The Chris Moeller Archives

The matter of Palestine

An American teenager was among the nine people murdered Monday by Israeli commandos who boarded civilian foreign aid flotillas floating in international waters that were en route to Gaza in violation of Israel's blockade of the territory. Nineteen-year-old peace activist Furkan Dogan of Turkey, who was born in Troy, NY and held dual-citizenship between the two countries, was shot at "close range, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest," according to Turkish news reports. Israel, though claiming it has nothing to hide, has rejected calls by the U.N. and others for an international investigation into the deadly raid. The United States is the chief financial sponsor of the Israeli military.

It is time for Israel-- and the United States-- to lift the heinous three-year blockade of Gaza, under which humanitarian aid has been cut off to a million and a half Palestinians. The settlers there have been effectively imprisoned in retaliation for their choosing the militant Hamas as their parliamentary leadership in a 2006 free election, a vote that incidentally met with more U.N. and global scrutiny and approval than some of the elections held in, for example, the United States, and one in which Jimmy Carter called the results "completely fair and honest." Israel had demanded that a free election be held and it got one, yet they responded to the action of the voters by attempting a military coup in 2007 (that failed), then cutting off from the outside world a territory in which nearly 80 percent of residents rely on the U.N. for sustenance. Further, Israel violated the terms of a cease-fire in 2008, launching an air attack that was likely strategically conducted on the eve of the U.S. presidential election.

Has Hamas been guilty of engaging in terrorism? Yes. But has Israel also? And on a disproportionately larger scale, with more casualties, and with much less attention from Western media? The answer again yes. The difference in motive is that Israel's neocon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to sit down at a table with Hamas? Israel and the United States refuse to accept the political legitimacy of the Palestinians' chosen leadership. Israel claims this is so because Hamas does not support Israel's right to exist. This is a media-supported fallacy. Hamas has broken with their original charter to support the recognition of Israel, but if the country agrees to a separate Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, refugees being allowed to return to Israel, and East Jerusalem being recognized as the capital of the new state. There is room for negotiation here, even as Hamas has risen to lead the population as a very creation of Israeli military actions and policy that are unsustainable for both parties. President Carter has been a vocal advocate of the two-state solution, along with most of the rest of the world.

Since '67, Israel has been building up its settlements in Gaza, speeding construction in recent years, installing a wall that physically imprisons the Palestinians, and of late, blocking that delivery of basic necessities. Israel has placed a figurative boot on the throat of the Palestinian people. Its recent behavior has Israel hemorrhaging global support, and with that has gone also more of the dwindling good will people still feel for the nation that arms Israel, the United States. Is it right for "radicals" to compare Israel's treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust, as many have done? Answer: It's not necessary to do so, as Israel's crimes against humanity can stand on their own without the benefit of comparison.

If Israel ceases to exist within a generation or two-- a growing reality, it will not be because of the increasing throngs of "anti-Semites" across the globe. (In the current, heated climate, we have even people like Carter being labeled "Holocaust deniers".) It will be because of the cutthroat and unsustainable military and political actions authorized by Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, and their self-delusion endorsed by long-time enablers in the West like the AIPAC lobby in Washington, the militarists in the U.S. Congress and in the White House, as well as American commentators like Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer, Pat Robertson, Alan Dershowitz, and Ari Fleischer (to pull just a few names from recent headlines, some of whom, not coincidentally, also holding religious views consistent with the desire for Israel's ultimate destruction). This pending and possible dissolution of the state is not a wish for Israel. It's a sad fact under the current direction.

If Israel wants peace with its neighbors, the simple way to test Hamas' desire for the same is by meeting and negotiating with them. The problem up to this point though is that Israel has not wanted a settlement, they've wanted a pretext for commandeering somebody else's country.

posted by CM @ 9:29 AM