War Handwavium

The whole issue is that [the Israelis] govern the water accumulated under the hills of the West Bank and prevent the Palestinians from using it, while averting these water supplies to settlements and other Israeli uses.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/12/2009129115451579920.html

Israel giving 41 million dollars to it’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/20091213173713432526.html

Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian West Bank have vandalised a mosque, torching its library and spraying hate messages in Hebrew on the building. One message said “We will burn you all.”

The area is home to some of the most hardline settlers who advocate a “price tag” policy under which they target Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.

Many settlers consider they have a God-given right to live in the biblical Land of Israel, which includes the West Bank.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009121116190107591.html

Israel is channelling the Ents from Lord of the Rings: Don’t be hasty. The government is working on a bill that

is seen as a boost to those opposing Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights under a future peace deal with Syria.

The bill oppposes FUTURE peace with Syria. Wouldn’t want peace to accidentally break out, dontchaknow. If peace is going to happen, it must have at least a majority approval of Israel’s government.

Yeah, Israel. Go you.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009129132730663827.html

East Jeruselem by international law is Palestinian land that the Palestinians hope to make their capital when (if?) the two-state solution is put into effect.

But Israel’s occupying army has slowly torn down Palestinian homes and built up illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land in an attempt to claim ownership of the whole of Jeruselem for Isreal, making a two-state solution nearly impossible.

If anyone’s been paying attention, Jeruselem is considered a holy city to three major religions (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim), but Israel has its sights set on claiming the entire city for itself.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/20091289319174457.html

Israel just approved construction of 900 illegal Jewish Settlement homes in the Palestinian side of Jeruselem.

The expansion of illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land has been a major issue for the Palestinians, and Palestinians have demanded Israel stop illegal expansion onto Palestinian land before any peace agreement can be reached.

The United States government is reportedly “dismayed” that Israel would do something that would so obviously throw a monkeywrench into the peace process.

And it wasn’t until today that I realized just how gullible the current American administration is when it comes to Israel. Apparently Obama’s administration believes that Israel wants peace with the Palestinians. I can only assume this belief comes from the fact that Israel repeatedly states that it wants peace, and for whatever reason, the Obama administration took Israel’s word over Israel’s actions.

If you say you want peace while you are committing an act of war, most sane people would realize that the words are lies and the actions are what counts. But the Obama administration can’t quite seem to get this basic concept of diplomacy. People and nations and governments lie. And Israel saying it wants peace while agressively expanding illegal settlements on Palestinian land is a lie overridden by actions.

If Obama wants peace in the middle east as one of his accomplishments as president, then he needs to wake the hell up, and stop believing Israel’s words of peace while ignoring Israel’s actions of war.

Illegal Jewish Settlements on Palestinian land is an act of war.

For Americans who can’t quite grasp the concept of what illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land really is, imagine the Mexican government keeps sending bulldozers into Texas to tear down existing American homes and building new homes and putting Mexicans in those homes, and then sending the Mexican army to enforce that new arrangement.

You think maybe the US might get a little angry about that?

That’s what Jewish Settlements on Palestinian land are. They’re nothing but an act of war, a slow invasion of land.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/11/20091117153418461311.html

There’s a saying in the english language “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander”.

From the Anti-Defamation League website on the creation of Israel:

(1936) The Peel Commission recommended the partition of the country between Arabs and Jews. The Arabs rejected the idea while the Jews accepted the principle of partition.

(1945) The Jewish Agency and the Haganah continued to smuggle Jews into Palestine. Underground cells of Jews, most notably the Irgun and Lehi, engaged in open warfare against the British and their installations.

(1947) the UN recommended the partition of Palestine into two states ­ one Jewish and one Arab.

(14 May 1947) David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel and became its first prime minister.

(15 May 1947) the United States recognized the State of Israel

According to Palestinian history, the Palestine was declared an independent state in 1988 and accepted by over half the countries in the world. The declaration is generally interpreted to have recognized Israel within its pre-1967 boundaries.

What’s happening as of 2009 is that Palestinian officials are planning to ask the UN to recognize the State of Palestine. According to the Palestinians, they decided to turn to the UN because the Israelis have stopped making progress towards peace since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December of 2008.

Israel hates the idea of Palestine getting official recognition because that means any expansion of Jewish settlements will be an invasion. What Israel wants is for the state of Palestine to be delayed as long as possible, giving it more and more time to expand its illegal Jewish settlements into Palestinian land.

