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The Betrayal of Gaza
The US is vocal about its commitment to peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories — but its actions suggest otherwise.
That the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on without resolution might
appear to be rather strange. For many of the world's conflicts, it is
difficult even to conjure up a feasible settlement. In this case, not
only is it possible, but there is near-universal agreement on its basic
contours: a two-state settlement along the internationally recognised
(pre-June 1967) borders - with "minor and mutual modifications", to
adopt official US terminology before Washington departed from the
international community in the mid-1970s.
The basic principles have been accepted by virtually the entire world, including the Arab states (which call for the full normalisation of relations), the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (including Iran) and relevant non-state actors (including Hamas). A settlement along these lines was first proposed at the UN Security Council in January 1976 and backed by the major Arab states. Israel refused to attend. The United States vetoed the resolution, and did so again in 1980. The record at the General Assembly since is similar.
But there was one important and revealing break in US-Israeli rejectionism. After the failed Camp David agreements in 2000, President Clinton recognised that the terms he and Israel had proposed were unacceptable to any Palestinians. That December, he proposed his "parameters": imprecise but more forthcoming. He then stated that both sides had accepted the parameters, while expressing reservations.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Taba, Egypt, in January 2001 to resolve the differences and were making progress. At their final press conference, they reported that, with more time, they could probably have reached full agreement. Israel called off the negotiations prematurely, however, and official progress was then terminated, though informal discussions at a high level continued, leading to the Geneva Accord, rejected by Israel and ignored by the US. Much has happened since but a settlement along those lines is still not out of reach, if Washington is once again willing to accept it. Unfortunately, there is little sign of that.
The US and Israel have been acting in tandem to extend and deepen the occupation. Take the situation in Gaza. After its formal withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel never relinquished its total control over the territory, often described as "the world's largest prison".
In January 2006, Palestine had an election that was recognised as free and fair by international observers. Palestinians, however, voted "the wrong way", electing Hamas. Instantly, the US and Israel intensified their assault against Gazans as punishment for this misdeed. The facts and the reasoning were not concealed; rather, they were published alongside reverential commentary on Washington's dedication to democracy. The US-backed Israeli assault against the Gazans has only intensified since, in the form of savage violence and economic strangulation. After Israel's 2008-2009 assault, Gaza has become a virtually unliveable place.
It cannot be stressed too often that Israel had no credible pretext for its attack on Gaza, with full US support and illegally using US weapons. Popular opinion asserts the contrary, claiming that Israel was acting in self-defence. That is utterly unsustainable, in light of Israel's flat rejection of peaceful means that were readily available, as Israel and its US partner in crime knew very well.
Truth by omission
In his Cairo address to the Muslim world on 4 June 2009, Barack Obama echoed George W Bush's "vision" of two states, without saying what he meant by the phrase "Palestinian state". His intentions were clarified not only by his crucial omissions, but also by his one explicit criticism of Israel: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop."
That is, Israel should live up to Phase I of the 2003 "road map", rejected by Israel with tacit US support. The operative words are "legitimacy" and "continued". By omission, Obama indicates that he accepts Bush's vision: the vast existing settlement and infrastructure projects are "legitimate". Always even-handed, Obama also had an admonition for the Arab states: they "must recognise that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning but not the end of their responsibilities". Plainly, however, it cannot be a meaningful "beginning" if Obama continues to reject its core principle: the implementation of the international consensus. To do so, however, is evidently not Washington's "responsibility" in his vision.
On democracy, Obama said that "we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election" - as in January 2006, when Washington picked the outcome with a vengeance, turning at once to the severe punishment of the Palestinians because it did not like the results of a peaceful election. This happened with Obama's apparent approval, judging by his words before and actions since taking office. There should be little difficulty in understanding why those whose eyes are not closed tight shut by rigid doctrine dismiss Obama's yearning for democracy as a joke in bad taste.
Extracted from "Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians" by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé
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39 Comments so far
Show Alleveryone whose ears are not shut tight knows obama is only a hired shill for the zionists.
Seriously, as stated in another thread, how does the state of Israel have total and complete compliance in our government?
I'm not just talking a majority or many, but everyone.
