The Two State Horse is Dead, Why Keep Flogging It?

Oblivious to Nutanyahoo’s murder of the two state solution (again) this week before the US Congress, Australian politician Melissa Parke keeps flogging a dead horse. Melissa’s speech is notable though for its recognition of the oppression of Israel’s occupation, a rare occurrence in the Australian Parliament. She meanders down the fallacious imperialist/zionist path of the formation of two states being central to the US national security interest and further drags Australia’s national security interest into the mix.

Israel’s Zionist left urges Europe to recognize a Palestinian state too – when will the Israeli ‘left’ call for equal rights for all, an end to apartheid and the Occupation regardless of one or two states? Along the zionist spectrum, there is the vicious zionist right wingers, who are conflating support for a Palestinian state by the EU as tantamount to anti-semitism.

Is Zionism set to implode at last, unable to resolve its racist contradictions? The just rights demanded by Palestinian people in their call to boycott, divest and sanction apartheid Israel bypass and supercede the Israeli and western imperialists’ obsession with protecting racist privilege through a mythological quest for a ‘peace process’ focused on two states for two ‘peoples’, ignoring the facts that 20% of Israel’s population are not jewish, and there are half a million jewish settlers illegally squatting in the Occupied Territories. It is not the West’s ‘national security interests’ which are at stake here – how racist is it to place Palestinians’ human and political rights in the context of ‘national security’? – but credibility as purveyor of the enlightened values of democracy and human rights the developed world claims to embrace.

As Rae Abileah says: ‘Before we go preaching democracy abroad, we should make our own democracy more responsive to the public good, not the wishes of wealthy lobbyists.’ And by reference to this quote, I don’t just mean the zionist lobby, but the entire capitalist corporate lobby behemoth whose imperialist interests coincide.

Related Links

When will time run out for a two-state solution?
Collaborator Abbas to form unelected technocrat ‘government’ to sell out Palestinians and please the Quartet in June
Fact-checking Netanyahu’s Speech
‘The smallest minds and cowardliest hearts’: Is Congress clapping for apartheid? Zionist Walt misses the point about US support for Israel’s policies as usual. Still, he recognises Nutanyahoo’s assassination of the two state solution regardless.
Livni: Palestinian statehood isn’t a favor to Obama, it’s vital for Israel – Livni is Nutanyahoo-light, attempting to pander to all sides.
UK calls for G8 financial aid for ‘Arab Spring’ – racist Cameron is happy to pay bribes to stop hordes of invading Muslims.
Rashid Khalidi : ‘While this was not a good week for Barack Obama, and was a very good one for Binyamin Netanyahu, it also can be a salutary occasion for Palestinians and Arabs. It should finally cure those still infected with the diseased notion that they have anything to gain by bending to the importuning of American diplomacy.’
Francis Boyle responds vigorously to Goodwin-Gill’s opinion on the institution of a Palestinian state by the PA.
Palestinian Americans “unequivocally reject” PA’s UN statehood bid

‘We call on all Palestinian and Arab community associations, societies and committees, student organizations, solidarity campaigns, to reject fully and unequivocally the Statehood initiative as a distraction that unjustifiably and irresponsibly endangers Palestinian rights and institution.’

‘Like the BNC, the USPCN statement emphasizes that fundamental Palestinian rights, not “statehood” remain the core of Palestinian efforts:

As has been recently revealed, this initiative in no way protects nor advances our inalienable, and internationally recognized, rights—fundamental of which are our right to return to the homes and properties from which we were forcibly expelled, our right to self-determination, and our right to resist the settler colonial regime that has occupied our land for more than 63 years.

The Palestinian people, wherever they are, hold these rights. They are non-negotiable. No one can barter them away for false promises of “peace” and “stability.” The cynical irony of turning a UN resolution enshrining our right to return under international law (UNGA Res. 194) into a rhetorical ploy should give anyone pause. That it is being advanced at a time when the PA does not even have the political mandate of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza through Palestinian Legislative Council elections must also give us pause.;

‘Goodwin-Gill’s memo and an interview he gave explaining its implications have heightened concern among Palestinians about the PA’s ill-thought out and desperate step which comes after the complete failure of the US-sponsored “peace process” on which the PA bet all its cards.’

