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Boycott Israel
Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.
Not surprisingly, many Israelis -- even peaceniks -- aren't signing on. A global boycott can't help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one's own nation.
It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli citizen to call on foreign governments, regional authorities, international social movements, faith-based organizations, unions and citizens to suspend cooperation with Israel. But today, as I watch my two boys playing in the yard, I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel can be saved from itself.
I say this because Israel has reached a historic crossroads, and times of crisis call for dramatic measures. I say this as a Jew who has chosen to raise his children in Israel, who has been a member of the Israeli peace camp for almost 30 years and who is deeply anxious about the country's future.
The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state. For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. Within this region about 6 million Jews and close to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this population, 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic human rights. By sharp contrast, all Jews -- whether they live in the occupied territories or in Israel -- are citizens of the state of Israel.
The question that keeps me up at night, both as a parent and as a citizen, is how to ensure that my two children as well as the children of my Palestinian neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime.
There are only two moral ways of achieving this goal.
The first is the one-state solution: offering citizenship to all Palestinians and thus establishing a bi-national democracy within the entire area controlled by Israel. Given the demographics, this would amount to the demise of Israel as a Jewish state; for most Israeli Jews, it is anathema.
The second means of ending our apartheid is through the two-state solution, which entails Israel's withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders (with possible one-for-one land swaps), the division of Jerusalem, and a recognition of the Palestinian right of return with the stipulation that only a limited number of the 4.5 million Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to Israel, while the rest can return to the new Palestinian state.
Geographically, the one-state solution appears much more feasible because Jews and Palestinians are already totally enmeshed; indeed, "on the ground," the one-state solution (in an apartheid manifestation) is a reality.
Ideologically, the two-state solution is more realistic because fewer than 1% of Jews and only a minority of Palestinians support binationalism.
For now, despite the concrete difficulties, it makes more sense to alter the geographic realities than the ideological ones. If at some future date the two peoples decide to share a state, they can do so, but currently this is not something they want.
So if the two-state solution is the way to stop the apartheid state, then how does one achieve this goal?
I am convinced that outside pressure is the only answer. Over the last three decades, Jewish settlers in the occupied territories have dramatically increased their numbers. The myth of the united Jerusalem has led to the creation of an apartheid city where Palestinians aren't citizens and lack basic services. The Israeli peace camp has gradually dwindled so that today it is almost nonexistent, and Israeli politics are moving more and more to the extreme right.
It is therefore clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have yielded no results, not even a settlement freeze, let alone a decision to withdraw from the occupied territories.
I consequently have decided to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that was launched by Palestinian activists in July 2005 and has since garnered widespread support around the globe. The objective is to ensure that Israel respects its obligations under international law and that Palestinians are granted the right to self-determination.
In Bilbao, Spain, in 2008, a coalition of organizations from all over the world formulated the 10-point Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign meant to pressure Israel in a "gradual, sustainable manner that is sensitive to context and capacity." For example, the effort begins with sanctions on and divestment from Israeli firms operating in the occupied territories, followed by actions against those that help sustain and reinforce the occupation in a visible manner. Along similar lines, artists who come to Israel in order to draw attention to the occupation are welcome, while those who just want to perform are not.
Nothing else has worked. Putting massive international pressure on Israel is the only way to guarantee that the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians -- my two boys included -- does not grow up in an apartheid regime.
This article orginally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
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56 Comments so far
Show AllWhy should it be the 1967 borders? What makes them legitimate?
At the very LEAST, the borders should be those of Partition. Those are the only borders with even counterfeit legitimacy.
And the legitimacy is indeed counterfeit. The UN did not and does not have the legitimate right to deal away the land belonging to an innocent people, on which they've lived for a thousand years or more.
The UN Charter says that people have the right to political self-determination, and that taking land by force is the Number One world-crime.
A one-state solution with the Palestinian Arabs in power is the only one that can have any true legitimacy. Anything else is an expedient fraud at best.
You are completely correct, but your remedy is unrealistic given the passage of time. Similarly, the US should give back its "Louisiana Purchase" to the native Americans. Ain't gonna happen, even though it's the right thing TO do. So it'd be better to just realize this and focus on the two state solution.
