In the midst of tepid Western criticism, Israel is finally realizing its decades-old goal of splitting the West Bank in two, while putting an end to the fiction of a two-state solution, observes Jonathan Cook.
By Jonathan Cook
in Nazareth
Israel finally built an access road to the West Bank village of Khan Al Ahmar last week, after half a century of delays. But Israel only allows vehicles like the bulldozers scheduled to sweep away its 200 inhabitants’ homes.
If one community has come to symbolize the demise of the two-state solution, it is Khan Al Ahmar.
It was for that reason that a posse of European diplomats left their air-conditioned offices late last week to trudge through the hot, dusty hills outside Jerusalem and witness the preparations for the village’s destruction. That included the Israeli police beating residents and supporters as they tried to block the advance of heavy machinery.
Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain submitted a formal protest. Their denunciations echoed those of more than 70 Democratic lawmakers in Washington in May – a rare example of US politicians showing solidarity with Palestinians.
It would be gratifying to believe that Western governments care about the inhabitants of Khan Al Ahmar – or the thousands of other Palestinians who are being incrementally cleansed by Israel from nearby lands but whose plight has drawn far less attention.
After all, the razing of Khan Al Ahmar and the forcible transfer of its population are war crimes.
But in truth, Western politicians are more concerned about propping up the illusion of a peace process that expired many years ago, than the long-running abuse of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
Israeli soldier confronts villager in Khan al-Ahmar. (Photo by Mazin Qumsiyeh)
Western capitals understand what is at stake. Israel wants Khan Al Ahmar gone so that Jewish settlements can be built in its place, on land it has designated as “E1”.
That would put the final piece in place for Israel to build a substantial bloc of new settler homes to sever the West Bank in two. Those same settlements would also seal off West Bank Palestinians from East Jerusalem, the expected capital of a future Palestinian state, making a mockery of any peace agreement.
The erasure of Khan Al Ahmar has not arrived out of nowhere. Israel has trampled on international law for decades, conducting a form of creeping annexation that has provoked little more than uncomfortable shifting in chairs from Western politicians.
Khan Al Ahmar’s Bedouin inhabitants, from the Jahalin tribe, have been ethnically cleansed twice before by Israel, but these war crimes went unnoticed.
The first time was in the 1950s, a few years after Israel’s creation, when 80 per cent of Palestinians had been driven from their homes to make way for a Jewish state.
Although they should have enjoyed the protection of Israeli citizenship, the Jahalin were forced out of the Negev and into the West Bank, then controlled by Jordan, to make way for new Jewish immigrants.
A generation later in 1967, when they had barely re-established themselves, the Jahalin were again under attack from Israeli soldiers occupying the West Bank. The grazing lands the Jahalin had relocated to with their goats and sheep were seized to build a settlement for Jews only, Kfar Adumim, in violation of the laws of war.
Ever since, the Jahalin have dwelt in a twilight zone of Israeli-defined “illegality”. Like other Palestinians in the 60 per cent of the West Bank under Israeli control, they have been denied building permits, forcing three generations to live in tin shacks and tents.
‘Leaving the Desert in Death’
Israelis move in on the village. (Photo by Mazin Qumsiyeh)
Israel has also refused to connect the village to the water, electricity and sewage grids, in an attempt to make life so unbearable the Jahalin would opt to leave.
When an Italian charity helped in 2009 to establish Khan Al Ahmar’s first school – made from mud and tyres – Israel stepped up its legal battle to demolish the village.
Now, the Jahalin are about to be driven from their lands again. This time they are to be forcibly re-settled next to a waste dump by the Palestinian town of Abu Dis, hemmed in on all sides by Israeli walls and settlements.
In the new location they will be forced to abandon their pastoral way of life. As resident Ibrahim Abu Dawoud observed: “For us, leaving the desert is death.”
In another indication of the Palestinians’ dire predicament, the Trump administration is expected to propose in its long-awaited peace plan that the slum-like Abu Dis, rather than East Jerusalem, serve as the capital of a future pseudo-Palestinian state – if Israel ever chooses to recognise one.
