Two decades ago, I remember Jesse Jackson noting that when dealing with controversial issues that created deep divisions, one should be careful "not to excite one side, while only inciting the other". Although these cautionary words apply perfectly to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they have too frequently been ignored. The U.S. has always, of course, been attentive to its own domestic politics and has long recognized the importance of Israeli opinion. Arab opinion, on the other hand, has too often been given short shrift. We have coddled Israeli leaders whom we have felt we could not pressure too much because of the adverse reaction of their public. At the same time we have demonstrated no such compunction about pressuring Arab leaders to take steps that were manifestly unpopular, paying no heed to the impact this might have on their legitimacy or on their public's reactions.
After his remarkable speech in Cairo, I believed that this President understood the need to address the price paid by decades of neglecting Arab opinion. I had hopes that he would continue to seek balance in his approach in order to neither "excite" nor "incite." Listening to President Obama's press conference following his White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, gave me pause and a bad case of whiplash.
I had fair warning that this visit would be different than the last, reportedly testy, encounter between these two leaders. And so I should have been prepared for the fact that tough love would be replaced by just plain love. I just wasn't prepared for how much love. And so I confess that I found the apparent public pass Netanyahu received on settlements, the U.S. threat to boycott a summit on Middle East non-proliferation, and all the "unwaverings" and "unbreakables" to be a bit too much to ingest.
In this, I was not alone. A number of U.S. commentators were equally confounded by the White House's behavior, while the Arab World commentary I read, and emails and text messages I received from friends across the region, ranged from despondent to angry.
Now I do not doubt this President's commitment to achieving a comprehensive Middle East peace. And I fully accept as sincere (though surprising) his acknowledgment, at the end of his first year in office, that he had no idea how difficult progress toward this goal would be. As a result, there has been a disturbing meandering quality to his Administration's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There have been moments where they displayed carefully calibrated messaging (as in the Cairo Address, which though ostensibly designed to send a message to Muslims, included passages that addressed the concerns of Arabs, Palestinians and Israelis). On other occasions, there have been flashes of "getting tough" (on settlements or provocations in Jerusalem). But these have been followed by episodes of tone-deafness (the President's insistence that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu join him in that pointless joint appearance last September at the U.N., or the U.S. pressure on the Palestinians to withhold support for the Goldstone Report).
And through all of this meandering, too little has changed on the ground - where realities speak louder than words. Settlements may have been "frozen" but as Peace Now reports make clear, some construction has continued, as have the pressures faced by Palestinians in Jerusalem. The blockade of Gaza, though now somewhat modified, continues to take its toll on that captive population. And aggressive and violent behavior by settlers and occupation authorities in the West Bank continues unchecked.
Despite this troubled setting and the lack of progress in five rounds of indirect "proximity talks", it appears that President Obama now wants direct talks to begin. President Abbas has identified a number of requirements that should be met before such peace talks can begin, and is loathe to drop these requirements lest he experience a replay of last September when he was embarrassed by being compelled to participate in that U.N. appearance with Netanyahu. While we received no indication during that July 6th press conference that the Israelis were ready to meet any of Abbas's terms, in the days that followed, there have been hints from the U.S. side that more occurred in the White House meetings than was revealed in that whiplash-causing post-meeting love fest..
Administration officials point with pride to the results of their efforts to quiet the Israeli behavior in Jerusalem and their success in pressing the Israelis to ease the blockade on Gaza - all of which they felt justified a White House embrace. (Although in both instances they acknowledge that much more needs to be done. And they insist that they are committed to seeing that more will be done.)
For battered Palestinians who lack trust in Benjamin's Netanyahu's words or, at this point, in the promises of any U.S. president, "seeing is believing." They have experienced too many failed settlement freezes, too many rounds of fruitless talks, too many retractable "confidence building gestures, and more than enough unmet deadlines. They are feeling a bit of whiplash, themselves - not knowing whether to just be angry and believe that the Israelis won another round, or to trust this U.S. president and his promise to help deliver peace.
His is a huge family of 1,200 children and, although the school is part-funded by the Vatican, here, as in all of Gaza, Christians are the minority.
Ninety-nine percent of the pupils here are Muslim. This is one of the reasons Fr Musallam says he does not fear the Islamists.
"They should be afraid. Not me," he chuckled.
"Their children are under my tutelage, in my school. Hamas mothers and fathers are here at parents' day along with everyone else."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7154134.stm
Eissa Saba said 14 men overpowered the centre's two security guards before placing bombs in the library and main office. The latter did not explode (but extensive bomb damage to library -see pictures)
The guards said the gunmen had asked them why they worked for "infidels".
Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, is home to 3,500 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox.
A number of Christian and other institutions regarded by Muslim extremists as un-Islamic have been targeted by armed gangs over the past two years in the coastal territory, the BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem says.
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/gaza_020608e.htm
"An increase in attacks on Christian and institutions identified with the West in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which controls the radical Islamic entity in the Strip, pays lip-service to condemning the attacks but does not take effective steps to stop them."
(includes a list of 10 of the more violent attacks on Christians and Westerner institutuins within the space of one year)
**************************************************************
UN Summer Camp destroyed because girls and boys would be using the same facilities - but not at the same time:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10143791
was responsible for the attack on the YMCA building. According to those sources, the Army of Islam has decided to wipe out the Christian community in the Gaza Strip, causing
embarrassment to the Hamas movement."
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/gj_200208e.pdf
UN camp for Gaza children torched
Representatives of the Hamas government condemned the attack and said those responsible would be found.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10143791
http://www.culturalcatholic.com/ChristianGaza.htm
" Responding to the 60-foot deep steel wall Egypt is building between itself and the Gaza Strip and Israel's blockade of Gaza ......Father Manuel Musallam said, "We should remind the world that this siege is not only affecting the lives of 10 or 20 people. It is 1.5 million Palestinians who are suffering every single day. Any obstacle put in our face is an obstacle in the face of our liberation. We will all die. But we will never die as slaves to others nor in fear of American and Israeli hegemony. We will dig deeper in the ground or go by sea. This wall will never stop our freedom."
...Father Musallam explained why Christians in Gaza do not feel singled out or oppressed. “Palestinian Christians are not a religious community set apart in some corner. We are part of the Palestinian people,” he asserted. “Our relationship with Hamas is as people of one nation. Hamas doesn’t fight religious groups. Its fight is against the Israeli occupation.”
When asked about Western media reports that Gaza’s Christians are considering emigrating because of Islamic oppression, Father Musallam sighed. “If Christians emigrate, it’s not because of Muslims,” he emphasized. “It is because we suffer from the Israeli siege. We seek a life of freedom, a life different from the life of dogs that we are currently forced to live.”
When I next spoke with Batasereh in Bethlehem, he informed me:
"When the occupation is ended there will be peace. If the world boycotted Israel for six months they would comply with the UN Resolutions which is all we want! There is state terrorism and Israel must be forced to recognize our right to exist. For the past ten years Hamas has worked with and helped the poorest of people, they have built schools and orphanages. The PA took the money but Hamas was providing the social services.
"Israel is a state built on religious beliefs. The US and EU and all the free world are against theocracies. But Israel has the right to do anything! The world needs to WAKE UP! If there is no peace in the Holy Land there can be no peace anywhere. End the occupation and there will be peace the very next day. All the terrorism in the world can be traced back to the Palestinian situation. All the money spent on weapons and war could eliminate world poverty."
"I go to Bethlehem because of the Biblical injunction to visit the prisoners."@ http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=275&Itemid=124
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza's tiny Christian community is keeping a low profile during Christmas, traumatized by the killing of a prominent activist after the Islamic Hamas group's takeover of the coastal territory.
Few Christmas trees are on display, churches are holding austere services and hundreds of Christians hope to travel to the West Bank to celebrate the holiday in Bethlehem. Many say they don't plan on returning to Gaza.
"We have a very sad Christmas," said Essam Farah, acting pastor of Gaza's Baptist Church, which has canceled its annual children's party because of the grim atmosphere.
That relationship has been shaken since Hamas seized control of Gaza last June, and especially following the recent death of 32-year-old Rami Ayyad.
Ayyad, a member of the Baptist Church, managed Gaza's only Christian bookstore and was involved in many charitable activities. He was found shot in the head, his body thrown on a Gaza street in early October... He regularly received death threats....and the store was firebombed six months before the kidnapping."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22380080/
"Gaza cannot sleep! The people are suffering unbelievably. They are hungry, thirsty, have no electricity or clean water. They are suffering constant bombardments and sonic booms from low flying aircraft...Many children have been violently thrown from their beds at night from the sonic booms. Many arms and legs have been broken. These planes fly low over Gaza and then reach the speed of sound. This shakes the ground and creates shock waves like an earthquake that causes people to be thrown from their bed. I, myself weigh 120 kilos and was almost thrown from my bed due to the shock wave produced by a low flying jet that made a sonic boom.
