Many Republicans have been wasting no time in trying to capitalize on the contrived dispute that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu picked with President Obama over the uncontroversial statement that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be based on the 1967 lines. The statement is uncontroversial because it is the whole basis for the peace process since its inception in the early 1990s; it is the longstanding basis for U.S. efforts to resolve the conflict; and it is mandated by international law: the mere 22% of the land that Israel acquired after 1967 is considered illegally occupied and Israel is required to withdraw from it.
Many potential Republican presidential contenders claimed that President Obama has "thrown Israel under the bus," in what appears to be an exaggerated effort aimed at shaking Obama's support in the pro-Israel community in the lead up to the 2012 election. But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) decided to go a step further (and what a step it was) in his remarks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) conference on Sunday, rebuffing the president's emphasis on the 1967 lines by blaming the conflict on Arab culture and the hatred it allegedly entails:
Sadly it is a culture infused with resentment and hatred. But it is this culture that underlies the Palestinians' and the broader Arab world's refusal to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. And this, this [repeated for emphasis], is the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, it is NOT about the '67 lines.
Whether Cantor believes his disgraceful comments or whether he was simply engaging in shameless pandering is not readily clear, but neither looks particularly good for him. While we cannot pretend that hate does not exist, we also shouldn't pretend that it exists on one side, or that it is the "root" of the conflict rather than its inevitable consequence.
Cantor is apparently disturbed by how a "culture" could produce Palestinian suicide bombers (emotionally recounting the story of one Palestinian woman who he claims attempted to murder the very Israelis who saved her life). But either side could come up with a wide list of extreme examples to wrong-headedly argue against the other side's humanity. Would Cantor find it worthy of a rhetorical question to ask what kind of culture could drive half of Israel's high school students to be in favor of denying Arabs equal rights, or how a terrorist who murdered dozens of worshipers in a mosque could be celebrated, or how "death to Arabs" could become a common chant during soccer games in Israel? We can either engage in this distasteful, useless, and purely emotional competition of which side suffers from more hatred, or we can acknowledge the simple reality that hatred is not a cultural phenomenon that drives the conflict, but a symptom that has itself been produced by this conflict.
The root cause of the conflict is political injustice. That political injustice has many aspects, but its primary aspect is Israel's illegal and ruthless occupation of the Palestinian territories, which in turn produces hatred and counter-hatred that snowball into bloodshed. Those who are interested in ending this hatred and bloodshed would devote their energies not to demagoguery, but to ending the political injustice. That starts by acknowledging the very simple and fundamental fact that President Obama alluded to in his "67 lines" comment: peace cannot coexist with illegal occupation.
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MJ Rosenberg: Congress to Palestinians: Drop Dead
"Sadly it is a culture infused with resentment and hatred. But it is this culture that underlies the Palestinians' and the broader Arab world's refusal to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. And this, this [repeated for emphasis], is the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, it is NOT about the '67 lines."
This doesn't sound like hatred to me, it sounds like very legitimate (though harsh) criticism. It is not Israelis who came up with the phrase "love death more than you love life." And although there are things to criticize about the Arab culture (just like every other culture), this isn't the point of this post. The questions is how Mr. Baddar responded to this pointed and cutting criticism of the Palestinians and their Arab allies.
I wonder what your definition of the term "uncontroversial" is...
source: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2010/Joint_statement_PM_Netanyahu_US_Sec_Clinton_11-Nov-2010.htm
There is no agreement that would neutralize the intentions of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, which is to eliminate Israel. They do not want peace with Israel. Their only interest is to eradicate Israel.
Occupied territories are not the source of Arab hostility, because the P.L.O., with its charter calling for the destruction of Israel, was founded in 1964, three years before Israel entered the territories.
The “settlements” are not the obstacle to peace, because when Israel uprooted all the settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005, the result, instead of peace, was a takeover by the Hamas terror organization that proceeded to use Gaza as a launching pad for rocket attacks into Israel proper.
The “Arab refugee problem,” isn't an obstacle to peace. It was paralleled by the expulsion and dispossession of an equal number of Jews from the Arab countries where they had lived for centuries. While the fledging State of Israel absorbed these hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees, the Arab refugees were kept by Arab governments in squalid refugee camps, the world’s only “refugee population” that has maintained refugee status for three generations.
Why don't any of the 22 Arab countries, especially Jordan, absorb these Palestinians? Instead Jordan is busy revoking the passports of it's Palestinian citizens.
I give you an F for failure to comprehend the facts.
But you get an A for mindlessness.
Having said that, what do you expect from folks who have the likes of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef saying "All these evil people should perish from this world ... God should strike them with a plague, them and these Palestinians", "Jews who sell to Arabs are enemies"?