Khan Al Ahmar’s destruction would be the first demolition of a complete Palestinian community since the 1990s, when Israel ostensibly committed to the Oslo peace process.
Now emboldened by Washington’s unstinting support, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is racing ahead to realise its vision of a Greater Israel. It wants to annex the lands on which villages like Khan Al Ahmar stand and remove their Palestinian populations.
There is a minor hurdle. Last Thursday, the Israeli supreme court tried to calm the storm clouds gathering in Europe by issuing a temporary injunction on the demolition works.
‘Short-Lived Reprieve’
Soldier at Khan al-Ahmar. (Photo by Mazin Qumsiyeh)
The reprieve is likely to be short-lived. A few weeks ago the same court – in a panel dominated by judges identified with the settler movement – backed Khan Al Ahmar’s destruction.
The Supreme Court has also been moving towards accepting the Israeli government’s argument that decades of land grabs by settlers should be retroactively sanctioned – even though they violate Israeli and international law – if carried out in “good faith”.
Whatever the judges believe, there is nothing “good faith” about the behaviour of either the settlers, or Israel’s government towards communities like Khan Al Ahmar.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians’ veteran peace negotiator, recently warned that Israel and the US were close to “liquidating” the project of Palestinian statehood.
Sounding more desperate than usual, the Europe Union reaffirmed this month its commitment to a two-state solution, while urging that the “obstacles” to its realisation be more clearly identifed.
The elephant in the room is Israel itself – and its enduring bad faith. As Khan Al Ahmar demonstrates all too clearly, there will be no end to the slow-motion erasure of Palestinian communities until western governments find the nerve to impose biting sanctions on Israel.
This article originally appeared in The National
Jonathan Cook is a freelance journalist based in Nazareth. He blogs at https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/.
Generally good information, but I question the statement that “Khan Al Ahmar’s destruction would be the first demolition of a complete Palestinian community since the 1990s, when Israel ostensibly committed to the Oslo peace process.”
In fact, another Jahalin encampment was similarly uprooted and relocated to the hill beside the garbage dump in Feb 1997, after over 3 years of effort by the residents and their Israeli and international allies, including Israeli lawyers, to prevent their displacement, beginning in the immediate aftermath of the Oslo “peace process.”
Major Israeli Daily: Our Government Is “Arming Neo-Nazis In Ukraine” : https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-10/major-israeli-daily-our-government-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine
I am both surprised and saddened that this holocaust against the people of Palestine is being accepted by the
rest of the world as unstoppable. Perhaps we’re not so lawful, fair, and humanitarian as we pretended. We have
become every bit as guilty and responsible as the criminal Zionist Jews, and there is no way to sugarcoat that.
actually this is good news for the palestinians, imo. has anyone but me noticed that president donald trump, he of the diapered baby blimp and extensive character assassination as too stupid for his post, added the one state solution, voting israeli citizenship for the palestinians, to the endgames for israel/palestine acceptable to the u.s.? this is the obvious solution and will make israel, then about half muslim and half jewish, a far less dangerous entity.
let’s get on with it: israel sovereign in all of palestine, from the golan to gaza, every smidge, and equal rights for all living there. thankfully the israelis are not quite nazis and do not appear to have the stomach to kill or forcefully remove the palestinians from israel/palestine (and with their money they could probably bribe poor countries to take them, even unwillingly). the debate must be changed from some absurd “two nations” argument/war (never going to happen) to a civil rights campaign within one nation. that, as trump knows, gets to peace there, and peace on earth, as nothing else can.
and when it’s done we can celebrate the holiday as rachel corrie day.
To the Author of this article or anyone on the Consortium news staff,
I’m interested to know which Democrats having been voicing their objections to Israeli’s treatment of the Palestinian settlers and Gaza in particular. Thanks for any assist you can lend me.
The plight of this village was discussed in the British parliament. It was a deeply depressing scene. The whole debate was nothing more than cynical virtue signalling. Members of parliament condemned Israel’s actions and decided to do nothing. The only point of the debate was to ostentatiously demonstrate parliament’s moral superiority.
http://viewsandstories.blogspot.com/2018/07/parliamentary-virtue-signalling.html
If I am not mistaken, was not Jared Kushner going to deliver the best peace deal?
