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Peace |
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ANALYSIS AND
SOLUTIONS The standard
Zionist position is that they showed up in Palestine to
reclaim their ancestral homeland in the late 19th
century. Jews bought land and started building up the
Jewish community there. They were met with increasingly
violent opposition from the Palestinian Arabs,
presumably stemming from the Arabs' inherent
anti-Semitism. The Zionists were then forced to
defend themselves and, in one form or another, this same
situation continues today. The problem
with this explanation is that it is simply not true.
What really happened was that the Zionist movement, from
the beginning, looked forward to a practically complete
dispossession of the indigenous Arab population so that
Israel could be a wholly Jewish state, or as much as was
possible. Land bought by the Jewish National Fund was
held in the name of the Jewish people and could never by
sold or even leased back to Arabs (a situation which
continues to the present). The Arab
community, as it became increasingly aware of the
Zionists' intentions, strenuously opposed further Jewish
immigration and land buying because it posed a real and
imminent danger to the very existence of Arab society in
Palestine. Because of this opposition, the entire
Zionist project never could have been realized without
the military backing of the British. The vast majority
of the population of Palestine, by the way, had been
Arabic since the seventh century A.D. (over 1200 years). In short,
Zionism was based on a faulty, colonialist world-view
that the rights of the indigenous inhabitants didn't
matter. The Arabs' opposition to Zionism wasn't based on
anti-Semitism but rather on a totally reasonable fear of
the dispossession of their people. During the
1948 war, 750,000 Palestinians fled in terror or were
actively expelled from their ancestral homeland and
turned into refugees. The state of Israel then refused
to allow them to return and either destroyed their
villages entirely or expropriated their land, orchards,
houses, businesses and personal possessions for the use
of the Jewish population. This was the birth of the
state of Israel. THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE..PROFOUND REVELATIONS REGARDING THE
ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE Given the
damage that has been done to the Palestinian people,
Israel's moral obligation is to make whatever amends
possible. Among these should be assisting the creation
of a sovereign Palestinian state in the entire West Bank
and Gaza with its capital in East Jerusalem. Israel
should not object to this state and, in addition, should
help with its foundation via generous reparations.
Besides being the right thing to do, this would stop the
sporadic acts of violence against Israel, as the
Palestinians' legitimate desire for their own state
would be realized. Moreover, all laws that discriminate
against non-Jews living in Israel should be repealed.
All citizens should enjoy full and equal rights, as
should any Palestinians who wish to return to their
ancestral homeland. These refugees should, as a mater of
principle, be compensated for their lost homes and land. As U.S.
citizens, we have a special obligation to see that
justice is done in this matter. U.S. financial aid to
Israel has been, and continues to be, enormous; and our
diplomatic support allows Israel's continued occupation
of Arab territories. We strongly recommend that you
contact your elected representatives in Washington and
urge them to pressure Israel to abide by the consensus
of world opinion, as shown by numerous UN votes, as a
precondition of continued support. Under
International Law The City Of Jerusalem Belongs Not To
Israel, But To The United Nations.The Legal Title Is In The
Possession Of The Security Council, Which Has Long
Intended That Jerusalem Be Made An International City
Under International Control. Technically, Jerusalem Was
To Be A Corpus Separatism, Never Part Of Either Israel
Or Any Arab State. American Jews
in particular have a special responsibility to
acknowledge the Palestinian point of view in order to
help move the debate forward. As Chomsky writes in his
"Peace in the Middle East?", "In the American Jewish
community, there is little willingness to face the
fact that the Palestinian Arabs have suffered a
monstrous historical injustice, whatever one may
think of the competing claims. Until this is
recognized, discussion of the Middle East crisis
cannot even begin." In the long
run, only by admitting their culpability and making
amends can Israelis live with their neighbors in peace.
Only then can the centuries-old Jewish tradition of
being a people of high moral character be restored. And
only in this way can real security, peace and justice
come to this ancient land. JEWISH
CRITICISM OF ZIONISM: Albert
Einstein - 'I should much rather see
reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of
living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish
State. Apart from practical considerations, my awareness
of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a
Jewish State, with borders, an army, and a measure of
temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the
inner damage Judaism will sustain'... Martin
Burber - "Only an internal revolution can
have the power to heal our people of their murderous
sickness of causeless hatred... It is bound to bring
complete ruin upon us. Only then will the old and young
in our land realize how great was our responsibility to
those miserable Arab refugees in whose towns we have
settled Jews who were brought from afar; whose homes we
have inherited, whose fields we now sow and harvest; the
fruits of whose gardens, orchards and vineyards we
gather; and in whose cities that we robbed we put up
houses of education, charity, and prayer, while we
babble and rave about being the "People of the Book" and
the "light of the nations"'... David
Ben-Gurion - "Why should the Arabs make
peace? If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms
with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their
country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that
matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from
Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what
is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the
Nazis, Hitler, Auschweitz, but was that their fault?
