The Palestine Telegraph

With "the fierce urgency of now" Jimmy Carter writes of reasons why recent "public opinion polls in the Arab world revealed that the United States was seen as a greater threat than Iran, and a successful peace effort in Palestine could be the most important factor in improving its citizens' opinion of America." [1]

Due to their lack of political and military power, the Palestinians have been dependent on the international community to survive; and they have commitments from the UN, the International Quartet and the Arab League who have all dreamt a dream of a sovereign peaceful Palestinian state beside a secure Israel.

The Carter Center Team in Ramallah reported that the failure of negotiations post Annapolis "may well mark an end to the two-state solution for Israel Palestine…The conclusion seems to be that even second class Israeli citizenship is preferable to unending occupation, or in other terms, the future may lie in one state." [2] Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qurei predicted, "If Israel continues to reject our propositions regarding the borders [of a future Palestinian state], we might demand Israeli citizenship." A Fatah leader quipped, "Where will a Palestinian state rise up? The Israeli nation is inside us already."

After the Feb. 1009, Israeli elections, Mid East Analyst, Omar Barghouti wrote, "A paradigm shift from the defunct, immoral, and now impossible, two-state solution to the democratic, single state solution is NOW called for more than ever. Only by rejecting all forms of racism, apartheid, ethnocentrism, religious fundamentalism and colonialism, and by embracing FULL equality and democracy, including the right of return of the refugees, can we create a just and sustainable peace. The call for a two-state solution has truly become a smokescreen to cover up and legitimize continued occupation, colonization and Zionist apartheid."

In November 2007, Prime Minister Olmert admitted in Haaretz that the collapse of a two-state solution would force Israel to "face a South African style struggle for equal voting rights and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished." In a UN report, Haaretz columnist Danny stated, "Israel today was an apartheid State with four different Palestinian groups: those in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli Palestinians, each of which had a different status...even if the wall followed strictly the line of the pre-1967 border, it would still not be justified. The two peoples needed cooperation rather than walls because they must be neighbors."

"An apartheid society is much more than just a 'settler colony'. It involves specific forms of oppression that actively strip the original inhabitants of any rights at all, whereas civilian members of the invader caste are given all kinds of sumptuous privileges."[3]

On October 23, 2001, Ronnie Kasrils, a Jewish Minister in the South African government, co-authored a petition "Not in My Name," signed by some 200 members of South Africa's Jewish community, which read: "It becomes difficult, from a South African perspective, not to draw parallels with the oppression expressed by Palestinians under the hand of Israel and the oppression experienced in South Africa under apartheid rule." [4]

Three years later, Kasrils traveled to the Occupied Territories and concluded, "This is much worse than apartheid. Israeli measures, the brutality, make apartheid look like a picnic. We never had jets attacking our townships. We never had sieges that lasted month after month. We never had tanks destroying houses. We had armored vehicles and police using small arms to shoot people but not on this scale." [Ibid]

ON April 29, 2002, while in Boston, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu shared how "very deeply distressed" he was by what he observed in his recent visit to the Holy Land, "It reminded me so much of what happened in South Africa." The Nobel peace laureate said he saw "the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. Referring to Americans, he adds, "People are scared in this country to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful—very powerful. Well, so what? The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists." [Ibid]

Carter whole heartedly supports the state of Israel and as a true friend of the state he speaks brutal truth, for "opposition is true friendship." - William Blake

Carter's Plan for Peace in the Holy Land calls for President Obama to courageously address the complex conflict with details resolved by the two sides but which follows the following framework: A demilitarized Palestinian state, with Israeli forces being replaced by an international security force that will allow freedom of peaceful movement and that will respond to any violence from either side.

Mutually acceptable modifications, with land swaps to the 1967 border which allows Israelis in and around Jerusalem to remain, but a withdrawal of all other settlers from the West Bank.

A shared Jerusalem that will be the capital of both states.

The right of Palestinian refugees to return to the West Bank and Gaza and compensation to those with proven claims to the land.

Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz that, "It is permissible to believe in the Jews' right to a state and yet come out against the Zionism that engages in occupation. It is permissible to believe that what happened in 1948 should be put on the agenda, to apologize for the injustice and act to rehabilitate the victims. It is permissible to oppose an unnecessary war from its very first day. It is permissible to think that the Arabs of Israel deserve the same rights - culturally, socially and nationally - as Jews. It is permissible to raise disturbing questions about the image of the Israel Defense Forces as an army of occupation, and it is even permissible to want to talk to Hamas." [5]

"This is a time when there seems to be a particular need for men of philosophical persuasion—that is to say, friends of wisdom and truth—to join together…We Jews should be, and remain, the carriers and patrons of spiritual values. But we should also always be aware of the fact that these spiritual values are and always have been the common goal of mankind." - Einstein

Might this time, the fierce urgency of now compel all people of good will to demand that President Obama make good on his promises of hope and change, for as St. Augustine understood: "HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."

George Washington in his Farewell Address of 1796, warned: "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."

"We have seen the enemy and he is US!" - Pogo

Hope for change requires a clean break from policies of unconditional support for Israel's illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. An honest broker for peace will support equal human rights for all people and respect international law.

“For far too long, many American officials involved in Arab-Israeli peacemaking, myself included, have acted as Israel's attorney, catering and coordinating with the Israelis at the expense of successful peace negotiations.”- Aaron David Miller, State Department Middle East negotiator and adviser on Arab-Israeli affairs. [6]

To once again be a true leader of the free world America must insist that Israel's ongoing siege on the Gaza Strip ends and allows the free flow of humanitarian aid to the 1.5 impoverished human beings who are trapped there.

To once again be a true leader of the free world America must demand a freeze of all construction on the settlements and The Wall on Palestinian land. In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's Wall is illegal and must come down where ever it has been built on Palestinian land.

To once again be a true leader of the free world America must hold Israel accountable for its misuse of U.S. weapons."In 2007, the United States agreed to increase military aid to Israel by 25% over the next decade, totaling $30 billion. During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 2,000 innocent Palestinian civilians who had no part in hostilities, oftentimes with U.S. weapons in violation of the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts." [IBID]

To once again be a true leader of the free world America must stop its veto protection of Israel at the United Nations. Since 1972 America has shielded Israel more than 40 times from the consequences of its violations of human rights, UN resolutions, and international law.

A free world can only be reality when there are equal human rights for all and international law is honored. To be an honest broker for peace in the Holy Land there must be an ongoing dialogue with all parties and an end to all unilateral actions. Security for Israel can only become a reality when the military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip ends; when the Palestinian refugee issue is settled consistent with international law and UN resolutions and the Palestinian citizens of Israel do indeed have full equality with their Jewish neighbors.

The bell of liberty tolls for all of US!

1. Jimmy Carter, We can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work Page 101. SIMON&SCHUSTER

2. Carter, Page 160-161

3. Apartheid Ancient, Past, and Present Systematic and Gross Human Rights Violations in Graeco-Roman Egypt, South Africa, and Israel/Palestine, By Anthony Löwstedt. Page 77.

4. The Link, "About That Word Apartheid", April-May 2007, Published by Americans for Middle East Understanding, Inc.

5. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063597.html

6. http://endtheoccupation.org/

Eileen Fleming, Book Reviewer,Author, Founder,
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"