Monthly Archives: June 2011

"This Palestinian third way is perhaps the very last nonviolent effort that will be attempted in order to accomplish Palestinians' inalienable right to self determination. If this path is blocked, there is no telling which route the Palestinians will take."

"It’s more than a little ironic that the most ardent advocates of gun control for Americans such as the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League are the very same people who demand that American taxpayers continue to lavish Israelis with as much weaponry as they desire “to defend themselves,” i.e. by slaughtering Palestinian and Lebanese civilians with impunity. Leaving aside arguments over the relative legitimacy of state terrorism versus non-state terrorism, one can hardly imagine the likes of Bloomberg and Schumer advocating background checks as passionately for Israeli settlers to prevent a Jewish extremist like Baruch Goldstein from acquiring a gun to massacre Palestinian civilians.....So, how do we account for such blatant double standards? Could it be that Israel’s fifth columnists are worried that if enough Americans ever become aware of how much their “unbreakable bond” with Israel has cost them in blood, treasure and credibility, they might have an American Intifada on their hands? Better, then, to preempt the possibility of such “domestic extremists” coming up with their own “hit list” by closing the “Terror Gap” now, while they still can."

"Just as the torture techniques drifted down the chain of command from these dealers in death to the rank and file, so too the book contracts. The cogs in the machine are now documenting their bit parts in the past decade's torture epidemic with pride and publishing deals."

"One of the truly unfortunate aspects of the Shalit case is the circus-like publicity surrounding efforts to bring about Gilad's release. I don't envy the Shalit family's public ordeal, which at times seems like a reality show from hell. Whether, in this day and age, there is any alternative course to mass public displays of protest and pressure on the government, I don't know."

"Ending this conflict would require a release of all prisoners. In the meantime, the priority is to start a process of gradually reducing the number of prisoners in Israeli jails, including a possible negotiated exchange that would release Shalit. This should also include the easing of conditions for Palestinian prisoners and their families, who are subject to humiliating treatment and sometimes deprived of visits."