land, the occupying idiots that you are have no right to do anything what-so-ever. Obviously, and as has been the case since Palestine was internationally recognized as the British Mandate of Palestine, since no one seems to enforce the law, you (the government of Israel) will continue to do as you please.

[This post includes no new addition to the discourse on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. I am just sharing the news]

Hamas: not completely broke.

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I came across this news item posted on the International Herald Tribune’s website.

So, I guess this means that the Palestinian government now has a little bit of money with which to function. Though it is supposedly far less than the amount they need to pay the salaries and debts that they own. You might remember that most major donors chose to halt all aid to the Palestinian government as soon as the democratically elected Hamas came to power. This, of course, was disastrous.

This is a compilation of the Palestinian government’s sources of aid by donor countries. My thanks to Sandmonkey for posting it.

I also came across this transcript of a PBS show, NewsHour, that discussed the issue of Hamas being voted in as the Palestinian government.

The whole discussion is interesting, but it is one statement in particular that I wish to comment upon (I have not heard it being said often);

ROBERT SATLOFF: No, I think this is a moment for clarity. A large plurality of the Palestinian people elected a terrorist organization as its leadership. This is a moment where the world needs to respond to that very clear statement. I respect their vote. They should respect the world’s response to this vote.

Mr. Satloff is faultless when making this comment. The Palestinians should respect the world’s response to this vote. If not respect, then at least accept. It is in my belief that they have actually done that. Barring any proclamations they might have made upon winning, most news items either carry opinions on the issue as a whole or interviews with members of the Hamas government.

Furthermore, I am proud that an Arab country (as ironic as it may seem, the only “un-recognized” Arab country) had a free and fair elections (to a large extent, anyways).

Now then, to get to the “respect the world’s response to this vote” part. Lots of Arab media and thinkers would tell you: An Arab state finally has a democratically elected government and the West is still bitching about it. Nothing satisfies them. What do they want? To choose who comes to power personally? To put their men as Prime Ministers or Presidents if they don’t like the ones there?

Of course, they were quite fiery when making these remarks.

The answer is, of course, Yes! Who wouldn’t you fools? What government would not want to choose who has the power in places which might affect its people and its well-being, politically and economically, as a state. It’s called realism.

Maybe Political Science, as a major, wasn’t so stupid after all. You see, as my professor in POLS 320: International Relations informed us, there are two major schools of thought when it comes to international relations between states; the realists and the liberals. Of course, now we have the neo-realists and the neo-liberals. Now, to the realists, power is everything. You have the power, you use the power. You can get what you want with your power… go on ahead and do it. That’s the way of life. The state is the largest entity when it comes to International Relations and one’s level of analysis should not extended beyond that.

On the other hand, the liberals are believers in international institutions and organizations. They believe in collective decisions and that the state is not the largest entity when it comes to IR; the UN, WTO, WB, IMF and all those organizations are. These people do not believe in war, but they do acknowledge that it occurs. Even though I once adamantly followed this school, it reflects a highly idealistic and non-practical way of viewing things.

The U.S. (Current World Hegemon), as a government, follow the neo-realism school of thought. Meaning that everyone has to live with this. So live with it. I’m not saying don’t bitch about it, O Arab countries. You should. You never know when a European (minus the UK) might be listening. For some weird reason, the Europeans are more sympathetic to this than the Americans are. It might be the two World Wars, all the deaths they suffered or that they want people to like them so that they can be the next International Hegemon, when it’s time for the U.S. to step down.

It matters not. When they listen to you, they do things just to spite the U.S., just convince them that you’re important to them or their people in some way (the subscribe to the neo-realist club too, you know) and then you’re set… for a period of time at least.

What you should be doing, O foolish Arabs, is working like hell to gain power. I almost hope there’s some Top Secret Plan for doing this and that everything that’s happening now is a mere facade, until one day, 25 years from now, an Arab Leader or person will suddenly go on television and go: TA-DAAAA! We’re rich!! We’re Powerful!! Or some other weird thing.

Yeah, right.

And that’s the way I see (or is it dream?) it.