The famed historian, George Mosse (http://history.wisc.edu/mosse/mosse.htm) predicted in 1982 that South African apartheid would be around for several centuries to come. 12 years later the first non-racial elections were held in South Africa. A few years before then, in the midst of upheavals of the Sixties (roughly speaking the period between 1964-1975), several American political scientists wrote with envy about the "stability" enjoyed by the Soviet system and how barring nuclear war, it would last well into the next century. Young Israelis are waking up to the lies they were brought up on and are looking to outgrow the confines of that claustrophobic identity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhG1yB6Z3SY
"You are completely correct, but your remedy is unrealistic given the passage of time."
The passage of time? The duration of the modern state of Israel lies within one person's lifespan.
The zionists base their claim to Palestinian land on the fact that it was the Jewish homeland more than 2000 years ago.
q
Not only that, but their claim is vastly over-valued since it depends on biblical mythology, which in more than 75 years of intensive archaeological research remains totally unsupported. Ze'ev Herzog, who's at Tel Aviv, wrote a very strong paper ("http://individual.utoronto.ca/mfkolarcik/jesuit/herzog.html") debunking the mythology.
The Zionist claim is broadly similar to the claim that the Rom might make to ownership of India: they did live there at some point, but only along with many other peoples. The Tanakh claims about how the proto-Zionists defeated this army and conquered that territory are, essentially, propagandistic lies similar to the claims that Ramesses II (I think it was II) made about some of his major non-victories.
The sad irony, actually a myth used now as a deliberate lie, is that the dominant "Jews" are the descendent of the Jews of ancient Israel. Zionism is a religion separate from Judaism, although many pretend to be religiously Jewish. Zionists reject the covenant between the God of the Jews and the Jewish people, and demand blood sacrifice for the financial convenience of European pretenders.
I agree it goes back before 1967, but it's a practical starting point considering the passing time.
They should include also several massacres and the destruction of homes and agricultural lands within the 67 borders!
Let's workout the deal that came after WWII!
"Let's workout the deal that came after WWII!"
Are we going to include the Palestinians in the dealing this time?
q
I'll boycott Israel--but in all fairness I must also boycott the USA as well, for they seem to be Israel's lackeys and enablers.
Boycotting US made goods wouldn't matter much. Every damned thing in this country is made in China anyway.
q
"Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world. "
There's absolutely no evidence of that. Other than a lunatic fringe of anti-semites virtually the whole world is standing by Israel. They know the truth. There isn't a single country in the world that supports this mythical "boycott". Not one. To rational people the suggestion that Israel is "apartheid" is just a source of humor. Everyone knows that the real apartheid in the middle east is those of the Arab nations that have imposed sharia, which is genuine apartheid, with different sets of laws for men and women.
The truth is that it's the blockade of Gaza and the Palestinians that is being supported and which is holding. Face it folks, the Israelis have won their war, and that isn't going to change.
D'you know, I believe that the Nazis and the Afrikaners said the same thing, in their time. That it was all over and they had won, so everyone else should just shut up and sit down. Like the Zionist invaders of Palestine, the Afrikaners even claimed that Africa had been given them by God, in their case because of the passage about "hewers of wood and drawers of water".
Funny how the reality in Germany and Zuidafrika seems to have changed quite a bit since their time, isn't it.
