Joel Angle
In Israel there is a concrete wall 25 feet high sealing off the occupied Palestinian territories from the rest of Israel.
Its gates are guarded by heavily armed Israeli soldiers, and very few Palestinians are permitted to leave the West Bank or Gaza.
Within the walls, Palestinians are isolated from all economic trade or political representation with the outside, while still being held under the authority of Israel.
They are alienated in poverty while their patrons bask in prosperity, with military might just a stones-throw over the wall. This condition of apartheid causes those born Palestinian in Israel is to be denied dignity, freedom or security.
The few Palestinians that can travel freely through the checkpoints must obtain papers from the Israeli government.
These permits require having a pre-existing relationship established with an Israeli outside the wall that sponsors them. For many Palestinians, attempting to get one of these permits is like befriending one's captor. They would rather stay behind the wall and maintain the only dignity that they have left: not selling out to the Israelis.
Outside the walls, Israelis continue to build settlements on land that the United Nations has continually declared as Palestinian.
The Palestinians are powerless to resist. Their sticks and stones are no match for the advanced military might of the Israeli Defense Forces.
The international community continues to demand that Israel not allow continued settlements, but even as recently as yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman insisted that no peace agreement is possible.
Israel has continually stalled, sabotaged and made a mockery of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and legitimate steps to peace. Israel's continual premise is their own security.
They keep millions of Palestinians behind walls cut off from almost any form of upward mobility or political representation, kill hundreds of them every year at checkpoints and then take the position that the burden of a peace agreement lies entirely on the Palestinians.
Some Palestinians turn to political violence in desperation. The vast majority are acquiescent, taking life one day at a time and attempting to ignore their bleak futures. They go from checkpoint to checkpoint, from gun barrel to gun barrel, asking only to live.
They hope that one day Israel will allow them to exist; that one day there will not be roads that Palestinians are not allowed on; that one day being Palestinian will not exclude them from citizenship.
Yet, the world does nothing.
The United States continues to give more than six billion dollars of military aid to Israel every year since the 1970s. Almost every bullet and bomb fired at Palestinians is paid for by American tax payers.
Yes, apartheid is alive and well in the state of Israel.
Israel has no plans to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinian Authority.
It will continue to develop communities on Palestinian territory, cage the Palestinians behind walls and repulse every form of pressure to negotiate a settlement until the Palestinians cannot even remember a time when they were once equal citizens.
The United States will continue to pour military power and support into Israel because of its stabilizing force on the region.
Palestinian independence and reform in Arab countries threatens the balance of power, and hence American ability to influence oil trade in our favor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment & Analysis
Each comment is a quote from the article; each analysis refers to that quote.
---
Comment:
In Israel there is a concrete wall 25 feet high sealing off the occupied Palestinian territories from the rest of Israel.
Its gates are guarded by heavily armed Israeli soldiers, and very few Palestinians are permitted to leave the West Bank or Gaza.
Analysis:
In the plans for the complete security barrier, designed to prevent Arab terrorists from setting off bombs in shopping centers, pizza parlors and discotheques, roughly 97 percent is made up of chain link fence and only about 3 percent is made of concrete. The concrete is required in urban areas and those close to roadways where Arab snipers would otherwise easily be able to shoot at civilians through a chain link fence.
In criticizing the existence of the security barrier, the writer is implicitly rejecting the notion of an independent Palestinian Arab state. Inherent in the concept of sovereignty is the existence of borders beyond which citizens may not go without the permission of the sovereign on the other side of the border.
---
Comment:
Within the walls, Palestinians are isolated from all economic trade or political representation with the outside, while still being held under the authority of Israel.
Analysis:
Roughly 95 percent of the Arabs in the disputed territories live under their own Palestinian Authority, not Israeli rule.
---
Comment:
They are alienated in poverty while their patrons bask in prosperity, with military might just a stones-throw over the wall.
Analysis:
See above. The Palestinian Arabs in the territories have lived under their own government since the mid-1990's. During that time, their condition has worsened because they chose to build up a terror infrastructure rather than create a state living in peace with its neighbors.
---
Comment:
This condition of apartheid causes those born Palestinian in Israel is to be denied dignity, freedom or security.
Analysis:
Even Jimmy Carter doesn't libel Israel by falsely claiming there is apartheid in Israel, where the Arabs citizens live together with full rights, equal to those of their Jewish neighbors.
---
Comment:
The few Palestinians that can travel freely through the checkpoints must obtain papers from the Israeli government.
These permits require having a pre-existing relationship established with an Israeli outside the wall that sponsors them. For many Palestinians, attempting to get one of these permits is like befriending one's captor. They would rather stay behind the wall and maintain the only dignity that they have left: not selling out to the Israelis.
Analysis:
Israel, like all sovereign states, has the right to determine who will be permitted in its territory. Given the massive amounts of terrorism it has suffered from Palestinian Arabs it has let enter, Israel obviously has to exhibit due diligence.
---
Comment:
Outside the walls, Israelis continue to build settlements on land that the United Nations has continually declared as Palestinian.
