Recent elections in Israel that resulted the victory of the Israeli right wing; the high death toll of civilians during the Israeli assault on Gaza, and the admission by Israeli soldiers that they viewed Gaza as a "shooting gallery" and randomly shot innocent civilians unconcerned about the consequences; the surge of racist and discriminatory practices against Palestinians and Palestinian citizens of Israel promoted by Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party and a member of the incoming government; a wave of bestselling books critical of Israel; Israeli soldiers sporting t-shirts depicting the killing of Palestinians; and the democratization public opinion via non-traditional media, have all given Israel a headache. Of course it did not help that a number of Jewish foundations lost millions of dollars to Madoff and his ilk. Now Israel has a lot of work to do and I am sure they are shopping for advice from their friends who reside anywhere between Manhattan and Hollywood. I'm sure they will be generous with their advice on how to give Israel the makeover it needs in these hard times. But since Israel won't be soliciting any input from me or anyone of my kind, I've decided to offer a few ideas anyway.
Yes, I am a Palestinian from Gaza who lived under the Israeli occupation and my entire family still feels its impact twenty-four seven. Whatever decisions Israel decides to go with will surely affect me and millions like me.
I am a realist and realize that Israel has to do things a certain way, and they will not joke around with their security or any existential threats (real or perceived). For Israel's sake, causalities will occur and homes will be demolished. Progress in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations is a casualty of the old dilemma: who came first the chicken or the egg?
Palestinians want their land back, Israelis want to feel secure. Untying that knot depends on who lets go first: a Palestinian leader cannot deliver Israel security until he has a land upon which to enforce his rule, an Israeli leader cannot take the risk of giving up land, only to see it become a militant base camp. So, I've compiled a list of gestures Israel can make to improve their much troubled brand.
How about next time you go after a "bad guy," try not to kill an entire family with him. And if for reasons unknown you want to take the family with the "bad guy" leave the neighbors alone. Palestinians are never short of stories of innocent civilians who became victim to random bombing and shooting.
Perhaps when you impose a siege on Gaza as you are doing now, please allow in humanitarian supplies. In addition to banning any construction material and electronic devices, the lists also includes pasta, chick peas (no Humus or Falafel tonight) toilet paper (causing soggy bottoms and uproar in Foggy Bottom).
Next time you send a notice of demolition to an Arab in Jerusalem because he added an extra story to his home, also send another notice of eviction to that nice family of Russian Jews who are living in a settlement that violates the international conventions on occupation.
Do not open your doors to immigrants from all corners of earth while constructing walls to shut out the native inhabitants, keeping them from their families, schools and farms. Charity, as we know, begins at home.
Perhaps instead of addressing the symptom of a particular problem, the Israeli government will muster the courage to address the real cause of the problem. Launching primitive rockets on Sederot is cruel and inhuman, but can the Israelis now empathize with the innocent Palestinians who live under constant and more sophisticated firepower? I won't hold my breath.
If Israel is concerned about the demographic time bomb, research shows that education and development pushes down fertility rates. Why not allow Palestinian schools and universities to operate uninterrupted by forced closure and even invest in improving the Palestinian education system?
Instead of importing foreign labor whose wages are repatriated to their home country, hire a Palestinian who would turn around and buy Israeli goods and spend his time at home watching TV rather an hanging with his homeboys cooking up trouble.
The more settlers you send into the Occupied Territories, the more the two-state solution becomes obsolete. I anticipate the day when Palestinians start raising Israeli flags and calling for one man one vote. Democracy is a scary thing for those committed to a "Jewish" state.
About those 10,000 Palestinian prisoners you are holding in your world class prisons. Do you really want to do this? America is fighting a "global war on terror" and has not managed to sweep up 10,000 prisoner from the entire world -- but from population of only a few million you hold 10,000 Palestinians as prisoners; obviously the threshold you have to meet to get into an Israeli prisons is very low -- only for Palestinians though.
Change your military uniforms. To be honest the Israeli soldier is not what makes the soldier, the uniform does. A mean looking soldier with an intimidating uniform can be scary. Switch uniforms to more friendly ones such as clowns. It's friendly to the viewer and you know no one thinks of violence when they see a clown.
Assert that you are actually "de-developing" the Gaza Strip in order to make it "greener." Cutting fuel supplies, bombing highways, along with the destruction of other major infrastructure, will turn a place greener. But, the irony is, green is Hamas' color of choice.
Allow Palestinian students, especially ones granted scholarships, to go abroad and attend the colleges of their choice. Locking down the educated Palestinians will not do Israel any good and only turns those educated ones into frustrated idealists and potential militants, and no one wants to deal with the wrath of those people.
