Commentary
|
| Title | | Description | Date |
| AOC ignites a debate about Yitzhak Rabin | | Mitchell Plitnick - Responsible Statecraft - **Liberal Israelis see a man who turned his back on decades of war, tried to make peace, and was killed for his efforts. In the wake of Rabin’s death, the assumption that he had intended to move gradually toward an independent Palestinian state next to Israel became, for many, a certainty. But Rabin never committed to that goal.
**The Palestinian perception is slightly different. While Rabin shook hands with Arafat on the White House lawn and shared cigarettes with King Hussein of Jordan, Israeli settlements were expanding faster than ever, and human rights abuses against Palestinians — now being carried out by both Palestinian and Israeli forces — worsened. [bz]
| 29/9/2020 |
| ... |
| A Tea Party with Your Cousin`s Brother-in-Law | | Tehila Wenger and Ayed Atamawi - Geneva Intiative - Israel setting
up diplomatic relations with the UAE is akin to inviting a cousin’s
brother-in-law to tea at your house right in the middle of a deadly
feud with that cousin over who inherits the property next door. Tea
is lovely, but you still have to solve your family issues, and for
that you need the cousin. All the policies Netanyahu and Trump have
promoted in the last few years are based on the premise that that
the Palestinians, as the weaker side in the conflict, should accept
whatever terms the stronger side offers them. The problem (aside
from the ethical implications) is that Palestinians do not accept
this premise. And so the conflict continues. [ak]
| 22/9/2020 |
|
| Palestinians in the Age of Trump | | Sam Bahour - CounterPunch - Here in Palestine, for two decades,
until Trump took office, we witnessed countless U.S. officials and
experts—many mere wannabe experts—come and go to “teach” us how to
build a democracy. They met with Palestinian political leaders,
business leaders, civil society organizations, students, and so many
more. Supposedly, they had the secret ingredients on how countries
are ideally built. Their model and example was, of course, American
democracy. Needless to say, America’s “democracy” is not looking all
that attractive these days and the experts noted above are hardly in
a position to teach us anything. Having a hyphenated identity, being
American and Palestinian, I have the unique vantage point of knowing
both societies. I do not fear the future of Palestinians. Even with
our leadership misgivings, the Palestinian people will still be
standing, long after Trump is out of office, be it in 2021 or 2025.
From Gaza to Jerusalem to the refugee camps in Lebanon, we are like
our country Palestine, “young, scrappy, and hungry” for freedom. My
fear, and what keeps me up at night, is my American side. [ak]
| 22/9/2020 |
| ... |
| Palestinian Independence is a very urgent need | | Yuval Halperin - Netanyahu`s success in convincing the world that the debate over the
Palestinians is “not urgent” has also led activists to prefer the One State
Solution, so as to take care of the Human Rights of the Palestinians. That
is a mistake. Human Rights are important, but ending the occupation comes first. [ak] | 22/9/2020 |
|
| The fruits of a Mideast love triangle | | Thomas L. Friedman - New York Times - So, where does this all leave
the Israeli-Palestinian issue? I suspect that the international
phase of their peace process is over. Therefore, the Palestinian
issue will most likely become more and more an internal Israeli
issue — one that Israel will own alone. The 2.5 million Palestinians
in the West Bank, faced with the prospect of Israeli control with no
alternative in sight, will eventually demand equal rights and
Israeli citizenship. And that will pose a direct threat to Israel’s
Jewish and democratic character in a way no Arab army ever has.
Bibi’s true legacy. [ak]
| 22/9/2020 |
| ... |
| No confidence | | Gush Shalom -
Unable to convince the public/
Of the need for a lockdown,/
Nor able to arouse/
Significant enthusiasm/
For his "peace"/
With the Emirates./
And while his criminal trial/
Is looming just ahead/
His staunch supporters/
Fail to come out on the streets [bz] | 22/9/2020 |
| ... |
| A peace paradox: Sidelined Palestinians may finally have their leverage | | HAVIV RETTIG GUR - Times of Israel - Israel’s newfound Arab friends keep raising the uncomfortable question of Palestine because they are trying to explain to Israelis that Israel now has a role to play in safeguarding its Gulf allies from strategically compromising embarrassment. To be friends with Israel is to be vulnerable to accusations of culpability each time the Arab world’s news cycle fills with new images of Palestinian suffering. The normalization deals acknowledge that the Palestinian conflict may take time to solve, but, the Arab leaders are urging Israel, at least don’t make it worse in the interim.
It’s a strange new chapter in the Israeli-Arab encounter, one that poses a surprising irony for the Palestinians — an irony that might be summarized thus: The further they are pushed to the margins of Arab political consciousness, the more valuable their negotiating position becomes. [bz] | 29/9/2020 |
| ... |
| Towards equal lack of rights | | Gush Shalom - Netanyahu`s dream is to impose a prohibition on the demonstrations of his political opponents.
[bz] | 28/9/2020 |
| ... |
| Palestinians in the Age of Trump | | Sam Bahour - CounterPunch - “This presidential election is not about Trump’s top
contender, it is about getting over this four-year bump in the hope that lessons
were learned, and a historic correction can begin. A Biden win is not the
correction, it is getting over the bump” [ry] | 21/9/2020 |
| ... |
| White House ceremony for agreements with UAE and Bahrain derided as ‘shameless propaganda’ | | Chemi Shalev - Ha`aretz / The Guardian - Israel and its two Gulf
partners are simply coming out of the closet with the clandestine
strategic ties they’ve maintained for years. Trump and Netanyahu are
artificially inflating the significance of the accords and elevating
them to historic breakthrough status to aggrandise themselves,
improve their polls and draw attention away from their monumental
failures in the battle against the coronavirus, war against the rule
of law and efforts to erode their countries’ democracy. It’s a
shameless propaganda ploy, is all. [ak] | 15/9/2020 |
| ... |
| The truth behind Netanyahu`s admission that police killing was a cover-up | | Jonathan Cook - Middle East Eye - It is unprecedented. Three years after the Israeli government first began vilifying a Palestinian teacher to retrospectively justify his murder by Israel’s security forces, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a public apology to his family last week. Yacoub Abu al-Qiyan was not a “terrorist” after all, the Israeli prime minister conceded.
