[Peace-discuss] Shulamit Aloni: Time to talk peace (was: Carter)

[Robert Naiman]

I wonder what Alan D. has to say about this. Is Aloni, also, an anti-Semite?

[I guess according to the rules she is a "self-hating Jew." There was
a piece in the Nation a while back about attorney Bill Kunstler of
Chicago 8 fame. The author described visiting Kunstler in his
apartment in NY in the 70s. The Jewish Defense League was having a
demonstration outside. The protesters were chanting, "Bill Kuntsler is
a self-hating Jew." "Pay them no mind," Kunstler told his guest.
"Everyone who knows me knows I love myself."]

Time to talk peace
Israel's leaders must change mindset, engage in dialogue with Palestinians
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3307081,00.html

Shulamit Aloni
Published: 	09.24.06, 00:28

In a few months, we will mark 40 years of "enlightened" occupation by
our famed army in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Israel pretends
to be an enlightened state and signatory of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, which rules that "The Occupying Power shall not deport or
transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it
occupies" (Israel ratified the Convention in 1951.)

Over the years we deported, robbed land and stole water, destroyed
crops, uprooted trees, turned every village and town into a detention
camp, and set up hundreds of communities on land that doesn't belong
to us.

We allowed the settlers to make a living by providing them with huge
amounts of money (more than 5 times per capita compared to residents
of southern development towns.)

We paved roads for Jews only, a case of blatant apartheid, while
defending it using witty Jewish self-righteousness in the absence of
fair and public reporting of the budgets involved, deeds committed,
expropriation of land, and disregard for vandalism.

Morality, justice, law and order stopped at the Green Line.
Lawlessness prevailed right under the noses and protective and
soothing hand of the IDF and police, as lawbreaking settlers made
their own laws undisturbed, and at times with the kind help of
authorities.

Every illegal settlement enjoys water, hydro, and a paved road. The
permanent residents, the natives, which the Israeli regime had to take
care of, became seemingly non-existent. As if they are there but not
there at the same time. The government only notices them if they
bother it by filing complaints.

It's no wonder that the leader of a political movement in Israel and a
Knesset member can declare that we should expel the Palestinians (and
also Israel's Arab citizens) in order to take over what is still left
to them.

But as we usually present it – we're the victim while they're the
murderers with blood on their hands. We never report the number of
Palestinians we murdered from the sky and killed by fire – women,
children, the elderly, whole families, thousands of them.

No wonder they hate us

Aerial bombings kill wanted suspects, while eliminating many civilians
– yet the hands of the pilot are "clean" of any blood. After all, the
victims were killed at the press of a button while their killers
returned home safely. None of them committed suicide to kill wanted
suspects, who by the way are not a "ticking bomb" and no evidence
exists against them.

At times it appears that the IDF, particularly during the last,
needless Lebanon war, turns the Gaza Strip into live-fire training
grounds for all army branches. Is it a wonder they hate us, and is it
a wonder they elected Hamas in free elections, the same Hamas whose
establishment we encouraged in order to undermine the PLO?

Many peace-making windows were opened over the years. We hindered all
of them, because we coveted the whole of the Territories. We had the
Oslo agreements. Twenty countries, which in the past had no ties with
us, recognized Israel. We had welfare, international ties were
blossoming, peace was at our gates – but we didn't want to make
concessions.

Rabin was murdered for the sake of the settlers, and the job of
burying peace-making attempts was completed by Ehud Barak with his
"There's nobody to talk to!" spin. In order to establish himself in
power, Barak also allowed Arik Sharon to visit Temple Mount with armed
escorts, even though he was asked by Arafat the night before not to
allow this due to the frustration and fury among Palestinians.

Now, another possibility for dialogue has opened. Yet our government
is again turning its back on it. They don't know how to and don't want
to talk. Just now we brutally destroyed half of Lebanon at an immense
cost and turned a million civilians into refugees in their own
country.

Another superb achievement by the IDF and government of Israel. We're
willing to resort to any provocation and blow any incident out of
proportion, just to hold on to the regular pretext that "There's
nobody to talk to", and that we don't talk to terrorists.

Kahane won

Yet the acts we undertake by starving, curfews, deportations, the
theft of water and land, false arrests, and targeted killings – all
those are, of course, not terror, because the acts are undertaken by a
national army through the power of a decision made by legitimate
government.

Wonderful, it turns out we forget the fascist states (including
Stalin's USSR) that were very legitimate according to their own logic,
while committing a plethora of terror acts.

The time has come for the government of Israel to start talking peace,
and end the excuses for disqualifying and boycotting Palestinian
representatives. The use of arms does not have to be the first
reaction. Starvation, imprisonment, and expropriation by an occupying
force attest to an unwillingness to reach an agreement and an
addiction to greed.

This is reminiscent of Benny Elon comments: "We'll embitter their
lives so that they transfer themselves elsewhere."

One cannot escape the impression that the racist and brutal
declarations by Effie Eitam gave public expression to government
policy over the years. We must note that the courts – the defenders of
law and order, including the High Court of Justice – were partners to
the developments that led to the legitimization of parties and Knesset
members reminiscent of the racist, crude words uttered by MK Eitam.

In fact, it appears that Meir Kahane won, and we continue in his path
– we don't talk, but rather, only kill, raze homes and roads and
bridges, cut off electricity, fill prisons with women and children and
elected officials, because all of them are the "terrorists" while we,
the Jewish state, need to be defended from them. We're always the
ultimate victim.

As Golda Meir said: "I don't forgive the Arabs for forcing us to kill
them." There you go, she's the killer, yet she's the victim.

For our sake, the citizens of Israel, and for the sake of brining
peace and quiet – government leaders, start talking and keep doing it
until you reach an agreement.

Unruly sons will be brought back into the country, we'll be respecting
UN decisions and international conventions, we'll earnestly memorize
the universal human rights declaration and our own declaration of
independence, we'll rehabilitate our soul, and we'll attempt to
establish a democratic country governed by the law and justice. Shana
Tova.

On 1/15/07, David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> The Book Jeff Bezos doesn't want you to read, January 13, 2007
>
>   Reviewer:  Mobby Dick (NYC, USA) - See all my reviewsCarter's depiction of the horror of life under Israel's brutal occupation is not news except in the U.S. In Israel, for example, a few Knesset members have already described the situation as Apartheid, including former Education Minister Shulamit Aloni. In many ways, as Carter's book shows, things are worse in the Occcupied Territories than they have ever been under Apartheid in South Africa. Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak said he  would have become a suicide bomber had he been born Palestinian.