Deal Of The Century (Cond)

Since the early days of the Trump admin we have been promised the “deal of the century” to solve the conundrum of the Palestine/Israel situation……and we wait.

Since my interests are mostly in the Middle East I have been watching this situation with interest….as well as writing about it…….https://lobotero.com/2018/03/28/deal-of-the-century/

Well it is back….the media has been teasing the viewer with a promise of the release of the “Deal”…..

The master of this “solution” is Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner….and he has been in the Middle East meeting with the players of the saga as a precursor to the release of the “Deal of the Century”….at least that is what the admin and the media would have us believe.

According to reports the release is just a mere days away……and then the push back started….

President Donald Trump said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “may be right” in his raw assessment of the administration’s Middle East peace plan.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, Trump responded to a Washington Post report that Pompeo had described the administration’s plan for lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians arguably “unexecutable.” Pompeo also said that the plan — which is being devised by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former Trump lawyer Jason Greenblatt — “may be rejected” and that critics would call it “not particularly original,” the Post reported based on a recording of Pompeo’s comments.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/02/trump-pompeo-middle-east-peace-plan-1351099

Israel will be the only winner in any deal from these biased players…..all the major deal makers are Jewish…..

But my favorite is the d/bag we have at the State Dept, Pompeo……

Facing some pessimism on the Israel peace process since his own comments were published Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is feverishly walking back what he said, to the point where he is attacking others who echoed his own comments.

That the US peace plan is going to be deliberately biased in favor of Israel is no secret, and has been one of the few things known about it since the White House confirmed this in early February, saying the US plan would be “proudly” in favor of Israel.

Last week, Pompeo spoke to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, telling them he didn’t have a lot of hope for the plan being accepted. When he called it “a deal that only the Israelis could love,” it wasn’t seen as a ground-breaking addition, more of an aside to his pessimism.

(antiwar.com)

Does anyone think that anything fromDC these days will have anybody’s interests other than Israel?

As the US government has admitted, economic investment in Palestine will be ineffective without a political solution to the conflict. Given their lack of information on the US vision, Europeans whom the White House invites to the economic workshop are effectively being asked to invest in a project that has no clearly defined end goal. This initiative could even entrench a one-state reality of unequal rights for Palestinians under indefinite occupation, a situation that will increasingly resemble apartheid.

https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_washington_illusory_plan_for_israel_palestine

Palestinians will reject this “Deal”….and as they should…..Israel has gotten all the favored status for too long….any debt the West owes Israel has long been paid in full….they need to step into the 21st century and act like a responsible civilized nation.

This is not a deal for the two people but rather a deal that would allow Israel to eradicate the Palestinian identity.

True That!

Enough Said!

Waiting For The Middle East Peace Plan

Our Dear Supreme Leader has put his son-in-law in charge of finding a peace deal for the Middle East…….and what about this dude makes him qualified for such a task? Well he is Jewish……(thinking….thinking)……that is about it.

After two years we are still waiting for this miraculous thing that has eluded all qualified people….a peace plan for the Middle East…..there have been many plans and none have come to fruition….why? Israel is a stumbling block….NO it is not the unarmed protesters that Israel kills daily…it is the attitude of the Israeli government and their search to erase the Palestinian bloodline from the region.

So what would a devout Jew actually bring to the table that would assure peace and civil rights for all concerned?

That my friends is a good goddamn question!

There are as many situations in the Middle East as there are grains of sand…..what is driving the situation in the Middle East?

Politics in the Middle East have long been as fluid as the sands which make up much of the region. From the crusades to colonialism to the present, many political players have vied for power and found at best only temporary success. Since the discovery of oil in the region in the early twentieth century, politics have become mixed with business; however, other considerations have more recently come into play such as extremism, revolution, and non-state actors. Couple these with the long-standing animosity between major regional powers such as Iran, Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia and the Middle East seems like a political powder keg waiting to explode. In addition, there has been almost constant intervention by foreign countries, most notably the United States. Together all these events have turned the politics of the region into one of the world’s most difficult jigsaw puzzles. Learn more about the most pivotal issues currently embroiling the region–although this is by no means an exhaustive list–as well as their root causes and possible solutions.

https://lawstreetmedia.com/issues/world/middle-east-politics-important-issues-region/

The Palestine-Israel situation is the most pressing for the novice “mover and shaker”….and some minor rumblings have leaked out……

The plan would be for Israel to keep its settlements, though no longer expanding isolated outposts. Moreover, the plan would mandate Israel evacuate any outposts which are illegal under Israeli law. That’s a big deal, because Israel has recently changed its own laws to facilitate retroactively legalizing a lot of these outposts.