My heart is breaking for the villagers. I am appalled and disgusted with the government of Israel but also with all of those living under the privileges Israel gives them but who have not protested. This is a war crime for goodness sake. It is violating laws, ethics, moral codes, and even Jewish law. It is obscene. Leading members of the Israel government, the Palestinian government, Egypt, a European country, and of the UN should meet at once and not leave until changes are agreed to and some kind of humanitarian aid agreed on while two new states are formed. Israel has to be tol it is not an empire and we will not accept its genocidal ambitions. All commerce with Israel must stop., All tourism, all imports and exports frozen;. Isolate it, Immediately.
Barb Heather
Barb…
Unfortunately, as Max Blumenthal has recently stated in an interview, there is nothing any longer in Israel that can counter such barbaric behavior…
Neither is there any longer a force in the US that can counter such barbaric behavior. The Zionist lobby here is just too powerful. Since the US is willing to go to nuclear war to “protect” Israel there is certainly no other force on the planet that can stop Israel.
Sad, but the Palestinians are on their own — Israel will peel away one tiny village at a time and all we can do is watch in horror.
No! Barb is right. Boycott, divestment and sanctions is an effective, nonviolent force. It worked in apartheid South Aftica, and is making impressive progress vis a vis Israel. Please see bdsmovement.net for information and encouragement.
The problem – and I state it a little differently from the way it was told to me – the problem is that two different people believe that God told them that this land was theirs. I don’t believe such a statement made under circumstances that can never be verified, can be allowed to rule, and certainly not so much later.
I am shamed by this situation. I am a Jew. L&B&L
If you believe Thierry Meyssan, then you probably subscribe to the “Three Dimensional Chess” analogy. That concept supposes that current events represent an intentional effort to sow chaos in order to re-establish National Sovereignty as an antidote to trans-national capitalism. This position would validate Lenin’s observation that “imperialism” is the ultimate manifestation of “capitalism” in the form of international corporations, corporate monopolies and international banks. This would necessitate believing that President Trump actually agrees with Marx and Lenin, a proposition I find rather absurd.
Nevertheless, Asia has been destabilized by confrontation with North Korea, despite the fact that the “threat” was probably ginned up in the first place for the purpose of selling more THAAD missiles. Europe has been destabilized by the Ukrainian coup, a neocon pipe dream cooked up to expand NATO, extract resources and sell more arms to new members. The Middle East has been destabilized over oil resources, and no action more destabilizing than the decision to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem could have been contemplated.
“Russiagate” and the intelligence community “assessment” is an abject fraud. As Donald Rumsfeld himself said of “intelligence”, “If it were a fact, it wouldn’t be called intelligence”. The danger is that, if we’re not really dealing with a 3-D chess player, this constant harangue may force the hand of someone of questionable predictability to make an irreversibly dangerous move. On the other hand, a 3-D chess player might, under the guise of generosity and solidarity, be willing to supply enough rope to an “ally” willing to hang itself. The last racist-fascist entity to achieve world-wide opprobrium only lasted twelve years. That would suggest that the current one is already living on borrowed time.
Given the choice between Meyssan’s analysis and Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson’s, I’m rather partial to the old Colonel. It’s worth watching what he has to say about Israel’s prospects for the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFU39hT_Abw
Thanks for the link F.G. I suppose as an ex-military man, he has a lot of knowledge that the average “Joe” doesn’t, but I am a bit confused that he supports our presence in Afghanistan to stop China’s One Belt, One Road initiative. I see Pakistan’s nuke building as a genuine threat, but I don’t see why the One Belt, One Road initiative is a threat to the USA. Maybe it’s a threat to our Oligarchy, but how does it threaten the average citizen?
