Bill's Board
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
SEEING THE TREES FOR THE FOREST: The Bunco Game Of The “One State Solution"
William C. Carlotti
June 19, 2010
The corporate media has us seeing the trees for the forest when reporting on the activities of the Zionist led Israeli government. The heavy focus, the furious debate, the reporting about singular events serves to remove the context in which the events take place.In the United States, alternative sources are providing the testimony of the victims of the nighttime assault on the flotilla of vessels in international waters that were delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinians trapped in the Israeli siege of the Gaza sector of Palestine. The corporate media, on the other hand, are largely reporting, commenting and detailing Zionist led Israel’s rationale for this latest slaughter of innocents.Similar exchanges have taken place during the past 60 years over such matters as Israel’s invasion of the Gaza sector of Palestine; over the killing of peace activist Rachel Corrie by a bulldozer operated by a member of Israel’s armed forces; regarding the various Israeli invasions of Lebanon; over its invasion of Syria and occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights; over the imprisonment of Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli whistleblower who revealed the existence of Israel’s nuclear arsenal; over Israel’s definition of torture in the imprisonment of Palestinians, etc., etc., etc.So, what is the context in which these various events take place?Since Israel declared itself a state in 1948, it has asserted that the whole of Palestine, parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria are the Land of Israel, what the Zionists have declared is Eretz Israel. According to their assertion, the borders of Eretz Israel are defined by verses in that book of short stories which has become known as the Bible or the Torah.According to the Zionist led Israeli government and the world wide World Zionist Organization, with branches in 30 countries including all of the European countries and the United States, Eretz Israel’s borders are defined in Genesis 15:18-21, Ezekiel 47:13-20 and similarly in Numbers 34:1-15.The Israel definition of borders is in direct defiance of the borders established by the United Nations in 1947-48.Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Ohmert stated this matter unequivocally in his address before a joint meeting of a genuflecting United States Congress in a May 24 of 2006 Address to Congress,"For thousands of years, we Jews have been nourished and sustained by a yearning for our historic land. I, like many others, was raised with a deep conviction that the day would never come when we would have to relinquish parts of the land of our forefathers. I believed, and to this day still believe in our people's eternal and historic right to this entire land."To this end, then, and for more than 60 years the Zionist led Israeli government has been bombing, strafing, shooting the people of Palestine; using behemoth bulldozers supplied by Caterpillar to demolish more than a thousand Palestinian homes and eradicate hundreds of whole villages and towns; crush thousands of hectares of decades old olive and orange orchids; they fly their supersonic jets low over the Palestinian population and break the sound barrier to create the sonic boom that has deafened hundreds of vulnerable Palestinian children; they are building ghetto style armed Jewish settlements all over the high ground of the West Bank sector of Palestine; they use depleted uranium coated bombs dropped from the supersonic jets to destroy or target hospitals, mosques, government buildings, schools and manufacturing facilities of all sorts; huge Abrams tanks use depleted uranium shells to the same purpose; they use phosphorous bombs and cluster bombs to the same purpose; the Israeli navy bombardment to the same purpose; they restrict the water, the electricity, the medical care, the sewage, the education, the employment, the travel, the communications and every facet of the lives of the people of Palestine; they make targeted assassinations of the selected and elected representatives chosen by the people of Palestine killing dozens of other people in the process; they have confiscated court, land and title records that confirm the property rights of the people of Palestine; they are building a wall to recreate their beloved ghetto existence armed to the teeth with nuclear bombs and chemical and biological weapons: they have driven millions of the people of Palestine off of the land of their forebears.The genocidal bent of the assault on the people of Palestine has been met by a Palestinian resistance that has included negotiations, mass non-violent demonstrations in the King and Ghandi tradition, standing in front of behemoth bulldozers to prevent Israel’s demolition of homes, sailing into a Gaza port to break the Israeli Medieval style siege of Gaza, accompanying Palestinian fisherman beyond the limits set by the Jewish Zionist led Israeli government, mass non-violent attempts to pass through the Israeli checkpoints, mass non-violent attempts to halt the building of the wall being built by the Israelis to create their beloved ghetto style environment, the organized boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel, the philosophical, ideological, and political assertions of the national aspirations and rights of self-determination by the people of Palestine ---all of these underreported activities of the resistance by the people of Palestine are submerged in the emphasized reporting on the resistance that uses the hand carried bomb and crude rockets.Israel holds ‘world records’ in the number of towns and villages ethnically cleansed (over 500 and counting); number of refugees deported (4 million and counting); number of homes demolished (60 thousand and continuing); and has imprisoned more civilians per capita than any other country (250,000 and growing). Israel is the country with the highest number of protective US Security Council vetoes (over 100) preventing the world body from condemning Israeli war crimes"---James PetrasThe purpose of the resistance, in all of its facets, is to remove the invading nation from within the internationally recognized 1967 borders of Palestine, the people of the nation that have invaded your country, ravaged its cities towns and hamlets, brought death, starvation and suffering to your people, displaced your country's population, absorbed your homes, farms, private property to their own purposes and to let them know that so long as they carry out the occupation and absorption of your country there will be a resistance, they will not live in peace, they will not enjoy the fruits of their genocidal crimes.It should be apparent that the problem in Palestine is not just simply a problem of checkpoints, human rights abuses, the wall, home demolitions, the architecture of occupation or even the siege of the Gaza sector of Palestine; the core of the problem is the illegal theft, colonization and occupation of the entirety of Palestine.The reality is that the people of Palestine have been driven, by the millions, off the Palestinian land of their forebears into reservations for refugees in foreign lands while Zionist led Israel claims that there is an “existential threat to drive the Jews into the sea”.The reality is that the land of Palestine is being destroyed and rendered into a Swiss cheese of disassociated territory as the land beyond the internationally recognized 1967 borders is absorbed by Israel, while Zionist led Israel claims that there is “an existential threat to destroy Israel”.It has become vogue in certain quarters to advance the secular form of Eretz Israel. By asserting the “one-state solution” under the guise of an equitable solution, these purveyors of this bunco game leave intact Jewish Zionist control of Israel’s nuclear arsenal and bioweapons arsenal, its financial institutions, its armed forces and police, its judiciary, its natural resources, private and public property regulations and permits, the water supply, the electrical supply, the weapons manufacturing, etc., etc.Those "think tankers" that are now advocating a "one-state solution" know perfectly well that is what the Jewish Zionist led, Christian Zionist supported Israeli government has been murderously attempting to create for the sixty years that it has invaded, occupied and absorbed the Palestine beyond the internationally recognized borders.
