a long post about arafat, israel, and palestine

so i haven't posted anything about arafat's death, though it saddened me tremendously. my online time has been limited recently.

i found it interesting that the media was so positive about arafat while covering his death and his funeral, portraying him as a true hero... especially in the current political context of anti-islam/anti-terrorism. it's cool that they recognize and talk about his contributions to the world.


yesterday's ny times quote of the day

"It's not really a matter of Arafat at all. It's us, Jews and Arabs, and we need to sit down and settle this mess, without the Americans. After all, we lived together for 3,000 years or so."
RAMI ZADA, an Israeli engineer, on prospects for peace.

i've heard reports that bush has said he will be making the israel-palestine conflict his main focus for his second term. oh gods... if that is so, palestine will likely be leveled to the ground by 2008. he needs to stay the hell out of it. i think it would be better to wait 4 more years than to go in now. i shudder at the possibilities.


something optimistic

one of the benefits of that now well-known website, www.sorryeverybody.com, is that it made a lot of non-americans realize that not all people in the US support bush and his policies. similarly, there is an israeli organization called courage to refuse. on monday, they sent out their courage to refuse monthly report, which says this:

Yasser Arafat's death is not only an end of an era. It is also the end of Israel's greatest excuse for evading from putting an end to the occupation.

The late Palestinian leader's responsibility for the destruction of the peace process and for the enflaming of the bloody violence in the region, enabled the Israeli public and its leaders to shirk Israel's own responsibility for this very deterioration.

But with this excuse gone, the parties' true colors will be shown: the Palestinians will have to prove that their willing to quit terrorism. Israel will have to prove that it is really willing to put an end to the occupation.

This is the moment in which the Israeli Left should say to its government: we will not give a hand to the continuation of the occupation. Soldiers in a democratic state mustn't stain their conscience and sacrifice their lives in order to execute a policy that not only is endangering in vain lives of innocent civilians, but also is dooming their state to lose its basis as a Jewish and a Democratic country.

the basic mission statement of courage to refuse is encapsulated in a document entitled combatant's letter

We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, self-sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.

We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty in the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people.

We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides,

We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Occupied Territories destroy all the values that we were raised upon,

We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society,

We, who know that the Territories are not a part of Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated,

We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.

We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.

We hereby declare that we shall continue serving the Israel Defense Force in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.

The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them.

it's so inspiring to me to know that so many of my fellow jews are so dedicated to human rights and the rejection of oppressive power structures.

it's gonna be really, really hard, but i believe there is hope for this situation yet. i do.

oh, and by the way, GODDAMN israeli men are hot! ;)