Skip I think that if it isn’t our idea then it’s a no go. I wish our country were spreading infrastructure around the world, as opposed to supplying bombs to every third world nation, and our Israeli and Saudi allies. Talk about one dimensional. Joe
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Wilkerson either – I think he suspected enough to have known better about Iraq. And, he seems to subscribe to the “bin Laden did it” theory, which I find hard to swallow. BUT, he is probably one of the best informed strategic analysts out there, so he’s worth listening to. The thing about Pakistan is that they quietly support the Taliban, who provide them with a buffer against India in the long-standing dispute over Kashmir. If we pull out, and the proverbial lid comes off that mess, there won’t be any point in contemplating OBOR – it will all be nuclear waste. Here again, that begs the question: “Why did we really go into Afghanistan?” Obviously, it wasn’t to catch bin Laden. I think he’s also concerned that, despite its nefarious purposes, the stability provided by the Empire is preferable to the chaos which would ensue if it collapses rapidly (as opposed to a planned “soft landing”). The British Empire saw a soft landing. When Bronze Age civilization collapsed in 1177 B.C. (circa?), it wasn’t merely one “empire”. All of the known civilizations around the Mediterranean basin collapsed with it. I think Wilkerson can envision a new “Dark Age” emerging, and all it would take are a few nuclear detonations provoked by looney-tunes fanatics. The “Samson Option” is a case in point. Delusional religious fanatics are ignored at our own peril.
For the last several weeks I’ve been educating myself about the Balochis in southwest Pakistan, southern Afghanistan, southeastern Iran. Look for the US/Saudis/Israel to foment an “insurrection” there – excuse me, it is already underway. A very complicated situation, of just the type that US imperialists can and will exploit. I expect soon to hear the propaganda machine begin telling us about the “brutal repression and abuse of Balochis” in Iran that the “US must respond to” with an R2P effort. Pakistan generally favors China’s development of the transportation corridor from the Kashmir mountains to the port at Gwadar. India fears China’s rising power and are suspected of funding and supporting Balochi militant groups. Saudis have been establishing Sunni madrasses there that espouse radicalism and violence against Shiites; and Israel, well they are doing what they do everywhere, act like Steve Bannon on steroids. That forbidding, sparsely populated locale of this planet could very well be where the very last war begins. Though religious fanaticism plays some role, this is really about power and wealth, and economic control. (from everything I’ve read, what the Balochis themselves want (in the majority ) is not independence, but some autonomy, some control of their own affairs, and some benefit to themselves of the economic developments happening there.) James M. Dorsey has been writing extensively about this situation, which you probably are aware of.
We went for n to Afghanistan for domestic political reasons, it was a pretty popular move.
All that Bronze was worthless…like bitcoin might become or Confederate currency , or pre- depression utility bonds, or mortgage backs , or tulips
People learned to bake a rock and make iron…interesting book on Vikings by Neil Oliver was very informative on the BC years up north.
The Israel story is the greatest PR / propaganda long term success…Jimmy Carter thinks he could have shut Israeli expansion down, but he needed one more helicopter…
The next generation of American Jews could make a difference but the Evangelicals are too committed..
I watched the speech and by him saying we elected a narcissistic psychopath as president, but he never said word one against HRC, I am guessing he thought the American people would have been better served electing a proven pathological liar and un-indicted felon regarding the server and The Clinton Foundation charity fraud (listen to any recent Charles Ortel interview to get up to speed on THAT).
Never mind her take over (literal) of the DNC and the corruption against Sanders and his millions of supporters.
TIME magazine did a survey and found that it was the screwed over Sanders supporters who voted for Trump and AGAINST Clinton that put Trump in as president.
I would like to know if The Good Col. supported Clinton and why.
Amen Abbybwood! Like Ricky said to Lucy- Our Colonel’s got some “splainin’ to do.” I’ve seen some interviews, and it seems to me that because he is in rebellion against the establishment now, he always gets “softballs” tossed at him by so-called “progressive” interviewers.
The two state solution died in 1948 and in the minds of the Zionists in the nineteenth century. Some of the British statements and intentions may have been sincere when they issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917 outlining the rights of Arab Palestinians, and many more were sincere when the Parliament passed the White Paper in 1939 declaring a single Jewish-Arab state, but through it all the Zionist goal never changed. All that remains is the hope that the Jews in America, Europe and Palestine will come to their senses and recognize a state with equal rights for all of its citizens. Unlikely or inevitable? Bet on the latter. Buy some futures but make them long term.
