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US Politician Wants American Jews to Buy West Bank Homes
An influential Jewish community leader and Democratic State Assemblyman from New York is currently heading a mission of about 50 Americans through the West Bank and East Jerusalem to promote home purchases in the area and to protest U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policy.
An Israeli soldier and a Palestinain woman shout during a demonstration against Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Beit Omar near Hebron, June 2009.
(AFP/File/Hazem Bader) "Our goal is to send a clear message to Washington and President Obama that Jews will continue to live in Judea and Samaria and the ultimate commitment American Jews can make is to actually come and buy property in these areas as this will ensure these communities" security and growth," said Dov Hikind, 59, who has been representing Brooklyn's 48th district since 1983.
"People buy properties in different places, and I can't think of any reason why people dedicated to the land of Israel shouldn't own something here, whether they will use it or use it as an opportunity for young families to live in that particular home," the politician told Haaretz yesterday in Elon Moreh, an Israeli settlement in the Samarian Hills.
While no one has committed to a purchase yet, the visitors have voiced serious interest, according to Hikind. He himself "absolutely" intendes to buy a home in Nof Zion, a new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The finale of Hikind's four-day mission is a cornerstone laying in Nof Zion Wednesday afternoon.
"When there will be a real peace process, the fact that Jews live in certain areas will be dealt with at the negotiating table," Hikind said when asked whether Jews buying homes in areas designated for a future Palestinian state could be an obstacle to peace. 'I'm for peace," Hikind continued. "The issue is: Can there be natural expansion, can families grow, are they allowed to build toilets?"
Hikind dismisses the argument that American buyers can hardly be called natural expansion. "We're Jews and we care. I've always wanted to own something in Israel; it's been a dream of mine and of many Jews," he said. "For now, if a Jews wants to buy something in the Land of Israel there shouldn't be anything that says you can't buy in a particular area because Jews should not live there because that area has to be segregated."
One of the few Democrats who opposed Obama even before he was elected, Hikind says the U.S. president's policy of demanding a total settlement freeze caused the current stalemate in regional peace talks.
"President Obama actually has put a stop to whatever peace process existed, to any kind of dialogue between the Palestinian Authority and the prime minister of Israel, because Mahmoud Abbas's new position is what Obama said: there can be absolutely no construction, period," Hikind said. While Israel was willing to resume talks, Palestinians refuse to return to the negotiating table before Israel agrees to a complete freeze, he added. "They're just taking the position the president had, which is ridiculous and outrageous."
43 Comments so far
Show AllI've got a better idea. American Jews buy these homes, and give them to Palestinians who have been kicked out of their homes in the area.
z, would that make them self-hating? hehehe, Thanks for z laughingness.
Unreal this is a legal conspiring by anyone much less a pol.
Recognition, a la Hedge's article sounds powerful.
That would be the decent thing to do. These Jews are not garnering any love by their actions. Watch out, the world is waiting for you to live up to your 'evil Jew' reputation. If I were Jewish, I'd crush these numb-nuts where it hurts before the anti-Semitic hate mongers made a case out of it. The Nazi's and other hate groups have not gone away. Only in America, where Jews have been lulled into complacency, would a group of Jews dare to pull a stunt like this. Remember the holocaust! These Jews are fools, and they have bad memories as well.
True enough. And that's also one of the arguments for there to be a Jewish state. But that's also one of the reasons not to turn that Jewish state into an oppressor. Oops.
"Hikind says the U.S. president's policy of demanding a total settlement freeze caused the current stalemate in regional peace talks."
Hikind is using the same talkbacker tactic employed in other threads concerning Israel: accuse your opponent of doing that of which you yourself are guilty. We saw Not Allan and Jill Bains use the same trick in the thread after Chris Hedges' column yesterday by dishonestly trying to paint Hedges as a zionist tool.
In this case, the false claim is that Obama is blocking peace talks - which Israel has been either obstructing or abusing for decades - by insisting on a settlement freeze.
Obama's policies in dealing with Israel are wrong but not for the reasons given by this zionist shithead.