The Palestinian capital would be in East Jerusalem, and the Palestinians would be given “most of the Arab neighborhoods” there. Some areas would also be jointly run by Jordan and Palestine.

The White House is denying that this report is true at all, saying all speculation on the peace plan is inaccurate, and declining to offer any specifics. The US has long promised to make such a plan publicly available, but has yet to do so.

(antiwar.com)

FOX News (the Trump information network) on 10 February said that the Trump Peace Plan was finished and would be rolled out……

The Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan is finished and President Trump has been briefed on its contents, two senior administration officials told Fox News on Sunday.

The final draft of the administration’s “Deal of the Century” is 175 to 200 pages long — and fewer than five people have access to the complete document, sources told Fox News.

“The plan is done… [the president] is happy with the parameters of the deal,” a senior administration official said.

Officials said that the plan is unlikely to be released before upcoming Israeli elections on April 9. “We are not going to do anything that threatens Israel’s security,” a senior administration official said

(FOX News)

Wait! WE are postponing the release of the plan because of a foreign election, right? What part of that is not showing allegiance to a foreign power? And a Congresswoman gets in trouble for saying the truth…..you have lost all hope for a free democracy now….you morons!

There is an option being discussed to the two state solution….

There has been more talk recently from the Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians about the option of a confederation as an alternative to the two-state solution in light of the political impasse reached between Ramallah and Tel Aviv. So what are the true positions of the three governments on this option, the chances of this being achieved on the ground, the official reactions of these countries, and public opinion on the matter?

Such a confederation aims to establish one state for two peoples after the Palestinian state is established on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. This single state will have two capitals — Jerusalem for the Palestinians and Amman for the Jordanians — as well as a central judicial authority and joint armed forces led by the Jordanian monarch. It will also include a central council of ministers and parliament elected by both nations, while both will be allowed to move freely between the two areas.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190218-a-palestine-jordan-confederation-is-becoming-a-very-real-possibility/

Something to consider because the Israelis have NEVER been keen on the two state solution…..

Are Reparations Due?

There have been many examples of country’s seeking reparations for wrongs done to them…the Armenians are looking to Turkey for reparations…..Blacks in the South are seeking them…..on and on……but the one that I find the most ludicrous is what Israel is looking to do……. Israel is trying to get reparations for wrongs done to them in the distant past…..reparations if you will……

Reparations? Just what the Hell?

1. The act or process of making amends for a wrong.

2. Something done or money paid to make amends or compensate for a wrong.

3. reparations Compensation or remuneration, as for damage or economic loss, required from a nation defeated in war.

Israel is seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in compensation from Middle Eastern countries where Jewish people fled or were expelled from.

The Jewish state has hired an unnamed international accounting company to estimate the damages it should seek per an expected US peace plan, according to a Hahadashot TV report.

Claims for assets in Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Yemen are expected to reach $200 billion.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190110-israel-to-seek-reparation-from-middle-east-nations/

How will they accomplish this? They cannot use the international courts for they do not accept their jurisdiction…..then how will they hope to accomplish their goals….they have very little good will in the world…just what would make the nations bow to the Israeli demands?

If the world recognizes Israel’s claims then the world should recognize the claims made by Palestinians.

If the US plan goes into effect…then the Palestinians will have a argument worth hearing…..what plan?

Israel’s Channel 13 has leaked what it says are the contents of President Trump’s “deal of the century” peace plan for Israel and Palestine. The report would grant the Palestinians a state that encompasses 85%-90% of the occupied West Bank.

