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by Peter A. Belmont / 2010-03-16
© 2010 Peter Belmont
For years, the US (especially Congress) has acted as directed by AIPAC, in the service of Israeli foreign policy and counter to American interests. This surrender of sovereignty has been despicable!
Now that President Obama has made a clean break with Israel, has drawn a line in the sand, and is backed up by his military commander in the Middle East, EVERY SENATOR, EVERY CONGRESSMAN must decide WHETHER THEY SUPPORT US DIPLOMACY (as they have done, unquestioningly, with grievous results in respect of the Iraq war and Afghanistan war) OR WHETHER THEY SUPPORT ISRAELI DIPLOMACY.
Whose country and whose interests do they support? That is the question.
Today, 43 years have gone by and Israel has settled 10% (500,000) of its Jewish population in what should have been a Palestinian state many years ago. This steady exercise in colonial population transfer violates international law and was known by Israel to do so from the first day.
Meanwhile, Israel has the (further) chutzpa to claim a right never promised to them by Britain (Balfour Declaration), by Palestine Mandate, by UNGA Res 181 (1947 partition), or by international law generally, to have a Jewish-majority state (presumably upon a yet again expanded territory).
From this self-invented “right” Israel claims a right to ignore the rights of the Palestinian refugees from 1948 and 1967 and their progeny, rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and repeatedly re-stated and re-emphasized by the UNGA.
The settlers are present illegally in all occupied territories, including the occupied parts of Jerusalem, which Israel claims to have annexed, again without legal basis, and denied by the UNSC.
The separation wall (or apartheid wall or “land grab wall”) is also illegal wherever it is built on land in occupied territory. The International Court of Justice has said so.
People are beginning to say that a two-state peace is impossible (or will soon be impossible) because of Israel’s settlements. THIS ASSUMES THE SETTLEMENTS ARE PERMANENT. THEY NEED NOT BE.
The settlements are illegal and should be removed. At least the settlers should be removed. (The housing might better be donated to the Palestinians—if they want it—rather than being destroyed.) And you should say so. Even before the president asks you to.
Members of Congress and Senate:
GET UP ON YOUR HIND LEGS AND ACT LIKE FREE PEOPLE, NOT LIKE PRISONERS UNDER MILITARY OCCUPATION BY ISRAEL AND AIPAC. IT ILL BECOMES THE USA TO ACT LIKE A CAPTIVE PEOPLE.
TELL ISRAEL TO REMOVE THE SETTLERS AND THE WALL, TODAY, BEFORE ANY PEACE TREATY IS SIGNED, EVEN BEFORE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS ARE RESUMED.
Why? Because it is the law. And it will lead toward a just and lasting peace. And because (as Gen McCrystal has indicated, it is in the US national interest. And because you will feel better acting like free men and women than by acting like mice.
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