[Peace-discuss] Expulsion and the Fog of War

[David Green]

A letter from today's Tribune, and a response from a
member of Not In My Name:

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (LETTER)

Maligning Israel

Jay Tcath, Director, Jewish Community, Relations
Council of the Jewish, United Fund of Metropolitan
Chicago

Published July 9, 2003

Chicago -- The three essays in the Tribune's June 29
Perspective section feature "Iraq: Who lied?"
appropriately focus on the really big issues of
weapons of mass destruction and the rebuilding of
Iraq.

But there was another lie being spread before the war
that still has not been recalled and repudiated. It
asserted that under the "fog" of America's war with
Iraq, Israel would expel large numbers of
Palestinians.
This was advanced in Tribune opinion pieces by Salim
Muwakkil ("The dangers behind America's misguided
foreign policy plans," Commentary, Dec. 23) and by
University of Chicago professor Fred Donner ("OK,
President Bush, what if . . . ?" Commentary, March
10).

Of course there was no expulsion. What the "fog" of
war in Iraq could not disguise were Palestinians
demonstrating support for Saddam Hussein while
Israelis carried gas masks and duct taped their
windows in the event that Iraq again fired Scud
missiles at the Jewish state. One needn't have been a
professor to foresee that reality. The expulsion
predictors' real purpose was realized: smearing
Israel. Here's my own prediction: This is not the last
time propagandists, seeking to sway American public
opinion and policy, try to get away with groundlessly
maligning Israel.
________________________________________

To the Editor, 

In response to Jay Toth’s letter of June 9th, in which
he writes of “propagandists…groundlessly maligning
Israel,” I would like to share my own Jewish
perspective.  To begin with, it is time that
organizations, such as Toth’s Jewish United Fund, stop
preaching the false claim that Israel represents the
Jewish people.  It doesn’t and it never has. 
Furthermore, it is vitally important that people
understand the difference between the Israeli people,
the majority of whom want peace, and the Israeli
government, which is now totally dominated by the
military in both foreign and domestic policy-making. 
While over 70% of the settlers indicate that they
would be willing to return to within the 1967 borders,
the Israeli government has no intention of abiding by
international law by moving back.
 
Contrary to what Toth says, the reason many of us
warned that Israel might use the “fog of war” with
Iraq to expel Palestinians was not to “smear Israel.” 
In fact, many of we Americans were joined by Israelis
in this caution.  While a forthright expulsion has not
occurred, the Israeli government’s strategy of 1967
has been continuing, hidden by the “fog of war” and
the “roadmap.”  This is the outright theft of
Palestinian land on both their west and now their east
side, forcing them into a central corridor, which is
divided horizontally into Bantustans by Jewish
settlements and bypass roads.   
This central corridor is being constructed by way of
the so-called “security wall,” which, in reality, is a
prison wall complete with guard towers.  Its
construction results in the daily expulsion of
Palestinians from their land.  Entire villages will be
emptied because people will have no way to feed
themselves.  The wall literally divides the villagers
from their fertile fields, which are placed within the
“new” Israel.  Olive groves and orchards are destroyed
to build the wall.  This is the Alon Plan, which was
submitted to the Israeli military only a few weeks
after the 1967 war.  
  
I think it is time for Jewish institutions to stop
their sanctification of the actions of the Israeli
government and their demonization of all critics.  The
strategies of the Israeli government have never led to
peace.  There is not a single Israeli nor Palestinian
who is better off today than before Oslo, during which
the number of settlements more than doubled. 
Criticism of the Israeli government is both
pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian. 
 
Joel R Finkel, member Not In My Name




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