The plan would be for Israel to keep its settlements, though no longer expanding isolated outposts. Moreover, the plan would mandate Israel evacuate any outposts which are illegal under Israeli law. That’s a big deal, because Israel has recently changed its own laws to facilitate retroactively legalizing a lot of these outposts.

The Palestinian capital would be in East Jerusalem, and the Palestinians would be given “most of the Arab neighborhoods” there. Some areas would also be jointly run by Jordan and Palestine.

Closing Thought–01Aug18

There are always news reports that do not make it to the MSM because of something more important happening around Our Dear Leader……one such story is the new law passed in Israel….you know Israel the only democracy in the Middle East?

The new law passed craps all over that long suffering LIE…..

Israel passed a law this week that has been floating around the Knesset for a half-dozen years. Branded the “nation-state bill,” the legislation declares that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people, and that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” It establishes Hebrew as the official language of Israel and downgrades Arabic to a language with “special status,” even though many people in Israel’s sizeable Arab minority primarily speak in Arabic. The law also asserts that Jewish settlement—without specifying where—is a national value, and promises to encourage and advance settlement efforts.

(The Atlantic)

Not very democratic now is it? But not to worry there is more to add to the LIE of democracy……

The fate of thousands of African Christians living in Israel is uncertain. The government intends to expel them, but questions remain over where the migrants will go and how the Jewish state will make it happen.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/april/israel-eritrean-sudanese-christian-migrants-asylum-tel-aviv.html

The move to deport Black Jews and non-Jews back to Africa buys Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plenty of credibility with his country’s far-right voters. He even added a couple of words to the label to make these poor African natives, many of whom gave birth to children in Israel, sound terrible. He labeled them, “illegal labor infiltrators.” Netanyahu even took the time to blame advocacy for the soon to be exported “infiltrators” on NGO’s funded by billionaire philanthropist, George Soros.

(dailynewsbite.com)

Interesting from a state set up for asylum seekers, huh?

Now ask yourself why the world lets Israel get away with all sorts of crimes….theft, murder, racist BS and still tries to convince the world they are a democracy.

Why is Israel allowed to maintain an inhuman, 11-year illegal blockade of essential goods and services against 1.8 million civilians in Gaza, now virtually without electricity 24/7 and kept near to starvation and collapse, in an Israeli bid to illegally force regime change?

Why is Israel allowed to illegally occupy the Syrian Golan Heights?

Why is Israel allowed to illegally occupy the old city of Arab East Jerusalem?

Why is Israel allowed to have induced 600,000 of its citizens to illegally occupy the Palestinian West Bank in violation of the Geneva Conventions on Human Rights?

https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-is-israel-not-being-held-to-the-same-international-standards-as-all-other-un-member-states/5647568

The answers my friend are blowing in the wind…….Israel thumbs its nose at the world and human rights after playing the victim card for 25 years to get what they wanted all along……the world needs to take notice……

Remember the date, 19 July 2018 is when Israel’s pretense of democracy, the Knesset passed the Nation State Bill, which could more aptly be called, the “Jewish State Apartheid Law” where Jews dominate the Israeli Palestinian Arabs who are lesser than them, even if they are citizens. I deliberately did not say Israeli Jews because the law gives all rights in historic Palestine to Jews, not only in Israel but across the world, including those Jews that do not identify with the state.

https://theantimedia.com/israel-apartheid-state/

Time to stop using the word “democracy” when referring to Israel. It is time for Israel to stand on their on and stop hiding behind the skirt of the US. Time for our Congress to start doing the business of this nation and let Israel go about their murderous ways without us.

We all remember just what damage fascism did to the Jewish population of Europe back in the 1930-40’s, right?

Then what would make Israel embrace the numerous fascist movements of modern day Europe?

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Israel on 19 July where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks.

So why is Orban wining and dining with the leaders of the so-called ‘Jewish State’?

The answer does not pertain only to Orban and Hungary, but to Israel’s attitude towards the rapidly growing far-right movements in Europe as a whole. Netanyahu and Zionist leaders everywhere are not just aware of this massive political shift in European politics but are, in fact, working diligently to utilize it in Israel’s favor.