The strategy behind Hikind's actions is completely transparent: put American and not just Israeli claims on stolen Palestinian land to strengthen AIPAC's hand in shaping US policy against the Palestinians.
q
Every American "investor" in occupied Palestine must be prosecuted for participation in illegal financial activities. After all the lands of Palestine are deemed illegally occupied by the rest of the world. Lets take them to court. You cannot buy stolen property.
That's an *excellent* idea! Well spotted!
The most repugnant part of this is that Hikind himself has no plans to leave his cushy job, salary and life in NY. Catching the inevitable blowback from this is apparently for others.
There was a joke going around in the sixties that a zionist was a "Jew who lived in New York and paid someone else to live in Israel."
I didn't like - and still don't like - the anti-Semitic tone of the joke but Hikind seems determined to make it a reality.
q
It's all right for Jewish Americans to land grab from Palestinians. It's time honored in the US. We've been stealing land from the Native Americans for centuries.
Feel proud, oh spoiled American Jew. You can finally return to your earliest heritage--the conquest of Canaan Land (Palestine).
I guess this makes up for the holocaust.
Two holocausts don't make a peace.
q
The Jewish Americans you talk about are being misled by their politicians. Don't target the Jews. Target the source, the politicians who misled them into a war zone.
The source is not politicians but the rabid zionists who buy them off.
You are correct to ask us not to target the Jews but zionists aren't really Jews.
q
We are not targeting the Jews, do not hide behind anti-semitism, we are targeting the "good germans" who work for the USA MIC and anyone ANY PERSON who buys land stolen from the Palestinians.
Part of the reason the Nazis were able to implement their genocide is because no one ostracized the "good germans".
We must stand up against ALL who enable the USA MIC and the genocidal zionists.
Yeah, and I'm getting really tired of "german" being used that way. It's an easy short form for you, but at this point it's like using the word "jew" to mean cheat; or "gyp"; or "polack" to mean stupid, or a thousand other ethnic slurs.
It's actually darkly hilarious to use the terms "nazi" (you did not, here) and "good german" to smack Jews. Is that supposed to be provocative, or rather like bullying? because you can?
I'm absolutely positive there was a way to say what you mean before the clever movie title made it a household term.
And I know what will happen here now - someone will justify the use of that tired, overworked, feeble image by hauling out the old stand-by argument, but please try to overcome the tendency to use shallow and facile devices instead of articulate and accurate expression.
Don't make it so damned easy on yourself, using dusty cliches. It makes you sound ignorant.
[The foregoing was a general rant, not directed at you personally, gf, and it was in no way a defense of nazis or citizens who have abdicated their moral responsibilities, of whatever ethnicity. Abdicating citizens seem to be all too numerous in every nation these sad and scary days.]
"Good German" is a slur but unlike the other examples it is based in history, which the Germans seemed to have reconciled with very well.
If you can think of a term which is as powerful as "Good German" in exposing people to the atrocities they themselves are committing by complicity I will gladly use it.
Since the slur very well might have the power to make people desist from their supporting violent criminal actions I think it is justified.
The Germans who as far as know are not habitually discriminated against and seem to have a maturity that allows them to cope with their collective past very well, also I believe are able to accept the value and power of the descriptive term "Good German" which predates the Movie of that title.
If it helps I am large part German.
Well then, you're lucky - I've heard a lot of slurs, some understandable, considering the history and personal connections to it, and many just a bad habit. The worst of it is the notion of "race guilt", which is like original sin, in that it's inescapable and incurable and tarnishes the innocent as well as the guilty.
But I think a writer's vocabulary or imagery is his own responsibility. I think your confidence that its use might cause someone to desist from criminal action is unwarranted. If that were the case, we would not be witnessing the appalling events unfolding today. It appears genocide, and passivity or compliance in the face of evil, are not tendencies unique to Germans.
Thanks for the disclosure. Me too.. no surprise there.