The one state/two state solution debate that is taking place amongst Zionist Jews is typically about "what to do with the Palestinians?" To see an example of this, read the debate between Ilan Pappe and Uri Avnery at:In the meantime, Dr. Norman Finkelstein makes the point that:'...every year since 1989 the “United Nations General Assembly annually votes on a resolution titled, “Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine.” This resolution uniformly includes these tenets for “achieving a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine”: (1) “Affirming the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”; (2) “Affirming also the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the territory occupied since 1967 and of Israeli actions aimed at changing the status of Jerusalem”; (3) “Stresses the need for: (a) The realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily the right to self-determination; (b) The withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967”; (4) “Also stresses the need for resolving the problem of the Palestine refugees in conformity with its resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948.” The resolution, "Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine," calls for a two-state settlement based on the June 1967 border and a just resolution of the refugee question based on the right of return and compensation.”'See the text of the resolution at:Like every other year, the vote in December of 2009 was 164 nations in favor, 7 against (Australia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, United States) and 4 absentions."Since action on the resolution can only be implemented by a vote of the United Nations Security Council, the United States vote against the resolution for the past twenty years constitutes a Veto of the two state solution supported by all the nations of the world with seven exceptions.Dr. Finkelstein adds:'Beyond the United Nations resolution, "in 2004 the International Court of Justice rendered a landmark advisory opinion on the legality of the wall Israel has been constructing in the West Bank.[2] The Court inventoried these 'rules and principles of international law which are relevant in assessing the legality of the measures taken by Israel': (1) 'No territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal'; (2) 'the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967' have 'no legal validity.''In its subsequent deliberations on “whether the construction of the wall has violated those rules and principles,” the Court found that “the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law.'Not one of the 15 judges sitting on the International Court of Justice registered dissent from these basic principles and findings.'So long as the United States continues to Veto the proposal supported by the representatives of 164 nations of the world representing some 6 billion people, it will require, in order to put an end to this politically generated messianic, genocidal impulse of the Jewish Zionist led Israeli government, that we must insist, demand, support, and encourage that the international community use the force of economic boycott, cultural and academic boycotts and economic sanctions to have the Zionist led Israeli government withdraw from the occupation of the Palestine beyond the 1947 internationally recognized border and to have them cease the blockade of Palestine's water, electricity, sewer, air space, sea coast, and borders.That is a plan that is in keeping with International Law, the Geneva Convention, and the Convention on Human Rights.In the meantime, the people of Palestine have the right under International Law to resist the occupation by any means necessary or available even though the author suggests, that in the current circumstance of the strength of the nuclear backed military of Israel, the most effective method is the non-violent direct action methods employed by Martin Luther King and Gandhi and embodied in such actions as the Gaza bound humanitarian aid flotilla.
Labels: gaza, resistance, two state/one state, zionism
Friday, July 03, 2009
THE UNMENTIONABLE IN HAJO MEYER’S INTERVIEW
William C. Carlotti, July 1, 2009, latest July 3, 2009
It was with considerable interest that I read the interview with Hajo Meyer and, of course, his personal experiences with the Nazi led government of Germany, the Nazi led occupation of the Netherlands, and his experiences in Auschwitz are important. See HAJO MEYER-Auschwitz survivor
At the same time, however, these same experiences serve to focus his historical perspective. So, when he encounters the activities of the Jewish Zionist led, Christian Zionist supported Israeli government that have similarities to his experiences in each of these Nazi created environments he makes what he considers to be valid, based on his experiences, comparisons.