It's wise for Israel to allow sick Palestinians to get medical care wherever offered. Palestinians need clearance from Israel to receive medical attention in Egypt, Jordan or whatever country will take them. I'm sorry, but healthy people with a positive outlook on life are Israel's best friends.
Those are few gestures Israel can make to show good will toward the Palestinian people and the world community which has grown weary of Israel's unnecessary and inhumane tactics. Obviously, these suggestions may expose Israel to some risk, but the consequences of inaction could be much worse. Ultimately any Palestinian leadership has to reciprocate kind gestures by promising to work with Israel. And, positive Israeli gestures will surely give the Palestinian leadership ammunition with which to silent their opposition, especially those opposed to peaceful coexistence. And please take my unsolicited advice as you would take the advice of your college roommate, the one you must share a space with peace.
Follow Hani Almadhoun on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HotArabicMusic
If you don't understand your enemy you can't make peace. If you don't realize the importance of the Holocaust in propelling the creation of a Jewish State and if you don't understand the importance of the land to the Palestinians then of course there will never be peace.
1. tear down your Berlin-style wall . . the original one had to come down and so will yours
2. stop ghettosing the Palestinians because you don't like the fact that they voted for Hamas . . . sit down at the negotiating table with Hamas and open the border .. . now . . .
3. stop building illegal settlements . . . you aren't setting a good example . . if you can repeatedly break international law every day why can't your neighbours
4. stop crying victim when the world knows you are the oppressors and not the victim . . .
1. Tear down the wall and let the suicide terrorists come in a kill thousands in restaurants, busses, and religious institutions.
2. Unconditionally negotiate with Hamas terrorists who lob rockets into your country and vow to fight until you are all murdered.
3. Stop building settlements even though you have tried doing this repeatedly during the Oslo process and all you got was violent attacks.
4. Stop crying victim just because the Palestinians will not adhere to any peace treaties they have signed, have rejected all final settlement offers you have made, Lebanon continues to threaten you, Syria is smuggling weapons to terrorists seeking your death, and Hamas is attacking you with rockets. You are the oppressor, they are the victims.
www.ifamericansknew.org
1. Hamas is still in power and has more Gazan support than before.
2. The IDF invaded Gaza but could not hold and occupy the territory they siezed and ultimately had to withdraw.
3. The military action in Gaza did nothing to change the political situation there.
4. The invasion and bombing did nothing to compromise the ability of Hamas to shoot rockets into Israel.
Looks pretty much like failure to me.
But it gets worse.
Israel is now seen as a bloodthirsty agressor and is losing the support of Jews in the US. Europeans were demonstrating in the streets against the Israeli actions in Gaza.
So what can Israel do?
Why not make Gaza a showplace of cooperation and mutual prosperity? Why not an Israeli Marshall Plan for Gaza?
Give the Gazans jobs and economic hope for their children.
Then see how much influence Hamas will have.
They should have bought perfectly legal tanks, helicopter gunships, heavy artillery, Fighter Jets, bombers and tactical nuclear missiles, like Israel.
The unmitigated arrogance and hubris of the SP has recently, through acts against the Weak, shown depravity and utter contempt for the lives of the other group; this has brought greater scrutiny of their methods and goals. For there to be an end to this "conflict" and the agenda and goals of the SP, the world must shine a strong light on their acts so at odds with common decency and morality and end the forced removal (or ability to just live) of members of the Weak group to further expand territory for the extremist "religious" (or common thieves). The ability and power of the SP to control (mostly) what is seen of their acts of depravity and oppression against the Weak is still mostly unchallenged. This must change further for there to be a true understanding by others, how pervasive the brutal policies of expansion with no regard whatsoever for the lives of members of the WP and how they affect this "conflict". It is the basic responsibility of the SP to create the changes that will end this “conflict”, only they by definition have the ability to continue or end it, and any claim that the weak are not “partners for peace” is a deception and part of the agenda of delay and expansion.
Isn't that sweet? First you bomb them, then you get cheap publicity with a little clinic on the border!
israel left gaza. the palestinians had a chance to make it a model of a palestinian state. instead they turned into a armed camp to attack israel.
the palestinian goal is not a palestinian state but the destruction of israel. if they ever succec at that there still not be a palestinian state syria will grab most of the land, jordan and egypt will split the rest.
-Stop launching missiles into Israel every day
-Publicly announce your support of a 2 state solution
-Have your media stop vilifying Jews, Americans and Christians
-Stop killing Palestinians who are gay and engaging in honor killings of women
-Stop teaching your kids that suicide terrorists are heros
-Teach that having 15 kids in a family is a certain route to poverty
-Adhere to the Oslo peace agreements you signed
-Stop executing Palestinians who disagree with your leadership
-Call the suicide terrorists genocidal murderers, not martyrs
-Stop putting the humanitarian aid into the swiss bank accounts of your leaders