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IT'S TIME FOR ISRAELTO FACE THE MUSIC
It's time for Israel to face the music and realize its ongoing victim act is getting old and they are defeating themselves as well as endangering their international support through their brutal occupation and preemptive military action against the Palestinians : Allen L Roland
We must not make the mistake of separating Gaza from Palestine ~ as the Israeli's would like us to do. An attack against Gaza is an attack against Palestine ~ all Gazans are Palestinians ~ and all of Palestine is an illegally occupied country.
(Shocking update CNN) The International Committee of the Red Cross called on Israel to allow it immediate access to Gaza, saying a trip into Gaza City revealed weak children laying with their dead mothers and other "shocking" scenes.
Red Cross workers and four ambulances from the Palestine Red Crescent Society managed to enter the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City on Wednesday, according to a written release. The crew found four children, too weak to stand, next to their dead mothers in a house containing 12 corpses, the statement says.
Other houses revealed more wounded and three more corpses, the release said. It said Israeli soldiers posted near the houses ordered the rescue team to leave the area ~ an order the team refused.
"This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's chief official for Israel and the Palestinian territories. "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."
My friend and reader, Rita Corriel, a Jewish-American citizen, wrote me a note after yesterday's post in which she shared her perceptive views about Israel's assault of Gaza; "This is such a crucial time, as well you know. I think there could be a big anti Semitic backlash. Of course we know how ironic that is, but we know how history repeats when we don't learn....The lessons are immense here and the probability pot is boiling over ... I have a feeling that unconsciously, and maybe even consciously, the Israeli govt. and those that would support it realize that they are defeating themselves in the end. It is almost as if they had to go all the way to make others force them to stop themselves ...The victim/victimizer script in the human psyche needs to be torn apart, as you also know. Every time I thought we were at this point in the past, it goes even further. Now I think it is the time...Or else, we are deeper inside of it now. The velocity of the velocity has increased exponentially....We are all exiles now within the human condition. The playing field is changing fast .. I agree, by the way, with all of your Unified Field theory, as I have known for a long time."
Rita is correct , we are all exiles now, in the human condition, and yes, the playing field is changing very rapidly and there can be no holdouts if we are all to unite in an increasingly mutually dependent and cooperating planet. Under George W Bush we have been a bullying rogue, if not criminal, country and Israel has been our willing partner in crime.
With Bush and Cheney gone, in the near future, Obama is committed to restoring our cooperative links with the world which leaves Israel alone to face the music or totally isolate themselves on a rapidly changing playing field or world stage.
Sam Smith, The Progressive Review, sums it all up in his short essay yesterday ~ which is long overdue.
Excerpt: " Israel's attack on Gaza, for example, is not only vicious, inexcusable and a violation of international law, it is a direct attempt to interfere with American politics by making sure Obama's hands are completely tied ....
Yet, once again, the Israelis are getting away with it because even such supposedly enlightened corners of America as the media and liberal groups are afraid to take them on ... But whatever the approach one prefers, we should all take a New Year's vow not to be afraid of pro-Israeli extremists anymore. They are bullies and it's long past time that we started treating them as such. "
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/01/08.html
TIME TO STOP BEING AFRAID OF ISRAEL
Sam Smith
" Every time Israel does something mean, cruel or stupid you can almost hear the sound of liberals and progressives rushing for a place to hide. Strip away the rhetoric and the excuses and the problem basically comes down to the fact that people don't like being called anti-Semitic.
It's a great shtick the Israelis have used so effectively that behaving appropriately towards their country has cost the U.S. over $100 billion since Israel was founded. For gratitude we have been granted a plethora of unnecessary conflicts, anger in the Muslim world that contributed to 9/11 and the madness of the war on terror, as well as periodic spying on the U.S. by Israeli agents. What other country to whom we have given so much has been so loath to return the favor?
Israel's attack on Gaza, for example, is not only vicious, inexcusable and a violation of international law, it is a direct attempt to interfere with American politics by making sure Obama's hands are completely tied.
Yet, once again, the Israelis are getting away with it because even such supposedly enlightened corners of America as the media and liberal groups are afraid to take them on.
If, the other hand, one feels that it is far worst to support a cruel and unnecessary war than it is to be labeled an anti-Semite then it may be time to be as brave in the face of right wing Jewish accusations as we are confronting criticism by Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh. It is, after all, a partner in illogic - of the sort where unsupportable accusations are used to drown actual facts - such as the constant evocation of the Holocaust in which past victims are shamefully dishonored by using them to justify the creation of still more victims.
Once you take the simple liberating step of saying that you don't give a damn what Abe Foxman says about you, then the whole Mid East issue takes on a new look.
For example, you are suddenly free to wonder whether some sort of boycott against Israel might not be worthwhile. As UN General Assembly President, Miguel D'Escoto Brockman put it recently, "More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we. . . should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations."
Such a boycott might include all of the following: AOL Time Warner, Coca-Cola, Disney, Estee Lauder, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Nokia, Revlon, Sara Lee, Home Depot, Starbucks, Timberland, or McDonald's. Or it might include just one for ease of organizing.
Another approach would be a campaign to cut aid to Israel. A modest ten percent - $300 million - would start to make the point.
If you're not quite up to being at least as tough on Israel as Congress was on the auto workers, there are other ways to make your discomfort known - including sending some money to groups like the New Israel Fund that are trying to set an example of what a progressive Israel would be like.
But whatever the approach one prefers, we should all take a New Year's vow not to be afraid of pro-Israeli extremists anymore. They are bullies and it's long past time that we started treating them as such. "
http://prorev.com/2009/01/flotsam-jetsam-time-to-stop-being.html
It's time for Israel to face the music of a rapidly changing and interdependent world ~ or get off the dance floor.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/01/08.html
Freelance Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
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