Israel: Groping toward the Final Solution to her Palestinian Problem
by Diane V. McLoughlin, Dec. 14, '08
In, 'Separating the terror from the terrorists', December 13, 2008, New York Times
Public Editor Clark Hoyt referred to the occupied West Bank, and Gaza (now in its
sixteenth month under Israeli military siege) as merely something that Palestinians
and Israel equally 'contend' for:
'the occupied West Bank or Gaza, which Israel and the Palestinians have been
contending over since Israel took them in 1967'
This is factually inaccurate on its face and an outrageous distortion.
Israel did not 'take' the West Bank or Gaza as one takes a lucky penny off of the
ground.
A lucky penny is lucky because it is a freebie: The owner to whom it
belongs will not value it enough to say 'mine, give it back'. Morally, it is guilt-free;
the paradox is that it is guilt-free because it has no value worth the fight.
What is entirely missing from Times' reportage of the issue is the fact that Israel
utilizes state-sanctioned terror with the aim of ethnically cleansing the West Bank and
Gaza.
Israel illegally, immorally, odiously: expels Palestinian citizens, starves
Palestinian citizens, destroys Palestinian homes, assassinates Palestinian politicians,
detains Palestinians in jails without charge, tortures Palestinians,
and murders - yes, murders - Palestinian civilian men, women and children.
The Public Editor for the New York Times sympathetically cites for the Israeli 'settler'
side of things a child murdered in her bed, where conversely and perversely, we see
no such sympathy implied for the Palestinian child. In vastly greater numbers
Palestinians are murdered even asleep in their beds by the Israeli occupying forces
who are there to protect and enhance the illegal Jewish settler occupation's
expansion and ethnic cleansing.
The contention that the ongoing battle between the military occupiers (Israel) and the
occupied civilian population (West Bank/Gaza) is a battle of equals (who, in the Public
Editors' misleading words 'contend' for the lands) is beyond the pale. Rather, it is a
battle between the impoverished, ragged Palestinian against Israel's U.S.-financed
military machine; the Israeli military is financed to the tune of billions of
American dollars every year and it is one of the largest militaries in the entire world.
Israel's military siege of Gaza, now complete since November 5th, 2008,
forces 1.5 million people, half of whom are children, to be denied
food, medicine, clean water and fuel needed to run everything from hospital infant
incubators to cooking stoves, electrical generators, and heating appliances.
Get it straight. This is not a 'contending' between two parties with
equal, legal competing claims. Israel as a routine withholds shipments up to and
including hearing aids for deaf children in Gaza, for whom, then, their
ability to hear and learn is destroyed.
The children in Gaza are denied the right to grow; their physical growth is stunted!,
because of the years of Israel-imposed deprivation.
This is not a 'contending' over land. This is ethnic cleansing.
Or in the words of Ehud Olmert, when describing settler violence
against Palestinians, it is a pogrom.
There is not much space left from here to there for Israel, from the military siege
to the oven for the Palestinians. It is simply a question of degree. The impetus that
drives Israel is no different than what drove Nazi Germany - the impetus is racism.
Israel dirties her hands with ever bloodier efforts to defend
the Jewish character of Israel when almost twenty-five percent of
Israel's citizens are non-Jewish, and to justify her Lebensraum Palestinian land grabs
in the West Bank while blocking the worlds' journalists access to Gaza to bear
witness, as she gropes toward her final solution.
It is my view that true Jewish character concerns itself deeply with
caring for and improving the condition of mankind. My view is the
same for all of the world's major religions. Thus, for
Israel to continue down this road is to destroy the
Jewish character in herself. I can think of no greater tragic irony.
There is no way that I can see for this circle to be squared unless there is a
fundamental paradigm shift of consciousness to include and care for the others in her
midst.
(NYT 'Separating the Terror from the Terrorists' url:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/opinion/14pubed.html?pagewanted=2)
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by Diane V. McLoughlin, Dec. 14, '08
In, 'Separating the terror from the terrorists', December 13, 2008, New York Times
Public Editor Clark Hoyt referred to the occupied West Bank, and Gaza (now in its
sixteenth month under Israeli military siege) as merely something that Palestinians
and Israel equally 'contend' for:
'the occupied West Bank or Gaza, which Israel and the Palestinians have been
contending over since Israel took them in 1967'
This is factually inaccurate on its face and an outrageous distortion.
Israel did not 'take' the West Bank or Gaza as one takes a lucky penny off of the
ground.
A lucky penny is lucky because it is a freebie: The owner to whom it
belongs will not value it enough to say 'mine, give it back'. Morally, it is guilt-free;
the paradox is that it is guilt-free because it has no value worth the fight.
What is entirely missing from Times' reportage of the issue is the fact that Israel
utilizes state-sanctioned terror with the aim of ethnically cleansing the West Bank and
Gaza.
Israel illegally, immorally, odiously: expels Palestinian citizens, starves
Palestinian citizens, destroys Palestinian homes, assassinates Palestinian politicians,
detains Palestinians in jails without charge, tortures Palestinians,
and murders - yes, murders - Palestinian civilian men, women and children.
The Public Editor for the New York Times sympathetically cites for the Israeli 'settler'
side of things a child murdered in her bed, where conversely and perversely, we see
no such sympathy implied for the Palestinian child. In vastly greater numbers
Palestinians are murdered even asleep in their beds by the Israeli occupying forces
who are there to protect and enhance the illegal Jewish settler occupation's
expansion and ethnic cleansing.
The contention that the ongoing battle between the military occupiers (Israel) and the
occupied civilian population (West Bank/Gaza) is a battle of equals (who, in the Public
Editors' misleading words 'contend' for the lands) is beyond the pale. Rather, it is a
battle between the impoverished, ragged Palestinian against Israel's U.S.-financed
military machine; the Israeli military is financed to the tune of billions of
American dollars every year and it is one of the largest militaries in the entire world.
Israel's military siege of Gaza, now complete since November 5th, 2008,
forces 1.5 million people, half of whom are children, to be denied
food, medicine, clean water and fuel needed to run everything from hospital infant
incubators to cooking stoves, electrical generators, and heating appliances.
Get it straight. This is not a 'contending' between two parties with
equal, legal competing claims. Israel as a routine withholds shipments up to and
including hearing aids for deaf children in Gaza, for whom, then, their
ability to hear and learn is destroyed.
The children in Gaza are denied the right to grow; their physical growth is stunted!,
because of the years of Israel-imposed deprivation.
This is not a 'contending' over land. This is ethnic cleansing.
Or in the words of Ehud Olmert, when describing settler violence
against Palestinians, it is a pogrom.
There is not much space left from here to there for Israel, from the military siege
to the oven for the Palestinians. It is simply a question of degree. The impetus that
drives Israel is no different than what drove Nazi Germany - the impetus is racism.
Israel dirties her hands with ever bloodier efforts to defend
the Jewish character of Israel when almost twenty-five percent of
Israel's citizens are non-Jewish, and to justify her Lebensraum Palestinian land grabs
in the West Bank while blocking the worlds' journalists access to Gaza to bear
witness, as she gropes toward her final solution.
It is my view that true Jewish character concerns itself deeply with
caring for and improving the condition of mankind. My view is the
same for all of the world's major religions. Thus, for
Israel to continue down this road is to destroy the
Jewish character in herself. I can think of no greater tragic irony.
There is no way that I can see for this circle to be squared unless there is a
fundamental paradigm shift of consciousness to include and care for the others in her
midst.
(NYT 'Separating the Terror from the Terrorists' url:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/opinion/14pubed.html?pagewanted=2)
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