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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
rockets have been reported being fired from Lebanon into Israel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jan/07/ashura-hizbullah
I actually read that column oh, so long ago. Just after I returned from Palestine. To me it was indicative of a certain kind of racism, perfectly acceptable, which claims that Israel has the right to be an exclusive Jewish state, not a government of its people. This leaves the Palestinians of Jerusalem and the Palestinian citizens of Israel in a completely unchanged and unwinnable situation. Maintaining Israel's Jewish exclusivity is not an option in the first place. Its absurd to think that a democratic republic can go on expelling people born indisputably within its borders (Jerusalem) and areas that are now de-facto part of Israel and not reach a crisis point, or many, down the line.
And if you think that Friedman's hand-wringing over the possibility that Israelis might have to share power in a state with Palestinians, rather than relegate them to a series of cantons without real autonomy is going to convince me, you've really got another thing coming. Israel has ruled over West Bank and Gaza Palestinians for thirty years without giving them the "one man, one vote". For the past sixteen its sought to permanently avoid the fruit of that rule--a one day civil rights movement akin to that of South Africa--by caging them in a series of bantustans. Friedman's concern is that the wall and increased settlement building will draw attention to this, not that Palestinians receive their right to control their destiny.
I know Friedman very well, and I'm getting to know you just as well. Palestinians will forever be to you a second class of person; one you care very deeply about I'm sure. That caring side, leads you to be unperturbed by idealogues who call for their slaughter, and for their continuing marginalization, as long as it is for their betterment. Perhaps one day, you and Friedman will be able to make Palestinians realize just how much you've done for us.
I would prefer it if you hated Palestinians, but recognized our right to have the same kind of agency that Israelis have. The right to live in a democracy, in the same land of historical Palestine where our ancestors were born. The chance Palestinians might have had if not for nearly a hundred years of racist policies, that denigrated Palestinian culture, and sought to erase its presence, so that Europeans might clean their conscience by giving European Jews a state.
The trope is so ingrained within your perception of the conflict, you simply have no idea how you sound to a Palestinian.
omooex: "I actually read that column oh, so long ago. Just after I returned from Palestine. To me it was indicative of a certain kind of racism, perfectly acceptable, which claims that Israel has the right to be an exclusive Jewish state, not a government of its people."
Stating that the settlements and the wall will destroy a two-state solution isn't racist - it is instead an obvious fact to anyone who is looking objectively at what's going on there.
omooex: "Its absurd to think that a democratic republic can go on expelling people born indisputably within its borders (Jerusalem) and areas that are now de-facto part of Israel and not reach a crisis point, or many, down the line."
We are in agreement here.
omooex: "And if you think that Friedman's hand-wringing over the possibility that Israelis might have to share power in a state with Palestinians, rather than relegate them to a series of cantons without real autonomy is going to convince me, you've really got another thing coming."
Friedman does not support "relegating them to a series of cantons without real autonomy" - he instead advocates for a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
omooex: "Israel has ruled over West Bank and Gaza Palestinians for thirty years without giving them the "one man, one vote".
I'm guessing you intended to write forty years (and counting), not thirty years.
omooex: "For the past sixteen its sought to permanently avoid the fruit of that rule--a one day civil rights movement akin to that of South Africa--by caging them in a series of bantustans.
We are again in agreement here.
omooex: "Friedman's concern is that the wall and increased settlement building will draw attention to this, not that Palestinians receive their right to control their destiny.
Nope - Friedman is very clear that he supports a viable two-state solution.
omooex: "I know Friedman very well, and I'm getting to know you just as well."
If you really knew me "well" then you wouldn't repeatedly continue to misunderstand and grossly misrepresent my position.
omooex: "Palestinians will forever be to you a second class of person; one you care very deeply about I'm sure. That caring side, leads you to be unperturbed by idealogues who call for their slaughter, and for their continuing marginalization, as long as it is for their betterment."
Another bullshit fabrication. The irony here is that we agree on far more than you think we do - you're just too closed-minded to see it.
Its rather obvious that Friedman fears the idea of Palestinians having the right to vote in Israel, and assumes the reader should find it equally alarming--that is the obvious moral of his cautionary tale.
The really disturbing thing is your need to make it seem like we agree. We don't, and it would be obvious to anyone reading your statements. You insist on defending one of the single most staunch supporters of the invasion of Iraq, and a man who once said of Palestinians, "I believe that as soon as Ahmed has a seat in the bus, he will limit his demands." That makes you either a racist, or someone too stupid to understand what he is proposing.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123137495711862883.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
TLDR version: Blame Everyone. Three continents in one sentence!
My fear is that the rage we see in the protesters marching in the streets is far more profound and dangerous than we would like to believe. There are a great many people in the world who, even after Auschwitz, just can't bear the Jewish state having the same rights they so readily grant to other nations. These voices insist Israel must take risks they would never dare ask of any other nation-state -- risks that threaten its very survival -- because they don't believe Israel should exist in the first place.
Just look at the spate of attacks this week on Jews and Jewish institutions around the world: a car ramming into a synagogue in France; a Chabad menorah and Jewish-owned shops sprayed with swastikas in Belgium; a banner at an Australian rally demanding "clean the earth from dirty Zionists!"; demonstrators in the Netherlands chanting "Gas the Jews"; and in Florida, protestors demanding Jews "Go back to the ovens!"
How else can we explain the double-standard that is applied to the Gaza conflict, if not for a more insidious bias against the Jewish state?
oh my.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