On his visit to Israel, Orban asserted that Hungarian Jewish citizens should feel safe in his country, an odd statement considering that it was Orban and his party that deprived many Jews and other members of minority groups of any feeling of safety.

https://theantimedia.com/israel-embracing-fascism-europe/

Just another illustration of why Israel is no more a democracy than I am a Mexican gardener……

When Is Peace Not Peace?

After many years of negotiations the novice to any peace in the Middle East has a plan and his father in law has apparently signed in on….and the cowards of the Middle East……Jordan, UAE, Egypt and the extremists in Saudi Arabia have signaled that they will back any moronic plan that the Trump group can come up with.

Trump is letting his son-in-law do the deal that so many have tried and failed…..and what this tool Kushner has proposed will do nothing to bring peace…..

Is there no humiliation left for the Palestinians? After Oslo, after the “two state solution”, after the years of Israeli occupation – of “Area A” and “Area C” to define which kind of occupation the Palestinians must live under – after the vast Jewish colonisation of land thieved from its Arab owners, after the mass killings of Gaza, and Trump’s decision that Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem, must be the capital of Israel, are the Palestinians going to be asked to settle for cash and a miserable village? Is there no shame left?

For the Palestinians are soon to be awarded the “ultimate deal” – “ultimate”, as in the last, definitive, terminal, conclusive, no-more-cards-to-play, cash-in-your-chips, go-for-broke, take-it-or-leave-it, to-hell-with-you, cease-and-desist, endgame “deal”. A pitiful village as a capital, no end to colonisation, no security, no army, no independent borders, no unity – in return for a huge amount of money, billions of dollars and euros, millions of pounds, zillions of dinars and shekels and spondulix and filthy lucre, the real

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/palestine-jared-kushner-ultimate-plan-israel-donald-trump-jerusalem-right-to-return-a8420836.html

There is NOTHING in his plan that would appeal to a Palestinian and yet he is allowed to speak for them……where have we seen this sort of “plan” before…….think hard….history is not that difficult.

Four Arab countries are backing Donald Trump’s plan for a settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, according to an Israeli newspaper, and are willing to sideline the PA’s President Mahmoud Abbas to see it done.

According to a report in Israel Hayom, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan told Jared Kushner, the US President Trump’s son-in-law and the man charged with solving the Israel-Palestine issue, and envoy Jason Greenblatt they were behind Washington’s so-called “deal of the century”.

Israel Hayom, a daily newspaper owned by billionaires Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, reported that it spoke to officials from the four Arab countries.

The officials are said to have told the paper that their countries have decided to back the US plan regardless of whether Abbas and the PA engage with it.

I do not trust anything that the creep Adelson would print…..he has wanted the destruction of the Palestinian people for decades….he is a murderer at heart like his illegal state.

Jordan has been called the key to any deal….does that include a whitewash of any peace deal that favors Israel?

Upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returning on June 18 from his first public visit to Jordan in four years, his office issued a truly minimalist statement on his meeting with King Abdullah II at the Royal Palace in Amman. The first sentence said the two had “discussed regional developments, advancing the peace process and bilateral relations,” its banality highlighting the sole and interesting message in the second sentence: “PM Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s commitment to maintaining the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem.”

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/06/israel-us-jordan-palestinians-king-abdullah-netanyahu-trump.html

Any deal the Kushner, Adelson and any like minded people will be no help to Palestine or its people it will always be for the benefit of Israel……

Honor, like integrity, is not a commodity, like a gilded condominium in New York City for sale to the highest bidder. Nor does it license a messenger to whisper through a backdoor that which cannot be said through the front because it’s been closed for want of fairness and respect.

Yet, having been rebuked by Palestinian leadership due to the shameful move of the US Embassy to the capital of Palestine that is precisely what Jared Kushner has tried to do with his deceitful appeal to the Palestinian people in his recent interview with Al Quds.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/29/the-peace-deal-that-is-all-israel/

Any deal that does not include equitable treatment of Palestinians will be no peace at all….and so far I have seen nothing that resembles equity.

