THE HANDSTAND
august 2005
"It seems to me that the question of whether life is really worth living anymore is inextricably bound up with the question of whether or not these madmen can be stopped. If not, then the only alternative is to live it up while we can and laugh defiantly in the face of the apocalypse. Why write
columns, why comment at all, if we can't have any effect on the outcome?" - Justin Raimondo
AntiWar.com
Dear Friends,
Below are parts of 2 articles and one entire(Brutal Sadism of Israeli Border Police and Betrayal by UN, see in previous page). The first is about the Security Council rejection to discuss the Wall, the 2nd (entire) is Ariel Sharon’s declaration about Ariel being “forever” Israel, the last a portion of Amira Hass’s explanation about why the settlement project continues. The
links to the full reports are there for any who wish to read them.
Two observations regarding the above statements.
(1) Gilerman and Israelis in general will undoubtedly rue the very idea of the wall/fence in the not too distant future when missiles start flying over it into Israeli communities. If Palestinians cannot attain their freedom non-violently, some will continue to try to gain it violently. Security
is the one thing this wall will never bring.
(2) I personally fail to understand why anyone could think that Sharon’s disengagement is a “brave action.” Such an attitude reminds me of the 1930s when European diplomats bent over backwards to placate Hitler, allowing him to march into the Rhineland unopposed in 1936, handing him the Sudetenland on a silver platter in 1938, and hoping that appeasement would keep him fromtheir doors. I cannot for the life of me understand why diplomats bend over backwards to placate Sharon—as if he is some sort of hero, instead of the murderer, terrorist, and thief that he really is.
After all, Sharon’s plans are no secret. Dov Weisglass revealed them months ago, in October 2004. The disengagement is the “formaldehyde” for ending the so-called ‘peace process’ (which on the Israeli side never existed anyhow). "’The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process,’" Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior adviser Dov Weisglass has
told Haaretz. ‘And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress.’ Weisglass, who was one of the initiators of the disengagement plan, was speaking in an interview with Haaretz for the Friday Magazine.”
”’The disengagement is actually formaldehyde,’ he said. ‘It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.’” [http://www.middleeastinfo.org/article4762.html ]
And this is precisely what is taking place—openly, for all to see. But the eyes of Israelis and the world are riveted on the disengagement, on the orange-ribboned settlers’ rampages, marches, and sit-downs in the middle of major traffic arteries. And while all heads turn to watch these, events
in the West Bank and Jerusalem go unobserved. Yet wall construction of the Jerusalem ‘envelope’ has been speeded up, settlements in the West Bank are expanding, roads for Israelis only are a-building at a huge pace, and the land robbery of West Bank villages rolls on and on and on, like the bulldozer that Sharon is and employs to fulfill his vision of a ‘greater Israel,’ transforming the West Bank from a pastoral environment to an urban one, with Ariel and Ma’ale Adumim to become major cities, like Tel Aviv and Haifa.
For Sharon to realize his plan for Ariel to “be expanded and the bloc strengthened” (in his words, below), Palestinian villages in the line of the expansion will have to disappear--Salfit (the district seat), Iskaka, Yasuf, and lovely Marda, Kief el-Hares, Hares and the other villages that stand in the way of expanding Ariel. Will Sharon demolish them in the spirit of the 300-500 Palestinian villages Israel demolished in 1948 and Khirbet Tana on July 5, 2005? And will their lands also turn into housing for Israeli Jews? And what will happen to their inhabitants?
Unfortunately, most Israelis don’t know the West Bank. Most Israelis have not been in Israeli Palestinian villages, much less in ones on the West Bank or near Jerusalem. So why should Israelis care? Amira Hass tackles that issue. Her response that all Israelis have a settler attitude within has
much accuracy. But additionally, the bitter truth is that Israelis simply don’t care about what happens to Palestinians. Israelis don’t know Palestinians, don’t know the West Bank, and at the present don’t want to. To most Israelis Palestinians are not Fatima, Abed, Husam, Lina, or individuals with faces and feelings. To most Israelis Palestinians are not moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas, sons and daughters, cousins, uncles, aunts. They are either ‘the enemy’ or non-entities--faceless, bodiless non-entities. Should Sharon manage to achieve his plan, then Israelis will travel to Ariel and to Ma’ale Adumim as if they had always been there, no different from Tel Aviv or Be’er Sheba, Jerusalem, or Haifa. Israelis will take for granted the legitimacy of Ariel as much as they take for granted the legitimacy of the rest of Israel. And what about the Palestinians? Indeed, my friends, what about the Palestinians should Sharon achieve his goals? Answer me, please.
Dorothy
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Dear Dorothy,
Your letter is so correct, so accurate about the step by step movement of this vile criminal Sharon who is engaged in the historic establishment of the basis of an Israeli middle east "empire". Everything is done by ruse and then these Europeans Representatives Solana and Fischer virtually corroborate the lies, so that neither the Eu Parliament nor the Commission need take any notice. We Irish are a fly in the soup, constantly drawing attention to the matter, as do our EU representatives. But the English and the US, so culpable in all this crime and simple rejection of Geneva and other treaties, (that were promoted as the result of mankind's lessons learned, cities destroyed, nations ruined in the culmination of world wars,) those English and US are the really guilty parties; they taught many generations of Middle Eastern military students at their military academies. Risible that we now see the Queen of England's grandsons going through the same routes to "manhood".