No one ever criticizes Israel in the US government, ever.
Everyone's first answer is AIPAC.
But really looking at the situation, there are other very powerful PACs that have great influence but none enjoy the lockstep uniformity of support that Israel does.
The banks? Nope
Oil industry? Nope
Pharma? Nope
The NRA? Nope
The Christian Right? Nope
In all of the above cases there is at least nominal if not some outright opposition in Congress. Not Israel and it is a foreign country.
The military is the only "lobby" that approaches universal levels of approval and the one of the good reasons behind that is that the defense industry has strategically located industry in many Congressional districts throughout the nation.
Are we supposed to believe that American Jews - all told around 7 million in some estimates and many of which don't support Israel - and Christian Zionist voters are behind this phenomenon that we've seen on display for decades in the US?
Nefarious reasons of course have been proffered from blackmail - sexual, nuclear, etc, - but really, isn't it time we as a nation confronted this seemingly inexplicable happening without settling for the tired old canards of:
AIPAC
Jews vote
Jews control the media
All of these have been offered in the past to explain our government's actions, but we are talking about some of the most remorseless, arrogant, freaking psychopaths on Earth in the form of our politicians. Some of these people would sell their mothers down the river if they had to. They have lied, stolen and sometimes killed to get to the positions they inhabit. Yet they are all afraid of Israel. To a person.
Doesn't anyone else find it weird how this one issue cows them ALL EVERY TIME?
What I had heard is a lot of has to do with the religious right in this country. You know end times, Armageddon, the second coming etc. Say anything agains Israel and you get the wrath of these people coming down on you. Also say anything against the Israeli government and you will be branded antisemitic. Sometimes it's fun to grab a stopwatch when Alan Dershowitz is debating someone about Israel to see how many seconds go by before he calls somebody an anti semite. On top of that throw in AIPAC and most folks figure out real quick that saying anything negative about the Israeli government is probably not a good idea politically.
But even after saying all that I still do find the almost universal cowering quite odd.
How many of our politicians give 2 sh*ts about being called racist when they immigrant bash and the Latino population in the US is near 49 million.
They don't hesitate for a second.
As far as the end-timers go, I know they exist but are there really enough pure end-timers out there that they have to be kowtowed to at all times?
Again, I really don't have a good answer to why on this issue but I bring it up because like most issues in the US at first glance the explanations sound plausible but when you really think about them something doesn't add up.
I think that the real reason is quite simple. They know that any slackness in their enthusiasm for Israel will call forth immediate accusations of anti-Semitism and all that has implied since the Nazis came up with their "final solution." We don't have any politicians in this country strong enough to ride out such a storm, I'm afraid.
I must respectfully say that is way too simplistic. I posted further up. I have been involved with this issue for many, many years.
"How many of our politicians give sh*ts about being called racist..."
Bush. Bush really does care about being called a racist. In fact he considers that to have been the single lowest point of his career as an appointed president.
"Sometimes it's fun to grab a stopwatch when Alan Dershowitz is debating someone about Israel to see how many seconds go by before he calls somebody an anti semite."
Sounds like the start of a great drinking game, too - drink every time Dershowitz calls someone anti-semite!
Thanks, polycarpe, for this fantastic, utterly digestible expression of the greatest political conundrum of our times.
May I suggest - your question doesn't really require an answer. When you have a fait accompli, and it poses a grave security threat, it would be nice to know from where it came and how, but isn't it more important to beat it back with everything at your disposal?
The small minority of us (who, for example, read thinkers like Chomsky) need to take action that would previously have seemed out of line. Specifically, we need to stop being cowards about talking about this - out in public. Anyone who is afraid of offending a Jewish friend over this moral catastrophe needs to go sleep in the doghouse. And any Jewish friend who would claim to be offended by the topic is probably on some level giddy about the sheer disproportionality of Jewish influence, Zionist bang for the buck, or whatever you call it. The phrasing hardly matters anymore, and, as I wrote above, the reasons for this dark seduction can be uncovered later. Right now, we need a call to intellectual arms and zero tolerance of Israel supporters.
Actually, Dennis Kucinich has been telling the truth about Israel's crimes. And Ron Paul, for all his faults, has been standing up to the Israelis as well.