Virginia Tilley: Bantustans and the unilateral declaration of statehood

‘But more importantly, the South African comparison helps illuminate why the ambitious projects of pacification, “institution building” and economic development that the Ramallah PA and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad have whole-heartedly embarked upon are not actually exercises in “state-building.” Rather, they emulate with frightening closeness and consistency South Africa’s policies and stages in building the Bantustan/Homelands. Indeed, Fayyad’s project to achieve political stability through economic development is the same process that was openly formalized in the South African

Samir Abed-Rabbo’s piece contrasting the One and Two state outcomes.
Abbas: I don’t want to declare unilateral statehood

He insisted in the interview that Palestinians would not be able to force the right of return for Palestinian refugees on Israelis within the context of a peace agreement, but that he seeks a “just solution.”

Samah Sabawi:

There are three major conditions needed for a free viable Palestinian state. The first is national unity – the Palestinian state needs to represent all Palestinians as one people whether inside or outside of Occupied Palestine. A second component is economic viability – a Palestinian state needs be able to make its own decisions on sovereign matters and not be held hostage to foreign aid and the will of donor countries. A third and major component of a Palestinian state is security – it needs to have the strength to claim the land and protect is people either through an army or some form of international guarantees.’

Sonja Karkar notes the tired Israeli strategy for deferral of Palestinian rights : ‘Negotiations are, in fact, a ruse to keep the old discredited paradigm of a two-state solution going for as long as it takes Netanyahu to achieve his goal of a Greater Israel.’
UN envoy Prosor: Israel has no chance of stopping recognition of Palestinian state
Legal opinion challenges PLO statehood bid : Al Jazeera’s Nour Samaha interviews Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill about his legal opinion about the dangers of the PA bid for fake Palestinian statehood which he says will threaten the rights of the Palestinian refugees.
Ashrawi: UN statehood bid no threat to PLO

Palestine / Israel Links

Imagine, Think! And Then Act to Change Things!
Support the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza
U.S. ‘confident’ Egypt can provide good security at Rafah borderThis does not augur well — after the border is open, will the zionists bomb every square inch of the rest of the border to deal to the tunnels?
New hasbara plea! Israel must stop overplaying the Holocaust card
Mendes attempts to delegitimise criticism of zionism and Israel in a bundle of mendacious furphies
Knesset Education Committee chairman Alex Miller (Israel Beiteinu) announced on Wednesday that he has called an emergency meeting to discuss possible sanctions against Tel Aviv University after Islamic Sheikh Raed Salah’s recent controversial speech on campus.
One of the remarkable youth groups newly initiated inside Gaza is the Palestine Youth Advocacy Network “PYAN”— which is also a word in Arabic that could mean exposition, representation, rhetoric or radiance, all of which have to do with the nature of work the team undertakes.
U.S. Announces Sanctions Against Israeli Company
A Palestinian Revolt in the Making?
Two Palestinian Children Injured from Dud Bomb in South Hebron Hills
Bigotry in the Israeli media :

Of course, in traditional Christianity and in Orthodox Judaism, hostility to gays exceeds the few vague references in the Qur’an. But Israeli writers, very much like classical anti-Semites, are so obsessed with their hatred of Islam and Muslims that they have to bring it in no matter what. Furthermore, openly or semi openly “gay” leaders (like Sultan Qaboos) have served as heads of state in Arab and Muslim lands but not in Israel.

Israeli police use new electrical stunning device on protesters
A queer confrontation with the Israel lobby
A Good Week for Bibi, a Bad Week for Barack, an Opportunity for Palestinians
1 December 1947: The partition of Palestine
Social media whore Palmor: “We have formulated some arguments that are relevant to what’s going to happen in September, even if we don’t know exactly what it will be. We began disseminating these arguments and statements, backed by links to documents and articles, among the relevant bloggers and social media members. From our perspective we’ve already begun the battle over publicity, though formally, nothing has begun. Our main argument is ‘Palestinian state yes, but only through direct negotiations.’ In events that we have to truncate the message to fewer characters, we say, ‘Let’s talk’.”
Michelle Chen:

‘the power of secular pro-democracy movements throughout the region now reverberate in Palestine as a validation of grassroots resistance.