It is nobody's business to dictate who must buy homes and where. From this article, it is clear that it is not the Jews that are at fault but the politicians and big business goons in both the USA and Israel who are the culprits provoking war. I sympathize with both the Palestinians and the good Jews who are trying to be nice and helpful.
Max 10:47 ----- Here again you reveal your disasssociation from personal responsibilty.
Just as you give your working hours for monetary reward to support the Criminal Wars in your capacity as an IT MIC drone, the Jews who financially contribute to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by buying their violently appropiated lands are also war criminals.
You can whine and justify all you want but without spineless drones there would be no atrocities.
If the US Goverment's stated position is that the settlements are illegal then how can a US citizen who buys properties on these illegal settlements, be exempt from legal sanctions?
Dual citizenship should be revisited.
If Palestinian non-Jews have their properties demolished because the State of Israel deems them illegal, how come The US Government has stood by and permits its apparent citizens to invest in properties it has officially deemed situated on illegally occupied land? Are Jews a special American breed, whose childhood dreams are legal, while natives of Palestine are ethnically cleansed by these good worthy US citizens who chose to regard them as nothing but trespassers?
Perhaps, the legality of such promotion should be addressed to establish human rights in this regard? Surely, it is criminal to encourage breaking the law in the USA and encouraging colonial expansion abroad by Americans?
Is Zionism, (with its largest component being Christian in the USA) permitted to engage in such criminal acquisition of illegal lands, till The Rapture? The Christian and Muslim Palestinians are made refugees for Jews to have second homes?
What has become of the Republic?
When I was in kindergarten, there was a kid who said all the toys were his, including ones that the other kids brought in from home. Only he could play with them, and of course his friends, too, but even they needed his permission.
If a teacher told him he had to share he would throw a temper tantrum and call the other kids names if they wanted to play, too.
If anyone just went up to him and tried to take one of the toys, he would start flinging his arms around madly, and if he happened to hit you, he said it was your fault because you got too close. In fact, if I remember correctly, fault and blame were the only things he didn't say "Mine! Mine!" about.
You should Google his name and not be surprised to see him as a CEO of some company.
A Country like China, or the Gulf States should reply in kind. They should buy property in the United States of America, then claim it for the exclusive use of Chinese or Arab immigrants to the USA.
One wonders how the good folks of Texas would react if they were kicked out of their homes as The Chinese Government bought up all the land.
Actually groups of Chinese are touring the USA examining real estate.
As I understand it the Chinese are not buying very much.
Homes will be expropriated by the State of Palestine.
Jewish politicians are substituting ideology for representation. Would we accept a Catholic politician imposing Vatican dogma on our legislative process (just watch what happens in the upcoming abortion in the health care bill debate)? Jewish politicians need to put America first, not Israel. Vote out any politician who does not get that simple concept.
Donna, the U.S. House just did exactly that when the Stupac amendment was tacked on the wealth insurance bill.It was the Conference of Catholic Bishops that pushed Pelosi to do that.AIPAC is just better funded. peace
This is a perfect example of what the ideology of zionism stands for: colonial expansion. From the earliest days of the state of Israel, the founding zionists thought it perfectly just to take over Palestinian lands and villages. And they have been stealing Palestinian land ever since. Israel, like America, was built on stolen land. That's the real basis of our "special relationship."
Buy in Isreal if you want, but I dont think Palistine is for sale.
This 'natural expansion' one sometimes hears, sounds a bit like a quest for Lebensraum (and don't call me an anti-Semite). If this politician had any decency, he would tell everybody to stay away from investing in real estate in territories occupied by Israel as long as there's no real peace. After all, nobody knows how long the US will be able to keep on footing that country's bills.
--"(and don't call me an anti-Semite)."
The term 'anti-semite' is the bludgeon Jews have been using to amazing effect these last 70 years in propagating the apartheid, nazi state of Israel. Israel should cease to exist. It has proven to be the Germany of the Middle-East. The irony of a Jewish State channeling its inner Nazi self is in itself extremely disturbing.