There seems to be no reason to believe that the zionists would recognize equal rights for Palestinians even if they declared them. They would just switch to legal and economic treachery and enslavement. No state with zionists will have equal rights for anyone else. Just look at the US.
“Some of the British statements and intentions may have been sincere when they issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917 -”
Herman ,—— the Balfour Declaration was designed & intended to lead to “the creation of Israel” …
The popular claim that the U.N. “created” Israel is a myth.
Israel’s own claim in its founding document that U.N. Resolution 181 constituted legal authority for Israel’s creation, or otherwise constituted “recognition” by the U.N. of the “right” of the Zionist Jews to expropriate for themselves Arab land and deny to the majority Arab population of that land their own right to self-determination, is a patent fraud.
…
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/10/26/t…
…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VBlBekw3Uk
Mathew Neville-I think I used the term may have been sincere and that applies to the Balfour Declaration, certainly. The White Paper was a British statement of policy which caused the Zionists to declare war against Britain and turn to the United States for support. On power sharing, the Zionists, mainly Jews, never intended to keep their word on anything that kept them from dismissing the rights of the Arabs.
That is my understanding which may be imperfect. And I do believe Arabs and Jews eventually will live in a single state because there is no other option beyond the unthinkable where even people like those running Israel will not go. That Jews will dominate such a state, we have only to look at America for an answer to that. As to the blame for that, that’s on us. And it will be on the Arabs in such a state when it happens.
Herman ,
The Balfour Declaration assumed that the State of Israel was to be the result.
Balfour told Churchill that “by the Declaration they (the Foreign Office) always meant an eventual Jewish state.”
This assumption was institutionalized in the Mandate System, which imposed upon the victorious powers, most notably the British Empire, the responsibility to prepare the peoples of the mandate for statehood.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/11/03/balfour-dec…
Wow. Crimea, without bullets or bombs, (re)joins Russia … and the west loses it’s collective mind. Israel slaughters Palestinians, demolishes their homes, kills children – and then laughs about it, withholds basic necessities – water, food, and medicine, and no one bats an eye.
This is what religion has brought upon us. Religious wars, or wars dressed up in religion, which to my mind is the same thing. Hate and loathing. That is what the world runs on today.
I have said many times in the past that religion will be the death of civilization.
Religion and all forms of tribalism are the bane of civilization. They all start as a great idea and a movement, the perfect disguise for primitive tyrants, who soon take over.
The tenets of the tribe are usually just used as a facade to recruit the naive and cover the wrongdoing.
They all claim that “Our tribe never does anything wrong; all wrongs come from the other tribes.”
Simply because they all claim opposition to wrongs. Whether the tribe be a village, nation, religion, or ethnicity.
Each tribe consist mostly of naive believers and persons who see the truth but do not dare oppose the tribal tenets, because they are socially and economically dependent upon their tribe. Once that situation is established, primitive tyrants rise to power, inventing outside enemies so as to pose as the protector of the tribe, to demand power within the tribe, and denounce their opponents as disloyal.
It is the social and economic dependencies, the failure of courage to oppose dictates, the lack of education to see the tyranny, the lack of dedication to moral principles, that corrupts all tribes.
This might be the best comment on any story anywhere that I’ve ever read…
Thanks, AZ, tribal pathology does seem scalable to diverse larger groups.
The malpractice of “religion” will aid in destroying us all. Real ethical spirituality is our possible way out of the human crisis. Will enough of us wake up to the real thing in time? It sure does not look like it, at this advanced point in our horrific history of mutual destruction.
There are other forces killing us as well. The consequences of industrial civilization, over population, toxic pollution, greed, war, etc. You can’t blame all this on “religion”.
I agree; “real ethical spirituality is our possible way out of the human crisis.” All means of moral education including religions are primarily languages of moral analysis and declarations of moral conclusions. The problem arises when principles are claimed by a group as its own virtues, because only a small fraction of the members can be very sincere in living by them. That is largely because those who join a group are usually not educated morally by the group, despite its efforts, but by their unique experiences. So institutions trying to be the means of moral education and action, claim to stand for moral principles despite the values of their members, and thereby make the perfect disguise for tyrants.