mikep, okay if apartheid doesn't work for you, try genocide. mentioning sharia is a red herring to distract from the on the ground realities of a walled-in, imprisoned (reminds one more of ghettoized warsaw than of soweto, but still, i think 'apartheid' is accurate) populace of civilians interspersed with "settlers" populating a swisscheese map that, to anyone who's seriously studied it, reveals the tragic history of the "occupied territories" since the zionist movement was promised its own 'jewish national homeland' by british foreign secretary balfour who arrogantly assumed the right to do so in 1917 despite the semitic arabs already living there (not unlike the assumption of western european colonizers coming to settle in the western hemisphere with their notions of 'manifest destiny' running roughshod over the indigenous peoples populating the "new world"). hyper-militarized "settlers" have ruthlessly and violently supplanted palestinian villages in more recent decades with outrageous impunity and cynical use of the nazi holocaust to justify the declaration of israel as an independent country in '48 , rendering survivors unable to access olive groves cultivated for generations for fear of being shot (or because they've been bulldozed) or detained or prevented entirely from being able to make a decent living or access loved ones because of checkpoints where they are routinely humiliated, brutalized or intimidated daily. the very definition of apartheid/segregation/or just 'man's inhumanity to man'. have you BEEN there? have you seen the welded-shut doors to palestinian shops preventing people from any means of support and the chain link fencing palestinians have of necessity put up over their streets to catch the rocks and refuse thrown down at them by settlers on a regular basis?... the malnourished and sick children who have no access to decent food or healthcare? the housing demolitions that render more families homeless each week? the rage and exhaustion and despair in the faces of loved ones, whether palestinians, israelis or internationals who've been killed in this conflict? your use of the terms 'rational', 'humor', 'anti-semitic' and 'mythical' hit me and probably many others as some kind of orwellian newspeak that rings hauntingly like the repetition of untruths just before and during the holocaust. the TRUTH is the disgust with and boycott of israeli apartheid is very real and NOT because of 'anti-semitism', but because of the pro-HUMAN and pro-truth objection to landgrabs painted by the ignorant and fearful to look like entitlements. yes, the blockade of gaza is being supported --by those determined to conquer through violence, but i wouldn't be so quick to declare that it isn't going to change. i've had to go back through this to edit out incendiary comments because i want to be able to communicate human being to human being and not add more fuel to the fire of the concept of enmity.... open your mind and your heart. please. boycotts are only one of the tools that people can and do turn to to shift an intractable injustice. and thankyou for your article to the author... count me in.
Israel never complied with the Balfour declaration in the first place, and that declaration granted them a homeland, not sovereignty over it. And of course, Balfour was acting in the name of an imperial dictator.
Matangicita, hello. You wield your pen, a sword, with alacrity, clarity and message. Your post is so very erudite, one of the best I've read in many CD years. Tres freakin bien!
The Nightmare of Palestine's Crucifixion
Is exponentially exacerbated by it's high-
noon, brazen slaughter with picnicers cheering
and songs celebrating dead children later.
The Nightmare is this heartles cruelty.
This joy in killing. And the country is
sick with corruption. It is killing it's
own soul.
I pray for all involved, for a two-state. for peace.
Matangicita
I totally agree with your perspective - great post. Let's all be aware that mikep does not read anything we write. He just keeps coming back with the same lies and accusations - we're all anti-semites in his somewhat sick mind. He's not going to change. I don't think he's an Israeli paid troll - he's too naive in his approach for that. Chernus with his softer approach - see his post on the same day - is a more likely candidate for an Israeli fellow traveller.
What your post does is help to educate others with more open minds about the inherent evil of the Zionist program. If we argue logically, document our arguments with the ample evidence available, and not lose our cool then the likes of mikep might eventually realise that their posts are actually counter-productive. By spurring us to present the facts without rancour they lose.
mikep:
"...virtually the whole world is standing by Israel"
Are you living in some parallel universe? Every poll consistently shows that Israel is the most despised nation on Earth.
You may be correct that the "facts on the ground" that Israel has created make the creation of a Palestinian state very difficult, but do you really believe that the status quo will persist for another 10, 20, 50 years?
mikep is just a zionist drone who pops up in threads under articles that are critical of Israel. He always makes the same childish accusations ("anti-Semitic") and militaristic arguments and then runs away when the adults point out his foolishness.
q
Here you troll, read and weep!
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/08/8146
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1644
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/865408.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/920578.html
http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-36.htm
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2009/01/israel-boycott-divest-sanction
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=576802&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3444096,00.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1249418545631
And, yeah, do go ahead and read them and see if these worldwide efforts of "a lunatic fringe of anti-semites virtually the whole world is standing by Israel." Denial is more than river in Egypt and, yeah, that's what they said about South Africa too. The reality is that the likes of you and the rest of the Israel apologists are running scared cause you know the walls are closing in.
From the viewpoint of fairness, this makes some sense. The starting point of any negotiation should be: Israel has controlled the Palestinians for 41+ years and denied them citizenship in their own land, it is fair to give the Palestinians equal time in charge. Almost all will say that is an unworkable situation. However, the Israelis must compensate the Palestinians for their past wrongdoing.
