Peace and Nationalism in the Middle East
Matthew Yglesias has some interesting thoughts on conflicting values for progressives in the Israel-Palestinian conflict:
Pres. Obama’s Speech in Cairo
I thought it was superb — one of his best speeches ever. It had all the usual hallmarks of an Obama speech: soaring language, emphasis on themes of unity, interconnectivity, and mutual respect. It laid out a grand vision for what Obama called “a new beginning,” and identified seven specific “sources of tension” that must be addressed in order to realize that overall vision: violent extremism “in all of its forms,” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it affects the rest of the Arab world, nuclear weapons, democracy, religious freedom, women’s rights, and economic development.
Israeli PM Netanyahu treats Obama like the president treats GM
The title of this post is the best metaphor I can think of to illustrate what Netanyahu has done with his threat to Iran. He’s issued an ultimatum not just Iran but Obama, too.
More on IDF Soldiers’ Accounts of Civilian Killing in Gaza
Amos Harel has another piece in Haaretz about the revelations, by IDF soldiers who graduated from a pre-military training program in Israel, of massive disregard for civilian life in Gaza. The article quotes extensively from the transcript of the meeting where the soldiers talked about what they had seen.
Israeli Soldiers on Callous Disregard for Palestinians in Gaza
Here is another story that’s falling through the cracks today because of the focus right now on AIG and the economic crisis:
Yahoos rising
In the Israeli election, it looks like the Likud rightist Benjamin Netanyahu has split the results with Kadima’s Tzipi Livni. Livni was an instigator behind the recent Gaza Crisis, so it’s not like her party is a great choice, but when compared to a Netanyahu administration… We might be looking the Israeli version of a neoconservative on steroids. Especially since Netanyahu has the best chance of working a power sharing agreement in the Knesset to become Prime Minister:
To get the president’s mandate to form the next government, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has fewer seats than Tzipi Livni, will need to lock-down a majority of Knesset members, which means a coalition of:
Likud+Lieberman+Shas+various ultraOrthodox and ultraNationlist parties.This he can almost certainly do, and, given his victory speech, intends to, although Lieberman and Shas despise one another.
Don’t expect peace talks in the Holy Land any time soon. Meanwhile, I’ll be rereading this in my free time.
Yon Wonders As He Wanders
Michael Yon asks how the world can be so “blind to Israel’s existential threats” (emphasis mine):
Send Bob Simon and “60 Minutes” Some Support
I just sent the following message to Bob Simon at “60 Minutes”:
I am Jewish, and from a family of Holocaust survivors, and I want you to know how deeply I appreciate your piece on “60 Minutes” about the way Palestinians are forced to live under Israeli military occupation on the West Bank.
Your report was truthful, factual, and sensitively done. I also think you showed a great deal of courage in airing it (that, of course, goes to both you and the CBS management).
My paternal grandmother died in Sobibor, as did most of my father’s extended family in the Netherlands, and it pains me beyond expression to see Jews degrading and dehumanizing and brutalizing another powerless people. Whether or not it’s exactly comparable to the Holocaust is not the point. The point is that Jews should not be doing this at all.
Again, thank you. I hope you know that, no matter how loud and vicious the voices are on the blindly pro-Israel side, there are many, many, many more of us on the side that believes human rights belong to everyone, and not just one group.
Sincerely,
Kathy Kattenburg
If anyone else wants to do the same, go here (you can edit the already-prepared message, or write your own).
“Heroic Act of Journalism” by Bob Simon
I was hoping that someone who saw last night’s 60 Minutes would blog about Bob Simon’s extraordinary segment on the lives of West Bank Palestinians under Israeli occupation. I am glad to report that Ethan Brown has, in a guest post at TalkLeft:
In Gaza, the Suffering Continues
Ethan Bronner opens his New York Times article about conditions in Gaza one week after Israel’s unilateral ceasefire in rather restrained fashion:
The Scourging of Gaza, Part 2
Steven Erlanger’s New York Times piece titled “Weighing Crimes and Ethics in the Fog of Urban Warfare“ asks a complicated question: If you attack densely populated urban areas with bombs and artillery and massive numbers of civilians die, is it a war crime?
Okay, okay, he actually puts the question differently:
The Scourging of Gaza, Part 1
Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish is a Gazan and a doctor who has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
But on Saturday, the day after three of his daughters and a niece were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, Dr. Abuelaish, 53, struggled to hold on to the humane philosophy that has guided his life and work.
As he sat in a waiting room of the Israeli hospital where he works part time, he asked over and over, “Why did they do this?”
Israel’s “Unilateral” Ceasefire
UPDATED BELOW
Just in time for the inaugural festivities on Tuesday, Israel has declared a “unilateral ceasefire.”
By stopping the offensive, Israel decided to spare Barack Obama the specter of a Middle East blood bath on his inauguration day Tuesday and avoid friction with the new U.S. administration.
Friedman Defines Terrorism
I saw this gem the other day in passing, but didn’t have time to write about it:
Tunnel Vision
Sometimes, the sheer obtuseness of Israel supporters makes me want to scream until my vocal cords give out. This is Jeffrey Goldberg, opining about the possibility of peace between Hamas and Israel [go to BugMeNot for user id and password to avoid compulsory registration]:
When A War Crime Is Not a War Crime
Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic:
At least nine hundred people, maybe half of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza so far, the overwhelming majority presumably killed by Israel (some people, more than we probably know right now, have been killed by Hamas, mainly Fatah activists in revenge killings). This number, nine hundred, is large, and it brought to mind another conflict between a Western army and a Muslim insurgency, the one portrayed in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.” Roughly one thousand Somalis were killed by American forces over the twenty hours or so of the First Battle of Mogadishu (eighteen American soldiers, of course, were also killed).
I couldn’t get an accurate read on how many of those Somalis were civilians, so I called my colleague, Mark Bowden, who wrote the book. He said that eighty percent of the Somali deaths were of civilian. Eighty percent! Roughly eight hundred people. I asked Bowden if he thought this meant that American forces in Somalia had committed war crimes. …
Benjamin Netanyahu says something I agree with… Kinda
Speaking about the Gazan crisis and the Israeli military activities there which he supports, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former and possibly future prime minister of Israel (we’ll know about the future in a couple months with Israeli elections), lays out one tenet of a peace process with Palestinians:
The peace process with the Palestinians could not succeed, he said, and instead there should be economic investment – what he calls “economic peace” – in the Palestinian territories rather than negotiations on the core issues of a final agreement.
I agree. I know that Israeli hardliners, like Netanyahu, and others on the left and right would argue with my assertion that all parties need to talk to Hamas, but for bargaining to begin, you have to talk with representatives of the Palestinian people. Hamas, unfortunately, qualifies. But as with any negotiations, you try to get the upperhand… The best way to do such with Hamas is to stop empowering them. And I think the best way to take power away from Hamas is with “economic peace” — give Palestinians a chance to build their own lives, their own country, without depending on a corrupt Fatah or Hamas’s political arm which uses social services (not provided by Fatah or, ahem, Israel) to gather support amongst the Palestinian people. Give the Palestinians other options besides running to either extremists or a corrupt political party.
But of course, there are stipulations here.
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