It’s The Old David And Goliath Comparison

First I would like my readers to know that today may be a bit short on posts for I must go to the doctors to see what the next step will be…..I apologize for the inconvenience…….

11Jun67

This month in History in 1967 ended the so-called Six Day War…..and the West has pushed the narrative that the Israelis had to go to war in protection of their right to exist…

We all have heard, read or seen the saga of just how the Israelis crushed the Arab forces…..

A newly declassified document shed some new light on this piece of history……

At a little after 7 on the morning of June 5, 1967, as Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s commanders were finishing their breakfasts and driving to work, French-built Israeli fighter jets roared out of their bases and flew low, below radar, into Egyptian airspace. Within three hours, 500 Israeli sorties had destroyed Nasser’s entire air force. Just after midday, the air forces of Jordan and Syria also lay in smoking ruins, and Israel had essentially won the Six-Day War — in six hours.
Israeli and U.S. historians and commentators describe the surprise attack as necessary, and the war as inevitable, the result of Nasser’s fearsome war machine that had closed the Straits of Tiran, evicted United Nations peacekeeping troops, taunted the traumatized Israeli public, and churned toward the Jewish state’s border with 100,000 troops. “The morning of 5 June 1967,” wrote Israel’s warrior-turned-historian, Chaim Herzog, “found Israel’s armed forces facing the massed Arab armies around her frontiers.” Attack or be annihilated: The choice was clear.

https://www.salon.com/2007/06/04/six_day_war/

There is always new light after a declassification…..then most of the rest of the story can be told……will we know the whole story? Probably not.

Another thing to remember is that during this conflict the Israelis attacked an unarmed US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 sailors and wounding others……a crime Israel has never had to face up to because the US let them slide on the murder of American troops.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/08/israels-attack-on-the-uss-liberty-a-half-century-later-still-no-justice/

The Six Day War is not all we have been told.

Israel continues to play the “victim” card…..it is a silly concept but it works on the US and the West…….

But hey…..the history of Palestine is known in history….the history of the Israelites comes from one source of dubious authority…..but hey let’s look shall we?

The triangulation of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Arabophobia in the history of Palestine and Israel is part of the settler-colonial movement of Zionism and is not a “new history” in the sense of the term as introduced by Israeli historian Benny Morris in 1980 to humanize, in Israeli academic discourse, the victims of Zionism. It simply reflects modern terminology and encompasses historic events to which the Zionist mind is still largely closed.

These historic events are simple in their broad outline. Zionist Jews (self-proclaimed atheists) decided to build a Jewish state in Palestine and ended up taking much of the land by force and expelling most of the Palestinian non-Jewish Arab population, preventing them from returning.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-more-plausible-and-reasonable-history-of-palestine-and-israel/5644582

Keep in mind that the Jews in Israel have no connection to the land of Palestine….most of their ancestry is from Eastern Europe….Palestine will always be the home of the Palestinians.

It is that simple.

The Lie Of Victimhood

The move is complete and the violence will continue….but there is more to this than the embassy…..

Unarmed civilians are being shot and maimed by an army that if it occurred elsewhere there would be a world uproar…..and yet it has been a whimper…..the US has made sure that Israel is protected…and yet this same scenario was playing out in Libya and we know how that turned out…..

The United States has used its veto power at the UN Security Council to block a Monday resolution calling for an independent probe into the killing of scores of Palestinian protesters this week along the Gaza Strip border. The protesters were killed by Israeli forces.

It is very common for the US to use its veto power to protect Israel from any UN Security Council repercussions for its mistreatment of the Palestinians. US Ambassador Nikki Haley praised Israel over the killings, saying they’d not only shown “restraint” in only killing 61, but had shown more restraint than any other country on the planet would’ve in the face of the demonstration.

Haley further claimed that the blame should really fall on the Iranian government, on the grounds that the protesters were encouraged by the Hamas movement, and Iran has backed the Hamas movement in the past.