Analysis:
Israel has not built any new settlements in more than a decade, despite the fact that it has as much if not more legal, moral and historical right to the disputed territories as the Palestinian Arabs.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 calls for the negotiation of secure and recognized borders, something the Palestinian Arabs have refused. Until they do, none of that territory can legitimately be considered Palestinian.
---
Comment:
The Palestinians are powerless to resist. Their sticks and stones are no match for the advanced military might of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Analysis:
The Arab terrorists also have enormous fire power, including Kassam and Grad rockets, provided by Iran, Syria and other rogue supporters. Israel has shown amazing restraint in the face of enormous provocation.
---
Comment:
The international community continues to demand that Israel not allow continued settlements, but even as recently as yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman insisted that no peace agreement is possible.
Analysis:
What Lieberman actually said was "Whoever says that it's possible to reach in the coming years a comprehensive agreement that means the end of conflict, that both sides sign up to the end of conflict, simply does not understand the reality. He is spreading illusions and in the end brings only disappointment and drags us into comprehensive confrontation." (See
This is obviously true, for many reasons, primarily related to the unwillingness and the inability of the fractured Palestinian Authority to make peace. The so-called "moderate" leader of the West Bank branch of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, isn't even willing to negotiate with Israel.
---
Comment:
Israel has continually stalled, sabotaged and made a mockery of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and legitimate steps to peace. Israel's continual premise is their own security.
Analysis:
Israel has offered the Palestinian Arabs virtually all of the disputed territories, including parts of its own capital. The Arabs, unfortunately, have refused all offers and today refuse to even negotiate.
---
Comment:
They keep millions of Palestinians behind walls cut off from almost any form of upward mobility or political representation, kill hundreds of them every year at checkpoints and then take the position that the burden of a peace agreement lies entirely on the Palestinians.
Analysis:
This repeats false allegations refuted above.
---
Comment:
Some Palestinians turn to political violence in desperation. The vast majority are acquiescent, taking life one day at a time and attempting to ignore their bleak futures. They go from checkpoint to checkpoint, from gun barrel to gun barrel, asking only to live.
---
Analysis:
The writer reverses cause and effect. The checkpoints and the security barrier are responses to waves of Arab terror directed at innocent Israeli civilians.
---
Comment:
They hope that one day Israel will allow them to exist; that one day there will not be roads that Palestinians are not allowed on; that one day being Palestinian will not exclude them from citizenship.
Analysis:
More repetition of already refuted allegations. Israel has offered the Palestinian Arabs their own state on land including almost all the disputed territory. Arabs in Israel have full citizenship now.
Ironically, it is the Palestinian Arabs who insist that their future state, if they ever agree to establish it, will be free of Jews.
---
Comment:
Yet, the world does nothing.
Analysis:
Actually, the world gives disproportionate and undeserved attention to the Palestinian Arabs, effectively perpetuating their plight by giving them hope of destroying Israel rather than trying to get them to accept reality and agree to live in peace.
---
Comment:
The United States continues to give more than six billion dollars of military aid to Israel every year since the 1970s. Almost every bullet and bomb fired at Palestinians is paid for by American tax payers.
Analysis:
The writer exaggerates the amount of assistance given to Israel by a factor greater than 2. Our current assistance is only about $2.4 billion per year and over the next ten years is scheduled to average just half of what the writer asserts.
---
Comment:
Yes, apartheid is alive and well in the state of Israel.
Analysis:
Already refuted. The Arabs in Israel have full citizenship with equal rights.
---
Comment:
Israel has no plans to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinian Authority.
Analysis:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for negotiations without preconditions; the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas refuses to negotiate.
---
Comment:
It will continue to develop communities on Palestinian territory, cage the Palestinians behind walls and repulse every form of pressure to negotiate a settlement until the Palestinians cannot even remember a time when they were once equal citizens.
Analysis:
See above.
---
Comment:
The United States will continue to pour military power and support into Israel because of its stabilizing force on the region.
Analysis:
As the only democracy in the region and the only outpost of Western values, Israel is indeed a stabilizing force whose existence and prosperity is in our interest.
---
Comment:
Palestinian independence and reform in Arab countries threatens the balance of power, and hence American ability to influence oil trade in our favor.
Analysis:
There are already dozens of Arab states in the region, all of them dictatorships, authoritarian or monarchies. One more will have little effect on American interests. President George W. Bush promoted reform in the Arab countries, but met great resistance.
The price of oil was close to $10 per barrel shortly before the inauguration of the Bush administration; it has since spiraled to over $140 per barrel and now stands at about $70 per barrel. America clearly has little ability to influence oil trade in our favor.
The clear American need is to promote alternative sources and become independent of Arab-controlled oil supplies and in that way end a situation where the repressive Arab regimes wield enormous power over American foreign policy, to the detriment of America and our friends and allies.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like some feedback, send a draft of your response to Mark Fishman
In composing a response, please avoid attacking the writer and refer directly to the item as little as possible, since such references remind readers of the allegations. Try to stress the shared values of America and Israel and the great efforts and concessions Israel has made in pursuit of peace.
Todah Rabah.
--
Email Addresses for Letters:
No comments:
Post a Comment