But, yeah, the Zionists have total control of both houses of Congress. This is done through MEDIA CONTROL. All of our failings as a country have roots in MEDIA CONTROL. MEDIA CONTROL is what makes people vote against their own best interests.
Here is Kucinich on Israel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrtPpk6nhF8
Polycarpe, I have had the exact same thoughts.
Personally, i think israel is a black operation site posing as a nation at this time. And it is part of the u.s. military - or . Who knows?
I have also conjectured the blackmail scenario myself. Like a J Edgar Hoover on steroids. They may have the goods on everyone. In fact, it is probably larger than that. My favorite one would be that they have those alien bodies from roswell.
Then again, there is Cuba, which is the opposite phenomenon. No one would ever have supported Cuba in the u.s. government. Anyway, i totally agree with you. This is very major. Maybe starwars technology is involved. However, they are so dependent on u.s. financially. But then, they just buy our weapons systems with the money. So we may as well give it to raytheon directly and eliminate the middle man. I predict a natural disaster such as an earthquake there.
I think if you do a search for how many Bush/Obama cabinet members share dual citizenship (America/Israel) you will probably find the answer. It won't ease yr mind, though, as it will introduce you to one of the great conflicts of interest existing in our Gov't today. To me, it even trumps the conflict of interest of congress members holding personal portfolio stock in defense companies and other "War" commodities (which of course, are worth far more if we are engaged in war, which is a decision voted on by these same members of Congress).
The US has long supported Israel's "piece process" provided Israel gets a bigger chunk of Palestine. We provide Israel with enough white phosphorous to melt as many Palestinians to death as possible as part of that process.
The persons who run the Israeli lobby known as AIPAC,for short,have publicly declared that they wanted to control all American colleges and universities the way they control both houses of Congress. You figure that ambition out,since,for the life of me,I cannot figure it out,because of the huge differences in numbers: the total numbers of the members in both houses of Congress is only 535 members,while the enrollment in America colleges and universities is numbered in the millions!
If they succeed in their projected ambition,then forget about peace in the Middle East.
they have been dominating academia, mass media, hollywood, book industry, and any other components of culture for decades, through their aggressive and naked promotion of each other and punishment of any influential critics.
how do you suppose they control DC?
Free Chomsky talks (mp3 format) are available at radio4all.net
"Free Chomsky?" I had no idea he was locked up!
The professor is confined to a virtual prison,and press blackout shelter.Free dope!
peace
Point taken.
Anytime anyone, Noam Chomsky included, asserts that everyone agrees on some issue, you can assume that they are deliberately overstating a weak case.
Chomsky asserts that the basic principles of a two-state settlement have been accepted by “virtually the entire world,” when exactly the opposite is true.
According to Afred Lilienthal’s history of the creation of Israel, many U.N. members envisaged a “homeland” for Jews in Palestine, but not a completely separate Jewish state, because such a mandate obviously would result in the massive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Chomsky simply refuses to address the right of return of Palestinians, probably because to do so would jeopardize the existence of a separate Zionist state in Palestine.
To defend the creation of a “Jewish state” on Palestinian land is to deny fundamental justice to Palestinians, but that appears to be Chomsky’s position.
Palestinians were at first willing to tolerate Zionist immigrants as long as they didn’t try to partition Palestine and create a separate, racist state for themselves, but of course the Zionists' intention was always to do just that.
There can never be a sustainable peace in the Middle East (or the world) without justice for Palestinians, and there can never be justice for Palestinians as long Zionists have power. If you doubt that, take a closer look at their fanatical ideology embracing racism and territorial expansion as fundamental tenets of their creed.
Ostrogoth
Extremely well put. Chomsky is thought of by so many liberals as being practically a demigod but when he, as you note, denies by omission the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland, then one instantly recognizes that the deification of Chomsky is seriously flawed.
Yes, we all have our blind spots. Too bad Chomsky’s is on such an important issue.
The hatred for Israel's torturing of a defenseless people who have peopled that land for centuries continues to grow throughout the world. There is indication that it will become so intolerable that Jews will begin leaving for Europe, Russia and North America (from whence they came) such that "Israel", as the world knows it now, will cease to exist a few generations from now.