Waking up to “real ethical spirituality” really is the way out. It involves knowledge and experience more than the declaration of principles. Once that was learned through literature and truth in media, which are at a low ebb in the US.
Sure I can. And further, do. Religionutties do not worry about these trivialities. Their core belief is that Mr. Magic Sky-Guy will come and make all thing right. No need for the religious crowd to worry, their mess will be cleaned up in due time by the omnipotent janitor.
When was the last time you heard an athiest scream “IN NOBODY’S NAME!”, or “NOBODY IS GREAT” a nano-second before a bunch of bystanders get turned into a gruesome mural?
Lets look at one of your killing forces that you say you can’t blame on religion. Over-population. Does the phrase “Go forth and multiply” ring any bells with you? Early Jesuits were terrified that brown-skinned people worshipping pagan gods would out-baby them, and relegate the Jesuits to a minority position.
Ardently religious folks are likely to have religious offspring.
Fear was the only motivating force behind that goofy idea. And while other factors have bearing on the problem, religion still ranks as the biggie.
Greed. Lets look at greed. All I will say here, is count the number of verses in the bible – the greatest story ever sold – and count how many out of the total are dedicated to the acquisition and growth of wealth. I already did the count. I leave that li’l eye-opener to you to discover.
There is much truth in that, rgl, and your debaters are not opposing your points, but limiting their criticism to the extremes of religion that you correctly see as extreme problems.
I recall agreeing in my teens with a brilliant and noble youth of whom your comments remind me, who was so much persecuted by conformists in a few years that his life was completely and irretrievably ruined. I had taken a more tolerant stance in view of the good intentions of most raised in religious traditions, and was treated somewhat less roughly. They cannot tolerate disrespectful criticism, and will attack remorselessly. Just a note so that you may consider the means to avoid such a tragedy.
Thank you Sam, for your kind words. However, I’d counter that our lives are already completely ruined.
And lastly, before I give this rant a rest, of all the miracles described in the bible, from the parting of the Med sea, to the fishes and loaves thing, of all the miracles attributed to Sky-Guy, not a single one is corroborated by any serious scribe of the times. Not even the silly ones – outside of the club itself – made ANY mention of these occurrences in ANY period writing.
You’d think that parting the Med woulda made headlines somewhere, don’t you think?
I agree fully with your comment except for the part about religion being the cause, you do mention “wars dressed up in religion” and that makes my point that religion is something being used to foment “hatred and loathing” even tho I don’t know of any religion that is based on such things. However they are all open to interpretation, and use for nefarious reasons.
That being said religion is a very good tool to use on the masses because reason is not necessary, belief is and has been from time immemorial to move people to accept mass slaughter of the ‘others’ because ‘they’ are outsiders and a danger to their lives and beliefs.
Bottom line I think people like Netanyahu ( a war criminal if ever there was one) and those that preached for the genocide of the people indigenous to this Country (Benjamin Franklin one early example , from many to follow, in our leadership) used the predominate religion of their own times as a ‘tool’, a very effective one at that.Those ‘savages’ were purged from their lands, removed to the worst lands available called ‘reservations’ (where many toxic dumps are located because of no restrictions) and Israel has been doing the very same things since its inception to the Palestinian people (no wonder the BDS movement is so strongly supported on Native lands).
War criminals acting like war criminals do.
It is becoming time for Israel’s “Final Solution” for the Palestinians. There is no “Two State Solution”, or “One State Solution”, just a “Final Solution” reminiscent of Nazi Germany. That the Israelis, of all people, are capable of such a thing is mind boggling.
This is the most telling line in the article:
“Israel has trampled on international law for decades, conducting a form of creeping annexation that has provoked little more than uncomfortable shifting in chairs from Western politicians.”
I’m sure there are many Israeli citizens that are aghast at their country’s actions, just as many of us Americans deplore the violence our government commits every day. It seems that the role of politician is some kind of lure for sociopaths and psychopaths. And the role of the MSM is to distort and distract us from the truth.