Haley mostly sought to downplay the links between the massacre and the US opening its new embassy in Jerusalem. It is fair to suggest that the two events aren’t wholly connected, as the protest was organized for Nakba Day. It is impossible not to notice that the US made the decision to open the Israeli Embassy on Nakba Day, however, despite knowing it would be seen as yet another insult to the Palestinians.

(antiwar.com)

Restraint my ass! This is typical bullshit from a country that allows war crimes to go unchecked……

The US media is just as guilty as Haley in this whitewashing of the deaths of civilians……

Typical of the mindset of corporate media reporting on what happened in Gaza on Monday as Israeli soldiers killed more than 50 protesting Palestinians, is this tweet from CNN. It says: “Death toll rises to at least 52 people during clashes along the border fence between Israel and Gaza, Palestinian officials say. More than 2,400 people have been injured.” CNN’s new slogan is “#FactsFirst.”

Adam Johnson, who writes for the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, responded to CNN with a tweet of his own:

“This one’s got it all:

‘death toll rises’ — no one was killed and no one specific party did the killing, the death toll just mysteriously ‘rises’

‘clashes’ — launders all power asymmetry

‘2,400 people have been injured’ — all 2,400 are Palestinian but lets go with ‘people’.”

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said on his blog that he did a Google News search for the word “massacre” and found not one reference to Gaza.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/05/14/u-s-media-whitewashes-gaza-massacre/

And American journalist keep pushing the “victim” card for Israel….it is the biggest lie we have these days…..

The New York Times has always had a double standard on human rights, but they usually aren’t very open about it. They condemn Russian bombing as horrible war crimes, but criticize similar US bombing as mistakes and pretty much ignore Israeli bombing of Gaza. But they don’t come right out and say that killing is good or that it is cruel to be kind and kind to be cruel and Palestinians need to be shot for their own good.

Until now.

Columnist Shmuel Rosner says essentially this, and the Times published him three days ago: “Israel Needs to Protect Its Borders. By Any Means Necessary.”

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/05/columnist-palestinian-palestinians/

If the US foreign policy was at all consistent then we would do as we did in Libya…..attack and destroy for threatening civilians……

The Syrian civil war, we have been told, began as part of the Arab Spring and really took hold when Syrian government forces allegedly opened fire on protesters across the country in early 2011. This pattern of indiscriminate violent behavior against civilians has been a talking point in the western media’s regime-change narrative. The media often goes so far as to claim that the government led by Bashar al-Assad has lost all legitimacy.

What then, should we make of Israel’s decision to open fire on protesters in the Gaza Strip this past week, killing over 60 protesters and wounding 2,700 more in the process? According to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Israel is not an aggressor at all but a country that has shown considerable “restraint” in its use of force. Despite the claim that most of the dead were Hamas members, the fact that 2,700 people were injured suggests Israel deployed lethal force upon thousands of protesters — not exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of the word “restraint.” Even purposely shooting one unarmed protester seems to contradict everything we are supposed to believe about human rights and democracy.

http://theantimedia.com/us-bombing-israel/

Our Foreign Policy has never been consistent and our defense of the innocents in this world has become a joke that the whole world sees for what it is….a goddamn lie!

Closing Thought–16Apr18

For about a 2 weeks the Palestinians in Gaza have been protesting on the border with Israel……massive non-violent protests by Palestinians…..and the MSM is doing their part to protect Israel by not reporting these protests….

The MSM will make it a headline if a Palestinian attacks an Israeli with a knife…..but NOTHING is reported about the Israelis arresting children some as young as 11 years old or the deaths of protesters for throwing a stone or the theft of land or the destruction of crops….none of this is worthy for the MSM.

One and only one journalist has stepped up and do what others are refusing to do…….

MSNBC news anchor Chris Hayes is receiving plaudits from human rights defenders and other progressive journalists after airing a segment on Wednesday night which offered a rare example of a major U.S. cable news outlet providing critical coverage of Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

While most network and cable news outlets have either ignored the story, or offered uncritical or equivocated coverage, of last Friday’s mass shooting of Palestinian protesters along the Gaza border by Israeli troops, Hayes’ segment included a harsh condemnation of the disproportionate, unjustifiable, and “unconscionable” use of force.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/04/05/msnbcs-chris-hayes-applauded-doing-what-few-prominent-us-journalists-do-report

MY hat is off to Chris Hayes and he has a new follower…..now he needs to do a critical report on the BDS and the banning of the action by some states……

More news that does not usually make it into the evening news…..