The concept that facts on the ground must be accepted as future fact, with no compensation, is ridiculous. Walk into a china shop and deliberately smash a teapot, there is a fact on the ground that cannot be fixed. But, the shop owner would expect it to be paid for.
Neve Gordon is not the first Israeli academic to call for a boycott of the Zionist regime. The late Tanya Reinhart was quite clear on the rights and wrongs involved and responsibility of decent peoples everywhere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdnbKZGvj0o
Here she compares South African apartheid to Israeli state policy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0htAOCUsbI
"A global boycott can't help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism."
The author is showing some ignorance here.
Yes, historically the term "anti-Semitic" has primarily been used to refer to the persecution of Jews, but THE PALESTINIANS ARE SEMITES!!
Taking that into consideration, since when is an act aimed at trying to gain equality for the Palestinians considered anti-Semitic.
I dare to speculate that many immigrants who live in Israel probably have NO ancestral connection to the region.
Maybe we could even say that, because of their persecution of Palestinians, the Zionists are anti-Semite.
THE PALESTINIANS ARE SEMITES!!
The world's greatest anti-Semite is the state of Israel and it's supporters.
I came up with that myself as well, but quickly realized that, in terms of the body count, the US and UK both have strong claims in that department. I do agree that Israel is the only nation in which its state religion, Zionism, has not only anti-Semitism as a major tenet of the faith, it also demands blood sacrifice.
As to "greatest", you may still be correct. A major part of the problem is that the US President, Congress, and press are subservient to Israel, so Israel is clearly greater than the US.
Long before the "creation" of Israel...
The European Banksters and industrialists (rothschilds, etc) wanted to break up the Ottoman Empire...
to get their hands on the oil and minerals in the regions controlled by the Ottomans...
They used the Young Turks to seize control from the Sultan, and fomented ethnic tensions to break up the Empire...
Many ethnic minorities fleed the violence and persecutions and moved to Russia to work in the oil fields...
Soon thereafter, the Banksters and Industrialists were funding Tsarist Russia to develop their industrial infrastructure...
The Tsarists were having difficulty with the foreigners that were organizing the laborers and began persecuting them...
As they fled the violence of Russia they moved to England and continued organizing the factory workers there...
The Industrialists and Banksters felt threatened by these socialist organizers, and came up with a plan to be rid of them...
While simultaneously seeking to create an imperialist toehold in the Near-East, to control the Suez canal and expand into mespotamia...
The Rothschilds funded the original Zionist scholars who were advocating for the creation of Israel as early as the 1860's...
The Banksters and industrialists were funding the pogroms on one hand, and promoting Zionism on the other...
The Banksters also hedged their bets by funding the Bolsheviks rise to power, and groomed Trotsky for his role...
They funded the rise of fascist demagogues to power in Europe, using the scapegoating of Jews and socialists to their advantage...
Hitler took the propoganda too seriously, and the Bankers and Industrialists eventually had to throw their weight behind the Allied powers...
They made money selling weapons to both sides of WWII, again hedging their bets to ensure they controlled who won the war...
Meanwhile, the Rothschilds were funding terrorist groups like Irgun, the Stern Gang, and Khazars to ethnicly cleanse Palestinians for decades before Hitler came to power, and these terrorist groups actually supported the Nazis during WWII...
In the post-war era, the UN granted recognition to the State of Israel and opened the gates to the mass migration of Jews to Israel...
Problem-Reaction-Solution... Sounds crazy, I know...
Why would the Rothschilds and other Banksters support the persecution of their own people...?
They are in-bred psychopaths who care more about power and money than the sacredness of life and sovereignty of nations...
They own the fractional reserve banking system, like the federal reserve and Bank of International Settlements...
They create wars to make money, steal land and resources, consolidate power, and geopolitical strategy...
The imperialist ambitions of the USA and Israel is a symptom of the problem...
And they will continue with their wars of aggression and apartheid state until the issue of multinational banksters is dealt with...
History in a nut shell. Pretty well presented.
Here is a movie to that theme: Watch THE EMPIRE OF "THE CITY" on You Tube.
And here is abundant background information to hidden agenda BEYOND BELIEF: Read “Collateral Damage” by E. P Heidner, part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
Thanks Yachtie...
I read the Collateral Damage articles a few months ago...
And have been telling everyone I know who will listen...