The good Israeli’s are censored by our MSM. Good comment Skip. Joe
Thank you Skip Scott. Fifty years of corruption has led our American Democracy to this unctuous point.
“I’m sure there are many Israeli citizens that are aghast at their country’s actions, just as many of us Americans deplore the violence our government … ”
Did you vote in your last federal election? Yes? Then you are part of the problem. People moan and drip about what ‘government’ does, yet enables it through (fake) elections, and an electorate that in large measure supports murderous policies in the ME.
The government is not something that dropped out of the sky. You made it. You enabled it. You can disable it.
I voted for Jill Stein in the last election, and I believe that the Green Party platform on both foreign and domestic policy offers the average citizen hope for a peaceful and prosperous future. Voting “D” or “R” and believing in and enabling the “lesser of two evil” mindset perpetuates our murderous policies. If you pay taxes and don’t vote you are just as guilty and are “part of the problem.”
” If you pay taxes and don’t vote you are just as guilty and are “part of the problem.””
That’s another falsehood. Not voting is the same as voting. It is your constitutional right to not caste a vote.
The idea that casting a vote for the Green party somehow absolves you because you did not vote Democrat or Republican is absurd. What matters is if you voted your conscious. If you caste a vote for the Green Party because you felt you had to vote, but the party does not represent your values, beliefs or policies, then you *STILL* voted for the lesser evil.
Do not be ashamed to vote you conscious either by voting for a candidate who represents your beliefs or not voting because they do not.
I agree with your thought Joe, but I think you mean “conscience” rather than “conscious”? Just trying to be helplful, not critical.
JoeD-
Obviously by my previous comment, I am voting my conscience when I vote for the Green Party. Of course everyone has a right to not vote. I would like to see the entire process improved by eliminating the electoral college, multiple parties, and run-off elections, to name just a few. If certainly understand that the current process is very rigged, but barring a revolution (which tend to be violent), I see voting for the Green Party as virtually the only choice that gives us a chance at peaceful evolution.
The other more powerful force in promoting change is to vote with your wallet and avoid debt, and learn to “live simply, that others may simply live”. I am not looking to be absolved, but I am trying to learn and grow.
All true, Skip. Kind of overwhelming, isn’t it? Still, we have to go on searching, working for a better world, hoping against hope……..
“It is becoming time for Israel’s “Final Solution” for the Palestinians. There is no “Two State Solution”, or “One State Solution”, just a “Final Solution” reminiscent of Nazi Germany. That the Israelis, of all people, are capable of such a thing is mind boggling. ”
Not really. The history of the Jews, who have always been a minority in any land, has always been one of persecution for whatever reason I won’t go into. Given that, they now have the upper hand, given to them by western powers and now seek vengeance. Bear in mind they worship a very vindictive God.
“I’m sure there are many Israeli citizens that are aghast at their country’s actions, just as many of us Americans deplore the violence our government commits every day.”
Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be the majority, or else they lack the courage of their convictions to stand up to the dictates of the primitive tyrants as Sam F pointed out above.
Here are some fascinating comments from a senior Israeli politician about Israel’s recent treatment of Gaza residents:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2018/05/theres-enough-bullets-for-everyone-what.html
When a nation refers to killing and wounding Palestinians as “mowing the grass”, what else would we expect.
Many Israelis have deadened their consciences and compassionate feelings for the oppressed Palestinians. Race hatred has made them insensitive to the suffering of those their government persecutes in their name.
Strange to conclude that Israeli intransigence means the “demise of the two-state solution.” There is no one-state solution in which zionists would not subjugate Palestinians within such a state, so the only alternative is a solution in which there is no Israel.
So let us decide that there will be no more Israel, as they are too fanatical for self-government. The zionists have destroyed democracy in the US since FDR, involving us in fanatical wars for no benefit at all but to themselves. They have infiltrated the Christian right to recruit fundamentalist loonies to help them steal land in the Mideast.
The two state solution was always only a stall; it was never meant to become real.
love you anon. Thanks for the truth.
your brother