"Gaza cannot sleep...the cries of hungry children, the sullen faces of broken men and women who are just sitting in their hungry emptiness with no light, no hope, no love...
"These actions are War Crimes!"
http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1523&Itemid=227
Anyone who believes this, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is not cognitively qualified to comment on the subject of the Middle Eastern affairs.
"We are a Palestinian resistance movement and we are not against any people. We are against the occupation. We want to rebuild what the occupation has destroyed.
"Hamas is not against any religion. We are not a terrorist movement we resist the occupation. Christians voted for us for many reasons and they know we are faithful to this cause: that God knows better than we ourselves know what is for our benefit. We do not force anyone to believe as we do. The public and private schools both teach Islam and Christianity.
"In November 1988 Arafat issued a birth certificate for the Palestinian State and under religion he stated: 'None.' This is because we are a secular state. As Muslims and Christians we live together peacefully and our attitude is citizenship is for everyone. Everybody should have freedom of belief, traditions and a personal life. Hamas does not propose anything that contradicts Christianity.
"Our slogan is: Remove Suffering for everyone. The issue of Israel is about the occupation. We have no problems with religious beliefs; our problem is that Israel is illegally occupying our land.
"Abbas has stated that we do recognize Israel, but there must be clear borders and Israel does not yet have them. The PA recognized Israel ten years ago but we Palestinians are detained in an open air prison.
"We resist the occupation: our right guaranteed under International Law..."
http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1752&Itemid=234
khem... back to reality.
"In the Gaza Strip people are returning home -- or to the rubble that was once their home. Many are blaming Hamas for the destruction because the militants hid among civilians and attracted Israeli fire.
Yet no one dares to speak out openly.... One of his neighbors weighs in: "Many people are now against Hamas but that won't change anything," he says. "Because anyone who stands up to them is killed." Since they took power Hamas has used brutal force against any dissenters in the Gaza Strip. There were news agency reports that during the war they allegedly executed suspected collaborators with Israel. The reign of terror will go on for some time, says the neighbor who doesn't want to give his name. "There will never be a rebellion against Hamas. It would be suicide."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,603203,00.html
Catholic News Service
{Jerusalem}
Christians cautiously told CNS that although they were concerned about the future until now the Christian community had not been troubled by Hamas.
But as the conversations continued, they recounted how unknown extremists had killed a member of a Baptist church in 2007 and there had been numerous violent attacks against Christian institutions and businesses.
All those interviewed by CNS expressed concern for their safety and insisted on complete anonymity.
"There is a lot we want to say but we are afraid," several said. If European countries would offer them political asylum, they said they would accept it.
One woman, asked if the recent three-week war would make Hamas stronger, replied, "I hope not."
Living near a mosque, she said, she often heard inflammatory statements over the loudspeakers, with the imam cursing Jews and Christians in the same breath.
It is not only scary but also dangerous, she said.
"It started in the mosques (when Hamas took over) and now it is going into the schools," she said.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0900295.htm
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0900295.htm
1.1.3 Reality is the daily humiliation to which we are subjected at the military checkpoints, as we make our way to jobs, schools or hospitals.
1.1.5 Religious liberty is severely restricted; the freedom of access to the holy places is denied under the pretext of security. Jerusalem and its holy places are out of bounds for many Christians and Muslims from the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Even Jerusalemites face restrictions during the religious feasts. Some of our Arab clergy are regularly barred from entering Jerusalem.
5.1 We all face, today, a way that is blocked and a future that promises only woe. Our word to all our Christian brothers and sisters is a word of hope, patience, steadfastness and new action for a better future. Our word is that we, as Christians we carry a message, and we will continue to carry it despite the thorns, despite blood and daily difficulties. We place our hope in God, who will grant us relief in His own time. At the same time, we continue to act in concord with God and God’s will, building, resisting evil and bringing closer the day of justice and peace.
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/dokumentation/documents/other-ecumenical-bodies/kairos-palaestina-dokument.html
Any world community ( includiong Palestinain Gaza) where Islamic fundmentalists come to power, the Christians are forced to leave due to attacks on Christian institutions and people and the atmosphere of fear and intimidation and intolerance.
This is a absolutely fact. Those who try to deny commit an unpardonable sin.
And herein lies the problem. Placing ones hopes for solutions in God
is like throwing snow flakes into the wind. That is not to say that God is
not interested.
It is to say that your hope is misplaced. I think God looks to us to solve
the problems that we create. That, in large part, is why we are here.
I've yet to read a single item addressing this from said Christian Arab author.
