By Eileen Fleming, Countercurrents.org, 21 March 2008
[Israel Palestine] As candidate McCain pandered to militants and fundamentalists during his trip to Jerusalem, giving firm “support for Israel’s military response” [1] in Gaza, he ignored B’Tselem/the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in Occupied Palestine Report which affirms:
As of “27 February to the afternoon of 3 March, 106 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip. Contrary to the Chief of Staff’s contention that ninety percent were armed, at least fifty-four of the dead (twenty-five of them minors) did not take part in the hostilities. In addition, at least forty-six minors were wounded… including the killing of four children and wounding of two others while they played soccer in the street, east of the Jabalya refugee camp on 28 February. B’Tselem’s investigation indicates that Qassam rockets may have been fired earlier about 100 meters from where the children were. However, no armed Palestinians were killed or injured in the incident.” [2]
McCain, the son of Vice Admiral McCain, the man who directed the rush job, white wash known as the Court of Inquiry regarding the June 8, 1967 attack by Israeli jets and torpedo boats on the lightly armed spy ship, the USS LIBERTY, as she sailed in international waters also issued a “further signal of solidarity with Israel, [by supporting] the Jewish state’s claim to Jerusalem as its capital, which the international community rejects.” [3]
But, hope and wisdom has spoken, for the most promising of a Palestinian Martin Luther King, Jr. has a risen in Ramallah.
16 March 2008
The renegade lexicographer
By: Deb Reich
Israel / Palestine
People continue to refer to Israel as Israel, no matter onto whose land it expands or how far, as if Palestine could be made to disappear by neglecting to mention it, ever again. In fact, at this writing (March 2008), Palestine is alive and well, if excruciatingly battered and beleaguered, just beneath the surface of Israel, and is rising up all over the place, through the cracks in the sidewalk, in the most unstoppable manner imaginable. Palestine will not be suppressed. Whether we stand for it or against it, Palestine is unsuppressable. However new or not new the Palestinian identity may be, however indigenous or imported the name itself, Palestine is a fact, and Palestinians likewise. We Jews are not the only ones here. However long we have been here, in numbers large or small, we have never been alone here! Get used to it! I deal with this problem by referring to the country as Israel/Palestine, for now. Sometimes (for parity) I call it Palestine/Israel. Not a perfect solution, but not bad.
FOR FULL TEXT CLICK HERE and learn more about:
Aliya / Yerida
A Jew / an Israeli
Zionism / Zayyinism
A new dream in search of a name
* Deb Reich debmail@alum.barnard.edu is a writer and translator in Israel/Palestine.
The PA’s hollow protests
By Amira Hass, Ha’aretz, 13 March 2008
The evacuation of the settlements in the Gaza Strip, it should be said again, was a brilliant move by Israel to speed up the political separation between the West Bank and Gaza; it all the while masqueraded as “the beginning of the pullout.”
The condemnations heard from the PA camp are for internal purposes only. It is a way of telling the Palestinian public that its representatives are in the same boat as the weak population that suffers under occupation, just as the armed struggle is intended to show the Palestinian public which organization really knows how to exact revenge. The PA’s condemnations prove how ridiculous and impotent they truly are. They signal to both Israel and the Palestinians that it does not matter how many new settlement homes will be erected, a Palestinian partner will always take his place at the “peace process” show.
Negotiations and armed struggle are not the only means of fighting the occupation. The question of why the Palestinians have not adopted Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance should be addressed to PA leaders – not the millions of Palestinians who every day wage an unarmed struggle against the sophisticated and advanced methods of oppression.
The protests would sound completely different if the protesters were to organize a calculated public revolt against Israel’s tactics of annexation.
There is no lack of opportunities.
A very brilliant and intelligent idea.
And, don’t forget to move some empty railway box cars into the center of Gaza (or every Palestinian city) and put those same people into them as/if/when they are refused the right of return.
It is the “haunting” railway car pictures that the Israeli’s have used to heap the guilt upon us all since WWII.
Keep Smilin’
And don’t let ‘yer mouse byte yuh!
Calm