People like Dov Hikind rely on conflict and nationalism to give themselves legitimacy. He uses his position to push racism abroad, racial profiling here. He poses as a champion of the beleaguered Jewish people to get things like extraordinary security for the Orthodox community. He protects the rabbis from charges of sexual misconduct by keeping documentation secret. He was indicted, but not convicted of embezzlement.
He would not allow non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust to be mentioned on a memorial here in Brooklyn. He is only for a particular segment of Jews, himself in particular. He would not care if everyone else fell over dead.
Joe
--""We're Jews and we care. I've always wanted to own something in Israel; it's been a dream of mine and of many Jews," he said"
Un-fu~!@ing-believable ! So Jews care enough to destroy the livelihood of Palestinians and build vacation homes on their land ! These Zionists need to be executed. How can anyone be so callous about the suffering of others and even contribute towards it ? Americans are as complicit as these Zionists. Hopefully Iran gets its act together and develops a few nukes. Somebody has to stall these fu~!@ers.
This right wing loony's garbage is right out of the Nazis' playbook, "Lebensraum, lebensraum," and it was in one volume of Frank Capra's documentary called "Why We Fight" and was shown to US Army troops in explaining to them why the USA was in the war against the Rome/Berlin/Tokyo Axis.
AD
As Saul Landau would say Israel "gives Jews a bad name." Why does Israel hate the Jews? Maybe it hates their freedom and their right to have a life of their own apart from Israel.
AD
This is the sort of atrocity that brought down the Twin Towers and bankrupt the United States.
They are not promoting home purchases they are promoting forced evacuation or stealing of peoples land and homes for no other reason than to be hateful.
Smells of Lebensraum to me.
First of all... I am a Zionist shrill...( still waiting for my paycheck from the State of Israel, though) I'm a Semite. I might even be a Palestinian, as my roots go back to Palestine thousands of years ago. I'm also a John Lennonist ("Imagine all the people". Because I am a Zionist, (the belief that the Jewish people have the right to what is commonly known as "the modern nation state") I have also always been in favor of a Palestinian State. Seems sort of illogical to believe in the concept of nation states for some and not for all.
No one has the right to ask a Hindu to dissect their self-identity, their emotional belief system...Which part geography, which part history, which part religion, which part cultural attachment when talking about The Ganges, for instance.
The same goes for asking Greek Orthodox to do the same with their "land-country". The same with Muslims and "Medina"- currently Saudia Arabia, or Jerusalem, for that matter.
Certainly seems that BB and other religious Jewish nutcases are going out of their way to make a brother look bad,when he's trying to get Peace talks going, but then again The First African American President of the US looks bad every day on Commondreams.
As little as a few days ago I thought the one state solution was totally unrealistic. If BB and company keep settling the West Bank, it seems to me that Palestinian Arab right to return would be fair in return.
Just some thought from a Zionist shrill....Labor Zionist, that is.
Oh yea, by the way...as far as Health Care is concerned. Did some research...Turns out that Palestinian Arabs (Israeli Arabs and Israeli Non-Jews for that matter)have pretty darn good coverage in the Socialist Zionist Health Plan. Not perfect, of course...due to many factors, discrimination, cultural pressures within Muslim villages, etc...but certainly a whole lot better than your average American.
Here goes again..... "Tar and feather", "execute" just a couple of excerpts from other CD comments. Very Progressive, congratulations! Not my dreams.
George Markley said,
"It's all right for Jewish Americans to land grab from Palestinians. It's time honored in the US. We've been stealing land from the Native Americans for centuries.
Feel proud, oh spoiled American Jew. You can finally return to your earliest heritage--the conquest of Canaan Land (Palestine).
I guess this makes up for the holocaust."
I actually think that you are on to something here, but not in the way that you meant it. What if "Jewish Karma" was actually to complete the cycle of thousands of years of persecution, the Holocaust, 100 years of Zionist Aggression, and to move beyond it all to a Isra-stine, a united (Palestinian and jewish), non-nation nation state??
Shrill me baby, shrill me.