Israel and its defenders will likely claim that Palestinian militants must be stamped out first before Palestine can be officially granted existence.

But Israel was founded by militant Jews fighting the British in the 40′s. Israel came into existence during this period of time. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. There is no reason Palestine could not be officially recognized now.

When Isreal was declared in 1947, the United States was one of the first nations to recognize Israel. And that helped Israel’s existence in the Middle East.

Now, Palestine may be on the verge of asking the UN to recognize it’s existence, and the US could do for Palestine what it did for Israel: recognize the state and the people within and help foster a fledgling nation in the Middle East.

What’s good for the Israeli goose is good for the Palestinian gander.

Or, the US could continue it’s unilateral support of Israel and continue its disregard for millions of Palestinian civilians living under Israeli military occupation. The US could ignore the Palestinian’s pleas for their own nation half a century after the US helped establish the nation of Israel next door.

The US has a choice. It can either take this opportunity to move the middle east closer to peace or it can continue the status quo that has been decades of fighting, and decades of Israel slowly invading Palestinian land with illegal settlements.

If Obama is serious about peace in the Middle East, he will take this Palestinian request for UN recognition and leverage it into a lasting peace. If Obama ignores it, if Obama supports Israel without question while ignoring the Palestinians, then there is no chance for peace while Obama is still president.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/11/2009111653941671211.html

One of the biggest things condemned by the Goldstone report is Israel’s “Dahiya Doctrine”.

Dahiya doctrine: An approved defense strategy of Israel stating that civilians will be held accountable for their leaders’ acts.

Israeli Defense Force Northern Command Chief Gadi Eisenkot said that in the next clash with Hizbullah, Israel won’t bother to hunt for tens of thousands of rocket launchers and Israel won’t spill its soldiers’ blood in attempts to overtake fortified Hizbullah positions. Rather, Israel shall destroy Lebanon and won’t be deterred by the protests of the world.

Compare the Dahiya doctrine with something like, oh, just say, the Geneva Convention which prohibits collective punishment on civilian populations, and you can see why the Goldstone report found Israel in gross violation of international law.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/11/2009111174626931966.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_strategy

http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3605863,00.html

Palestinians tore down a section of Israel’s separation wall on the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/11/2009119151639325464.html

The Isreali government refuses to stop building illegal settlements on Palestinian land. THe Israeli government is tearing down Palestinian homes in the Palestinian portion of Jeruselem and is claiming the entire capital for Israel. The Israeli government refuses to do anything that would allow the road-map for peace to move forward.

And every time the Israeli government does something like this, every time the Israeli government bombs civilians in Gaza as collective punishment against all Palestinians, every time the Israeli government bombs its national neighbors, every time the Israeli government treats the lives of Palestinians and anyone who isn’t Jewish as second class citizens, that fuels hatred in the middle east against the United States.

Why?

Because Israel has been the largest recipient of US foreign aid for decades. Because any time the UN tries to sanction Israel for violating international laws, for initiating war against it’s neighbors, for its maltreatment of Palestinians in occupied territories, every time the UN speaks a word of criticism about Israel, the United States is there on the Security Council to veto any resolutions. Because when Israel runs low on bullets and bombs, the US sends them more.

Israel’s actions reflect on the US.

And it’s time the US stop enabling Israel’s abusive behaviour. Israel is a sovereign nation, and the US cannot dictate what Israel does or how Israel should behave. But America is a sovereign nation too, and Israel cannot tell America who to send billions of dollars in foreign aid to, military weapons to, and who to protect at the United Nations.

Every time Israel behaves badly with American weapons, American money, and American protection at the UN, it fuels anger towards America. And since Israel and America are both sovereign nations, I won’t be telling Israel what to do. But I will be telling the American government, my government, what I want them to do as part of my democracy.

If Israel refuses to stop settlement construction, if Israel refuses to stop destroying Palestinian homes, if Israel refuses to stop its slow theft of Palestinian land, if Isreal refuses to stop its militant actions against Palestinians and its neighbors, then America should stop funding Israel.

If Israels don’t work towards peace, then America should stop funding Israel with money, bombs, and political protection at the UN.

If no peace, then no money, no bullets, and no UN vetos.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/08/extremists/index.html