<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div>Reflections by Mazin Qumziyeh on "the peace process" and mention of the FBI/Justice department raids on U.S. dissidents. <br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">"Mazin Qumsiyeh" <<a href="mailto:mazin@qumsiyeh.org">mazin@qumsiyeh.org</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">September 30, 2010 5:33:54 PM CDT<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Mort Brussel <<a href="mailto:brussel@illinois.edu">brussel@illinois.edu</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Cc: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Human Rights Newsletter <<a href="mailto:humanrights@lists.qumsiyeh.org">humanrights@lists.qumsiyeh.org</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>[HumanRights] An extraordinary rendition of Palestine</b><br></span></div><br><div>The extraordinary rendition of Palestine<br>By Mazin Qumsiyeh, In occupied Bethlehem, Palestine<br><a href="http://www.qumsiyeh.org/theextraordinaryrenditionofpalestine/">http://www.qumsiyeh.org/theextraordinaryrenditionofpalestine/</a><br><br>It has been a rather bizarre week in the Middle East. Let me just cite a<br>few examples:<br><br>- The International Atomic Agency (IAEA) succumbed to pressure from the US<br>and other Western Countries and thus failed to make any explicit or even<br>implicit request of Israel to join the nonproliferation treaty. One of the<br>excuses given is that there is a delicate peace process going and we do not<br>want to upset the situation (i.e. Upset Israel)<br><br>-With help from an emasculated Palestinian authority, the United Nations<br>Human Rights Council succumbed to the "might makes right" philosophy and<br>refused to actively pursue Israel for its blatant violation of International<br>law when it attacked Gaza. One of the excuses given is that there is a<br>delicate peace process going and we do not want to upset the situation (i.e.<br>Upset Israel)<br><br>-The UN human rights council issued a report about its investigation of<br>Israeli use of force including apparently executing passengers on the Gaza<br>bound freedom flotilla. Yet, the great powers claim there is a UN<br>commission of inquiry (three people sympathetic to Israel including a known<br>war criminal) who will look into the matter of the attack and issue<br>recommendations but without interviewing survivors or the attackers and<br>without demanding from Israel the tapes, cameras etc that it confiscated<br>(i.e. without evidence). And yes, the US and great powers claim that there<br>is a delicate peace process going and we do not want to upset the situation<br>(i.e. Upset Israel)<br><br>- Israel refuses to stop colonial settlement activities on the remaining<br>shreds of Palestinian territory. The US administration will offer Israel<br>all sorts of incentives including promising to support Israeli demands that<br>any Palestinian statelet is devoid of sovereignty (e.g. Israeli troops<br>continue to be posted at borders) and that there will not be any demands to<br>implement Palestinian rights (e.g. return of refugees). But, this is part of<br>diplomatic maneuvering because we want the "peace" talks (now on for 18<br>years) to continue..<br><br>-News media parroted Israeli releases that the boarding of the latest boat<br>to Gaza was done "without violence from those on board" or from the Israeli<br>Navy. Yet once those on board were released, we know that they told of<br>horrific and degrading treatment done to them including being tasored. But<br>hey, the Palestinian authority and Israel apartheid regime are in a peace<br>process. So who cares about what happens to an 80 year old holocaust<br>survivor or a bunch of Jews with conscience. <br><br>-The powerful Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman gave a speech at<br>the UN bragging about the power and claiming there will be no peace for a<br>very long time only interim arrangements some may involve transfer of part<br>of the Palestinian population from inside the Green line to get rid of those<br>while Israel keeps the settlement. To counter the diplomatic damage,<br>Netanyahu did not dismiss the ideas but merely said that his office makes<br>policy. The US continues to insist Netanyahu is serious about "peace" when<br>even imbeciles can see that this is the most fascist rightwing government in<br>Israel's history and that Netanyahu is a veteran liar (in private<br>conversations he was recorded as dismissing all notions of peace).<br><br>-At the behest of the Zionist lobby, the EU and US governments are applying<br>additional sanctions on Iran and Iranian officials on the pretext of<br>suppressing human rights in Iran during recent unrest! Do they really think<br>the world is blind, deaf, and mute? Do they not see that Iran's behavior<br>towards dissidents is child's play compared to Israel's relentless massacres<br>and ethnic cleansing? And need we remind ourselves of the FBI search and<br>seizure policy against human rights activists in the US? Would they at least<br>demand that Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire be released immediately<br>from detention at Ben Gurion airport (named after a war criminal and ethnic<br>cleanser). Oh, yes I forget, the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas,<br>Saeb Erekat et al are talking peace here so we should all shut up.<br><br>-President Barak Obama with a straight face stands in front of the UN to<br>declare " Those who long to see an independent Palestine must also stop<br>trying to tear down Israel. After thousands of years, Jews and Arabs are<br>not strangers in a strange land. After 60 years in the community of<br>nations, Israel's existence must not be a subject for debate. Israel is a<br>sovereign state, and the historic homeland of the Jewish people. It should<br>be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel's legitimacy will only<br>be met by the unshakeable opposition of the United States. And efforts to<br>threaten or kill Israelis will do nothing to help the Palestinian people."<br>Imagine if he said the same thing about Apartheid South Africa. But then<br>again there was no peace process other than between Chief Buthalesi<br>Bantustan and the white regime.<br><br>-The Israeli occupation forces killed five Palestinians this week including<br>a fisherman and a toddler and continued with its other policies of siege,<br>building walls on Palestinian lands, arresting political activists etc as<br>the talk about the talk of "peace" continues. <br><br>These are just few of the rather bizarre happenings this week in the Middle<br>East but when I think about it, we have had 62 years of misery, mayhem and<br>pain filled with bizarre and almost unbelievable events. Who would have<br>though it possible to gather members of a particular ideology into one spot<br>on earth, displacing its native people and making them refugees and yet<br>label the victims terrorists. Who would have thought that this would be<br>achieved with incredible brutality supported by Western powers, themselves<br>riddled with racism and hatred of non-whites? <br><br>But we take heart in the fact that this whole rigged game is finally coming<br>to an end. Some claim that there is a trend that made the Palestinian cause<br>a commodity traded for profit and positions and hence Palestine had been<br>lost already in this game of world politics. But I, writing these notes<br>after a long day of work with Palestinians (weak and strong, young and old)<br>can tell you that they underestimate us. Like contrarian investing, I tell<br>people to be careful in making gloomy predictions. Things looked pretty<br>gloomy in 1920, 1928, 1935, 1972, 1986, and 1999. The year after in each of<br>those things was not predicted or predictable by the majority of people.<br>But I will go out on a limb and say that based on history, the next intifada<br>is likely to be global. Individuals have one of three choices regardless of<br>their background: support the oppressors, be apathetic (and hence support<br>the status quo of oppression), or join the growing movement saying "enough<br>is enough".<br><br>For more on this subject see " What if Peace Talks "Succeed?"<br>Many commentators expect the direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians<br>to fail. But there is a much worse scenario: What if they "succeed?"<br>http://al-shabaka.org/policy-brief/politics/what-if-peace-talks-succeed <br><br>Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD<br>A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home<br>http://www.qumsiyeh.org <br>Professor, Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities<br>Chairman of the Board, Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People,<br>http://www.pcr.ps <br>-------------- next part --------------<br>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br>URL: <http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/pipermail/humanrights/attachments/20101001/7945b18f/attachment.htm><br>_______________________________________________<br>HumanRights newsletter<br>http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/mailman/listinfo/humanrights<br>This message was sent to brussel@illinois.edu. To unsubscribe, visit:<br>http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/mailman/options/humanrights/brussel%40illinois.edu<br></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>