A few generations? Those poor Palestinians don't have that long.
And, oh, yeah. I wouldn't bet on that. For every one that leaves, they get 6 Russian settlers to move in.
What is it worth to international Jewry to have a Jewish-only Homeland? 1/2 of all Jewish wealth, maybe? Commodities are not free. Let the world community calculate world-wide Jewish wealth and demand that 1/2 be paid to the Palestinian people who would be obliged to immigrate to the U.S. and Europe. Jews get the land, Palestinians get the wealth. The 2 State Solution is a fraud; it will never happen and Chomsky knows it. The Palestinians have been dispossessed of their homeland already. The West Bank and Gaza are not nearly what the land seized from Palestinians is worth. Even the Boogie Man Iran and the Terrible Hizbollah would agree to this plan. A fair capitalist deal.
i agree w/ the sentiment expressed by chomsky that israel and the US are preventing any meaningfull resolution to the conflict between the zionist state of israel and the palestinians.
however, a one state solution is the answer and i'm dissapointed that chomsky won't take the extra step and state the obvious.
as long as israel exists in it's current state - non jewish israeli's (a signifigant portion of the population) will continue to be subjected to racist laws and policies.
it's time to talk about creating a new palestine that will respect the rights of all (jews, arabs, christians - brown people, purple people, orange people). until the zionists share the land w/ the indigenious occupants, there will not be...
...peace...
PS.. please take a moment to support jewish americans who spoke out against netanyahu in new orleans.
http://www.youngjewishproud.org/
...peace..
If you really want to get depressed, but much more informed, read UNDERSTANDING POWER, The Indispensable Chomsky, published in 2000.
The entwined relationship with Israel and its military as partner goes back quite far, e.g., the overthrowing of the Sandinista government in El Salvador, and of course, more.
Brushing off Zionist Israel is impossible, unless the U.S. is willing to have its economy reduced to rubble, unless it wants to trigger "The Samson Option," of Israel's blowing up the mideast and consequently, the rest of various nations' nuclear weapons are unleashed to finish off the earth, cheered on by the "Hoorah, Armageddon is here, Fellow Christians," folk.
We are indeed on the brink everyday, all day.
Truly good people in positions of relative power pushing to "Do the Right Thing" is a very iffy proposition now.
One of my favorite lines in "Bush Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," as Butch and Sundance fled from a relentless posse that they couldn't escape from until they both jumped off a cliff into swirling waters, is: "Who are these people"?
I hate to sound like a broken record, but too many are LIFE-DENYING, LIFE-DESTROYING PSYCHOPATHS with the characteristics I mentioned again in a post today: no conscience, no remorse, total indifference to human suffering, ... and also the inability to measure consequences of their actions and how those actions affect the future.
Personal actions based on what they want, if they happen to turn out with negative results, those negative results are then invariably explained away as the fault of others or if the others are dead or wounded, that those others "deserved it."
Because scientists now know that the brain configuration is different in Psychopaths -- the emotional and language centers are split, which disallows for feelings and causes confusions in ordinary logic and reasonableness, ... I cannot help but wonder, because psychopaths are in the millions across the globe, whether, instead of being sub-human as they are sometimes termed, they are a separate species evolving or devolving from Homo Sapien Sapiens.
Just as the brainier CroMagnon did the community-minded and milder and less brainy Neanderthals in, will the Psychopathic variety of what looks like Homo Sapiens Sapiens, but really isn't, eventually do us and the planet in?
Maybe Psychopaths are just a mutation. Albeit, however, IMO, they are a very dangerous mutation, with the most intelligent and rampantly, unbridled ambitious controlling media, money, various mega-corporations, and they are found in high positions in government,religion, science, medicine, education, law,...
As many professionals in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, sociology and others, have speculated, by the behavior and attitudes and actions of these people, they have affected and infected the populus in negative ways, and our own behaviors and attitudes have changed for the worse because of them.
Are we wiser, more savvy and educated, more sensitive and heart-centered, compassionate and empathetic, more reasoned, more generous, more civil, more imaginative and creative, more independent of thought and action than we used to be? or not?