Are you familiar with Global Research dot Ca...?
There are several three-part articles that explain the banking system in easier-to-digest language than the Heidner ones...
I recommend "Full-Spectrum Dominance" to get an idea of what's been happening since the false-flag psy-ops of 9-11...
I'll watch "the Empire of the City" with my Jewish girlfriend this weekend, in hopes that it can explain this better than I can...
I also recommend "Zeitgeist" to anyone who hasn't already seen it, also for free on google-video...
Which sometimes has better quality videos...
What other documentaries or books do you recommend...?
Thanks for the links. Will check them out.
It has been remarkably quiet around the smoking gun of 9/11. Is that the silence before the storm?
I regard 'Zeitgeist', 'The Empire of the City' and 'Collateral Damage' as the ultimate trio of information about THE SYSTEM.
This is an interesting article though: http://www.correntewire.com/great_american_bubble_machine_0
The next bubble is the commercial real estate market, then the education loan bubble.
GM, radically cool post. Did you learn that stuff in History class or civics?
Hope you been well.....where is Sioux Rose?
May the stars always cast your shadow by their light.
Thanks Joe...
Hope you are doing well...
You asked if I learned this stuff in History or Civics class...?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...!!!!
Good one...!
While I was a history major in college... I dropped out when the proffessors and text books were "teaching" me obvious untruths and omitting or downplaying certain "truths" as inconsequential...
I got tired of being shouted down by professors who had a different ideology than I for daring to challenge the conventional paradigm...
Or being accused of being disruptive or "off-topic" by mentioning the impact of IMF/WB/WTO/NAFTA on indigenous peoples & nature...
And this was at Evergreen, one of the most "liberal" colleges in the country...! One professor actually started kicking chairs and yelling at me to "shut up!" In a full auditorium during my presentation about US corporate and military involvement in the "drug war" and drug-trafficking in Colombia...!
I know there are many good professors and schools out there, but I decided that I had had enough of the "academia" bubble, and it was no longer worth going into greater debt just to get a worthless diploma... So I became an autodidact and a voracious reader of political history, free from the stifling culture of needing to "prove" my understanding of issues to anyone else...
Israel grabs land because it can. And possession is 9/10ths of the law. A greater force can take away some of what was grabbed. Israel, though , has 200 nuclear bombs, sophisticated delivery systems and the 4th best military in the world. They're tough to grab from. UN,US, if not Israeli enablers, are not going to stop Israel's settlements,apartheid and genocide. Palestinian/Arab rights remain a task to be achieved. As such, Israel will always be on edge.
I've been boycotting Israel for years. I'm glad to see it catching on, it worked with South Africa.
I"ve been supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction campaign against Israel for a while now and I agree with Onecaptjim that I need to Boycott the US as well and I have been doing just that as much as i can. I applaud Neve's courageous and honest approach to the Israeli extreme right wing regime which he see's as clearly defying international law and international condemnation. Neve provides a much needed perspective for the American's as well who have fallen into the hands of equally extreme right wing fascist elite's!!
Here is a suggestion from someone who has grown up in his own country, a prisoner of war, while it was illegally occupied, by a large population of those who 'truly believe' in 'manifest destiney', but have not been able to figure out a way to make it legal. In the very same manner that Israel is doing now.
No need to worry about boycotts of Israel. Or taking much action. "Nature" will handle that.
The USA and Israel have much in common. They both are illegal states, with a history of terrible atrocities against anyone who would defy them or stand in their way. They lie, cheat, steal. They do not keep their word, but are the 'faster' to call to attention the same in others. They both worship a mean vindictive jealous 'God', that according to their 'script' gives them the right to promote death and destruction wherever they wish; for any reason they wish.
This 'belief' gives them the motivation to be belligerent and arrogant, and not the least inclined to admit to failure, much less error.
But the greatest irony of all is simply this. The USA is currently up to its 'collective chin' in debt to TWO former enemies. Japan and China. China is the 'Communist Monster' and Japan is the 'yellow menace that attacked the US' and lost.
Now the USA has shown that they are 'collectively' the largest mass of fools to have ever 'collected' in one spot at one time on the face of the entire planet, most likely in all of history. They really believe themselves to be invincible, yet they have the greatest weakness of all.