"Broken crucifixes and shards from a Jesus statue have been swept up, but Gaza's tiny Christian community says the violent warning sent by Islamic militants cannot be erased.
The ransacking of Gaza's Catholic convent and an adjacent Rosary Sisters school during Hamas' sweep to power this month broke more than wood and plaster:
it signaled the end of a relatively peaceful, even if sometimes uneasy relationship between Gaza's 1.4 million Muslims and 3,000 Christians.
Gaza's flock has already been hit hard by emigration in recent years, and a new exodus could effectively wipe out one of the Arab world's tiniest and oldest Christian communities.
In the convent's chapel, two wooden crosses were found broken, another golden cross twisted out of place.
Bernard Sabella, a researcher who has conducted surveys among Palestinian Christians, said the problem needs to be dealt with urgently because it tears at the fabric of Palestinian society. "People think seriously about migrating after such sectarian acts," he said."
More and more, the Palestinian Authority are seen by many as the ones hindering peace by refusing to go to negotiate. Accordingly, for the PA negotiations can only bring positives. Hopefully they go well and lasting peace is achieved. If they do not and the PA makes it a point not be unreasonable throughout the process the negative focus will shift to Israel. The PA has nothing to lose (especially if the Arab League, backs negotiations.)
I email, FAX and phone my Congressional representatives who do NOT represent me and all the time and all I ever receive back are talking points no doubt crafted by AIPAC.
I began utilizing Youtube to send Obama and the 88 congressional reps who have Youtube channels messages- thus far NOT one has had the integrity to respond and here are but 3:
US and Israeli Nuclear Deceptions @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bslmk5jipGA
Love, Truth and Jihad @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpYguG8Dh3I
Vanunu's Message to Hillary Clinton @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Omq-QG7isA
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1007/11/fzgps.01.html
CHOUDARY: Wait a second. Wait a second, I'm not propagating the idea of elections and democracy and freedom because these things are anathema to Osama --
.
ZAKARIA: They do stand for them. In Malaysia and Indonesia there are Islamic fundamentalist parties.
CHOUDARY: -- but they're - they're not - they're not actually abiding by the Sharia because if you were a Muslim practicing, you don't believe in democracy because democracy separates God from life's affairs and politics.
We believe the whole of the system, including the politics and the judiciary, must be according to the Sharia law.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1007/11/fzgps.01.html
Israel has never threatened anyone with their nuclear weapons - indeed, it does not even acknowledge their existence. It serves the intended purpose - a deterrent.
Although Israel refuses to officially admit it has nuclear weapons - a policy known as “nuclear ambiguity” and despite Israeli nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu's 2 rolls of film and testimony documenting it, and Seymour Hirsch writing "The Samson Option" detailing the history of Israel's WMD program, its effects on Israel-American relations and how Israel will launch a massive nuclear strike if it feels threatened enough-how much more proof does one need to see that "the war on terror" leads US to Jerusalem?
PLEASE listen to Vanunu speak for himself in 2005, 2006, 2008 video interviews and learn WHY Israel persists to persecute him @ http://wearewideawake.org
THE VANUNU SAGA 2005-2010!
And please check out: US and Israeli Nuclear Deceptions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bslmk5jipGA
For George Washington warned US in his Farewell Address :
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."
"Muslims and most Christians in Palestinian areas tell journalists that they are all Palestinians. Publicly, they usually deny that there are any problems or differences between them. They say that they get along fine and the main problem is the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank.
Privately, however, some Christians admit to job losses, land seizures, attacks on churches, intimidation, torture, beatings, kidnappings, forced marriage and sexual harassment of Christian women. Some Christians have been killed.
But examples of inter-religious tension rarely make it into the Palestinian or Arab media."
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2c0_1268500006
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/palestines.christians.continue.to.suffer.persecution/5106.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxHZCJy8RGI
http://www.persecution.org/suffering/countryinfodetail.php?countrycode=36
http://www.jcpa.org/christian-persecution.htm
http://www.gmsplace.com/?p=3370
Now who to believe? Christians living in Palestinian Territories, of Jews who support Israel?
Tough choice..NOT!
“We’re not talking about a serpent-tongued, false prophet who will negotiate this peace between Israel and the Islamists, it will be done by a U.S. president and those involved in the peace process who will finally achieve it through hard work, tough compromises, and by making specific decisions fair to both sides to agree to end the violence once-and-for-all – by those leaders who want a future for their children,” Spirko says.