They only see one thing: we came here and stole their
country. Why should they accept that?" (quoted in "The
Jewish Paradox" by Nathum Goldmann, former president of
the World Jewish Congress. THE EFFECT
OF ZIONISM ON AMERICAN JEWS: "The
corruption of Judaism, as a religion of universal
values, through its politicization by Zionism and by the
replacement of dedication to Israel for dedication to
God and the moral law, is what has alienated so many
young Americans who, searching for spiritual meaning in
life, have found little in the organized Jewish
community." - Allan Brownfield, "Issues of the American
Council for Judaism", Spring 1997. GANDHI ON
THE PALESTINE CONFLICT - 1938 "Palestine
belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England
belongs to the English or France to the French... What
is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by
any moral code of conduct... If they [the Jews] must
look to Palestine of geography as their national home,
it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British
gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of
the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine
only by the goodwill of the Arabs... As it is, they are
co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who
have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab
excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence
in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable
encroachment upon their country. But according to the
accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said
against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming
odds." Mahatma Gandhi, quoted in "A Land of Two Peoples"
ed. Mendes-Flohr. THE SOLUTION
FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: There
Can Be No Sustainable Peace Without
Justice/Awareness. "The final
destination of a Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement
has begun to emerge from the political haze. Such a
settlement must... give the Palestinian people a
sovereign, uncontested, independent state of their own.
This is a matter of justice and practicality. If a truly
lasting and stable peace is the goal, there is no other
option... The mere trappings of statehood will not
suffice. The state has to be real and workable. The
following are its essential conditions: Territorial
integrity and contiguity... Any further dissection of
Palestinian territory would make it politically and
economically impossible to maintain a state... There can
be no civilian pockets under Israeli rule on Palestinian
land... A sovereign
capital in Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is Palestine's
historical, spiritual and commercial heart. To exclude
it from a Palestinian state is unthinkable... Justice and
fairness for refugees... As a matter of principle, the
Palestinians' right to return or to be compensated for
their lost homes and land is nonnegotiable... Israel
must acknowledge the suffering and hardship Palestinian
refugees have faced as a result of their eviction from
their homeland, and must assist in their rehabilitation
and reabsorption." (A.S. Khalidi, Op-Ed piece in The New
York Times, February 11, 1997. We empower the
American People and the President of the United States
of America to fully support the United Nation's
Resolution mandating Jerusalem an international city
under international control. We Support
The Building of The 3RD Temple In Jerusalem. .THE COMING TEMPLE**Filmed
in
the Old City of Jerusalem, this ground-breaking
documentary makes a most convincing point that Solomon and
Herod's Templesnever stood on the
Haram al Sharif, also known as the Temple Mount. If they
are correct, then there is nothing to stop the Jewish
people building their long awaited for Third Jewish
Temple in the actual site where the Temples once
stood. .Once
Completed,we
will see the trinity of sacred sites, Church of the Holy Sepulchre...Al-Aqsa
Mosque
and The New Temple which
honor the 3 ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS ..May
It Be So!!..To Learn More.. .THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM: A
REVELATION John Mitchell. We encourage
The Global Community of Nations to demilitarize The
Middle East, and dismantle all weapons of mass
destruction. We urge The
Global Community to transform our current fossil
fuel/military industrial economy into a Sustainable
Global Solar Hydrogen Economy. IT IS OUR
HEARTFELT PRAYER THAT PEOPLE OF GOODWILL EVERYWHERE
WILL UNITE IN CONSCIOUSNESS AND PRAY FOR PEACE AND CO-
CREATE A WIN-WIN WORLD IN THE MIDDLE EAST...AND
BEYOND!!
SOURCES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ON
PALESTINE AND ISRAEL:
1. "The
Origin
of the Palestine-Israel Conflict,"
Second Edition, published by Jews For Justice In The
Middle East, P.O. Box 14561, Berkeley, CA 94712. 2. "Palestine
and
Israel: A Challenge to Justice" by
John Quigley, professor of law at Ohio State University.
Duke University Press, 1990. 3. "The
Fateful
Triangle: The United States, Israel & the
Palestinians" by Noam Chomsky,
professor at MIT and "arguably the most important
intellectual alive" (NY Times). South End Press, 1983. 4. "Original
Sins:
Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel"
by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi. An honest history of Zionism
by a noted Israeli scholar who teaches at Haifa
University. Olive Branch Press, 1993. 5. "Bitter
Harvest" by Sami Hadawi. A very
complete look at the documentary evidence of the
creation of the state of Israel, by a Palestinian
Christian who lived through that period. Caravan Books,
1979. 6. Rabbi Michael Lerner : Embracing Israel/Palestine: A
Strategy to Heal and Transform the Middle
East.. Rabbi Michael Lerner
7.
The One-State Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the
Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock In addition,
the American Educational Trust, publisher of Washington
Report on Middle East Affairs, has a large selection of
books available. Write for their free catalog to AET,
P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009. LightParty.com |
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