According to the interview, Mr. Meyer makes the comparison that coincides with his experience:
“I can write up an endless list of similarities between Nazi Germany and Israel. The capturing of land and property, denying people access to educational opportunities and restricting access to earn a living to destroy their hope, all with the aim to chase people away from their land. And what I personally find more appalling then dirtying one's hands by killing people, is creating circumstances where people start to kill each other. Then the distinction between victims and perpetrators becomes faint. By sowing discord in a situation where there is no unity, by enlarging the gap between people -- like Israel is doing in Gaza.”
“Of course it is positive that parts of the Jewish population of Israel try to see Palestinians as human beings and as their equals. However, it disturbs me how paper-thin the number is that protests and is truly anti-Zionist. We get worked up by what happened in Hitler's Germany. If you expressed only the slightest hint of criticism at that time, you ended up in the Dachau concentration camp. If you expressed criticism, you were dead. Jews in Israel have democratic rights. They can protest in the streets, but they don't.”
This last, “Jews in Israel have democratic rights. They can protest in the streets, but they don't.” is a clear distinction between what went on in the brief period—approximately two decades---in the environments created by the Nazi led, fascist led German, Italian, Spanish governments that so much of our history of brutalizing, murderous regimes has focused on and what is going on in the current Zionist led Israeli government created environment.
It is a critical distinction.
This critical distinction between the Zionist led Israeli government’s created environment and the Nazi led German government’s created environment makes the totality of the comparison demonstrably invalid even though elements deserve comparison.
What is Zionist led Israel doing and what historical comparison would be more valid than the comparison to Nazi led Germany’s created environment?
First, the Jewish Zionist led Israeli government is bombing, strafing, shooting the people of Palestine using cluster bombs, depleted uranium coated bombs and shells, white phosphorous bombs fired from F-16 supersonic jet planes, from helicopter gunships, from remote operated, unmanned drone airplanes and from huge Abrams tanks; using behemoth bulldozers supplied by Caterpillar to demolish more than a thousand Palestinian homes and eradicate hundreds of whole villages and towns; crush thousands of hectares of decades old olive and orange orchids; they fly their supersonic jets low over the Palestinian population and break the sound barrier to create the sonic boom that has deafened hundreds of vulnerable Palestinian children; they are building ghetto style armed Jewish settlements all over the territory of Palestine; they restrict the water, the electricity, the medical care, the sewage, the education, the employment, the travel, the communications and every facet of the lives of the people of Palestine; they make targeted assassinations of the selected and elected representatives chosen by the people of Palestine killing dozens of other people in the process; they have confiscated court, land and title records that confirm the property rights of the people of Palestine; they are building a wall to recreate their beloved ghetto existence armed to the teeth with nuclear bombs and chemical and biological weapons: they have driven millions of the people of Palestine off of the land of their forebears, they hold thousands of Palestinians, not only men. but also women and children in prison many of whom are tortured.
In the meantime, the Israeli economy is nominally flourishing, the Israeli government, its administration, its Knesset, its courts, its Supreme Court, its army, navy. air force, its clandestine intelligence, its regularly held elections, its colleges, universities, religious institutions, its factories, schools, water electricity, transportation, farming, international trade are all functioning.
As Mr. Meyer says: “Jews in Israel have democratic rights. They can protest in the streets but they don’t.”
The question is then, What is the appropriate historical comparison for the Jewish Zionist led created environment?
Israel is a racist, colonizing country.
It is a racist colonizing country just like the democratic French government as the racist colonizer of Viet Nam (remember Dienbienphu) and Algeria that Franz Fanon wrote about; just like the democratic government of Italy as the racist colonizer of Ethiopia and Libya; just like the democratic government of the Netherlands as the racist colonizer of the East Indies: just like the democratic government of Belgium as the racist colonizer of the Congo (remember King Leopold); just like the democratic government of Germany as the racist colonizer of East Africa; just like the democratic government of England as the racist colonizer of India (remember Ghandi) , Rhodesia and South Africa; just like the democratic government of Australia as the racist colonizer of its indigenous people and in its completed genocide of Tasmania; just like the democratic government of the United States as the racist, genocidal colonizer of its indigenous population and the African slave trade.
In each of these countries its citizens had the same democratic rights as those that Mr. Meyer describes for the Jews in Israel. In fact, it seems that one of the principal characteristics of these democratic countries during the last several centuries (not two decades) has been their racist colonizing. And in each of these countries the opposition to the racist colonizing has been ”paper thin”.
And, in fact, it remains so.
The United States, with its unspeakable history of racist colonizing, refused to send representatives to the United Nation World Conference On Racism. France, Italy, Belgium, Australia, and England, each with its own unspeakable history of racist colonizing, formed a coalition of racist colonizers to walk out of the conference in opposition to the Conference’s condemnation of Zionist led Israel’s racist colonizing.
In fact, the racist colonizers in the European Union have invited Zionist led Israel’s racist colonizing government to join the European Union.
So, if we are going to make historical comparisons we ought to get it straight---ISRAEL IS A RACIST COLONIZING STATE—without the kind of caveat-like exception that Mr. Meyer’s experiences compel him to make and that serve the purposes of Zionist exceptions.
Labels: colonizing, Israel, Palestine, racism, racist states, resistance