WHAT "left wing"? How easily we overlook today the fact that the so-called "left wing" in Israel - aka Mapai/Labor - is the party that initiated the 1967 war, instituted the Alon Plan for the illegal colonization of the occupied territories, illegally colonized, and ultimately illegally annexed the Golan Heights, build the first "settlements" (more accurately called colonies) in the OPT, and in the earlier decades of the occupation did far more actual confiscation, destruction, and construction of "facts on the ground" than the "right wing". As we used to say, "Likud talks about settlements, Labor builds them".
What is being resisted in the words of one Palestinian activist is Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinian villages in the Jordan Valley. That's the portion of the West Bank shown to the right in light yellow in the map below. When Netanyahu speaks of 'no preconditions' for starting peace negotiations, what he really means is that, not only will settlement expansion resume full throttle, but ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem will likewise continue.
The Jordan Valley is located in a stretch of land adjacent to the Jordan river up to the base of a mountain ridge on the eastern side of the West Bank. It runs from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the Dead Sea in the south.
.....'hopeless' was Huffington Post's rendering of the New York Times coverage of the recently announced resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which spoke of 'scant hopes from the beginning.'
Who cannot agree?
Last week, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, speaking in Dundee, Scotland on a tour sponsored by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, talked about Israel's abandonment of the pretense of diplomacy in favor of a policy of provocation and raw military power, with the ultimate aim of denying Palestinians any chance of forming their own independent state.
And a week before that, Chris Hedges, speaking at a fund raiser for the US Boat to Gaza campaign, called the "peace process (a) cynical, one-way route to the crushing of the Palestinians as a people."
Levy is really talking about the racist Likud agenda of the present government, which will screw Palestinians by offering them a group of Bantustans inside of what will become Greater Israel, the ultimate Likud goal.
While we wait for the Netanyahu games to begin, anticipating the resumption of Israel's building of homes on Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the further emptying of the Jordan Valley of its remaining Palestinian villages, and the development of the future Apartheid state of Israel, it seems like a good time for people to take a look at the reality on the ground as far as the dwindling peace activist movement is concerned. Actually, the problem is its silence or lack of publicity. Here's some.
These photos were shared this morning by the British site, Bristol to Gaza showing a little of what the reality is in Palestine, or whatever is left of it today, August 4, 2010.
Once a venerable if checkered organization at the forefront of fighting bigotry in general and anti-Semitism in particular in the US and Europe, the Anti-Defamation League under Abe Foxman has stooped to a new low and essentially acknowledged its support of Islamophobia, prejudice against Muslims.
The Anti-Defamation League came out against Ground Zero Mosque. So much for religious tolerance.
....Democratic candidate for the Senate from Pennsylvania (Specter's seat).
Whether you call it the Israel Lobby or AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) or the Neocons, there's no question that as a result of Sestak's past criticisms of Israel, they are now an albatross around his neck. Check out this political ad paid for by a new (old) group of Washington pro-Israel Neocons just resurrected as the The Emergency Committee for Israel. If you ask whether Sestak is in the process of being AIPAC'ed just as Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) was several years ago, this time with the Neocons leading the way, it turns out to be a silly question. Of course. Watch the attack video just released by this Neocon group:
The dead can still speak through their writings. And no one's writings are more relevant to what is going on today in Netanyahu's Israel and the Palestinian territories than those of the late Tanya Reinhart.
Tanya Reinhart, a former Professor at Tel Aviv University, Utrecht University, and New York University, is now dead. But before her death, she established herself as one of the most insightful analyst/writers about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her capacity to take apart historical agendas, to relate past to the present, and to deconstruct realities and get behind Israel's hasbara (propaganda) effort were widely appreciated by the public, as in her last book, The Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003.
If I may paraphrase a review, The Road Map to Nowhere is essential reading to understanding the state of the Israel/Palestine crisis since 2003 and the propaganda that infected its coverage. It argued that the Bush Road Map failed to bring real progress and that, under the cover of diplomacy, Israel was using the Road Map to strengthen its grip on the remaining occupied territories. Israel not only failed to give any attention to the required freeze on settlements, but settlement building, as in the 90s, accelerated. Reihart's book was called "an urgent and searing exposé of the "peace process" by a prominent Israeli thinker."
Just one day before Bibi Netanyahu took off for his meeting with Obama in Washington, DC, reports came out of the West Bank about the further ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families from the Jordan Valley. For years, Israeli armed forces deprived those families of water resources and the ability to subsist off their own lands, but now, the lands themselves are in question.
In successive announcements earlier this year, Netanyahu claimed that the Jordan Valley, along with East Jerusalem, the Jordan border region, and the settlement blocs, were not up for negotiation.
After his meeting with Obama, in front of the press, Netayahu refused to follow Obama by mentioning the two states solution as the road to peace. Instead, he voiced some ambiguous notions about what the Palestinians must do, since of course they are the impediment to peace, not the occupation and colonialism that has characterized the past 42 years of Israeli-Palestinian relations.
The journalist in question is Max Boot. Who is Max Boot and just how does he get access to high brass military personnel like David Petraeus?