And there was more. Israeli police, said Netanyahu, had portrayed 50-year-old Abu al-Qiyan as “a terrorist to protect themselves” and stop their crimes being exposed.
(...)
Now, because Netanyahu is in trouble and facing trial, he is ready to spill the beans to save his neck. He is using the truth about al-Qiyan to bury the truth about himself.
This moment of dishonest truth-telling should be grasped nonetheless, because it briefly exposes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians - even those who are nominally its citizens. [bz] | 15/9/2020 |
| ... |
| Netanyahu earned his moment in the sun – and the public distrust that clouds it | | Haviv Rettig Gur - Times of Israel - In Washington, PM Netanyahu
celebrated the deals to be singed with the UAE and Bahrain as "a
tremendous watershed in the history of Israel, and of the Middle
East". Yet Netanyahu’s very flight to Washington was politically
problematic. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli households, which do
broadly support Netanyahu’s deals by vast margins, nevertheless
consider their immediate economic and health crisis the priority.
[ak]
Netanyahu flew to Washington the day after his government declared a
nationwide lockdown to stem soaring infection rates — and set its
start to Friday, after he returns from the US. | 15/9/2020 |
| ... |
| The false promise of prosperity and peace based on Normalization will prove to be a destructive mirage | | Hanan Ashrawi - PLO Dept. of Public Diplomacy - The US
administration has used all its political and economic might to
extort, pressure, and bully Arab and other states to normalize
Israeli colonization and trample on foundational principles of
international law, including the tacit endorsement of the war crime
of annexation. The path to real peace must be founded on mutual
respect and adherence to international law.
By contrast, the false promise of prosperity and peace based on the
US-Israeli approach will prove itself a destructive mirage that will
only further destabilize the region. Normalization of states in the
region with Israel will not change the essence of this conflict,
which is the systemic denial of the Palestinian people’s inalienable
right to freedom and sovereignty. The US administration can continue
to exercise its power of coercion in the region to serve its
electoral needs while applying cruel pressure on the Palestinian
people. However, such an arrogant and ignorant approach will not
bring the Palestinian people to their knees.[ak] | 15/9/2020 |
| ... |
| It was true then, as it is now | | Gush Shalom - Exactly a hundred years ago
Haim Weitzman, future President of Israel, signed an agreement which seemed promising with Emir Feisal, later King of Iraq. What did it bring? [bz] | 14/9/2020 |
| ... |
| Recognition now! | | Guah Shalom - Until now, Israel refrained from recognizing Kosovo
for fear of creating a precedent
for recognition of the State of Palestine. But now Netanyahu is desperately collecting diplomatic coups...
[bz] | 8/9/2020 |
| ... |
| The dehumanization is the point | | Sarit Michaeli - +972 - Israeli soldiers placed IEDs at the entrance to a Palestinian
village. Why is such an act so hard to believe, even after everything we`ve seen
the army do? [ry] | 7/9/2020 |
| ... |
| What Instructions Are Israeli Soldiers Given for Opening Fire in a Palestinian Village? | | Amira Hass - Haaretz - “I would like your response to the following questions: How far from the military outpost were those suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail? How many Molotov cocktails were thrown? The report is unclear: The first sentence says there was an attempt to throw [Molotov cocktails] and it was thwarted. (How do you thwart an attempt?) The second sentence says that two terrorists threw a Molotov cocktail. How can two people throw a single Molotov cocktail? Were the soldiers inside or outside the outpost? Were their lives in danger? If one of those suspected of throwing the Molotov cocktail – a ‘terrorist’ as you put it – was caught (after all, an IDF force administered first aid), how is it that he was released for further treatment by the Red Crescent, and not arrested? (...) “Are the instructions to behave in a place where there is a civilian community as though it were a war, in which every wounded person is considered an enemy and therefore it is forbidden to transfer them for treatment by the shortest route? [bz] | 1/9/2020 |
| ... |
| Ashrawi: Normalizing aggression and impunity will not achieve peace | | Dr. Hanan Ashrawi - PLO Dept. of Public Diplomacy - “The Trump
administration is desperate to showcase the dubious agreement
between Israel and the UAE as a historic achievement. Having failed
to bash the Palestinian people into submission to Trump`s ‘Deal of
the Century’, Trump and his team are frantically seeking a White
House spectacle that can improve his chances in elections. The
theatrics, carefully choreographed optics, and hollow statements
cannot cover up the reality: the aim is not to achieve the genuine
requirements of peace but to serve Trump`s re-election bid and
salvage Netanyahu’s political and personal future.” [ak] | 1/9/2020 |
| ... |
| Temporary relief | | Gush Shalom - Ceasefire is good news to Israeli farmers whose fields will not burn and to Gaza fishermen who will go out to sea. Israeli planes will no longer take off on bombing missions and Gazan homes will have electricity again. But as long as the Israeli siege goes on suffocating Gaza this is no more than temporary relief. [bz] | 1/9/2020 |
| ... |
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