Yaser Murtaja had often filmed from the sky, but he never lived to fulfill his dream of flying on an airplane through the clouds.

The young journalist shot drone images and video for Ain Media, a small Gaza-based news agency he started five years ago. Just two weeks ago, he posted an aerial photo of Gaza City’s port on Facebook. “I wish that the day would come to take this shot when I’m in the air and not on the ground,” he wrote. “My name is Yaser Murtaja. I’m 30 years old. I live in Gaza City. I’ve never traveled!”

It was one of his last posts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/palestinian-journalist-in-vest-marked-press-shot-dead-by-israeli-troops-in-gaza/2018/04/07/ac57b524-3a30-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html

It appears that protesting civilians need to be handled by missile firing drones…..

At least 21 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since they started Land Day protests last Friday — An Israeli air raid killed another Palestinian protester near the Gaza Strip‘s border on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said … The death brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the last week at 21. The mass protests, called “the Great March of Return”, were organised by civil society groups and supported by all political factions to call for the right of return of Palestinian refugees. It marked the beginning of a six-week sit-in, starting on Land Day, an event that commemorates six Palestinian citizens of Israel who were shot dead by Israeli forces after protesting the government’s confiscation of large swaths of Palestinian land on March 30, 1976. The sit-in ends on May 15, or Nakba Day, which will commemorate 70 years since the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias from their villages and towns….
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/israeli-airstrike-kills-palestinian-gaza-border-180405114443912.html

It will be interesting what it will take for the media to actually cover news……

Is It A One State Solution?

Just before Christmas our president recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel…..making good on the promises that he made to his bankers during his election…..and as one would expect the Palestinians did not find this announcement acceptable and violence has ensued.

It is time for a new beginning.

US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital came as no surprise to most Palestinians, for, after all the US’ political backing and military funding of Israel is older than the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Trump’s decision, however, has exposed the “peace process” for the last time as a complete charade. It also exposed the Palestinian leadership as corrupt, subservient and politically bankrupt.

If the Palestinian leadership had a minimal degree of accountability, it would immediately undertake a total overhaul within its ranks and activate all Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) institutions, bring all factions together under the umbrella of the PLO and declare a unified strategy inspired by the aspirations and sacrifices of the Palestinian people.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/palestine-180116110352197.htm

Abbas is the leader of the PA and his tenure has been nothing but a hurry up ans wait strategy……a strategy that did nothing to further the plight of the Palestinian people……

When I first met Yasser Arafat in besieged Beirut, in the summer of 1982, Abu Mazen was not present. But when I met him again in Tunis, a few months later, he asked me to meet Abu Mazen, too.

Abu Mazen, it transpired, was the Fatah leader in charge of Israeli matters.

My first impression of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) was that he was the exact opposite of Arafat. He looked like a schoolmaster.

Arafat was an outgoing type, who liked to embrace and kiss people and to establish close relations from the outset. Abu Mazen was much more reserved and withdrawn. Yet I liked his personality.

Even then, more than 35 years ago, he belonged to the first rank of the Fatah and PLO leadership, side by side with people like Abu Jihad (who was killed by Israel), Abu Iyad (who was killed by Palestinian extremists), Farouk Kaddoumi (who objected to Oslo and was excluded).

https://original.antiwar.com/avnery/2018/01/19/abbas-strategy-of-patience/

The whole peace process that has been debated for decades is about to slide into history…….

Since President Donald Trump declared that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the question has been whether this break with past American policy weakens or advances the cause of peace. A corollary to that question is whether the move effectively excludes Washington from the peace process.

https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2017/12/19/peace_process_palestine_israel_jerusalem_history_112666.html

For decades the solution that most parties worked for was a two state solution….but since Trump’s announcement that solution has been losing its luster…..and now the possibility of a one state solution is getting more popular…….