They are a collection of self centered, greedy dogs, in a pack of other greedy dogs. Dog packs are known the world over as dangerous, but mostly to themselves.
As soon as the rest of the world finally tires of the USA, they will simply need to 'cut off the credit lines' and the Americans will turn on themselves.
Then the Israelis will not longer have the 20 billion in 'free money' they get from the USA, and they will turn upon themselves, and their neighbors, and they will once again loose.
It is simply a matter of time.
Good Luck America-----Israel, you both will need it.
The level of hatespeech and trolling on this supposedly "progressive" site indicates that the "Americans" have already turned on themselves.
I wish they would finish killing and eating each other quickly, so that I can come back from Latin America to live on the lands of my ancestors.
Zionism, which has the trappings of Judaism but not the theology, is the state religion of Israel; they just call it a different name. A similar offshoot of Christianity, which worships the supremacy of a Christ who does not require one to follow the teachings of Jesus, is not the state religion of the US; it just seems to be far too often.
Zionism, which has the trappings of Judaism but not the theology, is the state religion of Israel; they just call it a different name. A similar offshoot of Christianity, which worships the supremacy of a Christ who does not require one to follow the teachings of Jesus, is not the state religion of the US; it just seems to be far too often.
"A global boycott can't help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism." .....Just imagine for a moment that there were NO Semites in Israel. No single blamable ideology, religion or race.... Then there would be NO opposition to a boycott, no excuse NOT to boycott. It is the despicable system which warrants our boycott.
Boycotting Israel and its goods is not antisemitic.
I do not purchase products made in Israel or China.
We must start from somewhere. Back when the peaceniks declared 'everlasting love' we have dithered over the facts, even though they have been thrust into our faces. This world can go no further with war. Now is the time to start.
Neve Gordon has taken a courageous and conscientious stance.
I boycott the Rothschilds and Rockefellers to the extent possible. Living in the U.S., I'm extremely fortunate enough to have enough "stuff" to last the rest of my life, so I don't need to buy any more "stuff." I already have a stove, a refrigerator, a computer, and many other gadgets, so I don't need any more gadgets. I'm old, so the clothes I already have won't need replacing.
I do need to buy food, as I can't feed myself from what I grow on my apartment's little balcony, so I belong to a cooperative food store and shop at farmers' markets for locally grown produce. I have no need to set foot into a corporate store or purchase any corporate products. I'm also fortunate enough to have spent many years homeless or living in fourth world countries, so I know how to survive without "necessities" like toilet paper and toothpaste.
The exceptions are books, which I try to buy from indie booksellers when possible and donate to local public or community college libraries with limited book-buying budgets, or to keith harmon snow keith@allthingspass.com for African self-help projects when suitable. Two or three times a year I buy independently produced documentary DVDs to show at the public library and then donate to their collection. But I only buy books and DVDs that have educational and/or revolutionary consciousness raising value, that would not otherwise be available. There is no chance of any of that money going to the global oligarchs either.
So while boycotting the U.S. and Israel is a good idea, it is an even better idea, if possible, to boycott their owners. GoldenMean and NativeSon speak truth. The best way to boycott the pawns and puppets, is to boycott the powers that machinate them.
Egyptian professor of translation studies in England "received much criticism and created great controversy when she removed two Israeli academics, Dr. Miriam Shlesinger of Bar-Ilan University and Professor Gideon Toury of Tel Aviv University, Israel, from the editorial boards of her journals Translator and Translation Studies Abstracts, based on their affiliation to Israeli institutions"
http://www.monabaker.com/boycottisraeliproducts.htm
Refugee and diaspora populations have been excluded from peace process negotiations. UN-registered Palestinian refugees have the individual right to return home, not repatriated, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, affirmed by UN Resolution 194 and pledged, but not honored, by Israel as one of two conditions for UN admission in 1949.
Having participated in their dispossession and oppression, we have a duty to this refugee and diaspora population who might very well prefer to “live there.” This right should not be expressed by tokenism, "in principal" or by "repatriation" to some future Palestinian state-let.
Rarely mentioned is the relentless struggle of the 20% Palestinian Arabs within “Israel proper” - to gain equality and transform Israel into a country for all its citizens. Absent outside help, they cannot eliminate the segregation, racism and discriminatory laws, reminiscent of our own Jim Crow, that would remain under the two-state model.