What can we do? What can we do? People are searching, young ones do see the truth, but then they need understanding from the older generations, and quite literally, my own generation refuses to use the computer and inform themselves - they read the newspapers and simply regurgitate that financially controlled material as a "truth". I am so weary that I can atlast understand but fail so
"traditionally" to help the young.It is nearly impossible to get through the cunning barage set up by materialism, consumer capitalism in early childhood that has made present generations helpless. It was war-shock that made my generations so impervious to the dangers of hiding the truth and persueing "national" security and progress after the WW2. But it seems something more lethal is in the way,and nobody is conversing enough about serious matters.
But what sort of answer to your letter do you want Dorothy? And where do we go from here, or there, if either exist?
Jocelyn
* * * * * * * * * * *
I don't know the answer, Jocelyn, but I want to shock people into realizing that it is a definite possibility that Sharon might achieve his will. It scares me. I know the area. There were 2 articles on the Ma'ale Adumim wall and the so-called expansion of the Jerusalem envelope, but there is little in the media about the rest of the West Bank apart from the info about Sharon going to Ariel and making his bombastic statement, which most people see as nothing more than a way to assure settlers that there will be no more disengagements, but which I see as something much more dire. The area in question is one that I know well, know several of the villages intimately, and a number of their inhabitants, who have become close friends. I can't bear the fact that the world doesn't care that ethnic cleansing is going on full force.
But then, look at what is continuing in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Sudan, etc. I guess that few have the energy or desire to look beyond one's own home and family. Sad. I just don't know anymore what to do, but still keep on trying to do the little that I can.
Best, Dorothy
* * * * * * * * * * *
How many years have you been working on this problem Dorothy? Do you transmit to any regular web-sites? How was I so lucky as to get your mails this long time which have given me education?
There is a group called the Strasbourg Co-ordination. Their url is:Send Coord-strasbg mailing list submissions to coord-strasbg@eutopic.lautre.net They recently sent from Europe a "caravan" of their members to try to get into Palestine from Jordan, to lobby at the Knesset.... ofcourse they
never got there, they were roughed up on the Allenby Bridge by the Israeli Military and thrown back into Jordan. This group are planning Lobbying in the EU, they are also asking Artists to submit ideas. I signed when they first opened the idea of co-ordinating a lobby group in Europe, but they have only recently got together to effect any sort of event. However they may well move forward with some effect if their European background grows in size.
Never undervalue your own contribution, this crucial information that you give in your mails is surely filtering into international conscienceness, as protest against the Middle East crimes is growing. My very best regards to you, Jocelyn.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Hi Jocelyn,
I know about the Caravan (or Caravel, as they called it), and was in contact with one of the participants (from Germany) before they left and then a good part of the day when they arrived at the Allenby bridge on the Jordanian side, and also when they were detained on the Israeli side. They were not well organized vis a vis lawyers and the rest. Guenter asked me to arrange media and for Palestinians and Israelis to be there when they arrived--I did send out emails about this, but had not idea when exactly they would arrive. Moreover, had there been contact with me, I would have told them that it was the worst possible time to come in terms of media, because that day all media--local and international--were in the south, with the protestors against the disengagement. No media would have come to the bridge, except perhaps Palestinian and Aljazeera. But Guenter (my contact) lost his notebook with all the phone numbers, and so lost contact with me, until the time that they were at the bridge (he got my phone number eventually via another contact who'd remained in Germany, who was able to ask other New Profile members for it). In any event, they probably would not have been let in no matter what lawyer they'd had, but it's hard to say for sure.
They did not contact the lawyer (a top one) until it was too late for her to do anything. Still, they had a successful trip as a whole, just didn't complete it. But they had good media coverage other places that they'd stopped at.
As for how long have I been at this--not very long, actually. Only since October 2002. There were lots of reasons for not being into it earlier. I was with Peace Now in its formative years, when it was a more left organization. But we were abroad a lot, due to my husband's profession (he's an engineer), which took us to various places. Anyhow, that's another story. People joke and say that these past years I'm making up for the years I wasn't active. Maybe. The trouble is, that once one begins asking questions and really wants to find answers, one finds them, and they are often traumatic. But one has to face reality, no?
You are doing a very fine job. I think that Handstand is great (even though I haven't time to read it all). Keep it up, please. We need people abroad to help others understand what is really happening here on the ground.
Best, Dorothy
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hi Again, Jocelyn, I was just rereading some of the material in this month's Handstand, including our interchange. One correction, just for your information, I don't know why I wrote 2002 as when I began being really active, because it was Oct. 2000. My activism and questioning began with the murder of 12 Israeli Palestinian citizens and one Palestinian from the West Bank. It took a shock of that sort to get me out of complacency. But, as someone said, I've been making up for lost time since. Anyhow, old dogs can learn new tricks. But I don't deserve all your kudos. Others are doing as much and more. Have to run. Am off to Mas'ha to bring some things to friends. Dorothy.