If that feedback loop can be harnessed to reinvigorate the idea of Palestinian liberation, then we might finally see the ends and the means match up in the struggle to defeat imperialism, violence and dictatorship.’

Kirk boycott resolution scuppered by Israeli legal ‘intimidation’

Egypt Links

Egypt: #May27 Demands (in Arabic and English)
UK calls for G8 financial aid for ‘Arab Spring’
Relatonship between the Arab uprisings and literature.

Other Links

You know who else answered questions they were asked by the media…
Sarkozy’s government war on the internet

Remembering Al Nakba

At Tahrir Square, Cairo:

Rally for Palestine – remembering al-Nakba
5pm Brisbane Square
top of Queen St mall (outside Casino)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Related Links

nakba (n) 1. the “disaster” or “catastrophe”, occurred when approximately 725,000 Palestinians were expelled from
or fled their homes in 1947 and 1948 under attack from Zionist militias before and after Israel declared statehood.
As the day dies, tens of thousands still throng Tahrir Square chanting for “Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada” and “National Unity.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Pressure mounts on Pizzarotti following Deutsche Bahn decision
BBC under fire for ‘censoring’ Palestine lyric
‘In March, China’s Culture Ministry said in a brief statement that an agreement to have Dylan sing in the country came with the proviso that he perform “the approved content”.’ Dylan sells out human rights – no wonder he’s playing for the apartheid zionist entity.

Other Links

Nick Dyrenfurth – Murdoch’s man of the ‘left’

Omar Barghouti on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel

Omar Barghouti has toured the US during April 2011 inspiring activists with his talks on boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel and promoting his new book “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions : The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights”. His tour almost didn’t eventuate due to inexplicable delays in granting his visa by the US Consulate in Jerusalem. Here’s some of Barghouti’s recent pithy statements about BDS and Israel.

“Some people say BDS is not fair and not effective … Israel is a democracy. On almost every level, Israel is only a democracy for one ethnic group. The Palestinian-led BDS movement is calling Israel an apartheid state, and the main refutation of this is that Israel allows Palestinians to vote.

Apartheid is not defined according to whims of this or that scholar. Apartheid is when the discrimination is legalized. Now there are commissions to accept new residents into communities. Imagine an Irish White guy saying: ‘We don’t accept this Latino guy; his food smells funny, he doesn’t fit?’ But in Israel now it’s legal.

Israel is losing the battle for hearts and minds at the grassroots level. It maintains connections with the elite, but competes with Iran and North Korea as the most hated countries in the world”.

Barghouti highlights the hypocrisy of zionist opposition to BDS:

‘Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League repeats the mantra that by advocating comprehensive Palestinian rights, including full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and the UN-sanctioned right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they were forcibly displaced, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is “de-legitimizing” Israel and threatening its very “existence.” This claim is frequently made by Israel lobby groups in an obvious attempt to muddy the waters and to push beyond the pale of legitimate debate the mere statement of facts about and analysis of Israel’s occupation, denial of refugee rights, and institutionalized system of racial discrimination, which basically fits the UN definition of apartheid.

Specifically, what is often objected to is the demand for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. One can only wonder, if equality ends Israel’s “existence,” what does that say about Israel? Did equality destroy South Africa? Did it “delegitimize” whites in the Southern states of the U.S. after segregation was outlawed? The only thing that equality, human rights and justice really destroy is a system of injustice, inequality and racial discrimination.

The “delegitimization” scare tactic, widely promoted by Israel’s well-oiled pressure groups, has not impressed many in the West, in fact, particularly since its most far-reaching claim against BDS is that the movement aims to “supersede the Zionist model with a state that is based on the ‘one person, one vote’ principle” — hardly the most evil or disquieting accusation for anyone even vaguely interested in democracy, a just peace, and equal rights.’

Palestine / Israel Links

Map of areas in the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea in the Occupied West Bank which are closed to Palestinians (B’t Selem) [pdf]
DCI-Palestine: There were 220 Palestinian children (12-17 years) in Israeli detention at the end of April 2011. [pdf]
Protection of Civilians Weekly Report, 27 April – 3 May 2011
Kiri Te Kanawa brings shame on New Zealand – GPJA
James Petras M.I.A.