The truth of Israel's founding (the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of some 86% of the indigenous population) must be acknowledged and remedied before we can expect a lasting peace in the holy land based on freedom, justice, and equality.
Israeli soldiers have launched an invasion into the beleaguered Gaza Strip, killing a Palestinian mother and her child while injuring a man elsewhere.
According to local witnesses on Thursday, Israeli tanks and soldiers entered the Gaza Strip, opening unprovoked fire on civilians and nearby buildings.
presstv
,,,are body parts for transplant to follow???
Humbaba, perhaps you didn't see the ring of holy Rabbis from New Jersey and Brooklyn who were dealing in slightly used body parts? I've been wondering if this is not how they acquired them.
New Jersey's Corruption Scandal: The Israeli Connection
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090728/wl_time/08599191310900
How could a two-state solution possibly bring peace when one of the two states lives according to: "By way of deception, thou shalt do war?"
How long would it be before False Flag Nation sent a few of its soldiers into Palestinian territory, dressed to look like Hamas fighters, to light off a few bottle rockets pointed towards Israel, which would then serve as an excuse to invade, kill, and reoccupy?
The two-state solution is no solution, but rather a recipe for genocide as usual.
If Israel wants to save itself from itself it must first replace the criminally insane zealots who currently run things with sane reasoned human beings who sincerely want peace and have no interest in imperialist expansion.
This was an excellent piece. Kudos to Prof. Neves for writing and the LA Times for publishing. No doubt, the in-box & voice mail system will be shot down by the screams of anti-Semitism & holocaust from the Israel apologists. And, short of cutting Israel's feeding tube, this will be the next best thing to let those bastards know that the world means business and they will be stopped.
Finally!! A deeply intelligent, deeply fundamental, thoroughly balanced, wholistic, and accurate observation on the CD comment blogs from the very aptly named GoldenMean below. I would just add to GoldenMean's golden comments that to be even more mean, one has to go a bit further and in the Howard Zinn tradition make the point that while the banksters are indeed for the most part at the root of many of the world's evil, finally, they themselves are also victims. Like the rest of us, and every other entity that mother earth produces, the banksters are made of the same "stuff." We must wage war on them and when we win we must re-acquaint them with the humanity they have forgotten. And be they of Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, or any other origins, it matters not in the least! Evil is not specific to any religion, race, ethnicity, or any particular group, category, or classification. It is the stuff of human nature and we must study it more and see whether we can one day rid ourselves of it. I'm an atheist but Christ was indeed right when he uttered the simple but spectacular imperative to "hate the sin, not the sinner." I will leave you GoldenMean and other readers with one of my favorite passages and which speaks to the heart of what you wrote:
"the Hermit will doubt whether behind one cave, there is not another, richer, deeper, more comprehensive, more fundamental one in its meaning than the one before it, and still doubt that behind the second there is not still another, deeper, richer, more comprehensive, more fundamental one in its meaning which acts as the ground for the ones before it, and still doubt that behind the last there is not yet another with all of the same qualities which grounds all those that came before it and which shakes the ground of even the idea of "grounds" itself." (Nietzsche)
Thank you for the kind words...
You are right about the need to study "evil" (google Ponerology) in order to rid our species of the psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies that are innate in 6-10% of the global population... Those who are born psychopaths have a recessive gene that was useful as a killer instinct millions of years ago for survival, which becomes dominant when humans inbreed, or suffer from brain lesions due to birth defects or trauma... This group of "feeble-minded" humans, who lack the full spectrum of emotions, unable to feel empathy or compassion towards others, guilt, shame, or conscience, have the capacity to become mass murderers or assassins or paedophiles, depending on how they were "nurtured" by family or influenced by the culture they are in... Which means that not all people with this condition actually "act out" on their impulses... These moral midgets are drawn to positions of power and wealth at the expense of others, often becoming heads of heirarchical organizations like churches, corporations, government, and military, and then create a culture within those authoritarian power structures that "normalize" their pathology through institutionalizing the characteristics of "dog eat dog", wealth & power consolidation, and expelling individuals who cannot "compete" in a cut-throat manner in their climb to the top... Many folks within these groups, who are born normal, begin to adopt the psychopathic characteristics in order to survive, pursue a career, or just "following orders" from their preist, boss, or CO... Often unconsciously accepting these behaviors as necessary in order to "belong", or justified as part of "human nature"...