Spirko's key ideas at the 2000 Camp David Peace Talks were to make Jerusalem the simultaneous capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state with congruent borders - one precisely overlapping the other - using two maps - one for the Palestinian state and one for Israel. The city would become an international, undivided open city for people of all religions to visit and the municipality would be governed by a city council of equal Palestinians and Jews with God, Allah or Jehovah as the central sovereign. The Knesset and Palestinian authority would then govern their respective states from that dual capital. In effect, Jerusalem would become a governing district much like the District of Columbia in Washington, D. C.
Lets all hope they succeed.
Oh, wait, you were talking about the guys who met in Washington and decided that creating a humanitarian crisis was ot that big a deal, nor was continuing ethnic cleansing, nuclear proliferation, or contolling chemical and biological weapons, instead what was more important than that was helping each other with their public images, one looking at the next election, one looking at keeping his coalition together.
we need deeds from the US not more coddling of israel and bibi
Israel shot one American four times in the head, put out another American's eye out. A few years ago another American woman was purposefully crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer. And here we go once again crawling back to that arrogant little country on our hands and knees. Disgraceful conduct for a supposed 'superpower'.
Most of these were before the construction of the West Bank Security Wall, which has cut terror from the West Bank almost to zero. Whereby the Palestinians have demonstrated the necessity of the Wall.
During the 2006 and 2009 conflicts, there were numerous times when Israel aborted missions because of the presence of civilians. The Palestinians use this as a tactic to prevent attacks on the homes of the terrorists. You may not believe Israel avoids civilian casualties whenever possible, but the Palestinians (and Hezbollah) most certainly do. Otherwise, why would they fire rockets from and store weapons in civilian areas?
"A new Israeli weapon, meanwhile, is tailored to the HAMAS TACTIC OF ASKING CIVILIANS TO STAND ON THE ROOFS OF BUILDINGS SO ISRAELI PILOTS WILL NOT BOMB. The Israelis are countering with a missile designed, paradoxically, not to explode. They aim the missiles at empty areas of the roofs to frighten residents into leaving the buildings, a tactic called “a knock on the roof.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/world/middleeast/11hamas.html?_r=1&ref=world
Fact: Non -Jews are democratically represented in Israeli government.
Fact: Many Palestinians serve honorably in the Israeli Army.
Fact: A Palestinian served as interim President of Israel.
Fact: NONE of the Israeli Palestinians would give up their Israeli citizenship.
Fact: Arabs controlled Gaza, West Bank and Jerusalem for 20 years ( 1948-1967). Did NOTHING for Palestinians. Got any problem with that? Why not?
Sorry for introducing complex reality into the usual bumbling anti-Israel propaganda.
An un-natural entity was created and exists thru terrorism, confiscation of lands and denial of rights to the indigenous peoples. It continues to expand thru building of illegal settlements on OCCUPIED territories, despite UN resolutions to the contrary. It survives, in part, due to the economic, political and military support from it's few friends.
Where you stand depends on where you sit. However, reality is what the world sees, understands and almost unanimously condemns the one nation that continues to pepetrate the injustice.
The world is not stupid.
Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/christians-in-jerusalem-want-jews-to-stop-spitting-on-them-1.137099
The Russian Orthodox worshipers, including many women, children and the elderly, had filled the small building to overflow with several outside when they were stunned by the rain of stones. Some were injured and received medical care.
http://www.eutimes.net/2009/12/jews-shower-with-stones-russian-orthodox-church-in-israel/
Christians Discriminated Against by Israel
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/rel-christians.html
Imagine how Israel treats Christians in Palestine. Oh wait, we don't have to imagine. Palestinian Christians will tell you themselves.
The Kairos Palestine Document
A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/dokumentation/documents/other-ecumenical-bodies/kairos-palaestina-dokument.html
The Israeli Declaration of Independence stated that the State of Israel would ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex, and guaranteed freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture. While formally equal according to Israeli law, a number of official sources acknowledge that Arab citizens of Israel experience discrimination in many aspects of life. Israeli High Court Justice (Ret.) Theodor Or wrote in The Report by the State Commission of Inquiry into the Events of October 2000:
The Arab citizens of Israel live in a reality in which they experience discrimination as Arabs. This inequality has been documented in a large number of professional surveys and studies, has been confirmed in court judgments and government resolutions, and has also found expression in reports by the state comptroller and in other official documents. Although the Jewish majority’s awareness of this discrimination is often quite low, it plays a central role in the sensibilities and attitudes of Arab citizens. This discrimination is widely accepted, both within the Arab sector and outside it, and by official assessments, as a chief cause of agitation.[190]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel#Discrimination