I suppose no one of us can answer that in terms of the nearly 7 billion people riding this fragile, lovely blue planet. Maybe we can only crudely assess from our own personal experiences and our years on earth and where we've lived and whom and what we've encountered as we've gone along, including the workings of and individuals in our own governments [federal, state and local] and other venues mentioned. For myself, depending on what the issue is about, I am sometimes heartened and often horrified, as I am now.
What a ride, eh?
peace, cm
"Brushing off Zionist Israel is impossible, unless the U.S. is willing to have its economy reduced to rubble, unless it wants to trigger "The Samson Option," of Israel's blowing up the mideast and consequently, the rest of various nations' nuclear weapons are unleashed to finish off the earth, cheered on by the "Hoorah, Armageddon is here, Fellow Christians," folk."
Seems like we're already there.
Great comment CC
Your supposition, on a psychopath mutation is fascinating. Your speculation on a mutation and its effects deserves front page discussion. Look at the effect of differences in DNA on types of dogs, of the African honey bee, and I am sure there are many others. The aggressive psychopath may also out breed more community spirited and docile standard humans. Oh, well, that's evolution.
I have wondered at the DNA that the honey bee carries that directs the workers to support the hive or the traits that the termite and ant have that lead the individual to support the colony.
Humans seem to have traits to support the individual and the close family members at the expense of all around them. Perhaps humans can be cured of their excessive individuality by a little gene therapy?
superlative prolegomenon, 'cee miracles'... of what constitutes our species, and where H.s.s. is heading as we express our tendentiously out-of-control genotype... a genotype that is phenotypically manifest in many guises, not just in the 2 bifurcated phenotypic extremes, one of which manifests compassion, misericordia and eleemosynary, the other of which manifests malfeasing me-ness, esurience and self-servitude. there are multifarious phenotypes expressed all along that genotypic spectrum, and it is those whom the charitable must court at every opportunity. if the compassionate do not succeed in their daily lives to touch the still-courtable, then our species is ultimately doomed by our planet's primary 'cantus-firmus'... videlicet, its limiting factors of resource scarcity and self-repair mechanisms. i lament the diathesis that our not-yet-birthed are due to inherit. [apologies for sliding off-topic.]
capitalism
violence
liars
thieves
god
"Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Taba, Egypt, in January 2001 to resolve the differences and were making progress. At their final press conference, they reported that, with more time, they could probably have reached full agreement."
This half paragraph right up here is sheer mental masturbation. And the second half of that same paragraph proves it:
"Israel called off the negotiations prematurely, however, and official progress was then terminated..."
too true, reverand boomerang. if i hear one more scintilla of balderdash about 'failed peace talks' i'm going to vomit in my soup bowl. the entire 'peace process' and concomitant 'peace negotiations' represent such a farcical, 4-decades long sham, perpetrated by the israeli zionista and perpetuated by the american MIC/MSM, it would induce old willie shakespeare to so uproariously guffaw in his grave and w/ such unbridled abandon, he would stir the bones of the 3,000-year old mummified corpse of tutankhuman!
To: Ostrogoth November 10th,2010 6:06.
Ostrogoth,
An outstanding analysis.
Much appreciated.
And thank you.
chomsky's limited position is as far as the american "left" (virtually owned by the "liberal" jews) will permit.
Noam Chomsky gets in another outstanding article making great points on the hell that is Gaza.
AD
Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto
same place
different time
while the world stands by
genocide
live
polycarpe November 10th, 2010 1:40 pm
“No one ever criticizes Israel in the US government, ever.”
I direct readers to recent clips of a splendid and well planned protest and dissent to disrupt Netanyahu at the Jewish General Assembly by the "Jewish Voice of Peace" and "Young Jewish and Proud" organizations – perhaps if there were an ‘American Voice of Peace’ or ‘Young Americans and Proud’ to join with them at future visits of Bibi and AIPAC gatherings the message would be even louder. No better criticism than organized dissent and disruption.
Young Jews disrupt Netanyahu at Jewish General Assembly-War in Context,Paul Woodward ,09-11-2010
Thanks ‘polycarpe’ for an insightful comment and posting it so early for readers to see.