The Walls of the Third Temple
U.S. / Israel Coalition Seeks Palestinian Annihalation

Continuing the theme of nuclear proliferation by those supposedly opposing it, we explore the Holy Land of Palestine, a corner of the world where the ancient and the modern are forced to coexist cheek by jowl. Whether it is Sharon's cheek or Arafat's jowl is of no consequence. Who is more afraid of whom, is. Events on the ground show Old Testament terror tactics being visited on some while others enjoy New World protection. In such an environment, equilibrium and harmony will remain elusive until the United States removes itself from the equation.

"...America has remained Israel's most steadfast friend and ally. In turn, Israel has become America's most steadfast friend and ally in the Middle East." U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman

As much as I appreciate the thrust of Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah's 10th anniversary editorial commemorating the failed Oslo peace accords, I believe he evades fundamental truths.

I cannot accept Palestinians, forced to flee their homes following Israel's 1948 UN-sanctioned independence, see a two-state settlement as more than a brief respite on the long march to a united Palestine. Daily, directly and indirectly, South Africans see the deep emotion evinced by the return of land to dispossessed persons or peoples. Indeed, land restitution forms a fundamental building block in South Africans' reconciliation to each other.
[more]

Israel plans to build more homes in West Bank settlements

In a violation of the "road-map" peace plan backed by President George Bush, Israel announced plans to build more than 600 new homes in Jewish settlements inside the West Bank yesterday.

The announcement will exacerbate fears that the road-map is being pushed off the agenda. The day before, the Israeli Cabinet defied American pressure and decided that its controversial "separation fence" would cut deep into the West Bank so that settlements would be on the "Israeli" side.
[more]

Three Years On

As far as the latter is concerned, what I said about the Holocaust and Israel being the new gods of the Jewish people are confirmed to me over and over. This Rosh Hashana, the theme at Bnei Jeshuran was Israel. At one point in the service the Rabbis lead the congregation in a rousing song of "Peace will Yet Come" with the whole congregation linked arm in arm, swaying to the music. It was at that point I walked out.

What I really wanted to do is go up to the podium and grab the microphone and say: "My friends, here we all are, feeling all warm and fuzzy as we link arms and pray for peace. What bullshit! Peace is not to be found in the heavens or something to pray for. Singing these songs is not going to save even one life. Talking about how we "support Israel" while we allow it to commit collective suicide is not the way to show our love. For gods' sake, get out there and do something to stop the madness before it is too late!"
[more]

Israel: The Alternative

The Middle East peace process is finished. It did not die: it was killed. Mahmoud Abbas was undermined by the President of the Palestinian Authority and humiliated by the Prime Minister of Israel. His successor awaits a similar fate. Israel continues to mock its American patron, building illegal settlements in cynical disregard of the "road map." The President of the United States of America has been reduced to a ventriloquist's dummy, pitifully reciting the Israeli cabinet line: "It's all Arafat's fault." Israelis themselves grimly await the next bomber. Palestinian Arabs, corralled into shrinking Bantustans, subsist on EU handouts. On the corpse-strewn landscape of the Fertile Crescent, Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, and a handful of terrorists can all claim victory, and they do. Have we reached the end of the road? What is to be done?
[more]

Refusal for the sake of democracy

Last Independence Day eve, I was invited to a party at the home of some friends. On the program was a private torch-lighting ceremony, scheduled to precede the official ceremony on Mt. Herzl.

One young man called up to light a torch said: "I hereby light this torch on the 55th anniversary of the State of Israel in honor of my peers, soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who bear the burden of defense with devotion and self-sacrifice, and in honor of my peers who refuse to serve in the territories, reminding us, in spite of punishment and social ostracism, that we are fighting not only for the security of our nation but also for the occupation and dispossession of another people seeking, just as we are, to live proudly in a country of its own. And to the glory of the State of Israel."
[more]

Dead Men's Bones

Osama bin Laden might have delivered a shattering blow to a fragile U.S. psyche and Saddam Hussein might have drawn a blinkered administration into a long, costly and deadly war from which it is unable to extricate itself, but traitors in the White House have undermined citizens' faith in their leaders' integrity far more successfully than any outsider could have done.

For corrupt governance, the Valerie Plame Affair and Washington proxy Israel's flagrant abuse of power might combine to be the straw that breaks the camel's back, ending America's bid for perpetual global hegemony. Wars of conquest cost money and a believable sales pitch, or the public does not buy into them. Instead, they put their palm-greased advocates out of office.

While Americans acknowledge that their tax dollars bankroll Israel, the quiet disbursement of their billions deflects attention from that on which it is spent. The U.S. economy is in the tank and betrayed citizens have besieged a lying, war-mongering White House.

The Rove-Libby-Cheney-Tenet-Wilson-Plame debacle, the release of U.N.C.H.R. Special Rapporteur John Dugard's report (given little coverage in the U.S.) on Israeli violations of human rights (Question of the Violation of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, Including Palestine), and former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg's Rosh Hashanah statement (A Failed Israeli Society Collapses While Its Leaders Remain Silent) could not come at a worse time for the Bush and Sharon administrations.
[more]