Of course we all remember what he said about 'goyim being donkeys created to serve jews'.
And the sad thing is that poll after poll we have seen majority support of this venom in Israeli public.
I am VERY familiar with the conflict and know personally many people, on both sides. The Israelis are not angels, sure. Hatred exists on both sides, unfortunately. But while on the Israeli side it is the realm of a small minority of extremists, on the Arab side it is much more widespread and mainstream. I have many, many examples, but let's not go into that. Let me explain, before you discard me as "racist". I am not. There is no "flaw" in "the Arab character" (if there is anything like that) that makes them particularly prone to hating. No. But read the Arab media -- and compare it to Israeli media. Arab "hate culture" is not "a natural phenomenon". It is a manufactured one. It is generated (and constantly reinforced) by ruthless "leaders" for whom it is a God-given relief valve to channel people's frustrations towards some external scapegoat. In Egypt (and Tunisia & Libya) we've seen what happens when that relief valve fails.
You claim that "the occupation" is the cause of the conflict. How come? The conflict started long before 1967, didn't it? It even started long before "the nakhba". How can the effect PRECEDE in time "the cause"??
I have nothing against Arabs or Arab culture. But if one does not point at the problem, if one does not admit it, how can one solve it?
Poll: 55% back rabbis' anti-Arab ruling
Survey shows 41% of secular Israelis support municipal religious leaders'
call not to rent apartments to non-Jews, as do 64% and 88% of Israel's
traditional and haredi Jews, respectively
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3998010,00.html
Yes, it started when a movement of European Jews decided that, due to their inherent superiority over the subhuman Arabs, they had a right to colonize their land and treat the indigenous people like dirt, just like gentile European colonists did throughout Africa, Asia and the Americas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13552685
Recognize the right of Israel to exist=1
Stop the rockets in to Israel from Gaza=1
Peace= 1+1
#2.
The Arab culture (with which I'm familiar), or Islam, do not condone violence, intolerance or hatred. The resentment amongst Arabs towards the west (US & UK especially) stems from nearly a century (since the Balfour Declaration) of policies that resulted in drawing maps, configuring borders, shifting populations, etc. of which the local-indigenous populations were not even consulted, much less given an opportunity to participate in (decision-making). The US & west has intervened, and taken actions in the region solely for its own political-economic expediency, without regard to the consequences borne by the native people.
Our blind loyalty to Israel, deflecting mild criticism of many of their harsh, discriminatory policies, defiance of numerous UN resolutions, and excessive aid (further enabling those harsh policies) has justifiably upset many.
Just yesterday, Netanyahu got more ovations from Congress than President Obama ever has. It's clear our Congress is in the pockets (and licking the boots) of the AIPAC, ADL, and will do anything the Knesset wants, fair, righteous or not.
Assuming you are an Israeli, How is it that you do not know even the most basic elements of your own history?
>>Israel and EGYPT signed a peace treaty in 1979, marking the end of 30 years of relentless hostility and five costly wars. The treaty was preceded by Egyptian President Sadat's visit to Jerusalem (1977), at the invitation of Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin, as well as the signing of the Camp David Accords (1978).
>>The peace treaty between JORDAN and Israel, signed in 1994, was preceded by a meeting of King Hussein and PM Rabin in Washington; the two leaders proclaimed an end to belligerances between their countries.
>>Relations between MOROCCO and Israel were formalized in November 1994. Rabat inmediatly opened an office in Israel, formally establishing bilateral diplomatic relations.
>>"The ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF MAURITANIA became the third Arab country (after Egypt and Jordan) to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel Mauritania opened its diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv in 1996, and indicated its wish to fully normalize relations with Israel in 1999.
>>Israel and the GULF STATES have developed since 1996 a process of mutual comunication, and Israel maintains offices in OMAN and in QATAR in charge of several affairs of economic, scientific and commercial interests.
>> Israel opened an interest office in TUNISIA in 1996, and they reciprocated that year. Relations broke in 2000, but commercial relations continue.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/Arabs.html
--- It's called The Planet of the Wide Awake. Go ahead... try & tune in.
FYI, Egypt was the first Arab state to recognize and establish diplomatic ties with Israel in 1979. That bilateral talks between the two countries began at the Madrid Conference.
Jordan became the second Arab state to ink an agreement and establish full diplomatic relations in November 1994. In July 2007, the Arab League sent the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers to Israel to present the Arab Peace Initiative on their behalf for the first time.
In 2009, the State of Israel and the Republic of Maldives, the smallest Muslim country in the world, resumed diplomatic relations after a freeze of 15 years.