The Israeli right, emboldened by President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, is not the only faction arguing for a single state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Palestine Liberation Organization has also begun to ask whether that might not be such a bad idea, though it has a radically different view of what that state would look like.

As momentum ebbs for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both sides are taking another look at the one-state idea. But that solution has long been problematic for both sides.

But there is a problem there also…..the one state solution would have to give the Palestinians full rights as citizens of Israel…..not happening for the Palestinian population is expanding faster than the Israeli and within a generation the Israelis would become a minority….the Israelis could not stand for that…..democracy is the last thing that Israel would want for the Palestinians…….

Full equality will not happen in Israel for Palestinians….and the possibility for a peaceful one state solution is dwindling…..Zionists will not accept Palestinians as equals.

Troops plan for peace in the region is to blackmail the Palestinians…..while allowing the Israelis to get away with murder (pun intended)…….

Then BiBi has a new plan …….

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahy was talking up what he’s calling a “new model” for a peace deal with the Palestinians, which appears to be his latest alternative to the two-state solution, which he once again refused to endorse.

Netanyahu complained he wanted to avoid “labels” by talking about two states, but set out a policy which is clearly well short of such a solution, offering to allow the Palestinians to have “the whole trappings of self-governance,” but with Israel maintaining formal control.

Eager to avoid labels, Netanyahu was a bit vague beyond Israel keeping total security control over Palestine permanently, but appears to be suggesting that they’d be allowed to have some measure of autonomy within Palestine as an Israeli-ruled territory.

There is nothing new about this plan……it is a plan to try and head off the BDS which is gaining support almost daily….it is a plan to throw cold water on criticism on the international stage……only friend Israel has is one that they paid for in political dollars….the US.

https://bdsmovement.net/

The Palestine Question

I have written about the Palestinian/Israeli situation for years…..I have even given my idea on a way from them to establish a separate state…..the protests by Palestinians have been going on for 20+ years although there has been friction between the two people since 1919 and the end of World War One. (more info about posts c an be learned using the “Search” feature)

A new round of all out disobedience has begun with Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem…..this situation opens up a whole new line of thought about the two states…..

What does Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel mean for the future of Palestine and the Palestinians, and what does it reveal about US policy? Al-Shabaka policy analysts examine these questions and recommend ways for Palestinian civil society and leaders to safeguard Palestinian rights in the face of such a setback.

Nur Arafeh argues that Trump’s announcement cements Israel’s apartheid regime and “Judaization” policies in Jerusalem, and calls for the PA to end coordination with Israel and nullify the Oslo Accords. Dana El Kurd makes the case that the US move creates two opposing legal frameworks for Jerusalem, one that follows international law and one that bends to Israeli interests. “[Trump’s declaration] sets a precedent for greater legal recognition in the future,” she writes. “Palestinians should consider new ways of resisting Israeli colonization.” Munir Nuseibah reasons that the development confirms the US as a biased mediator. “The only positive outcome is that it ends the illusion that the ‘peace process’ is legitimate,” he writes.

https://al-shabaka.org/roundtables/trump-jerusalem-future-palestine/

That was the opinions of analysts in the region……

Some in the West are saying that with Trump’s announcement that the idea of a one state solution was once again on the table….

Jerusalem was an Arab and Muslim city for close to 1300 years. Like other parts of Palestine, it was a harmonious mosaic. But, though there was always a Christian and Jewish presence — both of people and of monuments — it was predominantly a Muslim city.

This was violently disrupted twice: first in the year 1099, from which for a period of 88 years the city was occupied by the Crusaders, and then again in 1948 when the newly created Jewish State took the city and made Jerusalem its own. When the State of Israel took the western part of the city in 1948, in violation of a United Nations Resolution, it destroyed its Arab and Muslim character and then declared it as the capital city of the Jewish people.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/one-state-solution-with-equal-rights-is-the-only-answer-to-trumps-jerusalem-declaration/235569/

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Tag: Palestine