Monthly Archives: November 2011

"In other words, the reality of occupation and the need to maintain it and stop resistance to it are polarizing Israel, threatening democracy and increasing racism and discrimination....For all these reasons, and because these negative developments in Israel are part of the dynamics of occupation, friends of Israel (especially those nations, governments and organizations that have leverage over it) must try to help rescue Israeli society and democracy from the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people. That occupation has become chronic, and consequently is creating symptoms inside Israel."

"Sadly, without more enlightened leadership on both sides of the internal Israeli Jewish-Arab divide, the current spiral of reaction seems destined to continue. It will only alienate the two communities yet further, render a two-state solution even more difficult to achieve, and isolate Israel from the region and the international community."

"It makes sense to us when we hear Arab Spring protesters in Tunisia and Egypt demanding that those who were complicit in the crimes of the past governments in which they served should be called to account for their misdeeds or, at the very least, should be excluded from future leadership roles. It makes sense that we apply the same measure of accountability here at home. This is not, as some will suggest, anti-democratic or an effort to "weed out" and exclude those with differing points of view. It is rather a call for us to apply the profoundly democratic principles of transparency and accountability to our politics. Those who abused the public's trust and who lied us into a war that took so many lives and cost us all so dearly should be called to account for what they have done. To let them "off the hook" is both wrong and dangerous."

"The bottom line is this: Israel is basically stealing Palestinian money by not releasing it while the international community squirms in its seat because it knows it should do something against this outrage and just doesn’t have the gumption to do it. But we also know Israel will release the money eventually because the alternative is just as bad for Israel as it is for us....That doesn’t solve the problem though. It just means we are safe for now, a temporary fix. Israel will do what’s in its best interest, always and forever. Let’s start doing the same for ourselves."

"The legislators might be better informed if they had witnessed the ordeal of 12-year-old Islam Tamimi, who was awakened at 2 a.m. by Israeli soldiers, dragged from his home blindfolded and handcuffed, and taken to an interrogation center. There, as Catrina Stewart of the London Independent reported on Aug. 27, he was grilled hour after hour while he begged to be allowed to sleep. Finally, delirious from exhaustion, the youngster offered to say anything the Israelis wanted him to say, including giving the names of men in his village. He then signed a confession in Hebrew, a language he does not understand....According to the Independent, at least 7,000 Palestinian children like Islam have been detained since 2000, almost all of them subjected to physical abuse while in custody. Some of those children are likely to grow up asking why America was willing to bomb Libya in order to help Libyans achieve their freedom, but threatened to punish the Palestinians for trying peacefully to achieve theirs."