Precisely for that reason, the lobby must be confronted. It is a component of ruling class power, and to deny its influence will not fly. But behind and among it are blood-merchants, and none of them care about Palestinians – nor, one suspects, do Palestinians’ latest allies among the “realist” policy intelligentsia. American capital barely cares enough about Israeli militarism and occupation to dump its money into J Street, let alone to crash the hammer down on Zionist malfeasance in the Middle East. They do not and will not care about Palestinians until their interests are threatened more directly. The way to do that is simple. It’s by linking demands with others threatened by Israeli militarism, by American imperialism, and by capitalism more broadly, and making the costs of maintaining an Israeli client state in the Middle East higher than the costs of giving it up. Misguided fairy tales like Petras peddles simply won’t do in forging the political project that can lead to freedom in the Middle East. Perhaps at this hour it’s time for some realism. Which doesn’t mean defeatism. Just because the enemy is big does not mean we can’t bring it down.

Revealing Gaza’s avant garde beauty

Other Links

WikiLeaks: Grand Jury Hearing Opens in US

Third Intifada!

Other Links

“Please Shut Down Gitmo”
The Osama travelogues, as wrung out of Gitmo detainees
Transcript of interview with Julian Assange

‘It does not matter what your ideology is. It can not go anywhere good unless you know what is actually going on. If you are trying to sail to a destination and you do not have a map you can not get there. You will be adrift in the political landscape. The drifting hypocrite. The first thing for any political ideology is to understand what is actually going on. And then maybe you have a hope of getting there, of charting the course. But you got to have the map first. We want to draw the map.’

Europe: Xenophobia – Europe’s Death Knell
After seeing bin Laden photos, lawmakers differ over release

The Biggest Privilege is Assumption

Emma Rosenthal discusses class, privilege and racism:

“There are real privileges, such as George W. Bush getting into Yale, or inheritance, or power of the ruling class, and then there are rights, that not everyone has. But we fall in the trap of calling them privilege– housing, a job, income, access, citizenship, a voice, health care, etc. and we get loopy ideas like “deprivileging jewish voices”, where we start to diminish each other’s rights, which is foolish. Why would we want to deprivilege any voice that is getting heard at all? (assuming it’s true!). For the working class, the issue isn’t who has and who doesn’t have privilege but who has and doesn’t have certain rights. The problem comes in with assumptions, which is the real privilege. So for example, when someone who is not dis-abled insists my dis-ability is all in my head, because whenever she doesn’t feel well she says a prayer, does some yoga, or thinks positive, and her cold goes away, and projects her experience on to me, that’s a privileged assumption. When people who don’t speak engish as a first language enter a facebook thread, and get teased for their english, that’s a privileged assumption, because of the hegemony of english. When someone says “why don’t immigrants come in legally. like my friend did?” that’s a privileged assumption. It’s not that the friend shouldn’t have been able to enter the country legally, but that everyone should, without racist quotas, or other barriers to immigration (sexual orientation, political position, dis-ability). It’s the assertion of “my experience” as “proof” that a problem doesn’t exist, or that it’s the fault of the victim, that is the privilege, not the actual exercise of the right.

A man should be able to get a job without someone asking him if or assuming that his family responsibilities might get in the way. Getting a job isn’t privilege. It’s a right. He’s not violated anyone’s rights by getting a job. we don’t want to perpetuate that idea. We need to universalize rights, not oppression. So it’s not just the assumption on the part of the person who has more rights, but also the society that confers them.

Too much of the left is about diminishing each other, which is fine for those for whom activism is 1. about feeding their own narcissism, or 2. assuaging their guilt. But for those of us who really need social change, these divisions of who has more than whom, just have no place in real movement building.

Racism and its applications to avoid culpability– like white Christians who avoid looking at white privilege (along with upper and middle class diaspora Palestinians) and claim it’s obvious and not an issue anymore, while focusing on “jewish privilege” so they can jockey for position within a movement, isn’t just a privilege of assumption, it’s an assertion of very real privilege, though one that serves the ruling class, more than petit bourgeois activists who are more interested in half measures.’

Related Links

Important Reading — Things I Don’t Have to Think About Today
White Privilege Checklist
The Maclean’s “Controversy,” Part Two – White Privilege