“Netanyahu seeks to deny the Palestinians four rights of any sovereign state: control of its airspace; control of its electromagnetic spectrum; the right to maintain an army and to sign military alliances; and, most importantly, control of the border crossings where arms and terrorists could pass. Netanyahu believes Israel must retain all of these. Netanyahu’s model is based on the work of Stanford University political science professor Stephen Krasner, who was director of policy planning in the State Department under Condoleezza Rice. Krasner developed a “restricted sovereignty” model for problematic state structures.”
Do I have to say, if an Arab refuses to concede Israel’s “right to exist” the U.S. government considers them an irrelevant radical promoting terrorism against a sovereign state.
UPDATE: “pursuit of a peace agreement that includes a Palestinian state seems inescapable.”
On Saturday, March 10, 1979, Hampshire College became the first American college to divest from Apartheid South Africa. Although Apartheid wasn’t ended for another 15 years, Hampshire College’s decision was a critical first step. Hampshire was the first of 155 American colleges and universities to eventually divest from South Africa. The divestment movement grew to include individuals, cities, corporations, and even the U.S. Federal Government. As billions of dollars of capital were pulled from the economy, the South African government was forced to engage in negotiations that eventually led to the end of the Apartheid system.
On Saturday, February 7, 2009, Hampshire College became the first American college to divest from companies that benefit from the Israeli Occupation.
The effort to divest from Israel is gaining steam. Click here or here for links to a few of the campaigns that are underway. I find the denominational campaigns to be the most interesting. As a Mennonite, I’m particularly fascinated by what the Mennonite Church is saying. In 2007 a Mennonite delegation visited Palestine and Israel and issued a statement that called for people “to avoid investments which violate international law and promote violence.” As far as I know, the church has not yet made a binding decision on this point. But I do find their words heartening. I pray that the Mennonite Church will have the courage to turn these words into action.
UPDATE (April 3rd, ‘09): Since being visited upon by an agent from Tel Aviv-yafo, Tel Aviv three days ago, this post has been receiving spam every 2:10 from that address.
Netanyahu has vowed to abandon negotiations with the Palestinians, and says he will expand the program of Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank.
Despite today’s faintly ridiculous attempt in the NYT to depict Netanyahu as a born-again pragmantist, in fact he rejects any withdrawal from the Palestinian West Bank by Israeli squatters, despite Israel’s commitment to pull back in the Oslo accords. Since the West Bank looks like Swiss cheese with regard to administration and settlement patterns, there isn’t a Palestinian state to be had there without an extensive Israeli pullback, and Netanyahu has never shown any interest in either pullback or Palestinian state.
Now his people are trying to revive this bizarre idea of giving Jordan some sort of vague authority over the West Bank Palestinians as a way of denying them statehood in their own right. Jordan’s government has been under severe pressure to expel the Israeli ambassador over the brutal Gaza campaign, and any such active collaboration with Israel to repress the West Bankers would risk toppling the Hashemite throne. King Hussein once accused Netanyahu of single-handedly destroying every positive thing the Jordanian monarch had worked for.
Netanyahu is a train wreck for the Middle East. He is willing to ally with Avigdor Lieberman, an open racist who is gunning for the 20 percent of Israel’s citizen population that is Palestinian. Netanyahu wants a war with Iran, and when the Israeli Right wants a war nowadays, they usually want our children to fight and die in it for them. The 1996 “Clean Break” Neoconservative policy paper advocating a war on Iraq was written for Netanyahu. (They are not satisfied with picking our pockets for their weapons and colonization projects). Netanyahu will further oppress and brutalize the Palestinians, which he will keep in a slave-like condition of statelessness, and from whom he will steal what little property they have left. Last time he was in office he went around poisoning his enemies, for all the world like the Bulgarian KGB in the old days.
Netanyahu is the devil’s gift to international terrorism, which his policies will provoke. Fifty years from now, the turn of Israel to the hard right will be looked back upon as the beginning of the end of Israel, the time when the crucial decisions were made that rendered it impossible for the Israelis to stay in the Middle East in the face of the increasing popular anger Netanyahu will have provoked in 1.5 billion Muslims. No, Israel cannot be defeated on the battleground. But the French colons in Algeria were never really defeated on the battleground, either, nor were the thousands of Britons who had ruled India.
More immediately, all Americans will have reason to rue Netanyahu’s return to power, since the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other elements of the powerful Israel lobbies will pull Congress around to support Likudnik policies in the next few years.
“Former Palestinian presidential candidate (and likely future candidate) Mustafa Barghouti stopped by my office today for a short discussion on his impressions of what is possible and what is not in the aftermath of yesterday’s national elections in Israel.
As usual, Barghouti paints a compelling picture of limited options and stark realities.”
A Post-Modern Media Investigation of Events in Gaza During Israeli Media Blockade.
The cynical self-referential use of the media: story-of-story about the master narrative - power
Question of who’s the Author
Story at margin piercing master narrative: by design in gorilla warfare or result of weakness in fabric of master narrative.
There has been very little discussion or debate in the U.S. about the conflict in Gaza. In general the media is preoccupied with Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, AKA Joe - “media should not report on war” - the - Plumber, reporting for Pajama tv from Israel.
Joe-the-Plumber: the right-wing media remnant of the 2008 Presidential Campaign.
And then there are the images of Israeli citizen’s viewing this tragedy from the relaxed distant hilltops:
1) A view from inside Gaza from a foreign media outlet.
Palestinian Girl Attempts to Stop Israeli Soldiers. I just want to compare her Heroic nature to that of the celebrity of Joe-the-Plumber’s epic of the documentarian on the killing fields.
2) Gaza Doctor’s tragedy caught on live Israeli TV. So human and so tragic. This shows how human complexities and emotions can override systems of power.
A Case Study in Urban Planning: The pattern language of the conflict in the built environment
Maps of the territories
Structures and Walls
UN Map “West Bank: Access and Closure, December 2007″ (pdf)
Israeli Settlements Established and Evacuated 1967-2008 (pdf)
What are the impacts on natural resources by humans in this conflict beyond demarcating territory and occupation?
Possible single-state solutions to the conflict
Ethnic Cleansing
Democracy
Apartheid
For an American audience weaned on the rhetoric of Democracy, ethnic cleansing and apartheid are not generally excepted options. Still, we know Israel’s desired solution includes a state with a Jewish majority to ensure the continuation of its identity. A honorable and worthy cause for all peoples.
A Jewish majority and the making of a Democracy?
No, this is not a nuanced discussion on the majority/minority power relationship we are familiar with in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. This is a naive formulation of democracy as Majority Rule. Who could argue against it? O.K. I do and you may also. The only way they can accomplish this in a single-state solution is by means of ethnic cleansing or apartheid. With America as an audience to this conflict they would have to dress their actions in democratic attire. An approach that is just too brutal to imagine. Thus we are back to a two-state solution.
Eye Witness Accounts to This Crippling Reality
Photos of the eviction of the Al Kurd family by Peter Miller of Menonite Central Committee (MCC)
“… half of their home has been taken over by settlers” (Photos)
And the demolition of the Bishara Family Home (Photos)
For more eye-witness accounts of events in this part of the world you can visit Peter Miller’s blog In the Middle or David Hoye’s blog City of…
For more information on these events and more in the Middle East visit Juan Cole’s blog Informed Comment.
