"If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs... There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was this their fault? They only know but one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why would they accept that." End of quote.
What happened at the borders of the "Proposed Palestinian State" would be entirely at the discretion of the Israeli state. The Israeli proposal had other serious defects. It left the Palestinians with a territory riddled with settlements and Israeli-controlled access roads, with supervised ports, immigration, and airspace, with something that would not effectively function as a state. The border restrictions represent the clearest denial of Palestinian sovereignty. A territory is not yours unless you control it, and you do not control it unless you have sovereignty over it. To be offered territory you do not control is to be offered nothing.
"What makes the Israeli position particularly indefensible is its utter gratuitousness. There is no conceivable reason for Israel to promote the settlements that have been the cause of so much misery. The settler movement is built on pseudo-Biblical foolishness, bad history, creed, and-worse-a sort of racist messianism that deserves no tolerance, consideration, or respect. Israel could have not only peace but vastly increased security tomorrow if it chooses: (it has all the options, and the Palestinians none). The fussing about negotiations, trust, and hatred are nothing but self-deceiving excuses for more bloodshed. Given these circumstances it would seem that no one, Jewish or non-Jewish, should support Israel."
Israel's newest wall
is one of many Israeli walls
that have been imprisoning and oppressing
the native Palestinians for generations.
When completed, the wall will run 759 kilometers. It will then be three times longer than the Israeli-Jordanian border before 1967, enclosing the Jewish state inside one enormous bunker.
The new wall will cut off some 200,000 Palestinians in Greater Jerusalem from their relatives, their natural hinterland, their universities, public institutions, businesses, workshops, and the property they own on the West Bank. Tens of thousands of other Palestinians on either side of the wall will be cut off from their orange and olive groves and their fields.
"As long as Israel is allowed to delude itself into believing that persecuting and oppressing the native Palestinians are actually security measures, there will be righteous indignation and perpetual war."
"There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one's native land"
The words of Benjamin Franklin:
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
The great and terrible Wall of Israel, which is a 26.5 foot high concrete barrier in populated areas, and will cost 9.5 billion Shekels, which is over $2 billion US dollars. We learn from Haaretz the plan is for an amazing 759 Kilometers long structure, amazing because it is about three time longer than the "green line" border between Israel and the West Bank. In fact if Haaretz is truthful, the Israel Wall is almost twice as long as the state of Israel from North to South! How can this be? Because it does not follow the green line but is in fact a prison wall winding threading and encircling part of the Arab population. Israel's wall is not as long as the Great Wall of China but it is higher, and it dwarfs the communist's Berlin Wall, which was torn down two decades ago.
True and lasting peace begins with justice for all the people of the region. That the Road Map will lead in that direction is not at all evident.
"A mini-Palestinian state!-defined, as
Sharon would define it, limited as he would limit it, hardly a
sovereign state and barely viable, without links to the outside
world is a gift to Israel, and not to the Palestinians. It is a
ready-made answer to Israel's dilemmas, resolving its demographic
problem, maintaining its security, thwarting the reemergence of a
national Palestinian movement, and, above all, turning an emotional
national struggle into a routine border dispute. This is why statehood,
for which the Palestinians have fought for so long and which Israel has
resisted so fiercely, ironically has now become an Israeli interest and
a Palestinian fear. The map of a mini-Palestinian state that Sharon
proudly claims he accepts today, surrounded and perforated by Israeli
territory, is the same one he has had in his pocket for the past twenty
years."
The so-called roadmap for peace is a
document manufactured elsewhere, chosen by others for Sharon-Arafat-Abu Mazen, to continue their decades-old fight through different means. They have
been at it for long enough; they have seen proposals like these come
and go. So they will adjust. But in truth it is an odd and awkward
choice. Sharon sees the roadmap as a nuisance, Arafat as a diversion;
Abu Mazen alone views it as worthwhile, but then again principally as a
potential way out of the current mess.
From The Nation:
"For in failing to focus on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, about to enter its 37th year, and on Israeli settlements, which underpin that occupation, the Road Map misses an opportunity to end this conflict. Instead, it concentrates on Palestinian violence and how to combat it -- as if it came out of nowhere, and as if, were it to be halted, the situation of occupation and settlement would be normal."
"I think the wall is a problem...it is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel with a wall snaking through the West Bank." In Brussels, February 22, 2005, President Bush called for the establishment of "a democratic Palestinian state
with territorial contiguity" in the West Bank, and then added: "A state
on scattered territories will not work."
, Israel must freeze settlement activity, and help Palestinians build a thriving economy"
The International Court of Justice Advisory Ruling Against the Wall:
"With respect to humanitarian and human rights law, the Court has rightly adjudged that both these régimes are applicable to the occupied territories; that Israel as the occupying Power is under an obligation to respect the rights of the Palestinian population of the occupied territories. Accordingly, the Court has held that the construction of the wall in the occupied territories violates the régime of humanitarian and human rights law. To put an end to such violations, the Court has rightly called for the immediate cessation of the construction of the wall and the payment of reparation for damages caused by the construction"
Palestinians climbing to the top of the wall According to UN data 237,000 Palestinians will be trapped between the wall and the Green Line and 160,000 others will remain on the Palestinian side, cut off from their land.
A comparison of the Three Peace Proposals.
Benjamin Freedman
The speech on Zionism was given in the early 1960s, right after J.F.K. was elected President. Benjamin Freedman, a well-known business man and owner of Woodbury Soap, was a confidant of Henry Morgenthau Sr. and was present at the Treaty of Versailles. Freedman, who converted from Judaism to Catholicism, sensed the seeds of World War II were being sown and saw the Zionist advance in America, starting with the creation of Israel.
Mitchell Plitnick, Jewish Voices for Peace's Director of Education and Policy, said, "It's wonderful that both sides have pledged to stop bombings and shootings. But as long as other forms of violence continue, the cease-fire will be short-lived. The occupation, with its home demolitions, checkpoints and daily harassments, and a wall slicing through the West Bank and disrupting daily Palestinian life, is itself a constant and massive act of violence."
While Sharon talks about peace, he continues to build the wall that
strangulates West Bank towns and villages. He expropriates more land and
cuts off more people – all this in order to change the borders of Israel
and annex 58% of the West Bank.
Click on the following to read "Every human being and every people has a right to freedom. Many of us have shed their blood for this aim. Democracy is an ideal that every people has to realize for itself. But when the banners of “freedom” and “democracy” are hoisted over a crusade by an avaricious and irresponsible super-power, the results can be catastrophic."
Amir Peretz, who just this past week succeeded Peres as the Labor Party leader, (Novermber 2005), defined his basic ideology as The Moral Roadmap: "Continued Rule in the Territories is a recipe for sinking into a morass, a loss of values and morality in Israel. We need a Moral Roadmap, whose guiding star is respect for human dignity. A Moral Roadmap is ending the occupation and signing a permanent agreement. A Moral Roadmap is defending the value of each and every person in Israel - their dignity, their families, their livelihood."
Thank you for visiting my web site.
President Bush, July 25, 2003
The Shame of It All
By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN
"Churches for Middle East Peace"
Please call again soon and don't forget
to sign my guestbook
and visit my guestmap before you leave.