EEG's can determine who has these tendencies, and in a sane society, there could be mandatory EEG's for anyone applying for a job or promotion which would give them authority over others, just like mandatory drug testing today...
These studies were conducted in eastern europe in the post war era, and was suppressed by the communists and capitalists alike...
Zbigniew Brezizinsky personally squelched these studies by preventing their publication, yet the scientists still managed to publish in alternative outlets... The Psychopaths in positions of authority know they are different, and are often extremely intelligent, and want to perpetuate the myth that all humans are fundamentally neurotic, and the pharmaceutical industry that funds the doctors who wrote the DSM-3, DSM-4, and are working on DSM-5, have a financial motive to classify and diagnose normal emotional reactions to unhealthy societal pressures as being neuroses that can be "medicated" with specific drugs, and prescribe other drugs to deal with the "side-effects"... Normal teenage rebellion is viewed as a "disorder", as is the depression from greiving for losing a loved one, to be medicated by so-called "behavior-modifying" drugs... Quite a lucrative enterprise, as children who display hyperactivity from an active imagination is deemed ADHD and is put on Ritalin or Aderall to make them "normal"... We have a long way to go to rid ourselves of "Evil" when the psychopaths have taken over the psych-ward... Ken Kesey was right...
GM, yes, very correct and sad indeed. And you are absolutely right that synthetic drugs dealing with any sort of "brain issues" are particularly pernicious and should once and for all be banned. How precious the brain and the body are - the foundations of all meaning and value in this life, the only life we know; and yet how criminal western history's treatment and total dismissal of the body has been, particularly from the period of that most disgusting of all ideologies, Christianity!! But admittedly I sometimes feel it is a hopeless struggle. What I mean is how much evil do people have to see until they finally become conviced to fight it in a sustainable and effective way????? Even in CD columns, there still are defenders of the BS 9/11 story we've been told, endless Obama apologists (incidentally, I'm sure you are aware of this but if not the people must be very careful to guard against the "Left Gatekeepers." There is no difference in the end between them and Fox news, and, moreover, no difference between at least 98% of our elected Republicans and Democrats - they are all owned by the same oil, military, banking, financial, pharmaceutical, and in general corporate intersts.), dishonest and shallow debates about our healthcare, and general meaningless talk about personalities. And I'm very sorry but MOST of the established Left Media caters to this BS instead of focusing on the most essential elements of the fight we must win and sustain in order to create a healthy, balanced, happy, and sustainable society and world. Just look at how worshipped that "genius" Mr. Chomsky is on this site. For me, the common people who struggle every day like the FDNY fighters who died on 9/11 trying to save others are far more precious and valuable than Mr. Chomsky or the lowlife Guiliani who still tries to take all the "credit" - what a joke!!! - for that day! Why can't people simply demand absolute honesty and absolute benevolence of their political leaders once and for all REGARDLESS OF ALL OTHER AND MEANINGLESS ASPECTS????? If these were in place, we could begin the long road of starting to heal but, please forgive me, the American people have got to be the dumbest, most brainwashed society on earth!!! Why can't they grow out of this mental sickness already???? And now maybe you, GM, can understand why I was so happy to read your post. Your words focus like a laser on the essence of the problem and you write without the fatal and stupid ideologies of the Left and also without gesture and without that most wretched socially prevalent American charateristic, EGO!!! In any case, thank you for the small pleasure of your writing.
hey
How can anything be done when the Zionist are in control of our President and our Congress! Take a quick look at the top men in Obams's White House 80% are Jewish. Look at our congress
they gave Israel the green light to Bomb and Kill as many Palistians that they cared to dessimate last November and December with their almost unanimous Declaration to the State of Israel before it used American made Planes, Tanks and Cluster bombs on the helpless and defenseless Palistinians !
If we really wanted to put the pressure on Israel we would send the aid we give Israel each year (about 3 Billion) to the Palistinians. This would have a very sobering effect on their behaviour - however this will never happen because our country is controlled in Washington by Jews whose only interest in the state of Israel.