Wikipedia describes Boot as....."a Senior Fellow at the ,Council on Foreign Relations a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and a regular contributor to other publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times. He blogs for Commentary Magazine on its page Contentions. He serves as a consultant to the U.S. military and as a regular lecturer at U.S. military institutions such as the Army War College and the Command and General Staff College."
Right Web, a website which "tracks militarists' efforts to influence US foreign policy," however, writes this about Boot: "Max Boot is an award-winning writer who promotes militant U.S. security policies similar to those backed by Neoconservative writers like Charles Krauthammer and Michael Ledeen. Boot holds privileged perches in the U.S. news media and foreign policy communities.... An example of Boot's inflammatory writing style was his review of the "Goldstone Report," the UN investigation led by the South African jurist Richard Goldstone whose report was released n late 2009."
In short, Max Boot is a pro-Israel Neoconservative, and in this story, we have General Petreus answering to him on matters related to his recent comments concerning the fact that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is endangering the lives of American soldiers in the field in Iraq and Afganistan.
UPDATE: It was report that at least 10 activists were killed as Israel Navy opens fire on Gaza aid flotilla.
Over 60 additionally were wounded after the convoy sailing for Gaza Strip ignored Israel's order to turn back, Turkish news reported. IDF confirms two commandos also wounded.
The flotilla was in international waters at the time.
UPDATE: 31st May 10 3 AM Gaza
Gaza TV News:
The Flotilla has now changed course and is sailing due west, further into International waters.
The Israeli war ships have pulled back, and are out of range at present. There is indication that the convoy will then head for Gaza in the morning.
UPDATE: Gush Shalom Coalition against the siege in Gaza
Urgent message:
A demonstration supporting the break the siege flotilla will be held tomorrow, Monday, 31.5.10 at 4:00 pm in front of the Ashdod port, Gate No. 1. We will be leaving from Levinski garden in Tel Aviv, at 3 pm. We will be using private cars, a bus will be called if necessary. Those who can bring a private car are requested to come to the pick up location to help with transportation.
The humanitarian flotilla is predicted to arrive at the Gaza shore at noon. We expect the ships to be taken over and to be towed in Ashdod port. We will be there to express our solidarity with the flotilla. And will call to break the siege and open the gates of Gaza.
UPDATE: The IHH ship Livestream is up showing passengers in life jackets after three Israeli ships confronted the flotilla 78 miles out at sea in international waters. Israel's block of electronic traffic was apparently overcome by rerouting. This is obviously an act of attempted piracy.
KEVIN OVENDEN REPORT'S LIVE FROM THE GAZA FLOTILLA!
At 22:41pm tonight, preparations aboard the Mavi Marmara are extensive. We are 90 miles away from land - 22 miles further than the Israeli decided 68 mile exclusion zone - but are being approached by an Israeli vessel.
Triage is set up and various strategies implemented to resist seizure. The Israeli media is reporting that Israel will deploy a very large naval force. Far from minimising violence, this is an illegal aggressive move which will make it more likely.
We are broadcasting live from the ship. Calm and organisation overcome the fear that Israel is trying to instill.
Viva Palestina and all aboard are prepared.
We are calling on everyone to contact various political leaders to ask them to do everything in their power to ensure the safety of these brave people, and to stand up and add their voice in support of this humanitarian flotilla.
Full details of how they can contact these political figures can be found through following this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/...
There you will find email addresses, and template letters to use. Full instructions are provided, and we ask that you follow these and show your support for everyone involved.
This is a very serious situation, and we are calling on everyone to play their part in helping ensure their safety, and that the aid reaches Gaza without difficulty.
END
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Alice Howard
Viva Palestina UK
Tel: +447889726777
Email: alice@vivapalestina.org
Website: http://www.vivapalestina.org/ Sign up to the Viva Palestina Mailing List http://www.vivapalestina.org/a... Viva Palestina, helping to make the positive steps in breaking the siege of Gaza!
Keep posted on developments.
Original TEXT:
On Sunday, at 9AM EST (4PM Cypress), the flotilla finally left for Gaza.
Slide show from the Challenger 1 (one of the small passenger boats), Mediterranean Sea, 30th May 2010, in the morning prior to departure.
There is livestreaming from the IHH Turkish passenger ship, now en route to Gaza, as shown here:
Link to the livestream from the IHH Turkish ship may be temporarily broken. There was some earlier expressed fears that Israel may attempt to block these connections, in order to interfere with footage of events when the convoy reaches Gaza. I will replace the link if it does not revive.)
This diary is a quotation of a defensive article by the Free Gaza Movement that attempts to straighten out the reality about the siege of Gaza, the flotilla now on its way to Gaza, and is quoted by permission.
Hillary Clinton shows that the US is now kissing-up to Israel, but not just Israel: Israeli right wing extremists like Netanyahu and the Likud project to continue colonizing all of original Palestine.
AIPAC said it would eventually control our college campuses. Although it was not carried by the mainstream media, AIPAC announced that it would take over college campuses just as it has taken over Congress.
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